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{{Short description|Male adult–adolescent sexual behavior}}
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[[File:Kiss Briseis Painter Louvre G278 full.jpg|thumb|Pederastic kissing on an Attic [[Kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] (5th century BC)]]
'''Pederasty''' or '''paederasty''' ({{IPA-en|ˈpɛdəræsti|US}}, {{IPA-en|ˈpiːdəræsti|UK}}) is a (usually erotic) relationship between an older man and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family. The word ''pederasty'' derives from Greek {{lang|grc||παιδεραστία}} (''{{lang|grc-Latn|paiderastia}}''παιδεραστία) "love of children" or "love of boys",<ref>http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/pederasty</ref> a compound derived from {{lang|grc|παῖς}} (''pais'') "child, boy" and {{lang|grc|ἐραστής}} (''erastēs'') "lover".


'''Pederasty''' or '''paederasty''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɛ|d|ər|æ|s|t|i}}) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a [[boy]]. It was a socially acknowledged practice in [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] and elsewhere in the world, such as [[Homosexuality in Japan#Pre-Meiji Japan|Pre-Meiji Japan]].
Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and practices within different cultures. The status of pederasty has changed over the course of history, at times considered an ideal and at other times a crime.


In most countries today, the local [[age of consent]] determines whether a person is considered legally competent to consent to sexual acts, and whether such contact is [[child sexual abuse]] or [[statutory rape]]. An adult engaging in sexual activity with a [[Minor (law)|minor]] is considered abusive by authorities for a variety of reasons, including the age of the minor and the psychological and physical harm they may endure.
In the history of Europe, its most structured cultural manifestation was [[Athenian pederasty]], and became most prominent in the 6th century [[BC]]. [[Pederasty#The Greeks|Greek pederasty's]] various forms were the subject of philosophic debates in which the [[Hubris#Ancient Greece|carnal type]] was unfavorably compared with erotic yet spiritual and [[Sophrosyne|moderate]] forms.

The legal status of pederasty in most countries is currently determined by whether or not the boy has reached the local [[age of consent]]. When illegal, law enforcement generally treats it as a form of [[child sexual abuse]].

== Expressions ==

[[Anthropologist]]s propose three subdivisions of [[homosexuality]] as age-structured, [[Gay community|egalitarian]] and [[Transgender|gender-structured]].<ref name="www2.fmg.uva.nl">[http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/gl/queerant.html "Queering Anthropology", [[Theo Sandfort]] e.a. (eds) ''Lesbian and Gay Studies,'' London/NY: Routledge, 2000 ]</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Greenberg, David F. |title=The construction of homosexuality |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |year=1990 |pages=25|isbn=0-226-30628-3 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=}}</ref> Pederasty is the archetypal example of male age-structured homosexuality.<ref name="www2.fmg.uva.nl"/>

[[Geoffrey Gorer]] and others distinguish pederasty from pedophilia, which he defined as a separate fourth type that he described as "grossly pathological in all societies of which we have record." According to Gorer, the main characteristic of homosexual pederasty is the age difference (either of generation or age-group) between the partners. In his study of native cultures, pederasty appears typically as a passing stage in which the adolescent is the beloved of an older male, who may act as a mentor. He remains as such until he reaches a certain developmental threshold, after which he in turn takes on an adolescent beloved of his own. This model is judged by Gorer as socially viable, i.e. not likely to give rise to psychological discomfort or neuroses for all or most males. He adds that in many societies, such as ancient Greece, pederasty has been the main subject of the arts and the main source of tender and elevated emotions.<ref>Geoffrey Gorer, ''The Danger of Equality and other Essays'' pp.186-187</ref>

Pederasty has been used for the purpose of coming-of-age rituals, the acquisition of virility and manly virtue, education, and development of military skill and ethics. These were often paralleled by the [[Prostitution|commercial use]] of boys for sexual gratification, going so far as [[enslavement]] and castration. The evanescent beauty of adolescent boys has been a topos in poetry and art, from [[Classical times]] to the [[Middle East]], the [[Near East]] and [[Central Asia]], [[Imperial era of Chinese history|imperial China]], pre-modern [[Japan]], the [[European Renaissance]] and into modern times.

The Western model of age-similar homosexual relations, contemporary in modern industrialized societies, is seen by researchers as a departure from this norm. It was rarely the pattern in other times and places.{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}} Unlike the other models, it ‘assumes that homosexuality is not merely a behavior, but something innate to a person’s real being.’<ref>Dr Neil Whitehead and Briar Whitehead: "My Genes Made Me Do it - a scientific look at sexual orientation", www.mygenes.co.nz/Ch6.pdf</ref>

=== Age range ===

Some modern observers restrict the age of the younger partner to "generally between twelve and seventeen",<ref name=GLBTQ/> though historically the spread was somewhat greater. The younger partner must, in some sense, not be fully mature; this could include young men in their late teens or early twenties.<ref>David Menasco, "Pederasty", ''Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures:'' Volume 2; p.672</ref>

While relationships in ancient Greece involved boys from 12 to about 17 or 18 (Cantarella, 1992), in [[Renaissance Italy]], the boys were typically between 14 and 19,<ref>''Pederasts and others: urban culture and sexual identity in nineteenth ...'' By William A. Peniston; p111</ref> and in Japan the younger member ranged in age from 11 to about 19 (Saikaku, 1990; Schalow, 1989).<ref>Bruce Rind, "Biased Use of Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Male Homosexuality in Human Sexuality Textbooks", ''Journal of Sex Research,'' Nov, 1998[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2372/is_4_35/ai_53390357/pg_1]</ref>

== Historical synopsis ==

[[File:Cretan hunters Louvre Br93.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Man and youth. Cretan ex-voto from Hermes and Aphrodite shrine at Kato Syme; Bronze, ca. 670-650 BC]]

In antiquity, pederasty was seen as an [[educational institution]] for the inculcation of moral and cultural values by the older man to the younger,<ref>{{cite book |title= The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World|last= Freeman|first= Charles|authorlink= |coauthors= |year= 1999|publisher= Allen Lane|location= |isbn= 0713992247|page= |pages= 299–300|url= }}</ref> as well as a form of sexual expression. It entered representation in history from the Archaic period onwards in [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|Ancient Greece]], though [[Cretan pederasty|Cretan ritual objects]] reflected an already formalized practice date to the late [[Minoan civilization]], around 1650 BC.<ref>Bruce L. Gerig, "Homosexuality in the Ancient Near East, beyond Egypt", in ''HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BIBLE,'' Supplement 11A, 2005</ref> According to Plato,<ref>Plato, ''Phaedrus''; passim</ref> in [[ancient Greece]], pederasty was a [[intimate relationship|relationship]] and bond – whether sexual or chaste – between an [[adult]] [[man]] and an [[adolescent]] [[boy]] outside his immediate family. While most Greek men engaged in sexual relations with both women and boys,<ref>J.K. Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality''; passim</ref> exceptions to the rule were known, some avoiding relations with women, and others rejecting relations with boys. In [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], relations with boys took a more informal and less civic path, with older men either taking advantage of dominant social status to extract sexual favors from their social inferiors, or carrying on illicit relationships with freeborn boys.<ref>Crompton, op.cit., pp.79-82</ref>

Judaism and Christianity condemned [[sodomy]] (while defining that term variously, but including relations between males). Islam also prohibited the practice, as did the [[Homosexuality and Bahá'í Faith|Baha'i Faith]].

Within this blanket condemnation of sodomy, pederasty in particular was a target. The second-century preacher [[Clement of Alexandria]] used divine pederasty as an indictment of [[Religion in ancient Greece|Greek religion]] and the [[Greek mythology|mythological]] figures of [[Herakles]], [[Apollo]], [[Poseidon]], [[Laius]], and [[Zeus]]: "For your gods did not abstain even from boys. One loved [[Hylas]], another [[Hyacinthus]], another [[Pelops]], another [[Chrysippus]], another [[Ganymedes]]. These are the gods your wives are to worship!"<ref>Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2.28P</ref> Early legal codes prescribed harsh penalties for violators. The law code of the [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] king [[Chindasuinth]] called for both partners to be "[[Emasculation|emasculated]] without delay, and be delivered up to the [[bishop]] of the [[diocese]] where the deed was committed to be placed in solitary confinement in a prison."<ref>[http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/vg3-5.htm The Library of Iberian Resources, The Visigothic Code: (Forum judicum) ed. S. P. Scott, Book III: Concerning Marriage, Title V: Concerning Incest, Apostasy, and Pederasty]</ref> These punishments were often linked to the penance given after the [[Sacrament of Confession]]. At [[Rome]], the punishment was burning at the stake since the time of [[Theodosius I]] (390). Nonetheless the practice continued to surface, giving rise to proverbs such as ''With wine and boys around, the monks have no need of the Devil to tempt them,'' an early Christian saying from the Middle East.<ref>Abbott, E., ''A History of Celibacy,'' New York, 2000; p.101</ref>

Pederasty was notable in [[Moorish Spain]].<ref>Arié, Rachel. ''España musulmana'' (Siglos VIII-XV) in ''Historia de España,'' ed. Manuel Tuñón de Lara, III. Barcelona: Labor, 1984.</ref> It was present in [[Tuscany]] and northern [[Italy]] during the [[Renaissance]].<ref>Michael Rocke, ''Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and male Culture in Renaissance Florence,'' Oxford, 1996</ref><ref>Guido Ruggiero, ''The Boundaries of Eros:
Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice,'' Oxford, 1985</ref> It also was documented in medieval and [[Russian Empire|Tsarist Russia]].<ref>[http://english.gay.ru/life/history/queermoscow/1600-1861TraditionalMasculinitiesAndLoveBetweenMen.html ''Urban Gay Histories up to 1600]</ref>

Elsewhere, it was practiced in [[Shudo|pre-Modern Japan]] until the [[Meiji restoration]].<ref>T. Watanabe & J. Iwata, ''The Love of the Samurai: A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality,'' London: GMP Publishers, 1987</ref>

Sexual expression between adults and adolescents is not well studied. Since the 1990s, it has been often been conflated with [[pedophilia]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} Nonetheless, such relationships have raised issues of morality and functionality, agency for the youth, and parental authority. They also raise issues of legality in those cases where the minor is below the [[age of consent]]. Homosexual pederasty was deemed beneficial by ancient philosophers, Japanese [[samurai]], and modern writers such as [[Oscar Wilde]]. In many societies, it was justified on the grounds that love was the best foundation for teaching courage as well as civic and cultural values, and that man-boy relations were superior to relations with a woman.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}


== Etymology and usage ==
== Etymology and usage ==
''Pederasty'' derives from the combination of {{langx|grc|παίδ-|paid-|boy, child (stem)}}<ref>Marguerite Johnson, Terry Ryan. ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook'' p. 110.</ref><ref>Liddell and Scott, 1968 p. 585.</ref> with {{langx|grc|ἐραστής|erastēs|lover|label=none}} (cf. ''[[eros (love)|eros]]''). Late [[Latin]] ''pæderasta'' was borrowed in the 16th century directly from Plato's classical Greek in ''[[Symposium (Plato)|The Symposium]].'' (Latin transliterates ''{{lang|grc|αί}}'' as ''æ''.) The word first appeared in the English language during the [[Renaissance]], as ''pæderastie'' (e.g. in [[Samuel Purchas]]' ''Pilgrimes''), in the sense of sexual relations between men and boys.


The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' defines it as "Homosexual relations between a man and a boy; homosexual anal intercourse, usually with a boy or younger man as the passive partner".<ref name="Oxford">Oxford English Dictionary, "pederasty".</ref>
“Pederasty” derives from the combination of “{{Polytonic|παίδ-}}” (the Greek stem for ''child''<ref>Liddell and Scott, 1968 p.585</ref> or ''boy''<ref>Marguerite Johnson, Terry Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook'' p.110</ref>) with “{{Polytonic|ἐραστής}}” (Greek for ''lover''; cf. “[[eros (love)|eros]]”). Late [[Latin]] “pæderasta” was borrowed in the sixteenth century directly from Plato’s classical Greek in ''The Symposium.'' (Latin transliterates “{{Polytonic|αί}}” as “ae”.) The word first appeared in the English language during the [[Renaissance]], as “pæderastie” (e.g. in [[Samuel Purchas]]' ''Pilgrimage.''), in the sense of sexual relations between men and boys. Beside its use in the classical sense, the term has also been used as a synonym for [[anal sex]], irrespective of the nature of the partner. A nineteenth century sex treatise discusses men practicing the "insertion of the penis into the anus of women," as "pederasty with their wives."<ref>Richard Krafft-Ebing, ''Psychopathia Sexualis.'' p.397; Arcade, 1998</ref>


== History ==
The commonly accepted reference definitions of pederasty refer to a sexual relationship, or to copulation, between older and younger males. The OED offers: "Homosexual relations between a man and a boy; homosexual anal intercourse, usually with a boy or younger man as the passive partner."<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'', "pederasty".</ref> The concise OED has: “Sexual intercourse between a man and a boy.”<ref>[http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/pederasty?view=uk ''Definition of pederasty'', Oxford Dictionary Online]</ref> When describing pederasts, some focus solely on the mechanics of copulation, such as the ''Merriam-Webster'' (on-line edition): “one who practices anal intercourse especially with a boy”.<ref>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pederasty ''Definition of Pederasty'', Merriam Webster Online Dictionary]</ref> Other dictionaries offer a more general definition, such as "homosexual relations between men and boys"<ref>''Collins English Dictionary,'' Desktop edition; Harper Collins Publishers, Glasgow 2004</ref> or "homosexual relations, especially between a male adult and a boy or young man."<ref>''American Heritage Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary,'' Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1987</ref> The limitation of pederasty to anal sex with a boy is contested by sexologists. Francoeur regards it as "common but incorrect,"<ref>Robert T. Francoeur, Ed. ''The Complete Dictionary of Sexology'' p.470; Continuum Publishing, NY 1995</ref> while Haeberle describes it as "a modern usage resulting from a misunderstanding of the original term and ignorance of its historical implications."<ref>Erwin Haeberle, ''Critical Dictionary of Sexology''[http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/CDS.HTM#P]; accessed 10/12/2008</ref>
=== Ancient Greece ===
{{main|Pederasty in ancient Greece}}
{{further|Homosexuality in ancient Greece}}
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male (the ''erastes'') and a younger male (the ''eromenos''), usually in his teens.<ref>C.D.C. Reeve, ''Plato on Love:'' Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades ''with Selections from'' Republic'' and'' Laws (Hackett, 2006), p. xxi [https://books.google.com/books?id=E1lQNf2EfEUC&pg=PP25 online]; Martti Nissinen, ''Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective'', translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Augsburg Fortress, 1998, 2004), p. 57 [https://books.google.com/books?id=-sHSNPG85tUC&pg=PA57 online]; Nigel Blake ''et al.'', ''Education in an Age of Nihilism'' (Routledge, 2000), p. 183 [https://books.google.com/books?id=lgkOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA183 online.]</ref> This age difference between a socially powerful and socially less-powerful partner was characteristic of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece|Classical periods]], in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.<ref>Nissinen, ''Homoeroticism in the Biblical World'', p. 57; William Armstrong Percy III, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities," in ''Same–Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West'' (Binghamton: Haworth, 2005), p. 17. Sexual variety, not excluding ''paiderastia'', was characteristic of the [[Hellenistic era]]; see [[Peter Green (historian)|Peter Green]], "Sex and Classical Literature," in ''Classical Bearings: Interpreting Ancient Culture and History'' (University of California Press, 1989, 1998), p. 146 [https://books.google.com/books?id=zlFXc9N19yUC&pg=PA146 online.]</ref> The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."<ref>Dawson, ''Cities of the Gods'', p. 193. See also George Boys-Stones, "Eros in Government: Zeno and the Virtuous City," ''Classical Quarterly'' 48 (1998), 168–174: "there is a certain kind of sexual relationship which was considered by many Greeks to be very important for the cohesion of the city: sexual relations between men and youths. Such relationships were taken to play such an important role in fostering cohesion where it mattered — among the male population — that [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]] even gave them official recognition in his constitution for Sparta" (p. 169).</ref> The practice was viewed with concerns and disapproval by certain social groups.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Lear |first=Andrew |title=Ancient Pederasty: An Introduction |date=2013-11-15 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118610657.ch7 |work=A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities |pages=102–127 |editor-last=Hubbard |editor-first=Thomas K. |access-date=2023-06-13 |place=Chichester, UK |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118610657.ch7 |isbn=978-1-118-61065-7}}</ref> In some Greek cities, such as [[Sparta]], pederastic relationships were explicitly accepted; in other locations, such as [[Athens]], laws were eventually enacted to limit such relationships, though not explicitly prohibit all instances of them.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-13 |title=How the ancient Greeks viewed pederasty and homosexuality |url=https://bigthink.com/the-past/pederasty-homosexuality-ancient-greece/ |access-date=2023-06-13 |website=Big Think |language=en-US}}</ref>


In the writings of [[Xenophon]], [[Socrates]] says, "A man who sells his favours for a price to anyone who wants them is called a [[catamite]]; but if anyone forms a love-attachment with someone whom he knows to be truly good, we regard him as perfectly respectable."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Xenophon |title="Memoirs of Socrates," in "Conversations of Socrates" |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1990 |location=London |pages=97}}</ref> In the writings of [[Plato]], Socrates considered pederasty as a superior form of love compared to the love of women. Each author may have used Socrates as a spokesman for their own viewpoints. The Socratic writings of the two authors were one of the main texts that led to [[Kenneth Dover]]'s and [[Michel Foucault]]'s understanding of pederasty as a matter of debate in Ancient Greece.<ref name=":0" />
Academic and social studies sources propose more expansive definitions of the term. ''The Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture'' offers “The erotic relationship between an adult male and a youth, generally one between the ages of twelve and seventeen, in which the older partner is attracted to the younger one who returns his affection.”<ref name="GLBTQ">[http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/pederasty.html ''Pederasty'', An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture, Vern L. Bullough]</ref> ''The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'' suggests "Pederasty is the erotic relationship between an adult male and a boy, generally one between the ages of twelve and seventeen, in which the older partner is attracted to the younger one who returns his affection, whether or not the liaison leads to overt sexual contact."<ref>[http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php/Encyclopedia_of_Homosexuality ''The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality'', Warren Johansson]</ref>


Some scholars locate its origin in [[initiation ritual]], particularly rites of passage on [[Crete]], where it was associated with entrance into military life and the religion of [[Zeus]].<ref>Robert B. Koehl, "The Chieftain Cup and a Minoan Rite of Passage," ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 106 (1986) 99–110, with a survey of the relevant scholarship including that of [[Arthur Evans]] (p. 100) and others such as H. Jeanmaire and R.F. Willetts (pp. 104–105); [[Deborah Kamen]], "The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece," in The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 91–92. [[Kenneth Dover]], a pioneer in the study of Greek homosexuality, rejects the initiation theory of origin; see "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation," in ''Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology'' (Continuum, 1997), pp. 19–38. For Dover, it seems, the argument that Greek ''paiderastia'' as a social custom was related to rites of passage constitutes a denial of homosexuality as natural or innate; this may be to overstate or misrepresent what the initiatory theorists have said. The initiatory theory claims to account not for the existence of ancient Greek homosexuality in general but rather for that of formal ''paiderastia''.</ref> It has no formal existence in the [[Homeric epics]], and seems to have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek [[homosociality|homosocial culture]],<ref>Thomas Hubbard, "Pindar's ''Tenth Olympian'' and Athlete-Trainer Pederasty," in ''Same–Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity'', pp. 143 and 163 (note 37), with cautions about the term "homosocial" from Percy, p. 49, note 5.</ref> which was characterized also by [[Nudity in sport|athletic]] and [[Depictions of nudity|artistic nudity]], delayed marriage for aristocrats, [[symposium|symposia]], and the social seclusion of women.<ref>Percy, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities," p. 17 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ejPZu3Ktu5cC&pg=PA17 online] ''et passim''.</ref>
== Social class factors ==
Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in [[ancient Greek literature|ancient literature]] and [[Greek philosophy|philosophy]].<ref>For examples, see Kenneth Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'' (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1989), p. 165, note 18, where the eschatological value of ''paiderastia'' for the soul in Plato is noted. For a more cynical view of the custom, see the comedies of Aristophanes, e.g. ''Wealth'' 149-59. Paul Gilabert Barberà, "John Addington Symonds. ''A Problem in Greek Ethics''. Plutarch's ''Eroticus'' Quoted Only in Some Footnotes? Why?" in ''The Statesman in Plutarch's Works'' (Brill, 2004), p. 303 [https://books.google.com/books?id=cruTUAFuWWMC&pg=PA303 online]; and the pioneering view of [[Havelock Ellis]], ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex'' (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis, 1921, 3rd ed.), vol. 2, p. 12 [https://books.google.com/books?id=-tgTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12 online.] For [[Stoicism|Stoic]] "utopian" views of ''paiderastia'', see Doyne Dawson, ''Cities of the Gods: Communist Utopias in Greek Thought'' (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 192 [https://books.google.com/books?id=HwsWp43OWjsC&pg=PA192 online.]</ref> The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture.<ref>See [[Andrew Lear]], 'Was pederasty problematized? ''A diachronic view' in Sex in Antiquity: exploring gender and sexuality in the ancient world'', eds. Mark Masterson, Nancy Rabinowitz, and James Robson (Routledge, 2014).</ref>


Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination.<ref>Michael Lambert, "Athens," in ''Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia'' (Taylor & Francis, 2000), p. 122.</ref> [[Classical Athens|Athenian]] law, for instance, recognized both [[Consent (criminal law)|consent]] and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior.<ref>Gloria Ferrari notes that there were conventions of age pertaining to sexual activity, and if a man violated these by seducing a boy who was too young to consent to becoming an ''eromenos'', the [[sexual predator|predator]] might be subject to prosecution under the law of ''[[hubris]]''; ''Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 139–140.</ref>
In Athens, the slaves were expressly forbidden from entering into pederastic relations with the free-born boys. In medieval Islamic civilization, pederastic relations "were so readily accepted in upper-class circles that there was often little or no effort to conceal their existence."<ref>Marshall Hodgson, ''The Venture of Islam,'' Chicago and London, 1974; 2:146</ref>


Enid Bloch argues that many Greek boys in these relationships may have been [[psychological trauma|traumatized]] by knowing that they were violating social customs, since the "most shameful thing that could happen to any Greek male was penetration by another male." She further argues that vases showing "a boy standing perfectly still as a man reaches out for his genitals" indicate the boy may have been "psychologically immobilized, unable to move or run away."<ref name=Bloch>{{cite journal|title=Sex between Men and Boys in Classical Greece: Was It Education for Citizenship or Child Abuse?|journal=The Journal of Men's Studies |url=http://mensstudies.metapress.com/content/j24001m18032108j/|author=Enid Bloch |publisher=Men's Studies Press |volume= 9, Number 2 / Winter 2001 |pages=183–204 |date=March 21, 2007|doi=10.3149/jms.0902.183|issue=2|s2cid=143726937 }}</ref> One vase shows a young man or boy running away from [[Eros]], the [[Greek god]] of desire.<ref>"Like the depiction of Eros pursuing a young man... for this lust is not entirely free of violence, and there can be something slightly frightening about it (after all, the boy in Ill. 19 is running away)" Glenn W. Most "The Athlete's Body in Ancient Greece" in ''Stanford Humanities Review'' V.6.2 1998</ref>
== The ancient world ==


=== Ancient Rome ===
[[File:Berlin Painter Ganymedes Louvre G175.jpg|thumb|[[Ganymede]] rolling a [[hoop rolling|hoop]] and bearing aloft a [[cockerel]] - a love gift from [[Zeus]] (in pursuit, on obverse of vase). In Greek art, a cockerel was a conventional gift from an [[erastes]] to an [[eromenos]]; see J. K. Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', p. 92.<br> Attic red-figure crater, 500-490 BC; Painter of Berlin; Louvre, Paris)]]
{{main|Homosexuality in ancient Rome}}
{{further|Sexuality in ancient Rome}}
[[File:Rilievo con ganimede, fine I sec. dc. 01.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Zeus]] (or [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]) in the form of an eagle abducting [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]; 1st-century AD Roman [[bas-relief]]]]


In [[Latin]], ''mos Graeciae'' or ''mos Graecorum'' ("Greek custom" or "the way of the Greeks") refers to a variety of behaviors the ancient Romans regarded as Greek, including but not confined to sexual practice.<ref name="Williams">{{cite book |title = Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity | last=Williams |first=Craig Arthur | publisher = Oxford University Press |date = June 10, 1999| url = https://archive.org/details/romanhomosexuali00will_0|url-access = registration |page = [https://archive.org/details/romanhomosexuali00will_0/page/72 72] |quote = Greek love is a modern phrase. | isbn=978-0-19-511300-6}}</ref>{{rp|72}} Homosexual behaviors at Rome were acceptable only within an inherently unequal relationship; male Roman citizens retained their masculinity as long as they took the active, penetrating role, and the appropriate male sexual partner was a prostitute or slave, who would nearly always be non-Roman.<ref>King, Helen, "Sowing the Field: Greek and Roman Sexology", in ''Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science: The History of Attitudes to Sexuality'' (Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 30.</ref> In [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[classical Greece]], ''paiderasteia'' had been a formal social relationship between freeborn males; taken out of context and refashioned as the luxury product of a conquered people, pederasty came to express roles based on domination and exploitation.<ref name=Pollini>Pollini, John, "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver", in ''Art Bulletin'' 81.1 (1999)</ref>{{rp|37, 40–41 ''et passim''}} Slaves often were given, and prostitutes sometimes assumed Greek names regardless of their ethnic origin; the boys ''([[Homosexuality in ancient Rome#Puer|pueri]])'' to whom the poet [[Martial]] is attracted have Greek names.<ref>Joshel, Sandra R., ''Slavery in the Roman World'' (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 78 and 95</ref><ref>Younger, John G. ''Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z'' (Routledge, 2005), p. 38.</ref> The use of slaves defined Roman pederasty; sexual practices were "somehow 'Greek{{'"}} when they were directed at "freeborn boys openly courted in accordance with the Hellenic tradition of pederasty".<ref name="Williams"/>{{rp|17}}
=== The Greeks ===


Effeminacy or a lack of discipline in managing one's sexual attraction to another male threatened a man's "Roman-ness" and thus might be disparaged as "Eastern" or "Greek". Fears that Greek models might "corrupt" traditional Roman social codes (the ''[[mos maiorum]]'') seem to have prompted a vaguely documented law (''[[Lex Scantinia]]'') that attempted to regulate aspects of homosexual relationships between freeborn males and to protect Roman youth from older men emulating Greek customs of pederasty.<ref name=Pollini/>{{rp|27}}<ref>Bremmer, Jan, "An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty", in ''Arethusa'' 13.2 (1980), p. 288.</ref>
:''Main articles: [[Pederasty in Ancient Greece]]


Theologian Edith Humphrey commented that "the Graeco-Roman 'ideal' regarding homosexuality entailed erotic love, not of children, but of young (teenage) males of the same age that a young woman would be given in marriage, and that frequently the more mature male was only slightly older than the partner."<ref>{{cite web|last=Humphrey|first=Edith M.|url=http://www.augustinecollege.org/papers/EH_00_3.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020630111529/http://www.augustinecollege.org/papers/EH_00_3.htm|archive-date=2002-06-30|series=Dialogue on Same-Sex Unions|title=How Is Homosexuality Understood in Scripture, Tradition, and in Contemporary Theology?|website= AugustineCollege.org |access-date=28 Oct 2008}}</ref>
Plato was an early critic of sexual intercourse in pederastic relationships, proposing that men's love of boys avoid all carnal expression and instead progress from admiration of the lover's specific virtues to love of virtue itself in abstract form. While copulation with boys was often criticized and seen as shameful and brutish,<ref>Aeschines, "Against Timarchos" 127</ref> other aspects of the relationship were considered beneficial, as indicated in proverbs such as ''A lover is the best friend a boy will ever have.''<ref>Plato, ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]],'' 231</ref>


===Afghanistan===
The pederastic relationship had to be approved by the boy's father. Boys entered into such relationships in their teens, around the same age that Greek girls were given in marriage.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} The mentor was expected to teach the young man or to see to his education,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} and to give him certain appropriate ceremonial gifts.
{{main|Bacha bazi}}
''Bacha bāzī'' ({{langx|fa|بچه بازی|lit=boy play}}) is a practice in which men (sometimes called ''bacha baz'') buy and keep adolescent boys (sometimes called ''dancing boys'') for entertainment and sex.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Samuel V. |date=2015-04-25 |title=Ending Bacha Bazi: Boy Sex Slavery and the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine |url=https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/iiclr/article/view/18587 |journal=Indiana International & Comparative Law Review |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=63–78 |doi=10.18060/7909.0005 |issn=2169-3226|doi-access=free }}</ref> It is a custom in [[Afghanistan]] and in historical [[Turkestan]] and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.<ref>[http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/246409/Boys_in_Afghanistan_Sold_Into_Prostitution_Sexual_Slavery "Boys in Afghanistan Sold Into Prostitution, Sexual Slavery"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203033650/http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/246409/Boys_in_Afghanistan_Sold_Into_Prostitution_Sexual_Slavery |date=2013-12-03 }}, ''Digital Journal'', Nov 20, 2007</ref>


The most comprehensive study of young male dancers in Afghanistan in the second half of the twentieth century perhaps belongs to German folklorist Ingeborg Baldauf, who studied bacabozlik (bachah-bāzi) among Uzbeks in the north. Baldauf's study, published in 1988 in German under the title Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: Bacabozlik (Boy Love in Central Asia: Bachah-bāzī), contended that a significant percentage of the Uzbek male population in Afghanistan's northern provinces were involved in bachah-bāzī at some point in their lives—either as a dancing-bachah or a bachah-lover (or perhaps both in the course of their lives). Bachahs were expected to be familiar with Chagatai literature, have a good grasp of music, know how to sing and dance, have good manners, and accompany their lovers in homosocial occasions. In return, their lovers, or bachah-bāz, had to generously spend money to outdo their rivals, otherwise the bachah would leave for a wealthier man. While the exchange of a few kisses and caresses was permissible between the bachah and bachah-bāz, no sexual intercourse was allowed, or the relationship would end abruptly. According to Baldauf, some men even ruined their families and went bankrupt after spending lavishly on bachahs for years.<ref>''Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: bačabozlik, Berlin: Das Arabische Buch,'' 1988</ref>
[[File:Oxford Pederasty.jpg|thumb|left|'''At the [[palaestra]]'''<br>Youth, holding a net shopping bag filled with walnuts, a love gift, draws close to a man who reaches out to fondle him; Attic red-figure plate 530-430 BC; [[Ashmolean Museum]], [[Oxford]].]]


Similarly, Gunnar Jarring, a Swedish diplomat and ethnographer who studied the Turkish dialects of Andkhoy in the mid-1930s, heard from an Andkhoy resident about a “current custom” among Afghan Turkmens and Uzbeks in the northern provinces who would keep boys in a cellar for a few years to teach them to dance. “If young boys are to be found,” writes Jarring, “[the people of Afghan Turkistan] never let women dance.<ref>Jarring, Gunnar. Uzbek Texts from Afghan Turkestan, with Glossary. Lund: Lunds Universitets Arsskrift, 1938</ref>
The physical dimension ranged from fully chaste to sexual intercourse.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Pederastic art shows seduction scenes as well as sexual relations. In the seduction scenes the man is standing, grasping the boy's chin with one hand and reaching to fondle his genitals with the other. In the sexual scenes, the partners stand embracing face to face, the older of the two engaged in [[intercrural sex]] with the younger, who (usually but not always) does not show arousal. Anal sex is almost never shown, and then only as something eliciting surprise in the observers. The practice was ostensibly disparaged, the Athenians often naming it jocularly after their Dorian neighbors ("cretanize," "laconize," "chalcidize"). While historians such as Dover and Halperin hold that only the man experienced pleasure, art and poetry indicate reciprocity of desire, and other historians assert that it is "a modern fairy tale that the younger eromenos was never aroused."<ref>[http://www.livius.org/ho-hz/homosexuality/homosexuality.html ''Greek homosexuality'', Hein van Dolen]</ref>


=== Pre-Meiji Japan ===
Pederastic couples were said to be feared by tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than that of obedience to a tyrannical ruler. Plutarch gives as examples the Athenians [[Harmodius and Aristogeiton]]. Others, such as Aristotle, claimed that the Cretan lawgivers encouraged pederasty as a means of [[population control]], by directing love and sexual desire into relations with males.<ref>Aristotle, ''Politics'' 2.1272a 22-24 "and the lawgiver has devised many wise measures to secure the benefit of moderation at table, and the segregation of the women in order that they may not bear many children, for which purpose he instituted association with the male sex."</ref>
{{main|Homosexuality in Japan#Pre-Meiji Japan}}
Pederasty in [[Japan]] prior to the [[Meiji Restoration]] was present in similar forms across different societal contexts. Accounts of [[Buddhism in Japan|Buddhist monasteries]], [[samurai]] circles, and [[kabuki]] theatres all commonly noted the presence of relationships between adolescent or pre-pubescent boys (sometimes classified as ''[[wakashū]]'') and older male mentor figures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmidt-Hori |first1=Sachi |title=TALES OF IDOLIZED BOYS: MALE-MALE LOVE IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE BUDDHIST NARRATIVES |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824886790 |date=2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pflugfelder |first1=Gregory M. |title=Cartographies of desire: male–male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600–1950 |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref> Art and literature of these relationships was common, with perhaps the most well-known collection being ''[[ukiyo-zōshi]]'' poet [[Ihara Saikaku]]'s ''[[The Great Mirror of Male Love]]''.


=== The Romans ===
=== Victorian England ===
Classical studies during the time of the [[Victorian era]] rapidly changed with the exploration of what ancient Greece had to offer, quickly garnering admiration by those in study and capturing the attention of Victorian writers. Holding esteem of the Greeks, the Victorians began to model and apply Greek concepts and more onto their modern life. This application of Greek philosophy manifested with the Victorians' examination of [[Plato]] and subsequently the Greek concept of pederasty which had them evaluating and applying this conception of intimate Greek encounters to those found within the Victorian era.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hurst |first=Isobel |date=2010-06-04 |title=Victorian Literature and the Reception of Greece and Rome: Victorian Literature and the Reception of Greece and Rome |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00712.x |journal=Literature Compass |language=en |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=484–495 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00712.x}}</ref> This fascination and admiration led to works of literature which commemorated Pederasty and same-sex love by numerous individuals of this time such as [[John Addington Symonds]] with his essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics", or [[Oscar Wilde]] with his novel, ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', amongst others.


While there was a celebration of same-sex love to be found in pederasty by some individuals during this time, there was also a moral repudiation of it as well that found pederasty to be a degradation of the youthful soul. This view was put into law with the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]] under section 11, the [[Labouchere Amendment]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Orrells |first=Daniel |date=2012 |title=Greek Love, Orientalism and Race: Intersections in Classical Reception |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26430986 |journal=The Cambridge Classical Journal |volume=58 |pages=194–230 |doi=10.1017/S1750270512000073 |jstor=26430986 |issn=1750-2705}}</ref> It was this piece of legislation that cemented the discussion on pederasty and its reception by the public and mainstream media with the legal prosecution of Oscar Wilde, whose novel ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' was used as evidence to secure his imprisonment and conviction, labeling him as a "sodomite" under the eyes of the law.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stern |first=Simon |date=2017 |title=Wilde's Obscenity Effect: Influence and Immorality in The Picture of Dorian Gray |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26802391 |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=68 |issue=286 |pages=756–772 |doi=10.1093/res/hgx035 |jstor=26802391 |issn=0034-6551}}</ref>
{{Main|Homosexuality in Ancient Rome}}


Pederasty is also associated with the late-19th-century [[Decadent movement]] which took place amidst the European literary and artistic community. The Greek practice was used by decadents to reinforce their own identity and non-conformance with heterosexuality.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Queer Decadent Classicism: Late-Victorian Representations of Ancient Roman Literary Culture |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/65m836jk |access-date=2024-03-15 |website=escholarship.org}}</ref>
[[File:Rilievo con ganimede, fine I sec. dc. 01.JPG|thumb|Jupiter abducting Ganymede; 1st c. CE Roman statue]]


Within this movement was the emergence of the [[literary coterie|coterie]] known as the [[Uranians]], pederasty being a theme often written upon in their poetry. The group was one of intimacy and wrote their works for themselves and shared amongst themselves, the group meaning to be a safe space and a source of consolidation for those who admired pederasty, devising it as "erotically and aesthetically superior to heterosexuality".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Brian |date=February 1976 |title=Motives for Guilt-Free Pederasty: Some Literary Considerations |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1976.tb00575.x |journal=The Sociological Review |language=en |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=97–114 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.1976.tb00575.x |pmid=968516 |issn=0038-0261}}</ref>
From the early Republican times of [[Ancient Rome]], it was perfectly normal for a man to desire and pursue boys.<ref>Craig A. Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'' p.23</ref> However, penetration was illegal for free born youths; the only boys who were legally allowed to perform as a passive sexual partner were slaves or former slaves known as "freedmen", and then only with regard to their former masters. For slaves there was no protection under the law even against rape.<ref name= Prioreschi>{{cite book|title=A History of Medicine |first=Plinio |last=Prioreschi |year=1996 |publisher=Horatius Press |pages=21–23, p29 |isbn=1888456035}}</ref>


==== Differences between Victorian and Ancient Greek pederasty ====
The result was that in [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, pederasty largely lost its function as a ritual part of education and was instead seen as an activity primarily driven by one's sexual desires and competing with desire for women. The social acceptance of pederastic relations waxed and waned during the centuries. Conservative thinkers condemned it &mdash; along with other forms of indulgence. [[Tacitus]] attacks the Greek customs of "gymnasia et otia et turpes amores" ([[palaestra]]e, idleness, and shameful loves).<ref>Tacitus, ''Annales,'' 14.20</ref> The emperors, however, indulged in male love &mdash; most of it of a pederastic nature &mdash; almost to a man. As [[Edward Gibbon]] mentions, of the first fifteen emperors, "[[Claudius]] was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct" &mdash; the implication being that he was the only one not to take [[Homosexuality|men]] or boys as lovers.<ref>Edward Gibbon, ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,'' footnote on p. 76, vol. 1</ref>
Though Victorians took inspiration from the Greeks regarding pederastic relationships, the social context of Victorian pederasty was different from Greek pederasty. Victorian pederasty did not share the factor of community acknowledgement. The Victorian era also lacked the notion that "asymmetry" in relationships, including [[Age disparity in sexual relationships|age disparity]] and social status, was to be expected and aspired to. Sandra Boehringer and Stefano Caciagli comment that Greek and other ancient societies existed "before sexuality". Having a preference for gender or age did not assign a label to a relationship, but this did not preclude groups from disapproving of or enacting laws against pederastic practices.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boehringer |first1=Sandra |last2=Caciagli |first2=Stefano |last3=Stevens |first3=Anne |date=2015 |title=The age of love: gender and erotic reciprocity in archaic Greece |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26273656 |journal=Clio. Women, Gender, History |issue=42 |pages=24–51 |jstor=26273656 |issn=2554-3822}}</ref>


== Pederasty in literature ==
Other writers spent no effort censuring pederasty ''per se'', but praised or blamed its various aspects. [[Martial]] appears to have favored it, going as far as to essentialize not the sexual use of the [[catamite]] but his nature as a boy: upon being discovered by his wife "inside a boy" and offered the "same thing" by her, he retorts with a list of mythological personages who, despite being married, took young male lovers, and concludes by rejecting her offer since "a woman merely has two vaginas."<ref>Martial, ''Epigrams,'' XI.43</ref>


=== Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford (1994) ===
=== Christianity ===
Linda C. Dowling, author of '''''Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford''''',<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Dowling |first=Linda |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w |title=Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford |date=1994 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-2960-6 |edition=1 |pages=111 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w }}</ref> discusses in her novel the intricacies of homosexuality and homoeroticism that were part of Victorian culture in mid-century Oxford. Pederasty was briefly mentioned in lieu of William Hurrell Mallock's ''[[The New Republic (novel)|'''The New Republic''']]'', which is a parody of "aesthetic" verse in the epigraph for the Oxford pamphlet ''Boy-Worship'', where pederasty is cited as "being a mode of male romantic attachment".<ref name=":02" /> In ''The New Republic'', Mallock mocks many important figures in Oxford University, including [[Walter Pater]] and [[Oscar Wilde]], and its references to [[Aestheticism]] and [[Hellenism (modern religion)|Hellenism]].


In Dowling’s ''Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dowling |first=Linda |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w |title=Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford |date=1994 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-2960-6 |edition=1 |pages=114 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w }}</ref> it was noted that [[William Johnson Cory]]'s classic paen paiderastia, '''''Ionica''''' (1858), enabled the Oxford cult of “boy worship” to surface, and influence the upbringing of the [[Uranians|Uranian]] literary movement, which celebrated “heavenly” love between men, which is highly influenced by Plato's ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]] of'' 180e. Similarly to pederasty, Uranians have been influenced by the Ancient Greek to write poetry that represented homoeroticism and homosexuality of adolescent boys in the [[Decadent movement|Decadent]] era. Dowling notes these detailed accounts of many different scholars in Victorian Oxford in order to reform the homosexual studies of Hellenistic culture that influenced the Decadent movement of the nineteenth century.
The [[Old Testament]] book of [[Leviticus]] decrees death as the punishment for a number of sexual improprieties including carnal relations between men.<ref>http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=lev+20%3A13&src=esv.org</ref> However, few factions of Christianity interpret Levitical law as applying to contemporary society.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}


=== ''The Happy Prince and Other Tales'' (1888) ===
In the King James version of the New Testament, Romans 1; 27-31 reads "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." This and subsequent verses are considered by Bible scholars not to refer to same-gender sexual relations per se, but to the practice of Temple prostitution, which involved both male and female prostitutes.
Oscar Wilde expresses a pederastic ethos to his stories by focusing on the intersection between “sensual experience and moral enlightenment."<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Naomi |date=2002 |title=Creating the Sensual Child: Paterian Aesthetics, Pederasty, and Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41388625 |journal=Marvels & Tales |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=156–170 |doi=10.1353/mat.2002.0029 |jstor=41388625 |issn=1521-4281}}</ref> Beginning in 1885, Wilde would look for attractive boys and invite them to a dinner party under the notion of mutual pleasure and the satisfaction of all the senses; emphasizing “physical senses as a means to artistry.”<ref name=":1" /> Wilde often utilized fairy-tale conventions by writing events and actions in threes, clarifying structure by repeating images or phrases, and using biblical style and diction.<ref name=":1" /> "The Happy Prince" is the first tale in ''[[The Happy Prince and Other Tales]]'' (1888) that describes a growing relationship between a Prince and a Swallow until they both meet their fateful deaths.


In Wilde’s general story model, the connection between the older and younger man is spurred by the fact that they are completely different in nature.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Leeds) |first=Chris Bartle (University of |date=2012 |title=Pederasty and Sexual Activity in Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales" |url=https://www.victoriannetwork.org/index.php/vn/article/view/39 |journal=Victorian Network |language=en |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=87–106 |doi=10.5283/vn.39 |issn=2042-616X}}</ref> The Prince is a large statue towering over the city, inherently an inanimate object, while the Sparrow is a tiny bird, always moving “of a family famous for its agility.”<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde |url=https://www.online-literature.com/wilde/177/ |access-date=2024-03-15 |website=www.online-literature.com}}</ref> In this work, the Prince is portrayed as a youthful character, as his own experience in life has been limited to playing with his companions in the garden and dancing in the Great Hall. His childishness is also seen in his lack of knowledge regarding emotions, as he “did not know what tears were,” living a life “where sorrow is not allowed to enter.” <ref name=":3" /> The Swallow is older, as he has had many experiences in life, having traveled to many places. In addition to this foundation of inequality, exchanging ideas is also a vital proponent of pederastic thoughts.<ref name=":2" /> The Prince educates the Sparrow on the cruelties of the city he oversees, teaching him societal virtues. The story ends with the Sparrow asking the Prince, “Will you let me kiss your hand?” and the Prince responds, “But you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you," showing the extremely intense love that is shared between these two male figures.<ref name=":3" /> This story presents a pederastic view of a tale where there is mutual growth between student and teacher.
=== Other venues ===


=== Pederasty Literature ===
Pederasty in ancient times was not the exclusive domain of the Greeks and Romans. Athenaeus in the ''Deipnosophists'' states that the [[Celts]] also partook and despite the beauty of their women, preferred the love of boys. Some would regularly bed down on their animal skins with a lover on each side. Other writers also attest to Celtic pederasty: [[Aristotle]] (Politics, II 6.6. Athen. XIII 603a.), Strabo (iv. 199), and [[Diodorus Siculus]] (v. 32)). Some moderns have interpreted Athenaeus as meaning that the Celts had a boy on each side, but that interpretation is questioned by Hubbard, who reads it as meaning that they had a boy one side and a woman on the other. (Hubbard, 2003; p.&nbsp;79) The [[Sibylline oracles]] claim that only the Jews were free from this impurity:
<blockquote>[The Jews] are mindful of holy wedlock,<br>
and they do not engage in impious intercourse with male children,<br>
as do Phoenicians, Egyptians and Romans,<br>
spacious Greece and many nations of other,<br>
Persians and Galatians and all Asia, transgressing<br>
the holy law of immortal God, which they transgressed.<ref>Where is boasting? By Simon J. Gathercole; p.175</ref></blockquote>


==== Victorian Literary Works ====
Persian pederasty and its origins were debated even in ancient times. [[Herodotus]] claimed: "From the Greeks they have learned to lie with boys."<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories,'' I.135, tr. David Grene; p.97</ref> However, [[Plutarch]] asserts that the Persians used eunuch boys to that end long before contact between the cultures.<ref>Plutarch, ''De Malig. Herod.'' xiii.ll</ref> In either case, Plato claimed they saw fit to forbid it to the inhabitants of the lands they occupied, since "It does not suit the rulers that their subjects should think noble thoughts, nor that they should form the strong friendships and attachments which these activities, and in particular love, tend to produce."<ref>Plato, ''Symposium,'' 182c, trans. Tom Griffith</ref>


* ''Ionica'' (1858) by William Johnson Cory<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cory |first=William Johnson |url=http://archive.org/details/ionicacory00cory |title=Ionica |date=1891 |publisher=London : G. Allen |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref>
== Post-classical and modern forms ==
* ''The Romance of Lust'' (1873-1876) by Anonymous
=== The Middle East and Central Asia ===
* ''The Sins of the Cities of the Plain'' (1881) by Anonymous (attributed to pseudonym - Jack Saul)
{{Main|Pederasty in the Middle East and Central Asia}}
* [[Psychopathia Sexualis|''Psychopathia sexualis'' (1886) by Richard von Krafft-Ebing]]
* ''Long Ago'' (1889) by ‘Michael Field’ (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper)
* [[The Picture of Dorian Gray|''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (1890) by Oscar Wilde]]
* ''Teleny, or The Reverse of the Meda'' (1893) by Anonymous
* ''Boy-Worship'' (1880) by Charles Edward Hutchinson
* [[The New Republic (novel)|''The New Republic'' (1877) by William Hurrell Mallock]]
* [[The Happy Prince and Other Tales]]


==== Greek Literary Works ====
In pre-modern Islam there was a "widespread conviction that beardless youths possessed a temptation to adult men as a whole, and not merely to a small minority of deviants."<ref>El-Rouayheb, 2005. Op.cit. p.115</ref>


* [[Phaedrus (dialogue)|''Phaedrus'' by Plato]]
In central Asia the practice is reputed to have long been widespread, and remains a part of the culture, as exemplified by the proverb, ''Women for breeding, boys for pleasure, but melons for sheer delight.''<ref>Sir Richard Burton, ''Kama Sutra: the Hindu art of lovemaking,'' intro. [[Pathan]] proverb, also reported in similar forms from the [[Arab]] countries, [[Iran]] and North Africa.</ref> In the [[Ottoman Empire]] culture, young male dancers, usually cross-dressed in feminine attire, were called [[Köçek]].
* [[Symposium (Plato)|''Symposium a liber amoris'' by Plato]]


== Modern view ==
[[File:Youth and suitors.jpg|thumb|left|'''Youth conversing with suitors'''<br>Miniature illustration from the ''Haft Awrang'' of [[Jami]], in the story ''A Father Advises his Son About Love.'' Freer and Sackler Galleries, [[Smithsonian Institution]], Washington, DC.]]
In the modern world, an adult engaging in sexual activity with a [[Minor (law)|underage person]] may be considered [[child sexual abuse]] or [[statutory rape]], depending upon the local [[age of consent]]. In the case of underage heterosexual relationships, which were also practiced by the Greeks, it may also be considered [[child marriage]]. Age of consent laws exist because minors are considered incapable of meaningfully consenting to sexual activity until they reach a certain age.<ref name="gutt">{{cite news |url=http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2903097.html|title=Can Statutory Rape Laws Be Effective in Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy? |access-date=2008-03-24 |newspaper=Guttmacher Institute |date=2005-06-15 |quote=Statutory rape laws are based on the premise that until a person reaches a certain age, that individual is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.}}</ref><ref name="Sutherland">{{cite journal |last1=Sutherland |first1=Kate |title=From Jailbird to Jailbait: Age of Consent Law and the Construction of Teenage Sexualities |journal=William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=313–349 |url=https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1167&context=wmjowl |access-date=13 September 2019|quote=age of consent laws render teenagers below a certain age incapable of consent to sexual activity...The justification usually put forward for age of consent laws is the protection of young persons from sexual exploitation by adults.}}</ref> Prepubescent and adolescent children are not socially equal to adults, and abusers emotionally manipulate the children they victimize.<ref name="Salter">{{Cite book | last = Salter | first = Anna | title = Predators: pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders | year = 2018 | publisher = [[Basic Books]] | location = New York | isbn = 978-1-541-67382-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PStcDwAAQBAJ&q=Salter%20Predators&pg=PT91 }}</ref>{{rp|65–66}} These laws aim to give the minor some protection against predatory or exploitative sexual interaction with adults.<ref name="Sutherland" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/statutoryrape/handbook/statrape.pdf |title=State Legislators' Handbook for Statutory Rape Issues |access-date=2008-03-24|publisher=U.S. Department of Justice – Office for Victims of Crime |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080313100531/http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc//publications/infores/statutoryrape/handbook/statrape.pdf |archive-date=2008-03-13 |url-status=dead |quote=a number of different motivations were observed on the part of State legislators, including:...Desire to protect minors below a certain age from predatory, exploitative sexual relationships—for example, with much older partners.}}</ref>


Child sexual abuse has been correlated with [[Depression (mood)|depression]],<ref name="Roosa">{{Cite journal|vauthors=Roosa MW, Reinholtz C, Angelini PJ|title=The relation of child sexual abuse and depression in young women: comparisons across four ethnic groups|journal=Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology|volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=65–76|date=February 1999|pmid=10197407}}</ref> [[post-traumatic stress disorder]]<ref name="widom">{{Cite journal|author=Widom|first=Cathy Spatz|date=August 1999|title=Posttraumatic stress disorder in abused and neglected children grown up|url=https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1176/ajp.156.8.1223|journal=The American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=156|issue=8|pages=1223–1229|doi=10.1176/ajp.156.8.1223|pmid=10450264|s2cid=7339542 }}</ref> and [[anxiety]].<ref name="levitan">{{Cite journal|vauthors=Levitan RD, Rector NA, Sheldon T, Goering P|title=Childhood adversities associated with major depression and/or anxiety disorders in a community sample of Ontario: issues of co-morbidity and specificity|journal=Depression and Anxiety|volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=34–42|year=2003|pmid=12577276 |doi=10.1002/da.10077|s2cid=26031006|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="dinw">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Dinwiddie S, Heath AC, Dunne MP, etal |title=Early sexual abuse and lifetime psychopathology: a co-twin-control study|journal=Psychological Medicine|volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=41–52|date=January 2000|pmid=10722174 |doi=10.1017/S0033291799001373|s2cid=15270464}}</ref><ref name="KenTacket">{{cite journal|last1=Kendall-Tackett|first1=K. A.|last2=Williams|first2=L. M.|last3=Finkelhor|first3=D.|title=Impact of sexual abuse on children: a review and synthesis of recent empirical studies.|journal=[[Psychological Bulletin]]|date=January 1993|volume=113|issue=1|pages=164–80 |pmid=8426874| issn=0033-2909|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.113.1.164}} page 170</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=November 2023}}
In post-Islamic Persia, where, as [[Louis Crompton]] claims, "boy love flourished spectacularly", art and literature also made frequent use of the pederastic topos. These celebrate the love of the wine boy, as do the paintings and drawings of artists such as [[Reza Abbasi]] (1565{{ndash}} 1635). Western travelers reported that at Abbas' court (some time between 1627 and 1629) they saw evidence of homoerotic practices. Male houses of prostitution ''amrad khaneh'', "houses of the beardless", were legally recognized and paid taxes.<ref>Janet Afary & Kevin Anderson, ''Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism,'' (University of Chicago Press, 2005</ref>


Contemporary homosexual pedophiles may describe themselves as "boy lovers",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lynch |first1=Virginia A. |last2=Duval |first2=Janet Barber |title=Forensic Nursing Science - E-Book |date=2010 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=9780323066389 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nD6VAFvKGC0C&pg=PA424 |quote=There are child sex offenders who willingly describe themselves as boy lovers, girl lovers, child lovers, and pedophiles but will adamantly argue that they are not predators.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Thio |first1=Alex |last2=Calhoun |first2=Thomas C. |title=Readings in Deviant Behavior |date=2004 |publisher=Allyn and Bacon |page=274|isbn=9780205389155 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-1mke4Ea1UC}}</ref> and sometimes appeal to practices in Ancient Greece as a justification of sexual relationships between adults and minors.<ref>{{Cite journal| last = Durkin | first = KF |author2=Clifton DB | year = 1999 | title = Propagandizing pederasty: A thematic analysis of the on-line exculpatory accounts of unrepentant pedophiles | journal = Deviant Behavior | volume = 20 | issue = 2 | pages = 103–127 | doi = 10.1080/016396299266524 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240529006 | quote=The use of the BIRGing [basking in reflected glory] account allows them to feel a connection to noteworthy men such as...many of the ancient Greek poets and philosophers.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nardi |first1=Peter M. |last2=Schneider |first2=Beth E. |title=Social Perspectives in Lesbian and Gay Studies: A Reader |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136219382 |page=320 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daPdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA320 |quote=Paedophile activists themselves...have found it necessary to adopt...legitimation. The first, the 'Greek love', legitimation basically argues for the pedagogic value of adult-child relations, between males. It suggests – relying on a mythologized version of ancient Greek practices – that in the passage from childhood dependence to adult responsibilities the guidance, sexual and moral, of a caring man is invaluable.}}</ref>
Osman Agha of [[Timişoara|Temeşvar]] who fell captive to the [[Austrian people|Austrians]] in 1688 wrote in his memoirs that one night an Austrian boy approached him for sex, telling him "for I know all Turks are pederasts".<ref>Temeşvarlı Osman Ağa, ''Gâvurların Esiri'', Istanbul, 1971</ref>


Though outlawed, ''[[bacha bazi]]'' is still practiced in certain regions of [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="BBC Rustam Qobil">{{cite news| last= Qobil| first= Rustam| url= https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11217772 | quote ="I'm at a wedding party in a remote village in northern Afghanistan."| title= The sexually abused dancing boys of Afghanistan | work= [[BBC News]]| date= September 7, 2010| access-date=9 May 2016}}</ref><ref name= "Foreign Policy">{{cite magazine| last =Mondloch| first =Chris| title =Bacha Bazi: An Afghan Tragedy| magazine =Foreign Policy Magazine| date =Oct 28, 2013| url =https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/10/28/bacha-bazi-an-afghan-tragedy/| access-date = Apr 23, 2015}}</ref>
In 1770s, Âşık Sadık the poet wrote, in an address to the Sultan: ''Lût kavmi döğüşür, put kavmi bozar. Askerin lûtîdir, bil Padişahım'' ("The people of Lot fight, the people of idolatry spoil. Know, my Sultan, that your soldiers are sodomites").<ref>Hulki Aktunç, ''Erotologya'', Istanbul, 2000</ref> Studies of Ottoman criminal law, which is based on the [[Sharia]], reveal that persistent sodomy with non-consenting boys was a serious offense and those convicted faced [[capital punishment]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

=== Japan ===

{{Main|LGBT in Japan}}

In Japan, the practice of '''shudō'''(衆道), "the Way of the Young", paralleled closely the course of [[Europe]]an pederasty.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} It was prevalent in the religious community and [[samurai]] society from the [[Middle Ages|mediaeval]] period on, and eventually grew to permeate all of society.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} It fell out of favor around the end of the 19th century, concurrently with the growing European influence.

Its legendary founder is [[Kūkai]], also known as Kōbō Daishi, the founder of the [[Shingon Buddhism|Shingon]] school of [[Buddhism]], who is said to have brought the teachings of male love over from China, together with the teachings of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Monks often entered into love relationships with beautiful youths known as " [[chigo]] (稚児)", which were recorded in literary works known as "[[chigo monogatari]] (「稚児物語」)".<ref>T. Watanabe & J. Iwata, ''The Love of the Samurai. A Thousand Years of Japanese Homosexuality,'' pp.31-2</ref>

=== North America ===

"Of the Koniagas of [[Kodiak Island]] and the Thinkleets we read, 'The most repugnant of all their practices is that of male [[concubinage]]. A Kodiak mother will select her handsomest and most promising boy, and dress and rear him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him at women's work, associating him with women and girls, in order to render his effeminacy complete. Arriving at the age of ten or fifteen years, he is married to some wealthy man who regards such a companion as a great acquisition. These male concubines are called Achnutschik or Schopans' (the authorities quoted being Holmberg, Langsdorff, Billing, Choris, Lisiansky and Marchand). The same is the case in [[Nutka Sound]] and the [[Aleutian Islands]], where 'male concubinage obtains throughout, but not to the same extent as amongst the Koniagas.' The objects of unnatural affection have their beards carefully plucked out as soon as the face-hair begins to grow, and their chins are tattooed like those of the women. In [[California]] the first missionaries found the same practice, the youths being called Joya."<ref>(Bancroft, i. 415 and authorities Palon, Crespi, Boscana, Motras, Torquemada, Duflot and Fages). (R. F. Burton, ''Terminal Essay)''</ref>

=== Central America ===

Though early [[Mayans]] are thought to have been strongly antagonistic to same-sex relationships, later Mayan states employed pederastic practices. Their introduction was ascribed to the god [[Chin (Mayan god)|Chin]]. One aspect was that of the father procuring a younger lover for his son. [[Fray Juan de Torquemada|Juan de Torquemada]] mentions that if the (younger) boy was seduced by a stranger, the penalty was equivalent to that for adultery. In the 16th century,[[Bernal Diaz]] reported seeing statues of male pairs making love in the temples at [[Cape Catoche]], [[Yucatan]].<ref>Pete Sigal, "The Politicization of Pederasty among the Colonial Yucatecan Maya", ''Journal of the History of Sexuality,'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jul., 1997), pp. 1-24</ref>

=== Europe ===

Pederastic eros in the West, while remaining mostly hidden, has nevertheless revealed itself in a variety of settings. Legal records are one of the more important windows into this secret world, since for much of the time pederastic relations, like other forms of homosexual relations, were illegal.<ref>Michael Rocke, Forbidden Friendships, p.6</ref> The expression of desire through literature and art, albeit in coded fashion, can also afford a view of the pederastic interests of the author.

Reflecting the conflicted outlook on male loves, some northern European writers ascribed pederastic tendencies to populations in southern latitudes. [[Richard Francis Burton]] evolved his theory of the ''[[Sotadic zone]]'', an area bounded roughly by N. Lat. 43° N. Lat. 30°, stretching from the western shores of the [[Mediterranean Sea]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]].<ref>Richard Burton, ''Arabian Nights'' "Terminal Essay"</ref> Likewise, [[:de:Wilhelm Kroll|Wilhelm Kroll]], writing in the [[Pauly-Wissowa]] encyclopaedia in 1906, asserted that "The roots of pederasty are found first of all in the existence of a contrary sexual feeling that is probably more frequent in southern regions than in countries with moderate climates."<ref>Wilhelm Kroll, "Knabenliebe" [boy-love or pederasty], article in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, vol. 11, cols. 897-906</ref>

==== The Renaissance ====

{{Main|Pederasty in the Renaissance}}

The Renaissance was a period that saw a rediscovery or renewed interest in the philosophy and art of the Classical period. The Roman Catholic Church suppressed homosexual and pederastic expressions of attraction, especially through the machinery of the Inquisition, most infamously the Spanish Inquisition. The Church could not repress all expressions of pederastic desire. According to an encyclopedia of [[GLBT]]Q culture, "The most conventional object of homoerotic desire [in art] was the adolescent youth, usually imagined as beardless."<ref>[http://www.glbtq.com/arts/eur_art7_renaissance,3.html An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Culture, ''European Art: Renaissance'', Patricia Simmons]</ref>

==== Russia ====

{{See also|Gay culture in Russia}}

Medieval Russia was known for its tolerance towards homosexuality.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}. As well as other forms of homosexuality, pederasty was very common. The beardless youth was seen as alternative to women. When a young man shaved, he might be invited to sodomy by men.

The ''[[banya (sauna)|banya]]s'', traditional Russian-style bath houses, in particular were places where men would go to have sex with teenage boys who worked there. The boys used birch branches on the men, and rubbed their backs.<ref>[http://english.gay.ru/life/history/queermoscow/1600-1861TraditionalMasculinitiesAndLoveBetweenMen.html ''Gay Urban Histories since 1600]</ref>
Later on, from the 18th-century onwards, the [[gay bath house|bath houses]] still thrived. In addition, cadet schools, the [[Page Corps]], and the [[Imperial School of Jurisprudence]] were hotbeds of homosexual activity between boys.

Russia's laws were lenient compared to those of Western Europe. Homosexuality was only made illegal for soldiers at the beginning of the 18th century; it was prohibited for the rest of society in the 1830s. The new laws were not strictly enforced. At the end of the 19th century, St. Petersburg had a thriving homosexual culture.

==== England ====

[[File:Tuke, Henry Scott (1858–1929) - 1911 - Bathing group (Noonday heat).jpg|thumb|190px|'''Noonday Heat''' (1911)<br/>By [[Henry Scott Tuke]] (1858–1929). Many of Tuke's most well-known works are nudes of young men and boys, and the artist is closely associated with the [[Uranian]] movement.]]

In [[England]] into the 20th century, public [[boarding schools]] were limited to boys and all the teachers were male. Some upper class boys were sent to boarding school by age 7 or 8, and they studied there through the adolescent years. Some teachers justified homosexual relationships based on the Classics, both between the older and younger boys, and between teachers and boys. However, there were some scandals around such relationships. In the mid-19th century, [[William Johnson Cory]], a renowned master at Eton from 1845 until his forced resignation in 1872, evolved a style of pedagogic pederasty which influenced a number of his pupils. His ''Ionica'', a work of poetry reflecting his pederastic sensibilities, was read in intellectual circles and “made a stir” at Oxford in 1859.<ref>Brian Reade, ''Sexual Heretics;'' p.)</ref> [[Oscar Browning]], another Eton master and former student of Cory, followed in his tutor’s footsteps, only to be likewise dismissed in 1875. Both are thought to have influenced Oxford don [[Walter Pater]], whose aesthetics promoted pederasty as the truest expression of classical culture.<ref>Naomi Wood, "Creating the Sensual Child: Paterian Aesthetics, Pederasty, and Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales", ''Marvels & Tales'' - Volume 16, Number 2, 2002, pp. 156-170</ref>
Also in 19th-century England, pederasty was a theme in the work of several writers known as the "[[Uranian poets]]". Although most of the writers of Uranian poetry and prose are today considered minor literary figures, the prominent [[Uranian]] representatives --- [[Walter Pater]], [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]], and [[Oscar Wilde]] -- are figures of worldwide renown. Hopkins and Wilde were both deeply influenced by Pater's work. Wilde wrote of pederastic and homoerotic culture—though not in the "elevated" pederastic sense that it held for Pater and Hopkins<ref>Michael Kaylor, ''Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde'', 2006, pp. 292-295</ref> -- in a number of works.<ref>Brian Reade, 1970, op.cit., p.28</ref> In the case of Hopkins, "Hopkins often was, it must be admitted, strikingly Ruskinian in his love of Aristotelian particulars and their arrangements; however, it was at the foot of Pater -- the foremost Victorian unifier of ‘eros, pedagogy, and aesthetics’ -- that Hopkins would ever remain."<ref>Michael Kaylor, ''Secreted Desires'', 2006, p. 289</ref> Another notable late 19th-century writer on pederasty was [[John Addington Symonds]], whose essays, "A Problem in Greek Ethics" and "A Problem in Modern Ethics", were among the first defenses of [[homosexuality]] in the English language.<ref>http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/pge/index.htm</ref>

==== Reaction and retrenchment ====

The end of the 19th century saw increasing conflict over the issue of social acceptance of pederasty. A number of other pederastic scandals erupted around this time, such as the one involving the [[Germany|German]] industrialist [[Krupp#Friedrich Alfred.27s Era|Friedrich Alfred Krupp]], which drove him to suicide, by some reports. In the same vein, in a work that was to influence the evolution of [[communism]]'s attitude towards same-sex love, the German political philosopher [[Friedrich Engels]], [[Karl Marx]]'s collaborator, denounced the ancient Greeks for "the abominable practice of sodomy" and for degrading "their gods and themselves with the myth of Ganymede".<ref>Karl Marx, ''Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State''</ref>

The [[Wandervogel]] movement, a youth organization emphasizing a romantic view of nature, began in 1896, the same year that the journal ''[[Der Eigene]]'' went to press. It was published by a twenty-two-year-old German ([[Adolf Brand]]), and it advocated classical pederasty as a cure for the moral flabbiness of German youth. Influenced by the ideas of [[Gustav Wyneken]], the Wandervogel movement was open about its homoerotic tendencies. Affection between males was supposed to be expressed in a nonsexual way. The founding of Young Wandervogel happened largely as a reaction to the public scandal about these erotic tendencies, which were said to alienate young men from women.

Until the 1970s, English "[[Public school (UK)|public schools]]" were boarding schools whose male teachers educated young and adolescent boys only. They emphasized study of Greek and Latin classics. The all-male environment encouraged “hotbeds of pederasty” into the twentieth century.<ref>H. Montgomery Hyde, ''The Love That Dared Not Speak Its Name,'' pp.110-112; Boston: Little, Brown, 1970</ref> [[C. S. Lewis]] when talking about his life at [[Malvern College]], an [[Public school (UK)|English public school]], acknowledged that pederasty "was the only counterpoise to the social struggle; the one oasis (though green only with weeds and moist only with foetid water) in the burning desert of competitive ambition."<ref>C.S. Lewis, ''Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life'' Harvest Books (1966) p.106</ref>

Eventually, pederasty was decreased {{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} in British public schools, due to the introduction of female teachers and co-education, which gave boys a heterosexual output. Child abuse was no longer hushed up{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} due to society's concerns with protecting children. Parents had more control over who had responsibility for the children, and men with pedophile or pederastic tendencies were barred from teaching jobs.

== Modern expressions ==

[[Liminality|Liminal]] same-sex love &mdash; relations with young people on the threshold of becoming adults &mdash; whether for pleasure or to further social goals, is no longer widely practiced in the West,{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} despite its lawful status in many countries. [[feminist theory|Feminist]] and [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodern]] theories describe such relations as an [[Power (sociology)#Foucault|abuse of power]] when the older partner is in a position of [[Academic seduction|educational]], [[Spiritual abuse|religious]], [[Sexual harassment|economic]], or other form of institutional authority over the younger partner. Pederasty is widely censured, whether legally or illegally expressed. Instances of it, or of homosexual behavior among public men, have had severe political repercussions (for example, the [[Mark Foley scandal]], or "Pagegate".<ref>[http://thehill.com/john-fortier/pagegate-to-cost-gop-a-seat-2006-10-04.html John Fortier, "Pagegate to cost GOP a seat", ''The Hill,'' October 4, 2006]</ref> The scandal about apparent abuse of pages in the [[United States]] in 2006, may have contributed to the [[U.S. Democratic Party|Democratic]] capture of the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] and [[U.S. Senate]] in the following fall elections).<ref>[http://www.nysun.com/article/40840 "Warning Signs", ''New York Sun'', Editorial, October 4, 2006]</ref> The United States appears to be moving towards a more restrictive approach to such relationships. In 1983, for instance, Democratic Congressman [[Gerry Studds]] admitted having had an affair with a 17-year-old page and was censured by the House of Representatives, but he continued his career in Congress.

Some "gay-positive" writers, in their work of interpreting [[Christian]] teachings, have concluded that [[Paul (apostle)|Paul's]] criticism of same-sex love do not target those for whom such affections come naturally, but rather those who indulge such pleasures by choice, with the example given being "the Hellenistic practice of erotic behavior with young males." Their work suggests that religious opposition to same sex relations should restrict itself to pederastic relationships, with their presumed abuse of power. A position paper of the [[Anglican Church]] rejects that contention, claiming that,

{{cquote|The Graeco-Roman "ideal" did not entail erotic love of children, but of young (teenage) males, of the same age that young women would be given in marriage. Frequently the more mature male was only slightly older than the partner. Had Paul intended to proscribe pederasty by using these terms (such as we understand pederasty today), he had recourse to many other more precise terms. In fact, the discussion in Romans, with its inclusion of female homoerotic behaviour, indicates that exploitation and victimisation were not the issue. (Paul has a lot to say about the abuse of power elsewhere).''<ref>[http://www.augustinecollege.org/papers/EH_00_3.htm Position paper: "How Is Homosexuality Understood in Scripture, Tradition, and in Contemporary Theology?"], AugustineCollege.org (retrieved 28 Oct 2008)</ref>}}

The Catholic Church has been rocked in the 21st century by long-delayed accounts of child-sex abuse. After resistance to revelations, it is working to control activities of its priests. On February 2, 1961 the [[Holy See|Vatican]] issued a document, “Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders,” barring from the priesthood anyone who has "perverse inclinations to [[homosexuality]] or pederasty", but that was not sufficient for the times.<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9436430/ "Vatican document reaffirms policy on gays"], msnbc.com (retrieved 28 Oct 2008)</ref>

=== Child abuse issues ===
Though pederasty was once accepted in many cultures, some modern observers have retrospectively labeled it [[sexual abuse|abusive]]. Enid Bloch argues that many Greek boys who were involved in paederastic relationships may have been harmed by the experience, if the relationship included [[anal sex]]. Bloch writes that the boy may have been [[psychological trauma|traumatized]] by knowing that he was violating social customs. According to her, the "most shameful thing that could happen to any Greek male was penetration by another male." In this respect, Bloch is in accord with Greek sexual morality, which also recognized a difference between ethical pederasty, which excluded anal sex, and "hubristic" pederasty, which was believed to debase the boy as well as the man who penetrated him.<ref>David Cohen, "Sexuality, Violence, and the Athenian Law of 'Hubris'"; ''Greece and Rome,'' Second Series, V.38;#2; Oct. 1991pp.171-188</ref>
Bloch further argues that vases showing "a boy standing perfectly still as a man reaches out for his genitals" indicate the boy may have been "psychologically immobilized, unable to move or run away."<ref name=Bloch>{{cite journal|title=Sex between Men and Boys in Classical Greece: Was It Education for Citizenship or Child Abuse?|journal=The Journal of Men's Studies |url=http://mensstudies.metapress.com/content/j24001m18032108j/|author=Enid Bloch |publisher=Men's Studies Press |volume= 9| issue = 2 / Winter 2001 |pages=183–204 |date=March 21, 2007|doi=10.3149/jms.0902.183}}</ref> Many vases, however, show the boys responding warmly to the man's advances, placing their hands around the man's neck or on his arm, a gesture thought to indicate affection and reciprocity.<ref>DeVries, Keith (1997) "The 'Frigid Eromenoi' and Their Wooers Revisited: A Closer Look at Greek Homosexuality in Vase Painting", in Duberman, Martin (Ed.) ''Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures'', New York: New York University Press, p14-24</ref> Many other vases show the boy running away.<ref>"For this lust is not entirely free of violence, and there can be something slightly frightening about it (after all, the boy in Ill. 19 is running away)" Glenn W. Most, "The Athlete's Body in Ancient Greece", ''Stanford Humanities Review'' V.6.2 1998</ref>


== See also ==
== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

* [[Age of consent]]
* ''[[Bacha bazi]]''
* [[Age disparity in sexual relationships]]
* [[Catamite]]
* [[Catamite]]
* [[Ephebophilia]]
* [[Greek love]]
* [[History of erotic depictions]]
* [[Homosexuality]]
* [[Homosexuality and Islam]]''
* [[History of homosexuality]]
* [[LGBT themes in mythology]]
* [[History of human sexuality]]
* [[Pedophilia]]
* [[Homoeroticism]]
* [[Homosexuality in ancient Greece]]
* [[Platonic love]]
* [[Homosexuality in ancient Rome]]
* [[Shotacon]]
* [[Homosexuality in China]]
* [[Homosexuality in India]]
* [[Homosexuality in Japan]]
* [[Intercrural sex]]
* ''[[Kagema]]''
* ''[[Köçek]]''
* [[Wiktionary:korephilia|Korephilia]] (female counterpart)
* [[List of pedophile advocacy organizations]]
* [[North American Man/Boy Love Association]]
* [[Pederasty in ancient Greece]]
* [[Sexuality in ancient Rome]]
* ''[[Wakashū]]''
{{div col end}}


== Further reading ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}


== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wiktionary|pederasty}}
{{Wiktionary|pederasty}}


{{LGBTQ|history=expanded}}
{{Commons|Pederasty}}
{{Pedophilia}}

{{Authority control}}
;General
* {{cite journal | last = Bremmer | first = J |title = An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Pederasty | journal = Arethusa | volume = 13 | pages = 279–98 | year = 1980}}
* {{cite book |author=Crompton, Louis |title=Homosexuality & civilization |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2003 |pages= |isbn=0-674-02233-5 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=| url = http://books.google.ca/books?id=TfBYd9xVaXcC&printsec=frontcover}}
* {{cite book | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13611 | title = Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 2: ''Sexual Inversion,'' | authorlink = Havelock Ellis | last = Ellis | first = H }}

;Ancient Greece
See [[Pederasty in ancient Greece#References|bibliography of Greek pederasty]]

;[[Europe]]
* {{cite journal | title = Creating the Sensual Child: Paterian Aesthetics, Pederasty, and Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales | last = Wood | first = N | journal = Marvels & Tales | volume = 16 | issue = 2 | year = 2002 | pages = 156–170 | doi = 10.1353/mat.2002.0029 }}
* Michael Matthew Kaylor. [http://www.mmkaylor.com ''Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde'' (2006)], a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the major Victorian writers of Uranian poetry and prose (the author has made this volume available in a free, open-access, PDF version).
* Rigoletto, Sergio. "Questioning Power Hierarchies: Michael Davidson and Literary Pederasty in Italy" in ''Studies in Social and Political Thought'' Issue 13 - March 2007<ref>http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cspt/1-6-1-2-13.html</ref>

;[[Japan]]
See [[Shudo#Bibliography and further reading|bibliography of Japanese pederasty]]

;[[North America|North]] and [[South America]]
* {{cite journal | title = The Politicization of Pederasty Among the Colonial Yucatecan Maya | last = Fout | first = JC | journal = Journal of the History of Sexuality | volume = 8 | year = 1997}}

;[[Muslim]] Lands
See [[Pederasty in the Middle East and Central Asia#Further reading|bibliography of pederasty in the Middle East and Central Asia]]

;Pederasty and child sexual abuse
See [[Child sexual abuse#Further reading|bibliography of child sexual abuse]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
{{LGBT|history=expanded}}


[[Category:Pederasty| ]]
[[Category:Pederasty| ]]
[[Category:Adolescence]]
[[Category:Child sexual abuse]]
[[Category:Greek loanwords]]
[[Category:Chronophilia]]
[[Category:Sexuality and society]]
[[Category:LGBTQ history]]
[[Category:Sexual orientation and society]]
[[Category:LGBTQ and society]]
[[Category:Male homosexuality]]
[[Category:Violence against children]]
[[Category:Pedophilia]]
[[Category:Violence against men]]
[[Category:Anal sex]]

[[bn:পেডেরাস্টি]]
[[br:Pederastiezh]]
[[bg:Педерастия]]
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[[gd:Pàisd'-mhiannachd]]
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[[ja:少年愛]]
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[[th:การที่ผู้ชายมีเพศสัมพันธ์กับเด็กชาย]]
[[vi:Thiếu niên ái]]
[[zh:孌童戀]]

Latest revision as of 22:51, 1 November 2024

Pederastic kissing on an Attic kylix (5th century BC)

Pederasty or paederasty (/ˈpɛdəræsti/) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan.

In most countries today, the local age of consent determines whether a person is considered legally competent to consent to sexual acts, and whether such contact is child sexual abuse or statutory rape. An adult engaging in sexual activity with a minor is considered abusive by authorities for a variety of reasons, including the age of the minor and the psychological and physical harm they may endure.

Etymology and usage

Pederasty derives from the combination of Ancient Greek: παίδ-, romanizedpaid-, lit.'boy, child (stem)'[1][2] with ἐραστής, erastēs, 'lover' (cf. eros). Late Latin pæderasta was borrowed in the 16th century directly from Plato's classical Greek in The Symposium. (Latin transliterates αί as æ.) The word first appeared in the English language during the Renaissance, as pæderastie (e.g. in Samuel Purchas' Pilgrimes), in the sense of sexual relations between men and boys.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "Homosexual relations between a man and a boy; homosexual anal intercourse, usually with a boy or younger man as the passive partner".[3]

History

Ancient Greece

Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos), usually in his teens.[4] This age difference between a socially powerful and socially less-powerful partner was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods, in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.[5] The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."[6] The practice was viewed with concerns and disapproval by certain social groups.[7] In some Greek cities, such as Sparta, pederastic relationships were explicitly accepted; in other locations, such as Athens, laws were eventually enacted to limit such relationships, though not explicitly prohibit all instances of them.[8]

In the writings of Xenophon, Socrates says, "A man who sells his favours for a price to anyone who wants them is called a catamite; but if anyone forms a love-attachment with someone whom he knows to be truly good, we regard him as perfectly respectable."[9] In the writings of Plato, Socrates considered pederasty as a superior form of love compared to the love of women. Each author may have used Socrates as a spokesman for their own viewpoints. The Socratic writings of the two authors were one of the main texts that led to Kenneth Dover's and Michel Foucault's understanding of pederasty as a matter of debate in Ancient Greece.[7]

Some scholars locate its origin in initiation ritual, particularly rites of passage on Crete, where it was associated with entrance into military life and the religion of Zeus.[10] It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and seems to have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture,[11] which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women.[12] Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy.[13] The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture.[14]

Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination.[15] Athenian law, for instance, recognized both consent and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior.[16]

Enid Bloch argues that many Greek boys in these relationships may have been traumatized by knowing that they were violating social customs, since the "most shameful thing that could happen to any Greek male was penetration by another male." She further argues that vases showing "a boy standing perfectly still as a man reaches out for his genitals" indicate the boy may have been "psychologically immobilized, unable to move or run away."[17] One vase shows a young man or boy running away from Eros, the Greek god of desire.[18]

Ancient Rome

Zeus (or Jupiter) in the form of an eagle abducting Ganymede; 1st-century AD Roman bas-relief

In Latin, mos Graeciae or mos Graecorum ("Greek custom" or "the way of the Greeks") refers to a variety of behaviors the ancient Romans regarded as Greek, including but not confined to sexual practice.[19]: 72  Homosexual behaviors at Rome were acceptable only within an inherently unequal relationship; male Roman citizens retained their masculinity as long as they took the active, penetrating role, and the appropriate male sexual partner was a prostitute or slave, who would nearly always be non-Roman.[20] In Archaic and classical Greece, paiderasteia had been a formal social relationship between freeborn males; taken out of context and refashioned as the luxury product of a conquered people, pederasty came to express roles based on domination and exploitation.[21]: 37, 40–41 et passim Slaves often were given, and prostitutes sometimes assumed Greek names regardless of their ethnic origin; the boys (pueri) to whom the poet Martial is attracted have Greek names.[22][23] The use of slaves defined Roman pederasty; sexual practices were "somehow 'Greek'" when they were directed at "freeborn boys openly courted in accordance with the Hellenic tradition of pederasty".[19]: 17 

Effeminacy or a lack of discipline in managing one's sexual attraction to another male threatened a man's "Roman-ness" and thus might be disparaged as "Eastern" or "Greek". Fears that Greek models might "corrupt" traditional Roman social codes (the mos maiorum) seem to have prompted a vaguely documented law (Lex Scantinia) that attempted to regulate aspects of homosexual relationships between freeborn males and to protect Roman youth from older men emulating Greek customs of pederasty.[21]: 27 [24]

Theologian Edith Humphrey commented that "the Graeco-Roman 'ideal' regarding homosexuality entailed erotic love, not of children, but of young (teenage) males of the same age that a young woman would be given in marriage, and that frequently the more mature male was only slightly older than the partner."[25]

Afghanistan

Bacha bāzī (Persian: بچه بازی, lit.'boy play') is a practice in which men (sometimes called bacha baz) buy and keep adolescent boys (sometimes called dancing boys) for entertainment and sex.[26] It is a custom in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.[27]

The most comprehensive study of young male dancers in Afghanistan in the second half of the twentieth century perhaps belongs to German folklorist Ingeborg Baldauf, who studied bacabozlik (bachah-bāzi) among Uzbeks in the north. Baldauf's study, published in 1988 in German under the title Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: Bacabozlik (Boy Love in Central Asia: Bachah-bāzī), contended that a significant percentage of the Uzbek male population in Afghanistan's northern provinces were involved in bachah-bāzī at some point in their lives—either as a dancing-bachah or a bachah-lover (or perhaps both in the course of their lives). Bachahs were expected to be familiar with Chagatai literature, have a good grasp of music, know how to sing and dance, have good manners, and accompany their lovers in homosocial occasions. In return, their lovers, or bachah-bāz, had to generously spend money to outdo their rivals, otherwise the bachah would leave for a wealthier man. While the exchange of a few kisses and caresses was permissible between the bachah and bachah-bāz, no sexual intercourse was allowed, or the relationship would end abruptly. According to Baldauf, some men even ruined their families and went bankrupt after spending lavishly on bachahs for years.[28]

Similarly, Gunnar Jarring, a Swedish diplomat and ethnographer who studied the Turkish dialects of Andkhoy in the mid-1930s, heard from an Andkhoy resident about a “current custom” among Afghan Turkmens and Uzbeks in the northern provinces who would keep boys in a cellar for a few years to teach them to dance. “If young boys are to be found,” writes Jarring, “[the people of Afghan Turkistan] never let women dance.[29]

Pre-Meiji Japan

Pederasty in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration was present in similar forms across different societal contexts. Accounts of Buddhist monasteries, samurai circles, and kabuki theatres all commonly noted the presence of relationships between adolescent or pre-pubescent boys (sometimes classified as wakashū) and older male mentor figures.[30][31] Art and literature of these relationships was common, with perhaps the most well-known collection being ukiyo-zōshi poet Ihara Saikaku's The Great Mirror of Male Love.

Victorian England

Classical studies during the time of the Victorian era rapidly changed with the exploration of what ancient Greece had to offer, quickly garnering admiration by those in study and capturing the attention of Victorian writers. Holding esteem of the Greeks, the Victorians began to model and apply Greek concepts and more onto their modern life. This application of Greek philosophy manifested with the Victorians' examination of Plato and subsequently the Greek concept of pederasty which had them evaluating and applying this conception of intimate Greek encounters to those found within the Victorian era.[32] This fascination and admiration led to works of literature which commemorated Pederasty and same-sex love by numerous individuals of this time such as John Addington Symonds with his essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics", or Oscar Wilde with his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, amongst others.

While there was a celebration of same-sex love to be found in pederasty by some individuals during this time, there was also a moral repudiation of it as well that found pederasty to be a degradation of the youthful soul. This view was put into law with the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 under section 11, the Labouchere Amendment.[33] It was this piece of legislation that cemented the discussion on pederasty and its reception by the public and mainstream media with the legal prosecution of Oscar Wilde, whose novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence to secure his imprisonment and conviction, labeling him as a "sodomite" under the eyes of the law.[34]

Pederasty is also associated with the late-19th-century Decadent movement which took place amidst the European literary and artistic community. The Greek practice was used by decadents to reinforce their own identity and non-conformance with heterosexuality.[35]

Within this movement was the emergence of the coterie known as the Uranians, pederasty being a theme often written upon in their poetry. The group was one of intimacy and wrote their works for themselves and shared amongst themselves, the group meaning to be a safe space and a source of consolidation for those who admired pederasty, devising it as "erotically and aesthetically superior to heterosexuality".[36]

Differences between Victorian and Ancient Greek pederasty

Though Victorians took inspiration from the Greeks regarding pederastic relationships, the social context of Victorian pederasty was different from Greek pederasty. Victorian pederasty did not share the factor of community acknowledgement. The Victorian era also lacked the notion that "asymmetry" in relationships, including age disparity and social status, was to be expected and aspired to. Sandra Boehringer and Stefano Caciagli comment that Greek and other ancient societies existed "before sexuality". Having a preference for gender or age did not assign a label to a relationship, but this did not preclude groups from disapproving of or enacting laws against pederastic practices.[37]

Pederasty in literature

Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford (1994)

Linda C. Dowling, author of Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford,[38] discusses in her novel the intricacies of homosexuality and homoeroticism that were part of Victorian culture in mid-century Oxford. Pederasty was briefly mentioned in lieu of William Hurrell Mallock's The New Republic, which is a parody of "aesthetic" verse in the epigraph for the Oxford pamphlet Boy-Worship, where pederasty is cited as "being a mode of male romantic attachment".[38] In The New Republic, Mallock mocks many important figures in Oxford University, including Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, and its references to Aestheticism and Hellenism.

In Dowling’s Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford,[39] it was noted that William Johnson Cory's classic paen paiderastia, Ionica (1858), enabled the Oxford cult of “boy worship” to surface, and influence the upbringing of the Uranian literary movement, which celebrated “heavenly” love between men, which is highly influenced by Plato's Symposium of 180e. Similarly to pederasty, Uranians have been influenced by the Ancient Greek to write poetry that represented homoeroticism and homosexuality of adolescent boys in the Decadent era. Dowling notes these detailed accounts of many different scholars in Victorian Oxford in order to reform the homosexual studies of Hellenistic culture that influenced the Decadent movement of the nineteenth century.

The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)

Oscar Wilde expresses a pederastic ethos to his stories by focusing on the intersection between “sensual experience and moral enlightenment."[40] Beginning in 1885, Wilde would look for attractive boys and invite them to a dinner party under the notion of mutual pleasure and the satisfaction of all the senses; emphasizing “physical senses as a means to artistry.”[40] Wilde often utilized fairy-tale conventions by writing events and actions in threes, clarifying structure by repeating images or phrases, and using biblical style and diction.[40] "The Happy Prince" is the first tale in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) that describes a growing relationship between a Prince and a Swallow until they both meet their fateful deaths.

In Wilde’s general story model, the connection between the older and younger man is spurred by the fact that they are completely different in nature.[41] The Prince is a large statue towering over the city, inherently an inanimate object, while the Sparrow is a tiny bird, always moving “of a family famous for its agility.”[42] In this work, the Prince is portrayed as a youthful character, as his own experience in life has been limited to playing with his companions in the garden and dancing in the Great Hall. His childishness is also seen in his lack of knowledge regarding emotions, as he “did not know what tears were,” living a life “where sorrow is not allowed to enter.” [42] The Swallow is older, as he has had many experiences in life, having traveled to many places. In addition to this foundation of inequality, exchanging ideas is also a vital proponent of pederastic thoughts.[41] The Prince educates the Sparrow on the cruelties of the city he oversees, teaching him societal virtues. The story ends with the Sparrow asking the Prince, “Will you let me kiss your hand?” and the Prince responds, “But you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you," showing the extremely intense love that is shared between these two male figures.[42] This story presents a pederastic view of a tale where there is mutual growth between student and teacher.

Pederasty Literature

Victorian Literary Works

Greek Literary Works

Modern view

In the modern world, an adult engaging in sexual activity with a underage person may be considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape, depending upon the local age of consent. In the case of underage heterosexual relationships, which were also practiced by the Greeks, it may also be considered child marriage. Age of consent laws exist because minors are considered incapable of meaningfully consenting to sexual activity until they reach a certain age.[44][45] Prepubescent and adolescent children are not socially equal to adults, and abusers emotionally manipulate the children they victimize.[46]: 65–66  These laws aim to give the minor some protection against predatory or exploitative sexual interaction with adults.[45][47]

Child sexual abuse has been correlated with depression,[48] post-traumatic stress disorder[49] and anxiety.[50][51][52][non-primary source needed]

Contemporary homosexual pedophiles may describe themselves as "boy lovers",[53][54] and sometimes appeal to practices in Ancient Greece as a justification of sexual relationships between adults and minors.[55][56]

Though outlawed, bacha bazi is still practiced in certain regions of Afghanistan.[57][58]

See also

References

  1. ^ Marguerite Johnson, Terry Ryan. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook p. 110.
  2. ^ Liddell and Scott, 1968 p. 585.
  3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, "pederasty".
  4. ^ C.D.C. Reeve, Plato on Love: Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades with Selections from Republic and Laws (Hackett, 2006), p. xxi online; Martti Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Augsburg Fortress, 1998, 2004), p. 57 online; Nigel Blake et al., Education in an Age of Nihilism (Routledge, 2000), p. 183 online.
  5. ^ Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, p. 57; William Armstrong Percy III, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities," in Same–Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West (Binghamton: Haworth, 2005), p. 17. Sexual variety, not excluding paiderastia, was characteristic of the Hellenistic era; see Peter Green, "Sex and Classical Literature," in Classical Bearings: Interpreting Ancient Culture and History (University of California Press, 1989, 1998), p. 146 online.
  6. ^ Dawson, Cities of the Gods, p. 193. See also George Boys-Stones, "Eros in Government: Zeno and the Virtuous City," Classical Quarterly 48 (1998), 168–174: "there is a certain kind of sexual relationship which was considered by many Greeks to be very important for the cohesion of the city: sexual relations between men and youths. Such relationships were taken to play such an important role in fostering cohesion where it mattered — among the male population — that Lycurgus even gave them official recognition in his constitution for Sparta" (p. 169).
  7. ^ a b Lear, Andrew (15 November 2013), Hubbard, Thomas K. (ed.), "Ancient Pederasty: An Introduction", A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 102–127, doi:10.1002/9781118610657.ch7, ISBN 978-1-118-61065-7, retrieved 13 June 2023
  8. ^ "How the ancient Greeks viewed pederasty and homosexuality". Big Think. 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  9. ^ Xenophon (1990). "Memoirs of Socrates," in "Conversations of Socrates". London: Penguin Books. p. 97.
  10. ^ Robert B. Koehl, "The Chieftain Cup and a Minoan Rite of Passage," Journal of Hellenic Studies 106 (1986) 99–110, with a survey of the relevant scholarship including that of Arthur Evans (p. 100) and others such as H. Jeanmaire and R.F. Willetts (pp. 104–105); Deborah Kamen, "The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece," in The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 91–92. Kenneth Dover, a pioneer in the study of Greek homosexuality, rejects the initiation theory of origin; see "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation," in Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology (Continuum, 1997), pp. 19–38. For Dover, it seems, the argument that Greek paiderastia as a social custom was related to rites of passage constitutes a denial of homosexuality as natural or innate; this may be to overstate or misrepresent what the initiatory theorists have said. The initiatory theory claims to account not for the existence of ancient Greek homosexuality in general but rather for that of formal paiderastia.
  11. ^ Thomas Hubbard, "Pindar's Tenth Olympian and Athlete-Trainer Pederasty," in Same–Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity, pp. 143 and 163 (note 37), with cautions about the term "homosocial" from Percy, p. 49, note 5.
  12. ^ Percy, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities," p. 17 online et passim.
  13. ^ For examples, see Kenneth Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1989), p. 165, note 18, where the eschatological value of paiderastia for the soul in Plato is noted. For a more cynical view of the custom, see the comedies of Aristophanes, e.g. Wealth 149-59. Paul Gilabert Barberà, "John Addington Symonds. A Problem in Greek Ethics. Plutarch's Eroticus Quoted Only in Some Footnotes? Why?" in The Statesman in Plutarch's Works (Brill, 2004), p. 303 online; and the pioneering view of Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis, 1921, 3rd ed.), vol. 2, p. 12 online. For Stoic "utopian" views of paiderastia, see Doyne Dawson, Cities of the Gods: Communist Utopias in Greek Thought (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 192 online.
  14. ^ See Andrew Lear, 'Was pederasty problematized? A diachronic view' in Sex in Antiquity: exploring gender and sexuality in the ancient world, eds. Mark Masterson, Nancy Rabinowitz, and James Robson (Routledge, 2014).
  15. ^ Michael Lambert, "Athens," in Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (Taylor & Francis, 2000), p. 122.
  16. ^ Gloria Ferrari notes that there were conventions of age pertaining to sexual activity, and if a man violated these by seducing a boy who was too young to consent to becoming an eromenos, the predator might be subject to prosecution under the law of hubris; Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece (University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 139–140.
  17. ^ Enid Bloch (21 March 2007). "Sex between Men and Boys in Classical Greece: Was It Education for Citizenship or Child Abuse?". The Journal of Men's Studies. 9, Number 2 / Winter 2001 (2). Men's Studies Press: 183–204. doi:10.3149/jms.0902.183. S2CID 143726937.
  18. ^ "Like the depiction of Eros pursuing a young man... for this lust is not entirely free of violence, and there can be something slightly frightening about it (after all, the boy in Ill. 19 is running away)" Glenn W. Most "The Athlete's Body in Ancient Greece" in Stanford Humanities Review V.6.2 1998
  19. ^ a b Williams, Craig Arthur (10 June 1999). Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity. Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-19-511300-6. Greek love is a modern phrase.
  20. ^ King, Helen, "Sowing the Field: Greek and Roman Sexology", in Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science: The History of Attitudes to Sexuality (Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 30.
  21. ^ a b Pollini, John, "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver", in Art Bulletin 81.1 (1999)
  22. ^ Joshel, Sandra R., Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 78 and 95
  23. ^ Younger, John G. Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z (Routledge, 2005), p. 38.
  24. ^ Bremmer, Jan, "An Enigmatic Indo-European Rite: Paederasty", in Arethusa 13.2 (1980), p. 288.
  25. ^ Humphrey, Edith M. "How Is Homosexuality Understood in Scripture, Tradition, and in Contemporary Theology?". AugustineCollege.org. Dialogue on Same-Sex Unions. Archived from the original on 30 June 2002. Retrieved 28 October 2008.
  26. ^ Jones, Samuel V. (25 April 2015). "Ending Bacha Bazi: Boy Sex Slavery and the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine". Indiana International & Comparative Law Review. 25 (1): 63–78. doi:10.18060/7909.0005. ISSN 2169-3226.
  27. ^ "Boys in Afghanistan Sold Into Prostitution, Sexual Slavery" Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine, Digital Journal, Nov 20, 2007
  28. ^ Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: bačabozlik, Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 1988
  29. ^ Jarring, Gunnar. Uzbek Texts from Afghan Turkestan, with Glossary. Lund: Lunds Universitets Arsskrift, 1938
  30. ^ Schmidt-Hori, Sachi (2021). TALES OF IDOLIZED BOYS: MALE-MALE LOVE IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE BUDDHIST NARRATIVES. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824886790.
  31. ^ Pflugfelder, Gregory M. (1997). Cartographies of desire: male–male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600–1950. University of California Press.
  32. ^ Hurst, Isobel (4 June 2010). "Victorian Literature and the Reception of Greece and Rome: Victorian Literature and the Reception of Greece and Rome". Literature Compass. 7 (6): 484–495. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4113.2010.00712.x.
  33. ^ Orrells, Daniel (2012). "Greek Love, Orientalism and Race: Intersections in Classical Reception". The Cambridge Classical Journal. 58: 194–230. doi:10.1017/S1750270512000073. ISSN 1750-2705. JSTOR 26430986.
  34. ^ Stern, Simon (2017). "Wilde's Obscenity Effect: Influence and Immorality in The Picture of Dorian Gray". The Review of English Studies. 68 (286): 756–772. doi:10.1093/res/hgx035. ISSN 0034-6551. JSTOR 26802391.
  35. ^ "Queer Decadent Classicism: Late-Victorian Representations of Ancient Roman Literary Culture". escholarship.org. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  36. ^ Taylor, Brian (February 1976). "Motives for Guilt-Free Pederasty: Some Literary Considerations". The Sociological Review. 24 (1): 97–114. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.1976.tb00575.x. ISSN 0038-0261. PMID 968516.
  37. ^ Boehringer, Sandra; Caciagli, Stefano; Stevens, Anne (2015). "The age of love: gender and erotic reciprocity in archaic Greece". Clio. Women, Gender, History (42): 24–51. ISSN 2554-3822. JSTOR 26273656.
  38. ^ a b Dowling, Linda (1994). Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford (1 ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-8014-2960-6. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w.
  39. ^ Dowling, Linda (1994). Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford (1 ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8014-2960-6. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt1287c6w.
  40. ^ a b c Wood, Naomi (2002). "Creating the Sensual Child: Paterian Aesthetics, Pederasty, and Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales". Marvels & Tales. 16 (2): 156–170. doi:10.1353/mat.2002.0029. ISSN 1521-4281. JSTOR 41388625.
  41. ^ a b Leeds), Chris Bartle (University of (2012). "Pederasty and Sexual Activity in Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales"". Victorian Network. 4 (2): 87–106. doi:10.5283/vn.39. ISSN 2042-616X.
  42. ^ a b c "The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde". www.online-literature.com. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  43. ^ Cory, William Johnson (1891). Ionica. University of California Libraries. London : G. Allen.
  44. ^ "Can Statutory Rape Laws Be Effective in Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy?". Guttmacher Institute. 15 June 2005. Retrieved 24 March 2008. Statutory rape laws are based on the premise that until a person reaches a certain age, that individual is legally incapable of consenting to sexual intercourse.
  45. ^ a b Sutherland, Kate. "From Jailbird to Jailbait: Age of Consent Law and the Construction of Teenage Sexualities". William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. 9 (3): 313–349. Retrieved 13 September 2019. age of consent laws render teenagers below a certain age incapable of consent to sexual activity...The justification usually put forward for age of consent laws is the protection of young persons from sexual exploitation by adults.
  46. ^ Salter, Anna (2018). Predators: pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-1-541-67382-3.
  47. ^ "State Legislators' Handbook for Statutory Rape Issues" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice – Office for Victims of Crime. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008. a number of different motivations were observed on the part of State legislators, including:...Desire to protect minors below a certain age from predatory, exploitative sexual relationships—for example, with much older partners.
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