Currently in America 9

Hippyism has also tried to found its roots in the Dionysian philosophy. The Greeks were not a peace-loving, drinking, love-making, multicultural (in the modern sense) people. Dionysius, let me correct, is a foreigner and au·toch·tho·nous at the same time. There were Dionysian aspects of Greek culture, but as far as Greek Literature is concerned, I can't recall any explicit acts of homosexuality. Now it is undeniable that there was an acceptance of homosexuality at ancient Greece. The plastics arts are more explicit in showing homosexual acts, but homosexuality was practiced between a teacher and a student in a limited sense and the relationship could express Platonic love as well which is not sexual. boys were considered to be on par with women as in Shakespearean times of England. Masters did have sex with boys or slaves but it was assumed that homosexuality was inferior to heterosexuality. It is unclear if Patroklos is actually a sex slave in the Iliad. Alexander's male lover, I believe, was castrated. In other words, the forms of homosexuality were limited. In Sparta with its military culture, there was perhaps more general acceptance of homosexuality, but even there, it was mainly with slaves and unequals.

When we look at nature in general, there is limited homosexuality among penguins or any other type of animal.

Ancient Greece was a very war-like society. The Iliad is a primary text of ancient Greece in so much as it expresses ancient Greece with all its city-states and their struggle to attain a single Greek identity. It is actually Troy that is family-oriented. In the polis, citizenship or membership in the culture is what mattered. Achilles is a Myrmidon, and his warriors will do whatever he says. Achilles means "grief for the people" in Gregor Nagy's construct. Achilles is an ideal animation of the later  "kouros" image of the ancient Greeks. The physically perfect, intellectually curious, emotionally feminine, daring, fearless, terrible, inhumane... etc. I know my interpretations will speed along the highways and byways of a rather more Italian interpretation of Achilles.

Achilles, Patroklos, Agamemnon, Ajax, Diomedes, and Odysseus I believe are the only ones who attain to the title of "Best of the Greeks." Being best of the Greeks means that you struggle against the Greek Gods who expressed the limits of what a human being could attain to. Achilles and Apollo are ritual enemies but they form a strategic alliance early in the epic poems. It is possible that there are some Dionysian influences in the contruct of Achilles' personality. Now usually, a personality-construct is attributed to an author, but it is not so in the Iliad. The Iliad is a product of a song-culture with a sense of accelerated time, due to an innate desire to accomplish all that they could in a short time period. In Blade Runner, the genetically constructed human-like machines have only 4 years to live.

To attain to the title of "Best of the Greeks," you don't necessarily have to be the only one to win the contest. A group can be Best of the Greeks, but a group cannot go beyond the cultural norms to explore the unknown in the same way that individuals can. Achilles does not really know what he is capable of. His mother, Thetis, has clearly spoiled him. He did not really want to go to war and dressed up as a girl to avoid detection. It is clear that Achilles does not want to be in this war in the first part of the Iliad. The intent of the first parts of the Iliad is to draw in the audience members who are actually not sure about war and to get them engaged. The construct of the protagonist involves the antagonists of the autochthonous party.