When Apollo met Hyacinth (Gay Greek mythology)

Gay love turns you into a real man, but you must die to be reborn. Greek myths such as this one, the story of Apollo and Hyacinth, his Spartan boyfriend, often feature beloveds who die, seemingly accidentally. But myth is symbolic, and the deaths of the beloveds stand for their passage from youth to maturity. The boy dies so that the man can be born.


These boys were not children, of course, but well built older adolescents who would be of legal age today in most First World countries. Their lovers were not older men, but young men in their twenties, who had not yet married. The stories that the Greeks wrote about love between males were all meant to teach an ethical way to enact what we today would describe as gay love.


In particular, the story of Apollo and Hyacinth was the example after which Spartan gay love relationships were patterned. It shows that the older lovers courted the younger one, and that the younger chose the best lover he could find and requested the relationship. It also hints, subtly, that he relationship was hinged on the generosity of the older one, as well as passion, and that it was transformative.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• gay love
• Apollo and Hyacinth
• Greek mythology
• Greek art
• Sparta
• Zephyr

[superdooperstupor]

Suspenseful and erotic. Wonderfully read.

[XemoflowerX]

ah...amazing

[SapphicSista]

I never read this in my high school mythology class.

[daniel9975516286]

Still Better story than twilight

[iluvFLuffee123456]

why so many homophobic comments? this is amazing!

[TheKiwikiiwi]

I come here cuz... Yaoi.. =w=

[wesleystillkickin]

I will live forever with RIHANNA

[SuperGreatSphinx]

Hyacinth or Hyacinthus is a divine hero from Greek mythology. His cult at Amyclae, southwest of Sparta, where his tumulus was located — in classical times at the feet of Apollo's statue in the sanctuary that had been built round the burial mound — dates from the Mycenaean era. The literary myths serve to link him to local cults, and to identify him with Apollo.

[RadicalLibertine]

@tawnabawna

Yes, we can plainly see that you are a homophobe. Now do us all a favore and stop spoiling this beautyfull story with your stupid comments.

[cut3Nsassy21]

To me it doesn't seem like the freedom of sexuality. More like the people back then didn't have a choice in the matter. It seems if the gods wanted you they could have you. And that just does't sit well with me and it shouldn't with anyone else. While as they could be free with themselves why not allow the people to be free with their own sexuality instead of taking them for your own pleasure and entertainment. I love mythologies. But their insight on life are often (very often) sad.