Homosexuality Closeted In Historical Museum Exhibit

John Addington Symonds opened his landmark 1883 book A Problem in Greek Ethics by warning his fellow Victorians, "To ignore paiderastia is to neglect one of the features by which Greek civilisation was most sharply distinguished."

Now, 124 years later, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is still guilty of that neglect. Their astonishing new Greek and Roman Galleries reopened last Friday, and after four visits we’re left astonished that no where do they mention homosexuality. Although the cases are full of drawings depicting males together, often nude or half-clad, drinking wine side by side in bed, oiling each other up at the gym, the display cards never acknowledge the widespread same-sex relationships that other museums tell their visitors were considered "honorable." Whenever Carlos Picon and his fellow curators have an opportunity with this topic to illuminate and educate, they look away and abandon their visitors to silence. In their descriptions of thousands of images on ancient pottery, they have whitewashed homosexuality out of history.

From Erasing History at the Met at Band of Thebes (which is authored by Stephen Bottum and is most worthy of a nod all on its own -- and so has been added to the sidebar).

Amazing that Zeus cannot be shown with Ganymede, but Zeus as a swan can be in bestial (sexual) repose with Leda. And how can Sappho be 'de-sexed' as Bottum states? Sure, she had many human interactions which were not sexual, but to remove the aspect of sexuality for which we have the term Sapphic Love is rather insane.

Ah, but that's the point -- homophobia is insane.

Photo: From the Gay City News reprint of 's article.