Cultural Impact of Classical Greek Homoeroticism

The cultural impact of Classical Greek homoeroticism is a part of the history of sexuality. Later cultures have articulated their own discourse about homosexuality through the use of historic terms and concepts, such as "Greek love". The metaphor of "Greek love" becomes most vivid historically in periods when the reception of classical antiquity is an important influence on dominant aesthetic or intellectual movements.

'Greece' as the historical memory of a treasured past was romanticised and idealised as a time and a culture when love between men was not only tolerated but actually encouraged, and expressed as the high ideal of same-sex camaraderie. … If tolerance and approval of male homosexuality had happened once — and in a culture so much admired and imitated by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — might it not be possible to replicate in modernity the antique homeland of the non-heteronormative?

In his essay "Greek Love," Alastair Blanshard asserts that "Contrasting attitudes toward Greek love is one of the defining and divisive issues in the homosexual rights movement."