ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Greek classics valorised the practice of 'Greek life' which, in tandem, revalorised the Greek classics in the eyes, hearts and bodies of Oxbridge students, in the most perfect, all-rounded fashion. It suggests that as the predominant impulse of this epistemological terrain, Greek contributed greatly to the conceptualisation of the Victorian homosexual artist or intellectual as a 'species'. Through Hellenism and the subsequent link between homosexuality and warrior-like arete, nineteenth-century homosexual discourse arrived at a cogent and most powerful articulation of manliness, thereby successfully ridding male same-sex desire of the twin-burden of weakness and effeminacy. As Ruth Hoberman argues, 'while this association between ancient Greece and homosexuality opened up discussion as to what 'Greece' was, it did not make Greek culture any more accessible to women, who were still largely excluded from universities and the study of classical languages, and for whom classical culture represented a world of male power and collegiality denied them'.
