Ancient References to Lesbianism (procreation, soul, homosexuality, creation, experience)

[angellous_evangellous]

I have several threads regarding ancient views of homoerotica. At the request of another member, I will gather references regarding lesbianism here.

[angellous_evangellous]

Plato, Laws 1.636c

And whether one makes the observation in earnest or in jest, one certainly should not fail to observe that when male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature when male mates with male or female with female, and that those first guilty of such enormities were impelled by their slavery to pleasure.

[angellous_evangellous]

Plato, Symposium (critical reference forthcoming). From The Internet Classics Archive | Symposium by Plato. The context here is that Zeus divided humans into two, some male/male some female/female and some male/female originals, so everyone searches for their other half.

They were being destroyed, when Zeus in pity of them invented a new plan: he turned the parts of generation round to the front, for this had not been always their position and they sowed the seed no longer as hitherto like grasshoppers in the ground, but in one another; and after the transposition the male generated in the female in order that by the mutual embraces of man and woman they might breed, and the race might continue; or if man came to man they might be satisfied, and rest, and go their ways to the business of life: so ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man.

Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man, and he is always looking for his other half. Men who are a section of that double nature which was once called Androgynous are lovers of women; adulterers are generally of this breed, and also adulterous women who lust after men: the women who are a section of the woman do not care for men, but have female attachments; the female companions are of this sort. But they who are a section of the male follow the male, and while they are young, being slices of the original man, they hang about men and embrace them, and they are themselves the best of boys and youths, because they have the most manly nature. Some indeed assert that they are shameless, but this is not true; for they do not act thus from any want of shame, but because they are valiant and manly, and have a manly countenance, and they embrace that which is like them. And these when they grow up become our statesmen, and these only, which is a great proof of the truth of what I am saving. When they reach manhood they are loves of youth, and are not naturally inclined to marry or beget children,-if at all, they do so only in obedience to the law; but they are satisfied if they may be allowed to live with one another unwedded; and such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment.

[angellous_evangellous]

As you can see, the references in Plato reveal mutually exclusive ideas about the nature of homosexuality - and the cosmology of sexuality of the Symposium is precisely opposite of Timaeus.

[angellous_evangellous]

A useful footnote in the now incomplete Lesbianism and Female Bisexuality in Ancient Literature

"Paul's views on the nature of women and female homoeroticism," [by] Bernadette J. Brooten, in: Immaculate & powerful: the female in sacred image and social reality, edited by Clarissa W. Atkinson, Constance H. Buchanan, and Margaret R. Miles (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, c1985), in: The Harvard women's studies in religion series. See pp. 61-87. Also "Female homoeroticism and the denial of Roman reality in Latin literature," [by] Judith P. Hallett, The Yale journal of criticism; v. 3, no. 1 (fall 1989): pp. 209-227.

[angellous_evangellous]

Wow that could be just about it as far as unquestionable references to lesbianism. I know of a few quotes in Plutarch that I will post later. Everything else it seems is on pretty loose ground.

[angellous_evangellous]

Just a note on some female poets.

Sappho (approx 6th c. BCE) - talks about love for her daughters, not female companions. The lesbian reading of the text is mostly derrogatory.

Erinna and Nossis - are accused of being lesbian, but there is no evidence. Only small fragments of their writings exist, and none of them contain any trace of homosexuality.