by Casey Williams

When looking back at ancient times, it seems that lesbianism was a prevalent part of everyday society. Homosexuality appears to have been a widely accepted piece of the past, but even then this lifestyle did not go without bigotry. From the intolerant Biblical teachings of Paul, to essays by Plato himself, past views on this alternative lifestyle are obvious precursors to the hate still so abundant today.

A majority of the known information on early Greek female homoeroticism comes from Sappho. Born in 612 B.C.E, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos, where she was in charge of an association of young women called a thiasoi. The main purpose of this organization was to take unmarried women and educate them on various topics such as music, dancing, and singing. One of the most important aspects of their learning was instruction on how to use their beauty, grace, and seduction. These young women were also introduced to passion, especially to the passion that can exist between women (Cantarella 78-79). Sappho's students were not the only ones who felt homoeroticism. Sappho herself wrote an ode about a female friend that would go on to become one of her most famous poems.

For when I look at you for a moment, then it is no longer possible for me to speak; my tongue has snapped, at once a subtle fire has stolen beneath my flesh, I see nothing with my eyes, my ears hum, sweat pours from me, a trembling seizes me all over, I am greener than grass, and it seems to me that I am little short of dying . . . (As quoted in Cantarella 80).

George Devereux, a historian, studied Sappho's poems and described that in his opinion, what she felt was true love. Sappho described that she could not speak; there was a roaring in her ears, a trembling and pallor caused by constriction of capillaries and a rush of blood flowing to the inner organs. He concluded that what Sappho felt was an anxiety attack (Cantarella 81).

Anxiety manifestations can occur in any love-crisis, but he observes that in the Greek sources the crises that provoke anxiety attacks arise from pederastic, and not heterosexual, love. This observation is correct for a simple reason: for the Greeks true love, passion, the cause of anguish and torment, meant homosexual love (Cantarella 81).

In general, love affairs between women occurred before marriage, and this time marked the passage from childhood virginity to adult, married status. Male homosexual affairs differed at that time, in that before a young man was to be married, it was common to have sex with an adult male (Cantarella 83). However, for young girls, lesbian affairs occurred often with their mistress, or another peer. A woman's relationship with her lover was less used for education than for pleasure. Their relationship was equal, one of mutuality. Neither had authority over the other, nor was their love used simply to pass along their experiences (Cantarella 83). A vase dating back to 620 B.C.E. from the island of Thera shows two women of the same height, in a typical courting position with one placing her hand under the other's chin. Another vase shows a woman's clitoris being caressed by another woman. The two vases do not portray either woman as taking the masculine or feminine role, while male homosexual art of the time shows one as either being the adult, the masculine role, or a youth, the feminine role (Brooten, Atkinson, Buchanan, Miles, Paul's Views 70-71).

During the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E, Greece entered into a time of transition, in which they moved away from an illiterate time into a more literate society. During this period, the thiasoi diminished as well (Cantarella 85). Because women were prepared for marriage from birth, the only love that some women ever considered experiencing was that for her husband. These women were not given the choice to decide with whom to fall in love (Cantarella 85). There were, however, rare occasions in which women were able to express their love for one another in the public and private spheres.

One private way that women professed affection for one another was through erotic spells. According to author Bernadette Brooten, the erotic spells provided evidence that historical women had homoerotic relationships and were willing to create spells to obtain a women's love (Brooten 76). One spell stated,

Constrain Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, to cast herself into the bath-house for the sake of Sophia, whom Isara bore; and you, become a bath-woman. Burn, set on fire, inflame her soul, heart, liver, spirit with love for Sophia, who Isara bore. Drive Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, drive her, torment her body night and day, force her to rush forth from every place and every house, loving Sophia, who Isara bore, she surrendered like a slave giving herself and all her possessions to her, because this is the will and command of the great god . . . (Brooten 86).

Public baths were also a place for desired erotic love. The bath attendants served their clients by washing and oiling them, enabling women to have close contact with other women (Brooten 89).

Banquets were another place in which women experienced desire for one another. While banquets were generally places for men to entertain homosexual lovers, women were brought in as entertainment for the guests during dinner. In an atmosphere in which erotic love was present, it is understandable that women also felt desire for one another (Cantarella 86-87). At one banquet, two women engaged in an argument in which they compared each other's buttocks to see which one was the more beautiful. While one was displaying her buttocks, one by-stander stated, "And so gently, as if she were in the act, she sighed a bit, that, by Aphrodite, I was thunderstruck" (As quoted in Cantarella 88). It is hard to tell if these women were physically attracted to each other, but as one can tell, they were comfortable enough with their bodies and their sexuality.

One of the earliest known authors that made reference to female homoeroticism is Plato. In Plato's last work, Laws, he wrote that love between women was against nature. Plato stated, "the first who dared to do this acted through lack of self-control with respect to pleasure" (As quoted in Brooten 41).

Also, in Rome, examples exist of women beginning to become sexually restrained by the male society. Roman men viewed female homoeroticism in a different light than their own bisexuality. They saw women as dangerous, and they believed women were unable to control themselves, thus they needed to be controlled (Cantarella 164). In Petronius' Satyricon, he wrote about two women who sat together, giggling, kissing and talking to each other about their husbands who neglected them (Cantarella 165). Women were required to be models of virtue for their society. If they were not, it was as though they would be more easily susceptible to lustful passions, adultery, prostitution, and homosexuality (Cantarella 166). Through the works of Pliny, there is often a denial that female homoeroticism even existed in Roman culture (Szesnat 1).

The reason for hostility towards female homosexuality was the fear that women desired to redefine their gender roles (Szesnat 1-2). Female homosexuality was considered against nature, and therefore criminal. Although there were no laws against female homosexuality, the women who participated were viewed as committing adultery (Cantarella 167). Some doctors even considered it a mental disease. Caelius Aurelianus wrote,

These women are more desirous of lying with women than with men. In practice, they want women with male concupiscence, and when they are tired or temporarily satisfied in their passions they throw themselves, like victims of perennial intoxication, onto new forms of pleasure. Ensnared by this damnable style of life, they find pleasure in the use of their sexual powers. Like the molles, the 'tribades' are also affected by mental disease (As quoted in Cantarella 169).

In the Roman mind, female lovers were an attempt to replace men. By engaging in homosexual acts, women obtained pleasure in what it was believed that only a male could give them (Cantarella 170).

Female homoeroticism was not only going against social norms - the issue of purity was at stake. "Purity means avoidance of dirt; and this avoidance shapes much popular morality, in our own and other cultures" (Countryman 11). Purity rules were set up to govern over the boundaries of the human body; therefore all regulations that dealt with sexuality were related to purity (Countryman 11). To introduce an impurity, especially a sexual impurity to the body was considered a sin (Countryman 26). Paul must have kept these laws in mind when he wrote his Biblical letters.

In his correspondence with early Christian churches, he demanded that they observe the purity codes (Countryman 97). Paul addressed homosexuality, but he did not write that it was a sin. In his reference to homosexuality, Paul stated, "God dealt with the desires of Gentiles in such a way as to hand them over to uncleanness" (Countryman 112). Paul saw such a high frequency of homosexuality within the Gentiles that he believed God had surrendered the Gentiles to this state (Countryman 110, 112). According to Brooten, Paul treated homosexuality as a "dirty" part of the Gentile culture, not sinful in itself, but visited upon the Gentiles as payment for their other sins (Countryman 117).

Paul addressed female homoeroticism only once, but his statement has influenced Western society. In Romans 1:26, he mentioned women who gave up natural intercourse for unnatural (Brooten 195). "For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural" (Romans 1:26). Homoeroticism posed a threat to the sex roles that defined society in an honor-and-shame culture. By avoiding homoeroticism, early Christians were able to define themselves against the outside society (Brooten 204).

When William Sanday and Arthur Headlam, nineteenth century commentators, described the punishment that God handed down to people for their idolatry, they stated that the heathen deities permitted their followers to "follow their own unbridled passions" (As quoted in Brooten 205). In response to Romans 1:26, they wrote, "God gave them up to the vilest passions. Women behaved like monsters who had forgotten their sex" (As quoted in Brooten 205). Halvor Moxnes, another commentator, offered a different view of what Paul meant in Romans.

Paul does not here discuss homosexuality as an ethical issue in our sense of the term when we discuss same-sex relationships. To Paul the issue was much more basic: it was one of sex roles and borders between genders. In most honor-and-shame cultures there is a strong emphasis upon clearly defined sex roles. A blurring of such roles is perceived as a threat (As quoted in Brooten 209).

For Paul, honor and shame related to two different aspects of society: honor in the public sphere, in which the early Christians had no control, and shame in the private sphere of gender roles and sexual behavior, in which the early Christians had dominion. Paul wanted the people to distinguish themselves from the world by avoiding acts that he considered shameful, including erotic sex (Brooten 210).

What did Paul mean by natural and unnatural intercourse? Paul condemned women as having unnatural sex because he believed that women are passive in nature, and therefore must remain passive in their sexual activities. In Paul's mind, any sexual encounter required an active and passive partner, and since women could not take on the active role, it was impossible for two women to have sexual relations (Brooten 216). Paul also might be referring to anything that is not "penis-in-vagina" kind of sex - such as penis in rectum or oral sex.

Biases against female homoeroticism are not concerned about the sex as much as the genders involved. When Paul implied that homosexuality was impure, he was maintaining that homosexuals were not conforming to their specific gender roles (Brooten 235). By calling same-sex relations impure, Paul was referring to it dishonoring a person's body because the classification of men and women were unclear (Brooten et al Paul's Views 73). An interesting side note is that in Paul's language, Greek, "intercourse," means, "use." A man could "use" a woman or a boy. Lesbian women exchanged the culturally accepted form of a male "using" them for another form of sexual intercourse. By changing themselves into an active participant in sex, these women were redefining the sexual norms (Brooten 245). Consider Brooten's statement,

For Paul, same-sex love in Rom 1:26f is a sin against the social order established by God at creation, and not just a private sin against a system of private morality as contemporary Christians may understand. Paul envisions a social order in which Jew and gentile are no longer relevant categories and attempts to break down the boundaries distinguishing them (Brooten 264).

For Paul and other early Christians, God was at the head of the social order, then Jesus, then man, and last came woman. God defined the social order, and this order could not be changed (Class Notes). A woman who expressed physical love for another woman was thought to have strayed from God. For some women, the only alternative to an unhappy life spent with a male was celibacy (Brooten et al Paul's Views 81).

To understand more of Paul's usage of "natural," one must first understand Paul's views on natural theology. According to Brooten, "Natural theology is the belief that all humans can know God through observing nature" (Brooten 222-223). By using this belief, Paul was able to accuse others and build on his own Christocentric theology. He did this by using natural theology as a method of establishing the sinfulness of the people, hoping the people would then see the need for a belief in Jesus Christ (Brooten 223). While Paul felt the need to bring order to what he saw as chaos in his society, he unwillingly laid the foundation for later Christians to revolutionize modern society by classifying humans into tight categories and labeling everything outside those categories as impure. This meant strictly assigning women and men's roles to a patriarchal model of society, which unfortunately still exists in the twenty-first century.

Sexuality goes hand in hand with power. Brooten wrote, "as women, we cannot determine the direction of our lives as long as others control our bodies" (Brooten et al Paul's Views 61-62). Throughout women's lives today, they are taught to distrust the power that comes from their knowledge. The erotic is a source of power that women have that women unknowingly wield. According to author Audre Lorde,

The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic (Lorde 54).

Lesbians and gay men are a group that society has often sought to control and diminish. Day after day they face violence, lose jobs, their children are taken away from their loving homes, churches refuse to ordain, and some live in fear of being disowned from their families. Lesbians are perceived as a threat to the patriarchal system, simply because they can live their lives without men. "A lesbian is perceived as a threat to the nuclear family, to male dominance and control, to the very heart of sexism" (Gilson 95). The root of homophobia lies in the fear of institutional and cultural change and society's fear of their sexuality (Gilson 97).

Mainline churches have also done their part in controlling sexuality. They maintain that sexual abstinence is preferred over any type of sexual activity, and those who do not conform to their rules are seen as sinful and deserving of punishment (Gilson 99). In some cases, when gay men and women come out of the proverbial closet, they are also in a sense coming out of the church. As one gay Christian stated,

And for most of those numerous gay persons who choose not to come out in the church because they want to stay in the church - in Christian community - the church has meant more than just a closet . . . the church has become for them a giant tomb, smelling of death rather than life (Nelson 210).

This seems to be the most heretical thing of all, that the one place that is meant to mean love above all else has become a vehicle for hate.

To summarize, although female homoeroticism was seemingly abundant in ancient communities, this lifestyle still came with its share of hate and misunderstanding. As the years progressed, society seemed to become less and less tolerant of lesbians. Even in our modern times, society does not seem to be nearly as progressive as our historical counterparts. Will there ever be a homosexual utopia? Only time will tell.

Works Cited:

Brooten, Bernadette. Love Between Women: Early Christian
Responses to Female Homoeroticism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Brooten, Bernadette, Clarissa W. Atkinson, Constance H.
Buchanan, and Margaret R. Miles, eds. "Paul's Views on the Nature of Women and Female Homoeroticism." Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality. Beacon Press: Boston, Massachusetts, 1985.

Cantarella, Eva. Bisexuality in the Ancient World. Yale
University Press, New Haven and London 1992.

Countryman, William. Dirt, Greed, and Sex: Sexual Ethics in the
New Testament and their Implications for Today. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988.

Gilson, Anne Bathurst. Eros Breaking Free: Interpreting Sexual
Theo-Ethics. The Pilgrim Press; Cleveland, Ohio, 1995.

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider. The Crossing Press; Freedom,
California 1984.

Meeks, Wayne A. ed. The HarperCollins Study Bible.
HarperCollins Publishers; New York. 1989.

Nelson, James B. Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and
Christian Theology. Augsburg Publishing House; Minneapolis, Minnesota 1978.

Szesnat, Holger. Journal for the Study of Judaism in the
Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period. Philo and Female Homoeroticism. Leiden: E.J. Brill 1970-.

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