Athens: Love in Antiquity

Climb the Acropolis at opening with a private archaeologist, then trace the lovers and speeches that shaped ancient Athens.

Athens Beyond the Columns  

Most visitors picture ancient Athens as columns and marble philosophers. Look more closely, and the city’s ruins hold some of the oldest evidence we have of love between people of the same sex.

In the ancient world, relationships between men were part of civic life, celebrated in poetry, painting and even public monuments. Much of that history was later softened or set aside.

With an archaeologist who specialises in this history, the sites you have read about take on a fuller story.

The Acropolis at Opening  

The day begins on the Acropolis as the gates open, before the heat and the crowds. With the Parthenon to yourselves for a while, your guide sets the scene for classical Athens and the values that shaped it.

From the top, you can see the whole ancient city laid out below: the Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the hills where Athenians walked, argued and loved.

Harmodius and Aristogeiton  

In 514 BC, the lovers Harmodius and Aristogeiton killed Hipparchus, brother of the city’s ruling tyrant. Athenians later honoured them as heroes of democracy, and their statues stood in the Agora, among the first public statues of mortal men rather than gods.

The bronze group that replaced the originals in 477 BC is known today from a Roman marble copy in Naples, and part of a statue base survives in Athens. Your guide explains how a couple came to stand at the heart of the city’s story about itself.

The Agora and the Kerameikos  

The Ancient Agora was the city’s marketplace and meeting ground, where Socrates questioned the young men of Athens. Nearby, the Kerameikos was its main cemetery, where Pericles delivered his famous funeral oration.

Walking these sites with an archaeologist, you see grave markers, boundary stones and foundations, and begin to understand the friendships and relationships that held Athenian society together.

Plato’s Symposium  

Plato’s Symposium imagines a dinner party in Athens where guests take turns giving speeches about love. In one, the playwright Aristophanes describes humans as halves searching for their other half, some of them men seeking men and women seeking women.

It is one of the most influential works ever written about love, and hearing it discussed in the city where it is set brings it vividly to life.

The National Archaeological Museum  

The National Archaeological Museum holds one of the world’s great collections of Greek art. Painted vases show scenes of courtship and affection, and sculptures reveal the ideals of beauty that Athenians admired.

The story continues into the present. In 2024, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian majority country to legalise same-sex marriage, a modern chapter in a very old history.

Planning Your Athens Experience  

The day works best as a full day with a break for lunch, starting early to avoid the midday heat in summer. Spring and fall are the most comfortable seasons for walking the sites, and comfortable shoes are essential on the ancient paths.

Out Of Office can arrange a private archaeologist, skip-the-line entry where available and lunch in the Plaka. Your LGBTQ+ travel specialist can also combine Athens with Mykonos, Lesbos or one of our culture holidays on a longer journey through Greece.