Nikola Ilić
Independent researcher
Kruševac, Republic of Serbia
nickilytch@protonmail.com
Research paper
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15103120
received: 22. 9. 2024.
accepted: 17. 3. 2025.
Abstract: Early Byzantine society’s attitudes toward sexuality and same-sex relations were mostly a carryover from Greco-Roman traditions. Adult men who participated passively in sexual relations with other men were viewed as inferior in classical Greco-Roman society. These men were additionally regarded as betraying their gender role in early Byzantine culture. Although being passive in same-sex relations was punishable by death in theory, the penalties were less harsh in reality. The Church also viewed same-sex relations between women as a betrayal of gender roles, but early Byzantine state legislation was less concerned with these relations than the Church. It is important to remember that the Church made celibacy an ideal at the close of the fourth and the start of the fifth century. Society became even more hostile of same-sex intercourse as a result of this encouragement of a life devoid of sexual interactions. Nonetheless, monastic literature that describes a link between God and monks has instances of homoerotic language.
Keywords: Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Theodosius the Great, Theodosius II, Justinian the Great, same-sex relations, LGBTQ+
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