# Are lesbians considered "homosexual"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439 "2002-09-14T17:55:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/21 "2002-09-15T14:46:28Z")
I posted most of it way back in USENET days (early 1990s), and again back in the early days of the web (1996 or so), under a few different screen names than I use now. I have seen large portions of it copied verbatim on many sites, but I don’t care. Especially as I likely, back then, copied large portions of other people’s works too, either on purpose or accidentally - but we are talking so many years ago I honestly cannot remember. However, I re-wrote some portions of it last year, and included several new fragements I came across. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/22 "2002-09-15T18:31:20Z")
**Anthracite** , the piece you reproduced entitled “On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite” and the piece you labelled as “Fragment 1” appear to be two different translations of the same work. In particular, note the stanza starting with “If she flees, soon she will follow” Are you sure that they’re distinct? Also, > [@](#): > > All that is known of how she looked is that she is said to have been of small and dark appearance. But you say also that her image was used on coins. Have none of these come down to us? Or is the coin image not considered reliable? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/23 "2002-09-15T19:03:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > **Anthracite, the piece you reproduced entitled “On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite” and the piece you labelled as “Fragment 1” appear to be two different translations of the same work. In particular, note the stanza starting with “If she flees, soon she will follow” Are you sure that they’re distinct?** I included both when I compiled these because the translations seemed so different. In truth, on first and second reading, I thought they might be different myself. > [@](#): > > \*\*Also,But you say also that her image was used on coins. Have none of these come down to us? Or is the coin image not considered reliable? \*\* Well, having been started on collecting of Greek and Roman coins by Fierra, I have been somewhat concerned with how accurate a representation a coin is of a person, especially with the early Greek coins. And I must confess, although there may be coin representations of her, I have never seen one. So perhaps it is better to say that the best contemporary description of her is that she was “small and of dark appearance”. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/24 "2002-09-16T07:06:01Z")
For the record, the modern-day inhabitants of the Isle of Lesbos have officially changed their monikers from “Lesbians” to “Lesbosians.” Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/25 "2002-09-16T07:55:05Z")
Homo in Greeek means the same. In Latin it means man. Conventionally, when constructing a word from Greek and Latin roots, you should use only Greek or only Latin roots. Example - tetrapod, Greek roots for “four” and “foot” and quadruped, Latin roots for “four” and “foot”. You would not say quadrupod or tetraped. However, we use the term biped when we should use bipod or duoped, so as you can see, the rule is not set in stone. Sexual is a Latin root, so homosexual should mean liking men. Whoever came up with the term didn’t seem to know the convention and used homo in the Greek sense to mean the same. Homophobia (two Greek roots) should mean fear of the same. It has come to mean fear of (male) homosexuals. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/26 "2002-09-20T03:10:52Z")
Actually, I stand corrected - there is some debate over whether or not it’s what they actually do, but my understanding from **matt** is that they now refer to themselves as the Isle of Lesvos, and the inhabitants are Lesvosians. Maybe it’s just a Greek thing? Esprix ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/27 "2002-09-20T04:03:00Z")
Removed Anthracite’s post at her request, might be some copyright problems. Not sure about this, but she feels better safe than sorry. Happy to comply. your humble TubaDiva Administrator ---
**Author:** ![fierra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@fierra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fierra)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/28 "2002-09-20T19:53:10Z")
Esprix - There isn’t a letter V in the Greek language, so the spelling is still Lesbos, with beta (b) in place. However, in modern usage, the letter B is substituted in Greek for occasions where V would be used in other languages - for example, I remember seeing some football results in a Greek newspaper & Aston Villa, an English football team, were spelt Aston Billa (but in greek letters, obviously). There was a rough breathing symbol over the B in that though - that’s like saying harena instead of arena (the Romans dropped the Greek H when they stole the word), it roughens the start of the word, so imagaine saying a b & an h together & you get a similar sound to a v. So you could argue either sound for Lesbos, and as I haven’t been there myself to hear natives say it, I couldn’t say one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/29 "2002-09-20T20:18:43Z")
Which just proves I know squat about Greek (which some might find rather amusing 😉 ). I will say, though, that there is a lot of current tourism info that refers to it as Lesvos, not Lesbos (at least according to Google). But **matt\_mcl** is the one that mentioned it in another thread - I had just heard that they’d voted to be Lesbosians instead of Lesbians. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439/30 "2002-09-22T04:56:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*I think it is a different root word, the one that leads to words like “homogenous”, “homonym”, etc, which have to do with “sameness”, not “man-ness”. \*\* You do realize that, going by the meanings of the roots, “homophobia” would mean either “fear of men” or “fear of like things”? Which leads me to the unsettling conclusion that I may, going by the latter meaning, be a homophobe. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-lesbians-considered-homosexual/128439.md?page=1)