How Duke Xian of Jin Sent a Beautiful Youth to Another Ruler to Weaken His Court and Conquer
A historical episode about diplomacy through a favorite at the court in Ancient China.
Literature
“The Bitten Peach”: Duke Ling of Wei and Mizi Xia as One of the Earliest Same-Sex Court Tales in Chinese History
How a Legalist parable about favoritism turned into a metaphor for same-sex love.
Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Boy Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire His the Fables 'The Two Doves' and 'The Two Friends'
A friend of Karamzin and Derzhavin, minister of justice, and a fable writer whose “friendship” turns into male love.
Homoerotic Themes in Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s Ottoman Poem “Shah and the Beggar”
A rare example of 16th-century Turkish literature in which a man falls in love with another man.
A Homoerotic Plot in Ancient Egyptian Literature: Pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare and General Sasenet
And their secret nighttime meetings.
Uncensored Russian Folklore: Highlights from Afanasyev’s “Russian Secret Tales”
“Sowing Dicks,” “The Fool,” and “The Soldier and the Priest.”
A Cross-Dressing Epic Hero: the Russian Folk Epic of Mikhaylo Potyk, Where He Disguises Himself as a Woman
Why does the hero put on “women’s dresses”?