History of lesbianism

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Giovanni Antonio da Brescia, Two women. Italian Renaissance engraving.
male homosexuality
, due to many historical writings and records focusing primarily on men.

Ancient period

Ancient Mesopotamia

Women's sexuality in

ancient Mesopotamia is not well documented. Stephanie Lynn Budin, writing on love magic, argues that "there remains no evidence for lesbianism in this regard (or any other from Mesopotamia)."[2] However, there are at least two pieces of textual evidence for Mesopotamian lesbianism.[3] One is a divinatory text which mentions female same-sex activity,[4] while another, more explicit text remains unpublished.[5]

There are also mentions in the

gender-nonconforming individual, "perhaps a female functionary, attached to a temple."[6] The word is regularly treated as grammatically feminine,[6] but a sal-zikrum was allowed to marry women,[7] and she inherited the same amount as her brothers.[8]: 34  It is possible that a female transgressor of gender boundaries was regarded as a "woman-man" because of her social behavior (i.e., relationships with other women).[citation needed] The term sal-nu-bar, according to a disputed belief, referred to women who were allowed to marry but not to have children, and so "brought another woman with them to bear children"[8]
: 33 

In addition, an Old Assyrian text writes of two women, Ewanika and Adi-matum, who had a betrothal contract for their "daughter." It is possible that the father passed away, leaving the two women as widows.[9]

Ancient Egypt

Homosexuality in ancient Egypt between women is less often recorded, or alluded to, in documents and other artifacts as compared to homosexuality among men, but it does appear in such documents. The Dream Book of the Carlsberg papyrus XIII claims that "If a woman dreams that a woman has intercourse with her, she will come to a bad end".[10][11] Depictions of women during the New Kingdom suggest they enjoyed, in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, the company of other women who were scantily clad or naked. Some cosmetics-related items, which may have been owned and used by women, feature nude and suggestive depictions of women.[11]

There are several pieces of evidence for female homosexuality in Roman Egypt. There are examples of women casting love spells to make other women fall in love with them dating from the second to fourth centuries CE.[12] These spells are unusual because they were likely commissioned by women from lower social classes rather than the elite, and because they contain the names of ancient women with homoerotic desires.[13]: 73, 77  For example, Herais cast a love spell on Sarapias,[12] and the following quotation is from Sophia's love spell for Gorgonia:[13]: 87 

Burn, set on fire, inflame the heart, the liver, the spirit of Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, with love and affection for Sophia, whom Isara bore, for a good end. ... Force Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, to cast herself into the bath-house for the sake of Sophia, whom Isara bore, for her, so that she love her with passion, longing, unceasing love.

The homosexual nature of some spells has been erased. In a love spell for Nike, the name of the commissioner Pantous (or Paitous) could be male or female, but two feminine pronouns reveal that it refers to a woman. Franz Boll assumed that both pronouns were scribal errors, and made the spell heterosexual by substituting masculine equivalents in his 1910 edition of the text. The first edition to restore the homosexual reading was published in 1989, although its authors also argued for Boll's scribal error theory.[13]: 90–96  Masculine pronouns remain in some translations published after 1989.[14]

In the fifth century CE, women at the White Monastery in Upper Egypt sometimes pursued same-sex relationships. A letter from Shenoute chastises two women, ⲧⲁⲏⲥⲉ, Taêse and ⲧⲥⲁⲛⲥⲛⲱ, Tsansnô, for running after each other "in friendship and physical desire".[15]: 304  This phrase referred to homosexual advances, which were not uncommon.[16] It is unknown if the corporal punishment Shenoute prescribed for the women was administered.[15]: 324 

Early imperial China

In early Chinese history sexual activity between women was accepted, and sometimes actively encouraged.[17][18]: 135  Female same-sex relationships were described with a special term (traditional Chinese: 對食; simplified Chinese: 对食; pinyin: duìshí), literally 'paired eating', possibly referring to cunnilingus. In the second or third century AD Ying Shao defined it as "when palace women attach themselves as husband and wife".[19] Such relationships sometimes formed between government slaves or members of the emperor's harem. For example, under Emperor Cheng's rule (33 – 7 BC) the slave Dào Fáng (Chinese: 道房) had a homosexual relationship with Cáo Gōng (traditional Chinese: 曹宮; simplified Chinese: 曹宫), the daughter of a slave.[20] The sex handbook Dongxuanzi (Chinese: 洞玄子; pinyin: Dòng Xuán Zǐ, possibly dating to the fifth century AD[18]: 2 ) also contains examples of female same-sex contact. In the position called The Paired Dance of the Female Blue Phoenixes, two women practice scissoring.[18]: 135–136 

Ancient Greece

Evidence of female homosexuality in the ancient Greek world is limited.[21] Most surviving sources from the classical period come from Athens, and they are without exception written by men. At least among these Athenian men, the discussion and depiction of female homosexual activity seems to have been taboo.[22] Kenneth Dover suggests that, due to the role played by the phallus in ancient Greek men's conceptions of sexuality, female homosexual love was not explicitly defined as a sexuality or category by the authors of surviving sources.[23]

Nonetheless, there are a few references to female homosexuality in ancient Greek literature. The writings of two poets from the archaic period, Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC) and Alcman (fl. 7th century BC), have been interpreted as concerning female homosexual desire. Alcman wrote hymns known as partheneia,[note 1] which discuss attraction between young women. Though these hymns are ambiguous, historians have posited that they are erotic or sexual.[24] At roughly the same time, Sappho's poems discuss her love for both men and women. For instance, in Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite, the poet asks Aphrodite for aid in wooing another woman. The fragment describes Sappho both giving and receiving sexual contact from the same partner, in contrast with the rigid active/passive partner dichotomy observed in Greek male homosexual relationships.[25] Only one fragment of Sappho's poetry, Sappho 94, contains a clear mention of female homosexual acts.[26]

A painting by Alexander Isailoff of Sappho.

Sappho is the most often mentioned example of an ancient Greek woman who may have actually engaged in sexual acts with women. Her sexuality has been debated by historians. Some, such as Denys Page, argue that she was attracted to women. Others, such as Eva Stigers, point out that the descriptions of love between women in Sappho's writings are not necessarily evidence of her own sexuality.[27] Some historians have gone so far as to argue that Sappho's circle were involved in female homosexuality as a kind of initiation ritual.[28] The earliest evidence of Sappho's reputation for homosexual desire comes from the Hellenistic period, with a fragment of a biography found in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri which criticizes Sappho for being "gynaikerastria."[note 2][29]

Similarly, some find evidence in

Sarah Pomeroy believes that Plutarch's depiction of homosexual relationships between Spartan women is plausible. For instance, Pomeroy argues that homosexual relationships between the girls would have "flourished" in the girls' choirs that performed the partheneia of Alcman.[31]

There are at least two other women poets who wrote in the style of Sappho: Erinna of Teos or Telos (c. late 400s BC) and Nossis of Locri (c. 300 BC). Erinna's Distaff and epigrams lament her childhood friend Baucis in a manner which "contains echoes of Sappho."[32] Nossis of Locri wrote three epigrams in a similar style, one of which bears striking resemblance to the floral eroticism found in Sappho's works. It reads as follows:[33]

Nothing is sweeter than desire. All other delights are second.

From my mouth I spit even honey.

Nossis says this, whom Aphrodite does not love,

knows not her flowers, what roses they are.

In classical Athens, the idea of homosexual women is briefly mentioned in the Speech of Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium.[34] Later references to female homosexuality in Greek literature include an epigram by Asclepiades, which describes two women who reject Aphrodite's "rules" but instead do "other things which are not seemly".[35] Dover comments on the "striking" hostility shown in the epigram to female homosexuality, contrasting it with Asclepiades' willingness to discuss his own homosexual desire in other works, suggesting that this apparent male anxiety about female homosexuality in ancient Greece is the reason for our paucity of sources discussing it.[36]

In Greek mythology, the story of Callisto has been interpreted as implying that Artemis and Callisto were lovers.[37] The myth of the Amazons has also been interpreted as referring to female homosexual activities.[38]

Female-female relationships or sexual activities were occasionally depicted in Greek art. For example, a plate from Archaic Thera appears to show two women courting.[30] An Attic red figure vase in the collection of the Tarquinia National Museum in Italy shows a kneeling woman fingering the genitals of another woman in a rare explicit portrayal of sexual activity between women in Greek art,[30] although it has also been interpreted as depicting one prostitute shaving or otherwise grooming the other in a non-sexual fashion.[39]

Ancient India

The Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft likely edited and compiled between the second and third centuries CE,[40] describes the fines individuals must pay for engaging in ayoni, non-vaginal sex. This category includes all non-vaginal sex, whether heterosexual or otherwise. Although both men and women who have sex with each other have to pay a fine, the fine for two women is lower. Overall, "while homosexual sex is unsanctioned" in the Arthashastra, it is also "treated as a minor offense."[41]

The

deflowers a virgin" is sentenced to the loss of two fingers.[41] If two virgins are caught, the 'doer' "has to pay double the girl's dowry and is given ten whiplashes".[42] The Manusmriti fails to provide a punishment for mutual oral or manual sex.[42]

Sanskrit medical texts mention "sexual act[s] in which both the parties are female".[43] The Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita both classify lesbianism as a disease resulting from an atypical conception.[44]: 597  The latter describes it as incurable, and states that a lesbian is "a woman who has an aversion for man and who has no breasts."[45] The term used for a lesbian in these texts is nārīṣaṇḍha.[44]: 593 

The Kama Sutra mentions phallus-shaped bulbs, roots, and fruits as dildos used as dildos in lesbian sex, and also records cunnilingus between women.[46]

Roman Empire, the New Testament, and early Christianity