During my studies in seminary, one of my professors in pastoral counseling introduced a new trend: we each had to choose a fiction book or novel and report on the characters’ psychology and make our recommendations for diagnosis and for treatment. At the time I was not practicing homoerotic Tantra, of course, so I chose a wonderful book, “Birds without Wings,” by Louis De Bernières.
Briefly, the book is the story of a small coastal town in South West Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire told in the richly varied voices of the people - Christians and Muslims of Turkish and Greek and Armenian descent - whose lives are rooted there, intertwined for untold years. There is Iskander, the potter and local font of proverbial wisdom; Karatavuk - Iskander's son - and Mehmetcik, childhood friends whose playground stretches across the hills above the town, where Mehmetcik teaches the illiterate Karatavuk to write Turkish in Greek letters. There are Father Kristoforos and Abdulhamid Hodja, holy men of different faiths who greet each other as "Infidel Efendi"; Rustem Bey, the landlord and protector of the town, whose wife is stoned for the sin of adultery. There is a man known as "the Dog" because of his hideous aspect, who lives among the Lycian tombs; and another known as "the Blasphemer," who wanders the town cursing God and all of his representatives of all faiths. It is a moving book for a number of reasons and was very appropriate to my interests and the context of the studies. I do highly recommend the book for its complex historical context and the human studies. Masterfully written.
So, I got hooked on recommending to colleagues and to clients alike the value of good fiction to better understand human nature and the human situation in the world.
Having started the homoerotic Tantra movement as a specialized program for gay and bisexual men for awakening the depressed and repressed divine masculine spirit through physical, emotional, and spiritual awareness, practices, and rituals, I again discovered a unique fiction novel that seemed to embrace much of what I am teaching in homoerotic Tantra.
There have been volumes written about legendary and mythical homoerotic love between men.
Homoeroticism is defined as eroticism centered on or aroused by persons of one’s own gender. While erotic power of physical and psychological attraction may differ and, depending on the culture, may not even involve overt sexual activity — although if you read between the lines, it is strongly suggested —, the G-rated versions of the stories may referred to as what we would today call a “bromance”. For example, in The Epic of Gilgamesh, a perfect being was created by several deities but he was too wild in all his ways. So a partner is created for him, to attract and sublimate him so the city could relax. Their relationship is the most important and nuanced in the story. This may have been the first written evidence of “twin flames.”
Throughout the epic, Gilgamesh’s and Enkidu’s affection for each other is obvious, conspicuous, some of the situations are difficult to interpret as just platonic. We are told, for example, that Gilgamesh loves Enkidu “like a bride”, which would mean a romantic love relationship even if we’re to believe that the translation isn’t merely a convention of the particular time and culture.
Enkidu, in fact, is described as having several feminine qualities such as “lush head hair like a woman” and is given a special relationship closeness with Nature, a relationship that is generally associated with the feminine principle. Enkidu’s gentle presence calms Gilgamesh (taming a wild warrior is usually the clichéed role of the feminine love interest, what I call in homoerotic Tantra, the Shakti or “Receiver” lover). When Gilgamesh first dreams of Enkidu’s creation he describes him as a great weight that he could not move or lift forcefully, no matter his great strength. When he has a closer look however, he “fell in love with it”, and caressed it gently. Suddenly, after admitting this to himself and acting upon it, he can lift the great weight (Enkidu) and present it to his mother. There are many more instances of this behavior, and it is indicative of Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s soul-deep bond. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are, in fact, Tantric Lovers; they are united physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Volumes have been written about the Greek tradition(s) of pederasty or man-boy love. Most of it is based on misconceptions, a Puritan attitude of condemnation, and poor scholarship. We had to wait until the mid 20
th century for anything honest to be written about several centuries of man-boy love in a number of different forms in ancient and Classical Greece. One such scholarly and honest book is William Percey’s work on pederasty and pedagogy in ancient Greece, a must read if one is interested in understanding the cultural, historical, and even economic bases for the love between the erastes (the older man) and the eromenos (the younger man, the boy) which was tolerated, accepted, and in some instances even mandated!
[1]The G-rated, “cleaned up” legends of such figures as Alexander the Great and Hephaestion was one of the more visible examples but until recently was “just” good friends, that is, until Oliver Stone’s film based on the homoerotic love relationship between the Macedonian General and his lover Hephaestion (Alexander played by Colin Farrell and Hephaestion by Jared Leto).
The Christian tradition also has its share of homoerotic saints. Saints Sergius and Bacchus were third-century Roman soldiers, Christian martyrs and men who loved each other. Their story is told here in words and images for their feast day on Oct. 7.
The close bond between Sergius and Bacchus has been emphasized since the earliest accounts, and recent scholarship has revealed their homosexuality. The oldest record of their martyrdom describes them as erastai (Greek for “lovers”). Scholars believe that they may have been united in the rite of adelphopoiesis (brother-making), a kind of early Christian same-sex marriage. What Christianity couldn’t cover up they managed to whitewash. Sergius and Bacchus were lovers.
Back to Philateos, BelovedThe book, “Song of Achilles,” is written by a woman, Margaret Miller, and briefly, the book is about Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.
Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything the young prince Patroclus aspires to be—strong, masculinely beautiful, the son of a goddess—and their paths may never have crossed. Yet one day, Achilles takes the awkward prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a strong masculine erotic bond. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and healing, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When Helen of Sparta is kidnapped by the prince, Paris of Troy, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy to avenge the crime. Seduced the opportunity to attain glory, his destiny or curse, depending on how you read it, Achilles heads for Troy. Torn between love for Achilles and fear of the outcomes, Patroclus follows his lover Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.
“Song of Achilles,” is a book with a homoerotic theme, love between a younger man, a prince, and an older man, a warrior hero. It is a book written by a woman about two men in love. I have no problem dealing with the first statement but I generally balk at anything written by a woman describing anything in a man, especially what goes on in two men in a homoerotic love relationship. That’s one of the reasons why I started
Homoerotic Tantra:Mascul-IN-Touch℠, too many women writing about how a man should enjoy his erotic and sexual experiences. Can you imagine a guy writing about how a woman feels when stimulated by a man? Don’t be surprised if I tell you that sort of bullshit is out there. Worse still, they try to mix Tantra into their perverse little pornographic paper scrap.
So I approached “Song of Achilles” not just a little biased. I have to admit that “Song” did not confirm my suspicions. It’s remarkably well written and could be a textbook on homoerotic love. I even started annotating my copy with notes on yogic and Tantric principles that abound in the book.
Margaret Miller has not produced a soppy unbelievable piece of disposable fiction; she has actually portrayed and depicted remarkably well the masculine and feminine principles at work in these two heroic and epic characters, to whom she has raised from the stacks of Classical Homeric literature and has breathed fresh life into them. Miller has taken two legendary figures who up to now have been cautiously described as “friends,” and has revealed them to be incredibly hot lovers, two men deeply in love. Two men Tantrically in love.
Here are a couple of remarkably beautiful quotes:
“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”
Or
“Achilles was looking at me. “Your hair never quite lies flat, here.” He touched my head, just behind my ear. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I like it.”
My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. “You haven’t,” I said.
“I should have.” His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. “What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?”
“No,” I said.
“This surely then.” His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. “Have I told you of this?”
“That you have told me.” My breath caught a little as I spoke.
“And what of this?” His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. “Have I spoken of it?”
“You have.”
“And this? Surely I would not have forgotten this.” His cat’s smile. “Tell me I did not.”
“You did not.”
“There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.”
I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.”
Or
“I will go,” he said. “I will go to Troy.”
The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered green of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.
He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth.
“Will you come with me?” he asked.
The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes.”
Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me. I let him hold me, let him press us length to length so close that nothing might fit between us. Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.”
Or, probably the best known and most frequently repeated:
“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
There’s an incredible beauty in the homoerotic relationship between men, a beauty that is impossible between a man and a woman. Men’s bodies are simply beautiful (and they taste good, too)! We cheat ourselves when we fall victim to the cheap, bestial hardcore role-playing, the quick cum, the hard fuck, everything that deprives the male of his divine masculinity and sharing with his divine lover. Homoerotic Tantra offers men the opportunity to rediscover male beauty and to awaken the divine in masculine physical, emotional, and spiritual awareness.
Yes, in case you might have missed it, I do like the book and I do recommend it as thematic reading to all disciples of Homoerotic Tantra. It has a lot to offer men in the West, especially in the United States, because it validates and legitimizes the sacredness of pure love between two men.
If you decide to request the book from your community library or if you decide to purchase the book on my recommendation, please let me know your impressions by leaving a comment.
Namasté! śanti, śanti, śanti!
Gay Daka Karuna (William)
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Song of Achilles by Margaret Miller. Amazon Books: US$ 11.55; Barnes and Noble Books: US$14.44.
“Mythic Passions.” Song of Achilles reviewed by Daniel Mendelsohn of the New York Times.[1] Percy, William A. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Click song of achilles book post to download the PDF article.
