Andrew Calimach

Andrew Calimach (born 1953) is a Romanian-American author, known for his writings on the subject of same-sex relations in Greek mythology.

Calimach researched and compiled homoerotic Greek myths. He published his research in 2002 under the title of Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths. Included in the collection is a dialogue by Lucian titled "Erotes", featuring a debate between a lover of women and a lover of youths. At the 15th Lambda Literary Awards, held in 2003, Lovers' Legends was nominated in the "Children's/Young Adult" and "Spirituality" categories. The work has been praised for being true to its sources: "Generally, the 're-tellings' are lively and imaginative, adhering quite closely to the original sources, which have been carefully trawled."

Three years later he collaborated with Israeli director Agnes Lev, Timothy Carter, and Steve Gorn in the production of a dramatized version of the myths, released as a CD with the title of Lovers' Legends Unbound.

In 2008 a derivative work by Calimach was published in Romanian, titled Legendele Iubirii. It featured the homoerotic Greek myths in translation, as well as the Lucian dialogue. The foreword was authored by the late Canadian classical philologist James L. Butrica. The Romanian publication of this work has been described as "a cultural event of the first magnitude" and an effort to recreate not just the stories, but classical civilization itself, and the type of man who was representative of Greek antiquity.

Born in Romania, Calimach is a descendant of the Callimachi noble family of Moldavia. Calimach reached the United States in 1966 with his parents. He was a friend and co-religionist of Allen Ginsberg, both students of Chögyam Trungpa, the Tibetan Buddhist teacher. He has also studied and practiced Mazatec shamanism. His spiritual practices have informed his approach to Greek mythology and helped him recognize the spiritual elements in the stories.

An independent scholar and polyglot who writes on gender studies and other social issues, Calimach divides his time between New York and Bucharest and continues his studies and writing.

Lovers' Legends: The Greek Myths (ISBN 0-9714686-0-5) is a 2002 book about homosexuality and paederasty in Greek myth.

Lovers' Legends Unbound is a theatrical production directed by Agnes Lev, and performed by Timothy Carter, with incidental music composed and performed by Steve Gorn. The work was released by Haiduk Press in 2004 as an audio CD together with an illustrated libretto.

Taken from a review of the piece by Keith Matthews, "The study of male homosexuality in Ancient Greece only began in the 1970s, particularly following the publication of Kenneth Dover's Greek Homosexuality in 1978. This book helped to strip away many of the misconceptions about same-sex love in the Classical world that had grown up during the nineteenth century and that were becoming commonplace with the growth of the Gay Liberation movement from the late 1960s. What Dover sought to demonstrate was that in Classical Athens, there was an institutionalized form of same-sex behavior, whereby an older man (the ’εραστης, ‘desirer’) is inflamed with passion for a youth (the ’ερομενος, ‘the desired’) and eases his path into full adult life. He suggested that this almost ritualized ‘education’ of the youth might have deeper roots in a Primitive Indo-European initiation rite that has left traces in other cultures."

Table of Contents

• Tantalus and the Olympians
• Pelops in Pisa
• Laius and Chrysippus
• Zeus and Ganymede
• Hercules and Hylas
• Orpheus
• Apollo and Hyacinthus
• Narcissus
• Achilles and Patroclus
• Hippodamia

Framing the tales is Pseudo-Lucian's "Different Loves"