Bisexuality Throughout History

The word “bisexual” is several hundred years old, but it only garnered popularity in 1892, with the translation from Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s book on sexual disorders, Psychopathia Sexualis. Prior to this, “bisexual” was used to describe people with ambiguous or multiple sexual characteristics, who we would now describe as “intersex.” 

In the context of attraction, it originally meant to both men and women: the two binary genders. However, we have learned more about human gender as well as sexuality since then, and it is now used primarily as a sort of umbrella term to refer to attraction to multiple genders; this can include attraction to only two genders, attraction to people of any/every gender, or other variations. What we now understand as bisexuality has still existed long before the word was originated, however.

Bisexuality in history is hard to identify because people were still expected to get married and have children with someone of the opposite sex, even if they had a male lover. This was the case in Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire particularly, two of the most famous ancient civilizations that were open to same-sex relationships. 

In Ancient Greece particularly, gay relationships were even expected of men. A young man would be in a sexual relationship with an older man who would often teach him in certain studies like the arts or science, depending on the status of the people involved. The older men were referred to as erastes and the younger were referred to as eromenos, the lover and beloved respectively. They were still obligated to get married to women and have children with them, even if they continued having gay relationships on the side. 

Lesbian relationships were much less often recorded, although they were still present. The most specific instance of this in ancient history is also where the terms for ‘WLW’ (women-loving women) come from: Sappho, a famous Ancient Greek poet who expressed her attraction to women in several of her works. The term “sapphic” comes from her name, and the more commonly known term of “lesbian” comes from Lesbos, the Greek island where she had lived. It’s uncertain whether she also loved men or her relationships with them were just based on the expectations of Ancient Greek society, however. 

One particularly famous instance of gay men in Ancient Greece comes from “The Sacred Band of Thebes”, an elite army composed of 150 gay couples founded in 379 BCE, under the belief that they would fight harder when beside the person they loved. This claim seems to have been true, as The Sacred Band of Thebes went undefeated for 40 years, even causing the defeat of the Spartan army, who themselves had not been defeated for 300 years. The Sacred Band of Thebes was only destroyed in 318 BCE, by Philip II of Macedon’s army, alongside his son, who would eventually come to be known as Alexander the Great. The Sacred Band of Thebes fought to the end rather than take Philip’s offer to join him, and every single man was killed on the battlefield. It is rumored that Philip even shed a tear as he stood before their corpses, mournful that the powerful and noble force of The Sacred Band of Thebes had finally been defeated.

Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire weren’t the only ancient civilizations to acknowledge homosexual relationships, though. In Ancient China, it was not unheard of for men to take on male lovers beside their female spouses. Two symbols for gay men in China are the bitten peach, coming from a tale from the Zhou dynasty, and the cut sleeve, which came from the Han dynasty. In the case of the bitten peach, it is said that the Duke Ling and his courtesan, Mizi Xia, were in a gay relationship. One day Mizi Xia picked a peach and took a bite out of it, and upon realizing how particularly sweet it was, gave it to the Duke Ling rather than eat it himself. This story ends in tragedy as Duke Ling inevitably tires of his lover and turns on him, but the symbolism remains nonetheless. The tale of the sleeve came from Emperor Ai of the Han dynasty, who had a male lover named Dong Xian. One day Dong Xian fell asleep on Emperor Ai, and when the Emperor had to leave, he cut off his sleeve so he wouldn’t have to wake Dong Xian from his rest. Although Duke Ling, Emperor Ai, and Dong Xian were all known to be married to women, because of this heteronormative expectation to marry and have children, it can’t be confirmed whether they were attracted to women alongside their male lovers or merely married for the union of their families and continuation of their bloodlines, as was heavily emphasized in Ancient China around these times. 

There have been many famous confirmed (or at least strongly insinuated) bisexuals throughout more recent history, as well. Mary Shelley, the writer of the famous book Frankenstein, alongside others, was born in 1797 and died in 1851, is determined to have been bisexual considering her relationship with her husband, Percy Shelley, and her admittance to having started relationships with women after her husband had died. Hans Christian Andersen– famous for writing several fairy tales including The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, and The Ugly Duckling, and born in 1805 and died in 1875– is known to be bi due to his many crushes on men and women recorded through his letters and stories. The original The Little Mermaid story in particular is an analogy for his crush on Edvard Collin, a friend of his who had rejected his advances and married a woman. Walt Whitman, a famous and very influential poet and author born in 1819 and died in 1892, was most definitely bisexual, known to have had several relationships with men as well as women, and in Leaves of Grass, he particularly detailed both sexes in rather explicit manners.

Eleanor Roosevelt, America’s first lady from 1933 to 1945, is suspected to be bisexual due to her marriage with Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as her relationship with Lorena Hickock, recorded over the course of thousands of letters. Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican artist who was born in 1907 and died in 1954, is known to have had several relationships with both men and women. Anne Frank, famous for her diary about her experience during the Holocaust that eventually led to her death at age 16 in 1945, is known to have been bisexual from that very diary, where she wrote about her crushes on both boys and girls, along with a specific passage describing her desire to kiss her female friend. These six people are only a few of the most famous bisexuals in recent history. You can find many more on bi.org, alongside resources for people who are bisexual, questioning, and of other sexualities to understand how bisexuality works. 

Bisexual Awareness Week, also known as Bi Week, was Sept. 16th through Sept. 23rd, which is Bisexual Visibility day. An important part of bisexual visibility and awareness is acknowledging that bisexuality is a real sexuality that real people identify with and their existence has a history much longer than the word we use for it now. Although this article focuses primarily on gay relationships happening behind straight relationships, those who are bisexual are neither gay nor straight based on the relationships they are known to have had. They are bisexual, and people of all sexualities should respect them as such alongside those who are heterosexual, homosexual, or of any other orientation.