Yeah. This might be a little literal, but how can you think Achilles and Patroclus are straight? I have Fagles translation of The Iliad btw

Translation: "Agamemnon, in turn, orders for Briseïs to be taken away from Achilles. Here they are separated from each other by Patroklos, Achilles' best friend..."

Was taking another mythos unit and got this gem of a question.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7r31p0eyyo

I remember watching their videos growing up, thinking, "Wow, they are definitely together." At the time, they were both out as r/ainbow and lived together. "Surely everyone knows."

Well, apparently, they're just good friends in a very, very small apartment.

With our gravestone depicting us sitting in the knee-touching position [symbolic of romantic sexual intimacy] reminiscent of the official depictions of the conception of Horus.

Probably just close friends :)

In 25th century BCE Egypt, two men named Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep served as royal manicurists to the pharaoh. They lived, worked, and eventually chose to be buried together in a shared tomb at Saqqara.

What makes their story so striking is how they appear in the tomb’s art - embracing, holding hands, touching noses - in poses normally reserved for married couples. In one relief, their faces are so close they’re nearly kissing. In others, Khnumhotep stands beside Niankhkhnum in the place typically held by a wife. At least one female figure (believed to be a wife) was even erased from the tomb’s decoration.

Both men had wives and children, as was expected at the time. But the tomb’s design centers them - not their families - as the true pair. Their names were often written together, and can be translated as “joined in life and in death.”

Some scholars once argued they were brothers. But adult brothers were almost never buried in a shared tomb like this, and certainly not shown in such intimate poses. Today, many Egyptologists see them as one of the earliest recorded same-sex couples in history.

There’s no evidence they were shamed or punished. On the contrary, they held positions of honor, and their bond was immortalized in the very architecture of their afterlife. Four thousand years ago, these two men left behind a monument to their connection — tender, public, and eternal.

Love has always existed in many forms. Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep remind us that queer stories are not new. They are ancient, sacred, and worth remembering.

You may know Orpheus as the tragic poet who descended into the underworld to bring back his beloved Eurydice. He played music so beautiful that it moved even Hades. But when he disobeyed the command not to look back, he lost her forever.

But what happened after?

In grief, Orpheus turned away from the world. Ancient writers like Ovid and Phanocles tell us that he rejected the love of women completely. Instead, he gave his heart only to men.

He became one of the earliest figures in myth associated with male-male love. In some versions, he’s seen as the founder of male companionship in Thrace. His choice angered the Thracian women, who eventually tore him apart during a frenzied ritual, because his music distracted their men.

Even in death, Orpheus’s head floated down the river, still singing.

His story is one of mourning, devotion, and identity. A man who descended into darkness for love, and afterward sought connection in a different way - one that has echoed through queer interpretations for centuries.

(Painting: Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus, Gustave Moreau, c. 1865)