Classical Athenians Tolerated Homosexuality

Sun Feb 15 2026

==Most Ancient Greeks were not exclusive homosexuals. Zeus, for instance, had at least dozens of escapades with women in myth before abducting Ganymedes. Socrates was a pederast whose wife was said to have thrown away gifts he received from his eromenos out of jealousy (as I will show later). Most of these men were what we would now call “bisexual.”== There is evidence that most males are “bisexual.”

This makes sense genetically. Evolution must strike a balance between making women attracted to males and making males attracted to females. A male who prefers women over men will probably have as many offspring as a male who only prefers women. The latter male’s female offspring may be less likely to have many children, if they are not sufficiently attracted to men. Genes coding for attraction to males are going to be present in men, because men have all of the genetic material of women. If a perfect off-switch is not sufficiently adaptive, a perfect off-switch will not evolve. Furthermore, no organism is ever perfect. Disease and dysfunction is very common and extinction is frequent. The “perfect evolution fallacy” is common among laymen, taking the form of “If X trait is superior, then X would have evolved, but X did not evolve, so X is not superior” or “X trait is superior, therefore X evolved.” But this is not true, evolution is not a perfect algorithm for finding global maximums, and the Bible informs us that the world is purposefully cursed with imperfection and degeneration. Men are not perfect altruists, and so neither are they perfect heterosexual monogamists.