Gay Themes in Mythology
Many mythologies and religious narratives have included stories of sex or romantic affection between men, or feature divine actions that result in changes in gender. These myths have been interpreted as early forms of gay literature.
The status of mythology varies by culture. Myths are generally believed to be literally true within the society that created them and deemed erroneous or fictitious elsewhere. Other cultures may regard myths as containing psychological or archetypal truths. Myths have been used to explain and validate the social institutions of a particular culture, as well as to educate the members of that culture.
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Famous quotes containing the words gay, themes and/or mythology:
“The terrifying message of gay liberation is that men are capable of loving their brothers. It should be sweet news to every woman in the world, for, if the capacity of men to love whom they have been taught to treat as competitors and enemies can transcend their education, the world can begin to heal.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I walk out into a nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America; neither Americus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of America, so called, that I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)