The era known as the Age of Enlightenment (the 1650s to the 1780s) gave rise to, in part, a general challenge to the traditional doctrines of society in Western Europe. Others include homosexual themes, like Yde et Olive. Several medieval European works contain references to homosexuality, such as in Giovanni Boccaccio 's Decameron or Lanval, a French lai, in which the knight Lanval is accused by Guinevere of having "no desire for women". The first such explicit work known to be written since ancient times, its intended purpose as a " Carnivalesque satire", a defense of pederasty, or a work of pornography is unknown, and debated. Genji, for his part, or so one is informed, found the boy more attractive than his chilly sister." Īntonio Rocco's Alcibiades the Schoolboy, published anonymously in 1652, is an Italian dialogue written as a defense of homosexual sodomy. In the celebrated Japanese work The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, the title character Hikaru Genji is rejected by the lady Utsusemi in chapter 3 and instead sleeps with her young brother: "Genji pulled the boy down beside him. Written in the 1st century AD during the reign of Nero, it is the earliest known text of its kind depicting homosexuality. The Satyricon by Petronius is a Latin work of fiction detailing the misadventures of Encolpius and his lover, a handsome and promiscuous sixteen-year-old servant boy named Giton. The first line of his infamous invective Carmen 16 - which has been called "one of the filthiest expressions ever written in Latin-or in any other language, for that matter" - contains explicit homosexual sex acts. Some of the erotic poetry of Catullus in the same century is directed at other men ( Carmen 48, 50, and 99), and in a wedding hymn ( Carmen 61) he portrays a male concubine about to be supplanted by his master's future wife. In the second of Virgil's Eclogues (1st century BC), the shepherd Corydon proclaims his love for the boy Alexis.
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The tradition of pederasty in ancient Greece (as early as 650 BC) and later the acceptance of limited homosexuality in ancient Rome infused an awareness of male-male attraction and sex into ancient poetry. Plato's Symposium also includes a creation myth that explains homo- and heterosexuality ( Aristophanes speech) and celebrates the pederastic tradition and erotic love between men ( Pausanias speech), as does another of his dialogues, Phaedrus.
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In his oration Against Timarchus, Aeschines argues that though Homer "hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship", Homer assumed that educated readers would understand the "exceeding greatness of their affection". Plato does the same in his Symposium (385–370 BC) the speaker Phaedrus cites Aeschylus and holds Achilles up as an example of how people will be more brave and even sacrifice themselves for their lovers. In a surviving fragment of the play, Achilles speaks of "our frequent kisses" and a "devout union of the thighs". In his 5th century BC lost tragedy The Myrmidons, Aeschylus casts Achilles and Patroclus as pederastic lovers. Though Homer did not explicitly portray the heroes Achilles and Patroclus as homosexual lovers in his 8th century BC Trojan War epic, the Iliad, later ancient authors presented the intense relationship as such.
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See also: Homoerotic literature in ancient Rome
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The ancient Greeks, in particular, explored the theme on a variety of different levels in such works as Plato's Symposium. Themes of love between individuals of the same gender are found in a variety of ancient texts throughout the world. In contexts where homosexuality has been perceived negatively, LGBT literature may also document the psychological stresses and alienation suffered by those experiencing prejudice, legal discrimination, AIDS, self-loathing, bullying, violence, religious condemnation, denial, suicide, persecution, and other such obstacles. LGBT individuals have often turned to literature as a source of validation, understanding, and beautification of same-sex attraction. Because the social acceptance of homosexuality has varied in many world cultures throughout history, LGBT literature has covered a vast array of themes and concepts.