and developed for advantageous social purposes. On the whole, however,
unnatural intercourse (sodomy) has been regarded as an antisocial offense,
and punishable sometimes by the most serious penalties that could be
invented. This was, for instance, the case in ancient Mexico, in Peru,
among the Persians, in China, and among the Hebrews and Mohammedans.

Even in very early history it is possible to find traces of homosexuality,
with or without an implied disapproval. Its existence in Assyria and
Babylonia is indicated by the Codex Hamurabi and by inscriptions which do
not on the whole refer to it favorably.[15] As regards Egypt we learn from
a Fayum papyrus, found by Flinders Petrie, translated by Griffiths, and
discussed by Oefele,[16] that more than four thousand years ago homosexual
practices were so ancient that they were attributed to the gods Horus and
Set. The Egyptians showed great admiration of masculine beauty, and it
would seem that they never regarded homosexuality as punishable or even
reprehensible. It is notable, also, that Egyptian women were sometimes of
very virile type, and Hirschfeld considers that intermediate sexual types
were specially widespread among the Egyptians.[17]

One might be tempted to expect that homosexual practices would be
encouraged whenever it was necessary to keep down the population.
Aristotle says that it was allowed by law in Crete for this end. And
Professor Haddon tells me that at Torres Straits a native advocated sodomy
on this ground.[18] There seems, however, on the whole, to be little
evidence pointing to this utilization of the practice. The homosexual
tendency appears to have flourished chiefly among warriors and warlike
peoples. During war and the separation from women that war involves, the
homosexual instinct tends to develop; it flourished, for instance, among
the Carthaginians and among the Normans, as well as among the warlike
Dorians, Scythians, Tartars, and Celts,[19] and, when there has been an