Le Sabot Post-Moderne

Tom Cruise's what?

Tom Cruise ranks only behind Richard Gere in Hollywood celebs who seems always on the edge of an outing.

Ah, yes. Ancient Greece -- where the men were men, the women were women, and the sheep ran scared.

Hey, leave Alabama alone! Oh, you said GREECE... Sorry!

Straight and gay didn't have the same meaning in ancient Greece, apparently. Certain kinds of bisexuality were common and taken for granted. The homosexual side of bisexuality was not stimatized per se. What was stigmatized was to desire to play the passive role in the homosexual act. Even in that case, there were exceptions where no dishonor or disgrace went with the passive role. Specifically, if you were an adolescent male -- not yet bearded -- and you did not yourself desire a homosexual link, but merely submitted to a male teacher or mentor, then no disgrace necessarily came upon either side of the liason. Some scholars say that this general pattern of bisexuality along with a stigma on some kinds of homosexual passivity, is typical not only of the ancient Greeks, but of traditional and ancient societies in general.

The stigma on sexual passivity in ancient Greece and some other traditional cultures seems also to be connected with the somewhat negative attitude of the Greeks and of some other ancient cultures toward women, who were of course in the passive and receptive sexual role.