They are an important part of Chinese cultural heritage. In China the spring palace homoerotic paintings date back over 2000 years.
The berdache ceremony is its own artform. While no Native American art survives depicting homosexual relationships, the tradition of berdache, “an American Indian transvestite assuming more or less permanently the dress, social status, and role of a woman.” If parents noticed that their son wasn’t showing interest in typically male activities, a ceremony would be held to determine the way the child should be brought up. While they may be best known for their pyramid like structures, the Mayans also drew and painted homosexual couples, considering it a rite of the underworld. However, Hercules had a relationship with Iolaos, which is displayed on pottery.īefore the Europeans discovered the New World, the Mayans ruled Central America. When Rome was formed, they wanted to trace its roots back to Greece, and an important hero to them was Hercules. There they held the erotic games, depicted on pottery. Before Rome was officially settled, the Etruscans occupied the land. Their homoerotic art was also largely sculptural and on pottery. Roman society emulated itself after the golden age of Ancient Greece.
Most of homoerotic art is depicted in sculptures and on pottery. Zeus made a very public pursuit of Ganymede, the most beautiful boy on Earth, and Apollo had a lasting relationship with Hyacinth. There are two notable exceptions to this, the relationships of Achilles and Patroclus and Alexander the Great and Hephaiston. However the relationship didn’t usually last very long. Most males engaged in these types of relationships, while they were married. Their relationship was known as paiderastia, or pederasty. In Ancient Greece, an older man, called an erastes (lover) formed a relationship with an adolescent youth, called an eromenos (beloved). From Ancient Greece to the Mayans, Native Americans to the Japanese, homosexuality has been and remains an important part of the world. Because of this, artists depicted relationships between men. There wasn’t a stigma against same-sex relationships, in fact they were encouraged and considered a normal part of aging. For millennia art has represented society, and for millennia art has represented male love, or what today we call homosexuality.