“Why don’t you take off that battle armour and slip into something more comfortable?” “I AM MOST COMFORTABLE WHEN I AM IMPERVIOUS TO MOST PHYSICAL FORMS OF ATTACK”
Aphrodite: "Why don't you slip into something a little more... comfortable?" Athena: "I am most comfortable when I'm impervious to most forms of physical attack."
@@Jazzisa311 not really. No original Greek myth has Artemis as a lesbian. Most are usually either fake or written by someone waaaay later in time with a political agenda to appeal to lesbians (yep using identity politics for political gain existed even in ancient Greece). But the funny thing is Greeks already were okay with lesbians.
“Cutting your sleeve was a euphemism for being gay” Me: *looks at all the lesbians who refuse to wear anything other than tank tops* It finally makes sense
@@applesource8261 I personally haven't tried it yet because I still have to live with my parents for a few months, but I'm sure if you explained it then it would work fine. Or if maybe you brought that fact up randomly to whoever you're coming out to and then cut your sleeves it would work.
Everyone talking about Athena and Artemis in the comments, but can we take a minute to appreciate Emperor Ai and Dong Xian? That story is so friggin cute.
There’s more gay ancient Chinese stories where that came from! So basically this guy Long Yangjun (龍陽君) and emperor Wei (魏王）are definitely very gay and the emperor dotes on him a lot. One day, they went fishing together, and when the Long Yangjun caught ten-something fish, he suddenly started crying. Emperor Wei and asked why he was crying, upon which the guy basically answered “at first when I was catching fish I was happy, as I caught bigger and bigger fish, I wanted to throw aside the smaller ones. Someday I will also be thrown aside, how could I not cry?” Another one is sadder and I read that the writer just borrowed these two people to tell a story so idk the truth of it: (Idk how to translate the names so just deal with “the guy” and “the emperor lol) This guy is very much doted on by the emperor (starting to sense a pattern here). In that country, driving the carriage of the emperor without permission is punishable by chopping off one’s foot. One day the guy found out his mother was sick and used the emperor’s carriage to go to his mother. When the emperor heard of it he said the guy was a great son, risking having his foot cut off for his mother.” Another time, the two were touring a peach garden when the guy ate a particularly sweet peach, and gave the unfinished peach to the emperor. The emperor said “he loves (Yep, it uses 愛 which means love) me such that he forgot he has already eaten the peach and gave it to me.” After the guy has grown older, the emperor’s fondness towards him weakened, and he did something to offend the emperor, the emperor said “this person took my carriage without permission and gave me his half-eaten leftover peach.” Basically implying his view of the guy changes 180 after their love fades lol
@@bookbutterfly6613 yes! the two are known as mizi xia and duke ling of wei, their story used as a cautionary tale by Han Fei, the legalist philosopher.
Aphrodite has about as much sway on me as porridge. I know it exists, and that other people like it, but it has no effect on me. Aphrodite is porridge.
Someone's like "Oh who do you like?" and you just reply, looking then dead I the eye, dead serious and say "Aphrodite has no sway over me" and then some are confused but most are like "Okay I know who she is but are you saying you're asexual or challenging a goddess?" and you reply "... Yes."
Wasn’t there another emperor during the spring and autumn period who forbade all beautiful women from entering the city because his male lover said something like “but I’m just a man, when you see a beautiful woman, you will leave me.”
I actually suggested we named out LGBTQ+ club at school the "Cut sleeve club" because of the myth, they went with it and that's what we got put into the yearbook as
@@Ardorstorm Yeaaa southern life is very yikes having to hide myself from everyone. At least i can go to college in the north soon, maybe they won't hate me for existing there. I do feel that tho, feeling out of place from other grsm kids
Transcript: They were definitely gay. Like married with an adopted child gay. They had sex very often and literally didn't like women at all. They've been friends since childhood with eyes for no one but eachother. Historians: Lmao they were just buddies.
That's not untrue though. They probably just didn't call it gay back then. Consider this line: "Judas betrayed jesus with a kiss" Why must people overlook this time and again?
@WD Vinco idk ive always read them as just really good friends because of historians need to make everything straight also its just fun to flip the script
“Tamamizu is fully supportive as their relationship advances but she’s kinda dying on the inside” * *Pets ancient Japanese fox spirit* * Yeah I know the feeling girl
I feel like Rick Riordan discovered that Athena wasn’t a romantic goddess a few books into Percy Jackson and he then had to figure out where all of these Athena children came from
Well, there are the Erotes who hold dominion over specific types of love and sexual pleasure. Aphrodite - and Eros if using the Hestiod lens - if just love and sex overall; so platonic love, familial love, self love also fall under her.
@@IceQueen975 Luckily theres a lot of cross over in the greek pantheon about who does what, so you can still worship a god of platonic or familial love like Philotes, the Goddess of friendship and affection
Song of Solomon is basically soft erotica... For centuries, Torah and Biblical scholars have called it "poetry," that it is meant to be illustrative of the ideal relationship between God and man, but it doesn't take much of a reading to see that somebody was getting off on it.
*siiiiigh* I know I'm ridiculously late and I just learned this but this story turns tragic in the end. After Emperor Ai died, the Dowager Empress, who was disapproving of Emperor Ai and Dong Xian's relationship, took action against Dong Xian. This was mainly because court officials had been riled up by Dong Xian's rapid ascent to the top of the royal court by "seducing the emperor". Dong Xian, fearing for his life, committed suicide with his wife and family. Oh yeah I forgot Dong Xian had a wife and family Emperor Ai was unable to have heirs, because of some reason or another, some say he was physically unable to, an extremely biased source says he was "too busy sinfully banging men to bang his wife" (this was in a children's comic book by the way, I wrote to the publisher about this extremely homophobic issue but have not heard back since). He promised the throne to Dong Xian, which was almost unheard of, passing the throne to a court official when it should have been to a family relative, to keep the bloodline pure. This, as you may expect, pissed off a lot of people.
The medicine-sorcery connection is a pretty common one- in a society that views "doing things nobody else understands basted on obscure knowledge that give you a form of power" as sorcery, herbalism and medicine very much come across as sorcery. It also helps if you take the word sorcery isolated from connotations of good or evil, as that's very context-dependent.
@@parkerdixon-word6295 Music and dancing are also often viewed as having some sort of spiritual significance so while it might seem unrelated to us, to the people at the time it was a perfectly natural connection. You can even see it in the west where singing in church is common and monks of course used to be basically doctors and nurses, the dancing thing was just not as common.
Athena just sits in a corner polishing various weaponry, muttering that she'd be happy to put her sword in Aphrodite's face if she doesn't shut up. Meanwhile Artemis is at the table with everyone else and keeps waving Aphrodite away before getting into a massive fight with Zeus because he keeps making lewd remarks about her nymph friends.
YES OMG BUT MAKE ALTERNATE VERSIONS TOO WITH ARO AND DEMI AND GRAY ACE BUT CHANGE THE WORDS SLIGHTLY FOR EACH ONE. Like for Demi, “Aphrodite doesn’t have sway over me... yet.” Or for gray ace, “Aphrodite perhaps has sway over me.” Lollll that’d be so cute!
@@j_fenrir is homophobic as hell. She attacked a gay man because his point was so and so is pan not gay. Accusing them of hating themselves and others just because they followed a different belief of the Greek pantheon. homophobic as hell
today I learned the story about Pele and Hi'iaka is actually a lot more detailed than Red laid it out to be: Pele had fallen in love with a _particular_ mortal man and sent her sister Hi'iaka to bring him to her, having her swear an oath to return in forty days and not fall in love with him herself, but when Hi'iaka arrived she found that the man had died waiting for Pele, so she had to resurrect him, so the trip took longer. Pele grew jealous, believing that Hi'iaka had stolen the man for herself so in a rage she burned down the grove and turned Hopoe to stone. So there you have it, Pele is the only goddess so dumb she thinks her man's being stolen by her gay sister.
Didn't he kill hundreds of trojans and drag hector’s corpse around the city multiple times to avenge Patroclus's death? And didn't they get buried in the same urn? Yup...yeah... All normal best friend things!
@@InShane162 it’s hard to say because myths haves different versions. But in one version Ares killed Adonis out of jealousy. Aphrodite also killed one of Ares lovers out of jealousy. I forgot who though. Ares and Aphrodite having a open relationship should sum it up. Or they’re probably the type of people that are kinda serious but don’t like putting labels on their relationship. Idk.
Ares: Can anybody find me somebody to love? Athena: nobody Ares: somebody Athena: NOBODY Ares: SOMEBODY Ares: CAN. ANYBODY. FIND. ME- *bonk* Athena: -a new spear. I hit Ares too hard
I love Shinto myths cause it's just like "Hey the sun is gay! And so is this fox!" *Points at the sun and holds up Tamamizu by her scruff, who waves* "Oh and the fox god is gender fluid!" *Struggles to lift fox statue*
this is your polite reminder, gentle readers, that Amaterasu was once lured out of a cave by the promise of naked breasts and sensual dancing i did not make a word of that up that is a real actual thing that happens in shinto legend
_Man and woman in history sitting near each other_ Historians: They must be married! _Woman and woman in history in a literal relationship_ Historians: *F IS FOR FRIENDS, WHO DO STUFF TOGETHER-*
Beings of opposite gender: sit near each other Historians: Looks about married Beings of the same gender: sleep together, goes on a killing rampage bc the other died,write poetry about each other Historians: Isn't friendship beautiful
The thing is that we have to take care to not put our modern concepts in ancient civiliziations. In a culture where close friends kissing would be common, it's not just because two figures, be they from opposite or same sex, are kissing that this would mean that they were a couple. 19th century historians definetely normally put their own believes above when analizing other cultures, but we have to take care to not think that every ancient civilization was super "progressive" and LGBT friendly when these concepts didn't even exist back then.
Big shout out to my three favorite goddesses of asexuality: Athena, Hestia, and Red. (Seriously, Red, I so love that such a prominent figure in the online community is not only so positive toward the ace community but is also a part of it herself. Thank you so much for representing us so well.) (If you're wondering about Artemis, she's okay, but she's not nearly as cool as the other three in my opinion.)
I'm just wondering about Artemis, is it because she kills boys, is thought by many to have been with(but actually wasn't) with girls/Orion? I don't know why this has been playing on my mind. Or is it just cuz you don't think she is as cool as the others and that's it?
@@FennecFeather-wx7jj I have nothing against Artemis, although I feel like she could have toned down a few of her punishments, especially when it comes to the honest mistakes of some mortals. I just don't connect with a goddess of the hunt and the wilds as much as the goddesses of wisdom and the home and hearth.
Hmmm, if Athena was interpreted as Asexual, that could also explain why Zeus is such a unrelenting hound dog. Maybe when she came out of his head, she took all his restraint or temperance with her?
2 female godesses: *are literally married to each other* Historians: Such good friends! 2 gods of oposite sex: *are depicted on the same page once* Historians: They were married!
That Tamamizu story actually really broke my heart a bit, and I’m not even gay. Actually kinda bittersweet, she just wanted the girl she liked to be happy, and she succeeded, just in a tragic way. I’d say that’s a sign of true love, just wanting that person to be happy, even if you aren’t technically apart of it *cries internally*
Historians really do be like: “They are so cool for kissing the homies goodnight. And making sure they are tucked in tight. And joining them in bed to warm them up just right. And- Everyone else: “Gay?” Historians: “NAH!”
*Two deities sit near eachother* Historians: Ooooh, I spy a romance! *Man goes into a deadly rage following the death of another man who he used to spend weeks with and write poems about* Historians: What dedicated homies, amirite? Bros for life!
Achilles: Literally wishes for his ashes to be mixed with Patroclus’ (I can’t spell) Historians: They were great friends. Amazing pals. Just bros being bros, homies being homies.
It was pretty much that to be fair, as Ancient Greece (mainly Athens) was deeply patriarchalist and mysoginistic, we could say. Obviously that doesn't mean that LGBT people didn't exist back then, but men couldn't live together, for example, and people in "eromenos" and "erastes" relationships were still expected to marry women.
@@decoral definetely yes. There is even a theory that Theseus leaving Ariadne behind in the myth of the minotaur is a symbolism of how Athens was "leaving behind" the matriarchalist model that presumably existed in Crete
Thank you! Theseus is considered an representation of Athens power, so they believed that he killing the Minotaur would represent Athens beconing the new hegemony power in the region, instead of Crete. I don't know about his marriage with Phaedra either though
I don't imagine many emperors had huge guns as they are mostly buried in paperwork or buried themselves in pleasure. There were warring kingdoms era kings that had to have some degree of martial skill but that only holds true if you don't have kick a** generals below you.
Maybe it’ll turn into an annual thing like her Halloween videos. Every June a collection of pride stuff. Maybe Blue can do a video on all the definitely gay historical figures.
I always explain to people that Athena isn’t a lesbian, she’s asexual. Artemis is asexual or lesbian depending which canon you’re reading. And Hestia isn’t either she’s just celibate/asexual depending on the version you read. Of course. There’s also straight male academia that says “all three are just virgin goddesses. They’re straight but...”
@@fedrikrose2277 in almost every version Orion was just her friend and since he was a guy she didn’t hate everyone assumed they were in love. In a few versions she tried to get rid of him for harassing her friends
@@balan4774 there are heaps of ways you can do it, but a really common one people use is 𝐼𝒢 𝒻𝑜𝓃𝓉𝓈! Just search up IG fonts on google and you should be able to find it. Write out what you want to say, and copy your preferred font.
I wonder where she found that version. The version I heard of the story depicted the fox as more malicious, causing the king to fall ill among other things.
It's unfortunate because the fox knew where this was going from the start; they specifically turned into a woman because they figured marrying a fox spirit would be bad for their love interest, so they shot themself in the foot deliberately from the start. Ouch.
My parents named me after Athene because she was my dad’s favorite goddess. I grew up to be demisexual. My name was more fitting than my parents initially thought.
I’m fully aware of that. Demisexuality is under the asexuality umbrella, however, in that people who are demisexual experience sexual attraction on a very limited scale. Many people I know who identify as demisexual, myself included, tend to label themselves as asexual for convenience’s sake because it’s easier to explain that to allosexual folks than it is to try to explain demisexuality.
Meanwhile, * achilles requests that his ashes be mixed with Patroclus' ashes, so they can be together for all eternity * Historians: THEY'RE JUST REALLY GOOD FRIENDS
Also: Hi’iaka was Pele’s favorite sibling, so this made it even more fucked up, but one of the best parts about it is that when Hi’iaka found out that Pele killed her (sort of) girlfriend (aikāne is used as a term of ride or die, and it had to be two people of the same gender, and it didn’t have to be sexual, but it more than often was) she found the guy that Pele liked and literally oofed him on a cliff so that Pele would see. In some versions Pele realizes her wrong doings and reversed the stone curse so that the lesbians can be gay. In others their bond as favorite sisters is severed and Hi’iaka can never return to Pele
@@completeepicness5070 Orion. Just...Orion was a greek myth. Now thinking on it, she was likely some form of Demi since she only fell for Orion after they had a very close friendship, but she then did kill him so.....
Since Hestia isn’t mentioned a lot, I got curious and looked her up on Google. Apparently, when both Apollo and Poseidon asked for her hand in marriage, she decided “Screw it” and devoted her life to maiden hood. That is hilarious.
"[...] Nor yet does poor maiden Hestia love Aphrodite's works (i.e, love). She was the first-born child of wildly Kronos and youngest too, by the will of Zeus who holds the aegis. A Queenly maid whom both Poseidon and Apollon sought to wed--but she was wholly unwilling, nay stubbornly refused, and touching the head of Father Zeus who holds the aegis, she that fair Goddess told an oath that in truth had been fulfilled: that she would remain a maiden all her days. So Zeus the Father gave her a high honor instead of marriage: that would lead the home and richest the portion. And among all moral men, she is chief of the goddesses." Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite. This is from the top of my head as Lady Hestia is my matron deity, as a Hellenic pagan.
Xochiquetzal's domains, as is specified in the wiki are: "was a goddess associated with concepts of fertility, beauty, and female sexual power, serving as a protector of young mothers and a patroness of pregnancy, childbirth, and the crafts practised by women such as weaving and embroidery.." She sometimes is also associated with female masturbation... Don't ask me why.
Also masturbating increases the blood flow and overall health of the pelvic regions. I bet women that masturbate more (or at least get it on more often) are more fertile than fridges that rarely get any action
@@pedroivantaveraferreira3037 while I'm all for pro masturbation and sexual education for the masses, as Ace, I very much find the term fridge, in this context, rude. Sure you didn't mean it that way though. Maybe just better choice of words.
@@flyingspacebrainedidiot straight historians like to interpret a line in Sappho’s (an extremely gay poetess) writing as her saying she had a husband, while what his name translates to made it blitheringly obvious that it was a joke. Sappho was such a lesbian that the word is named after where she lived.
Why you presume that every hetero is homophobic crypto-gay terrified that someone can convince actual hetero to be a homosexual? What for reminder is impossible.
@@TheRezro it's a common joke in the lgbtq+ community, we are not saying that all straight people are terrible (that's stupid) we're saying that The Straights(tm) are terrible
I'm sure someone else already pointed this out, but I appreciate that all the stories cover a spectrum of nonheteronormativity here. Story about gay dudes, story about gay ladies, Apollo is bi/pansexual, Athena is asexual, Inari is gender fluid, Latin American god of sex workers, and of course the most important thing anyone can be Proud about: being a fox (with a crush on someone with an incompatible orientation cuz we've all been there)
@@j_fenrir hey again homophobe. How are you doing? Ready for me to post the stuff you said? I also notice you accused someone of the thing you did then got someone else to report them. .-.
@@merrittanimation7721 Nice cameo in Hades & Persephone's story where she leads Demeter on a wild goose chase to give the two newlyweds an uninterrupted honeymoon. Because it's the only recorded wedding present, I imagine the three of them as buds.
@@CJCroen1393 It's this reason that makes me love that Is it Wrong to Try and Pickup Girls in a Dungeon decided to use Hestia as the main goddess of the story.
Achilles and Patroclus: Stare longingly into each others eyes, die because of each other and even spent their afterlives together. Historians: "What's better than this? Guys bein' dudes."
Hey, even if the volcano in question is also a person, it's clearly not reasonable to expect an active volcano not to barf lava all over everything on short notice. ;P
I can't think of a soldier that wouldn't fall in love with Athena. I mean she is hot and the materialization of perfection in your job how wouldn't you admire to the bone(r) such a thing?
@@j_fenrir while someone was explaining that Apollo was pan, you got upset and screamed homophobe to a gay man. Nobody bother with kitty, she’s a gay basher. Telling gays what they can and can’t say because they are gay.
@Qin Des Why do you hate Kitty Kat? You and your friend Waca Waka are spreading misinformation about this poor innocent woman just trying to get through life.
As a Mexican I can tell you that the idea of homosexuality being taboo in ancient Mexico its a Spaniard/Christian construct. In the museum of Tenochtitlan in today's Mexico city they have a codex that have some of the laws of Tenochtitlan, one book it's related to social structures and social relations, in this book exist a guideline for same sex marriage, detailing how it should be requested, who can stablish it, how it can be nullified, etc. It also contains a guideline for the process of divorce (any kind) and the possible punishments for infidelity. There are also some codex from Maya origin alongside some oral traditions among the Tepanec, Zapotec, Chichimec, Cucapah and Cumiai people's that recognize same sex relations and marriages.
Two girls/boys: *Loved each other, frequently sent each other love letters, lived together until they died, were buried together* Historians: Oh my god, they were roommates
@@martynap2930 I myself don't know alot about Hestia, so I couldn't tell you with alot of confidence. From what I do know, I'll say she was probably in the ace spectrum.
I was recently told by my mom that the Native Americans, specially around Superior Like, where a-ok with Lesbians, it was even seen as a power thing because women held a lot of energy and couldn't even play drums because of it.
Some First Nations tribes also held the concept of "two-spirits", which is a concept _roughly_ akin to being transgender, or at least gender non-conforming.
@@kiraina25 I’m Diné (Navajo) and can confirm. It’s more like someone who can see with the perspective of both male and female, and it’s considered a sacred position given by the creator
