The name of the god Apollo rings across time as the classic young, powerful, beautiful man. He is typically portrayed as the ideal kouros, the beardless athletically bodied youth idealized by the ancient Greeks. Apollo had many powerful attributes as he was the god of the sun and light, prophecy, healing, music, and poetry. Typical of handsome young men, he was also known for his sexy ways.
At one point Apollo fell in love with a young man named Hyacinth. One day they were playing discuss together as Zephyr, the god of the west wind, watched. Zephyr grew jealous of their affections and when Apollo threw the discuss high into the air Zephyr blew the discuss back at Hyacinths head, killing him.
As Hyacinth’s head hung broken from his body, drooping like a flower blossom from its stalk, his blood spilled into the earth. On that spot a beautiful flower sprang up, the Hyacinth, although it was probably the flower we now call the Iris.
The Death of Hyacinth by Benjamin West, 1771, Swathmore College, Philadelphia.
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Farnese Hercules statue, Roman copy of a Greek original circa 300 BC, National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy.
Hercules was a stud, having sex with countless women and bearing as many as 500 children. In one story a king named Thespios had Hercules help him get rid of a dangerous lion. Thespios also introduced Hercules to his family, which included 50 virgins. Nine months later 49 of them gave birth to sons, as the 50th was too shy.
Based on those stories, Hercules was clearly not “gay” in the modern political sense, yet Plutarch says he also had male lovers beyond counting. Names we know include his lovers Admetos, Iphitos, Euphemos, Elacatas, Abderus, and Iolaos.
In the most famous story of Hercules’ love for young men, he fell in love with Hylas during Jason’s quest for the golden fleece. As the poet Theocritus wrote in 300 BC, Hylas had locks of hair that hung down in curls,
And like a father with a dear son he taught him all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous.
And they were inseparable, being together both day and night. That way the boy might grow the way he wanted him to, and being by his side attain the true measure of a man.
Hylas and the Nymphs, by John William Waterhouse
We know Hercules best for his famous labors, performed to please King Eurystheus. It was rumored Eurystheus was another of his lovers, providing the motivation for his heroic acts.
Hercules may not have been gay in the modern sense, but his love of men proved pivotal in his heroic life. Only by understanding all of who he was can we make sense of this heroic figure.
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Diana of Versailles, attributed to Leochares, Roman circa 100 AD, Louvre Museum
Artemis (Diana) never married, living as a sworn virgin in the woods where they where they hunted and danced together. These nymphs also showed lovingly care for Artemis’ body, undressing her, bathing her, and expressing other intimacies together.
Depictions of Artemis (Diana) often portray the story of her affection for the nymph Callisto. As Ovid told the story, Artemis loved Callisto, but so did Zeus (Jupiter). So given that Callisto was also a sworn virgin, Zeus disguised himself as Artemis to get in close and seduce Callisto, and then raped her. Callisto got pregnant by Zeus and had a son, who then challenged his mother. To prevent catastrophe, Zeus then put mother and son in the sky as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big and Little Dippers.
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Dionysus and satyr, Roman copy of a Greek statue circa 200 AD, from the excavations of the Palazzo Mattei a Quattro Fontane.
He was often described as womanly and he was lovers to both Adonis, the male god of beauty and desire, and the two-sexed Hermaphrodite.
In Rome he was transformed into Bacchus, god of drunkenness and orgies, an older and less sensitive character.
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Pan teaching Daphnis to play the flute, Roman copy of a Greek original circa 100 BC, Naples Museum of Archeology.
Not only did the half-goat Pan like sex with sheep, he also had a particular fondness for shepherds, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
The correlation between the goat-god Pan and our depictions of Satan with horns and hooves only dates back to the Victorian era when Neopaganism made that image popular. Earlier imaginations of Satan gave him claws, horns, and wings, not at all like playful Pan.
As the god of music Pan also gave us the panflute, or panpipes. In the image to right he is teaching Daphnis to play.
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Mighty Zeus (Roman Jupiter) was the greatest of all, the father of gods and men, a status he achieved by having a lot of sex with a lot of different women, both divine and mortal.
Zeus also fell madly in love with Ganymede, prince of Troy and a young man commonly described as the most beautiful of mortals. Zeus abducted Ganymede, took him to Mount Olympus, and granted him eternal youth. The Greeks saw love of Zeus for Ganymede was seen as the enduring archetype for older-younger male relationships.
All the gods loved Ganymede except Zeus’s consort Hera who was jealous of this beautiful young man’s rivalry for Zeus’s affections, so she put Ganymede in the sky where we now see him as the constellation Aquarius. Ganymede was later seen as the source of the fountains of the Nile, the divinity pouring out the life-giving water supply.
The Abduction of Ganymede. The great god Zeus and young Ganymede holding a cock in his hand, a love gift from Zeus. 450 BC, from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ferrara, Italy.
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