page_title: David and Jonathan
section_title: Medieval and Renaissance allusions
hierarchical_section_title: David and Jonathan / Views / Medieval and Renaissance allusions
caption_attribution_description: English: "Jonathan Embraces David" from "Historiae Celebriores Veteris Testamenti Iconibus Representatae" by Caspar Luiken published 1712
context_page_description: David and Jonathan were heroic figures of the Kingdom of Israel, who formed a covenant recorded in the books of Samuel.
  Jonathan was the son of Saul, king of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and David was the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah, and Jonathan's presumed rival for the crown. David became king. The covenant the two men had formed eventually led to David, after Jonathan's death, graciously seating Jonathan's son Mephibosheth at his own royal table instead of eradicating the former king Saul's line.
  The biblical text does not explicitly depict the nature of the relationship between David and Jonathan. The traditional and mainstream religious interpretation of the relationship has been one of platonic love and an example of homosociality. Some later Medieval and Renaissance literature drew upon the story to underline strong personal friendships between men, some of which involved romantic love.
  In modern times, some scholars, writers, and activists have emphasized elements of homoeroticism in the story.
context_section_description: Medieval literature occasionally drew upon the biblical relationship between David and Jonathan to underline strong personal and intimate friendships between men. The story has also frequently been used as a coded reference to homoerotic relations when the mention was socially discouraged or even punished.
  The anonymous Vita Edwardi Secundi, c. 1326 AD, wrote: "Indeed I do remember to have heard that one man so loved another. Jonathan cherished David, Achilles loved Patroclus." And thus, King Edward II wept for his dead lover Piers Gaveston as: "... David had mourned for Jonathan.". Similarly, Roger of Hoveden, a twelfth-century chronicler, deliberately drew comparisons in his description of “The King of France (Philip II Augustus) [who] loved him (Richard the Lionheart) as his own soul.”
  The Renaissance artists Donatello and Michelangelo both brought out strong homoerotic elements in their respective sculptures depicting the youthful David.
caption: Jonathan embraces David from Caspar Luiken’s Historiae Celebriores Veteris Testamenti Iconibus Representatae (1712)
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