Hellenism and Homoeroticism in Shelley and His Circle

This paper discusses two leading English Romantic poets–Percy Bysshe Shelley and George Gordon, Lord Byron–and three of their friends, who lived close together in Italy during the first half of 1822. Despite the censorious efforts of family, friends and biographers, ample evidence survives to establish the importance of male love in their lives and works. They were ardent hellenists, whose reference point for male love was the homoerotic ethos of Ancient Greece.