Greece your imagination!
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By
Bill Andriette
Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths
by Andrew Calimach
Haiduk Press
How to order
For millennia, the legacy of ancient Greece served as counter to the Judeo-Christian West's hostility to homosexuality. But the story of Zeus and Ganymede aside, the Greek myths don't exactly roll off the tips of
contemporary queers' tongues. With literary flair and faithfulness to the original
tales, Andrew Calimach's Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek
Myths (cloth, Haiduk Press, 192 pages, $25) presents the Greek myths relating to male love.
There's Ganymede and Zeus, of course, and Achilles and Patroclus, but also some you probably haven't heard. Did you know that Pelops– who gave his name to the Greek archipelago– was pieced together by the gods for his beauty
after being slain and boiled for a banquet by his father?
Throughout, Lovers' Legends points up ancient Greek preoccupations– fear of effeminacy, the importance of moderating the passions, the ways being loved by a man could serve a youth's burgeoning masculinity, and
the compatibility of same– and opposite-sex love.
Lovers' Legends is beautifully presented, illustrated with painting and sculpture inspired by the stories it retells. And accompanying essays consider how Greek myths– with their rapes, incest, betrayals, and murders–
connect with the human imagination and spirituality.
| Author Profile: Bill Andriette |
| Bill Andriette is features editor of
The Guide |
| Email: |
theguide@guidemag.com |
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