Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths
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Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths (ISBN 0971468605) is a 2002 book by Andrew Calimach, the first major work in the English language to develop the Greek myths of male love. Despite the fact that it was brought out by a small independent publisher (Haiduk Press) [1] (http://www.haidukpress.com), it garnered strong reviews from several scholarly journals and a number of major review media.
The work was variously characterized as "important," "engrossing," "refreshing," and "fun." The support came from both the "straight" and the "gay" media, though some of the major players in both categories shunned the work.
Calimach himself, in his seminars, describes the stories as "orphan myths" because they do not play into any of the main modern political agendas. They depict idealized age-structured male love relationships, thus they do not serve the purpose of the mainstream gay movement. They point out that relationships should be with youths who have come of age, thus falling outside the scope of modern proponents of boy love. And they mostly involve personages who have relationships with the other sex as well, raising uncomfortable questions for self-identified straight men.
A short and deceptively simple book, this work reveal on closer inspection to be a radical departure from modern mythography in that it plunges the reader into the undiluted psychological reality of two-to-three thousand years ago. By faithfully restoring the sacred myths using the exact language of the original fragments whenever possible and telling them in the present tense, the book succeeds in re-arranging the mental furniture of the reader so that an ancient - and very alien - consciousness seems to awaken side by side with the everyday one. This is a very effective and powerful work which by so clearly illuminating antiquity affords us a clear perspective on our present-day culture.
Table of Contents:
- Tantalus and the Olympians
- Pelops in Pisa
- Laius and Goldenhorse
- Zeus and Ganymede
- Hercules and Hylas
- Orpheus
- Apollo and Hyacinthus
- Narcissus
- Achilles and Patroclus
Framing the tales is Pseudo-Lucian's "Different Loves".
External links
- Publisher (http://www.haidukpress.com/LoversLegends/) (Haiduk Press)