Pederasty in ancient Greece

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Pederastic courtship scene
Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. BC, Painter of Cambridge; Object currently in the collection of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich, Germany.

The bearded man is depicted in a traditional pederastic courtship gesture, one hand reaching to fondle the young man, the other grasping his chin so as to look him in the eye. The youth is putting up symbolic resistance only.

See also Pederasty for situations other than Ancient Greece

Greek pederasty, as idealized by ancient Greeks during Classical times, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family, and was constructed as a moral and educational institution. "Pederasty" derives from the combination of pais (Greek for 'boy') with erastis (Greek for 'lover'; cf. eros).

In a wider sense it referred to erotic love between adolescents and adult men. In those city-states where pederasty was practiced, it took place within the context of a widely practiced male bisexuality.

History

The ancient Greeks of the pederastic city-states were the first to describe, study, systematize, and establish pederasty as an institution. The origin of that tradition has been variously explained. One school of thought, articulated by Sergent, holds that the Greek pederastic model evolved from far older Indo-European rites of passage, which were grounded in a shamanic tradition with roots in the neolithic.

The earliest Greek texts, specifically the works attributed to Homer, do not document formal pederastic practices. A number of theories attempt to explain that lack. A largely held view is the Dorian hypothesis first established by K. O. Muller in the 1800s. According to this theory pederasty was brought in by the Dorian warrior tribes who conquered Greece around 1200 BC. They settled most of the Peloponnesus along with the islands Crete, Thera, and Rhodes. This forced the Ionian Greeks towards Asia Minor but left important cities in Athens and Euboea.

Pederasty was constructed in various ways. In some areas, such as Boeotia, the man and boy were formally joined together and lived as a couple. In other areas, such as Elis, boys were persuaded by means of gifts, and in a few such relations were forbidden altogether. The Spartans however were said to practice chaste pederasty. (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, 2.12-14)

Foucault declared that pederasty was "problematized" in Greek culture, that it was "the object of a special — and especially intense — moral preoccupation" focusing on concern with the eromenos' chastity/moderation. Foucault's conclusions however are now thought to hold true only of Classical Athenian texts, while in Archaic Greece pederasty, rather than being problematized, was variously associated with the highest ideals.

Poets such as Theognis and Anacreon self-identify as pederasts, each thus presenting a persona embodying his own ideals for the tradition. In the case of Theognis, pederasty is political and pedagogical — the elite male's method of passing on his wisdom and loyalties to his beloved. Anacreon's values are erotic and Dionysiac, which is to say sensual and spiritual, and no less ideal than those of Theognis. Vase iconography of the period is consistent with this interpretation: the gifts offered, and the context of the palestra speak of pedagogic values, while the repeated inscriptions of "KALOS" idealize the beauty and physical attraction of the eromenos. The Idealization of Pederasty in Archaic Greek Poetry and Vase-Painting

Philosophical discourses

Main article: Philosophy of Greek pederasty

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Tomb of the Diver

Socrates, Plato, and Xenophon described the inspirational powers of love between men though decrying its physical expression. Upon the death of Plato the presidency of the Academy passed from lover to lover. Of the Stoics, Chrysippus, Cleanthes, and Zeno fell in love with young men. The topic of pederasty was the subject of extensive analysis. Some of the principal dilemmas discussed were:

• Which form should pederasty take, chaste or erotic?
• Is pederasty right or wrong?
• Is pederasty better or worse than the love of women?

Socrates, as represented in Plato's writings, appears to have favored chaste pederastic relationships, marked by a balance between desire and self-control. He pointedly criticized purely physical infatuations, for example by mocking Critias' lust for Euthydemus by comparing his behavior towards the boy to that of a "a piglet scratching itself against a rock" (Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.2.29-30). That, however, did not prevent him from frequenting the boy brothels, from which he bought and freed his future friend and student, Phaedo, nor from describing his erotic intoxication upon glimpsing the beautiful Charmides' naked body beneath his open tunic (Plato, Charmides 155c-e).

Socrates' love of Alcibiades, which was more than reciprocated, is held as an example of chaste pederasty. Plutarch and Xenophon, in their descriptions of Spartan pederasty, state that even though it is the beautiful boys who are sought above all others (contrary to the Cretan traditions), nevertheless the pederastic couple remains chaste.

Male relationships were represented in complex ways, some honorable and others dishonorable. But for the vast majority of ancient historians for a man to have not had a youth for a lover presented a deficiency in character. Plato, in his early works (the Symposium or in Phaedrus), does not question the principles of pederasty and states, referring to same-sex relationships:

• For I know not any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning in life than a virtuous lover, or to a lover than a beloved youth. For the principle, I say, neither kindred, nor honor, nor wealth, nor any motive is able to implant so well as love. Of what am I speaking? Of the sense of honor and dishonor, without which neither states nor individuals ever do any good or great work… And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonor and emulating one another in honor; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that when fighting at each other’s side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. Plato, Phaedrus in the Symposium;

Later, however, in his Laws, Plato spoke up against the decadence into which traditional Athenian pederasty was sinking, blamed pederasty for promoting civil strife and driving many to their wits' end, and recommended the prohibition of sexual intercourse with boys, laying out a path whereby this may be accomplished. His strategy predicts closely the one that was eventually used by the various Christian sects to drive all same-sex relationships underground. (Plato, Laws, 636D & 835E)

Other writers, often under the guise of "debates" between lovers of boys and lovers of women, have recorded other arguments used for and against pederasty. Some, like the charge that the practice was "unnatural" and not to be found among "the lions and the bears," applied to all relationships between men and youths. Others' charges do not involve traditional pederasty, but practices devised for the sexual satisfaction of the strong at the expense of the weak. Chief among these is denouncement of the castration of captive slave boys. As Lucian has it, "Effrontery and tyrannical violence have gone as far as to mutilate nature with a sacrilegious steel, finding, by ripping from males their very manhood, a way to prolong their use.""Erotes" text at Diotima

Social Aspects

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Two lovers
Red-figure kylix by Peithinos (detail). Late sixth century BCE. The border of the cup shows men courting youths and hetaerae (high-class prostitutes), who all put up varying degrees of resistance. Found in Vulci, Italy. Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Pederastic relationships were dyadic mentorships. These mentorships were sanctioned by the state, as evidenced by laws mandating and controlling such relationships. Likewise, they were consecrated by the religious establishment, as can be seen from the many myths describing such relationships between gods and heroes (Apollo and Hyacinth, Zeus and Ganymede, Heracles and Hylas, Pan and Daphnis) and between one hero and another (Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades). (It is interesting to note that the Greeks tried to project a semblance of pederasty (read: propriety) onto these last two pairs, despite a great deal of evidence that the two myths were originally intended to symbolize egalitarian relationships.) In general, the pederasty described in the Greek literary remains is clearly an aristocratic institution.

Historical as well as mythographical materials suggest that pederastic relationships also had to be approved by the boy's father. As Xenophon claims in his Symposium, "Nothing [of what concerns the boy] is kept hidden from the father, by a noble lover." This is consistent with the paramount role of the Greek patriarch, who had the right of life and death over his children. It is also consistent with the importance that a son would have had for him. Besides the bond of love between them, a son was the only hope for the survival of a Greek man's name, fortune and glory. In order to protect their sons from inappropriate attempts at seduction, fathers appointed slaves named pedagogues to watch over their sons.

Boys entered into such relationships in their teens, around the same age that Greek girls were given in marriage – also to adult husbands many years their senior. There was a difference between the two types of bonding: Boys usually had to be courted and were free to choose their mate. Girls, on the other hand, were used for economic and political advantage, their marriages contracted at the discretion of the father and the suitor.

The function of the relationship seems to have been the introduction of the young man into adult society and adult responsibilites. To that end the mentor was expected to teach the young man or to see to his education, and to give him certain appropriate ceremonial gifts (in Crete, an ox, a suit of armor, and a chalice (from kylix, Greek for wine cup), signifying his empowerment in agriculture, war and religion). The bond between the two participants seems to have been based in part on mutual love and desire – usually sexually expressed – and in part on the political interests of the two families. The relationships were open and public, and became part of the biography of the person. Thus when Spartan historians wrote about a personage they would usually indicate whom it was that he had heard or whom it was that he inspired.

For the youth – and his family – one important advantage of being mentored by an influential older man was the social networking aspect. Thus some considered it desirable to have had many older lovers / mentors in one’s younger years, both attesting to one's physical beauty and paving the way for attaining important positions in society. Typically, after their sexual relationship had ended and the young man had married, the older man and his protégé would remain on close terms throughout their life. For those lovers who continued their lovemaking after their beloveds had matured, the Greeks made allowances, saying, You can lift up a bull, if you carried the calf.

Pederasty was the idealized form of an age-structured homoeroticism that, like all social institutions, had other, less idyllic, manifestations, such as prostitution or the use of one’s slave boys. However, certain forms were prohibited, such as slaves penetrating freemen, or paying free boys or young men for sex. Free youths who did sell their favors were generally ridiculed and later in life were prohibited from performing certain official functions.

A speech given by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, in 346 B.C.E., Against Timarchus, is an example of how effective these regulations were. He argues against allowing Timarchus his political rights, based on his having spent his adolescence as the kept boy of a series of wealthy men. Aeschines won his case, and Timarchus is said to have taken his life upon having been deprived of his political rights. But Aeschines is careful to acknowledge what seemingly all Athens knows: his own dalliances with beautiful boys, the erotic poems he dedicated to these youths, and the scrapes he has gotten into as a result of his affairs, none of which — he hastens to point out — were mediated by money.

Even when lawful, it was not uncommon for the relationship to fail, as it was said of many boys that they "hated no one as much as the man who had been their lover". See Death of King Philip II of Macedon Likewise, the Cretans required the boy to declare whether the relationship had been to his liking, thus giving him an opportunity to break it off if any violence had been done to him.

Educational and military aspects

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Warrior and youthful charioteer
Athenian marble bas-relief; Pediment of a kouros statue, 490 BCE; National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Ancient writers, as well as modern historians such as Bruce Thronton, hold that the goal of paiderastia was pedagogical, the channeling of Eros into the creation of noble and good citizens. The various mythographical materials available suggest religious training (see story of Tantalus, Poseidon, and Pelops) as well as military training (Hercules and Hylas). The theme of learning to drive a war chariot occurs repeatedly (Poseidon and Pelops, Laius and Chrysippus). Apollo is said to have taught Orpheus, one of his beloveds, to play the harp. And Zeus had Ganymede serve nectar, a theme with religious connotations. It is thus plausible to assume that even as the loves of the gods paralleled and symbolized those of the mortals, their pedagogy pointed to aspects of the educational process that took place between a lover and his beloved.

In talking about the Cretan rite, the historian Ephorus (quoted in Strabo of Amaseia's Geography X.4.21) informs us that the man (known as philetor, befriender) took the boy (known as kleinos, "glorious") into the wilderness, where they spent several months hunting and feasting with their friends. If the boy was satisfied with the conduct of his would-be comrade, he changed his title from kleinos to parastates (comrade and bystander in the ranks of battle and life), returned to the philetor and lived in close bonds of public intimacy with him. Ephorus' account does not discuss the educational aspects of the sojourn. However, this is clearly a coming-of-age rite culminating in a major ceremony upon the return of the pair from the mountains, and a process of acculturation into male society is implied. (See [1] for Athenian practices and philosophy)

Military function

Military training is inseparable from the other educational aspects of pederasty since the times of the Ancient Greeks were marked by continuous warfare, both internal and external. Martial prowess was held in the highest esteem, and one of the principal functions of pederastic relationships was the cultivation of bravery and fighting skills.

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At the palaestra
Youth, holding a net shopping bag filled with apples, a love gift, draws close to a man who reaches out to fondle him; Attic red-figure plate 530-430 BCE; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Sexual aspects

Ancient sources suggest a range of sexual activity. Cicero, describing Spartan customs, suggests that relations were expected to stop short of consummation, "The Lacedaemonians, while they permit all things except outrage [hybris, "rape"] in the love of youths, certainly distinguish the forbidden by a thin wall of partition from the sanctioned, for they allow embraces and a common couch to lovers.' (De Rep., iv. 4) On the other hand, one Athenian term for sodomy was "to do it the Lacedemonian way." Literary sources are a lot more risqué, especially ancient comedy. For example, Aristophanes, in 'Peace', his parody of Ganymede riding on the back of Zeus in eagle form, has his character ride to Olympus on the back of a dung beetle, a scatological pun on anal sex. Some modern historians, such as Thornton, conclude that whether the relationship was consummated or not probably depended on the partners.

The majority of ceramic paintings depict the older partner importuning the younger, in a variation of the Greek gesture for pleading. Normally the supplicant embraced the knees of the person whose favor he sought, while grasping the man's chin so as to look into his eyes. Pederastic art usually shows the man standing, grasping the boy's chin with one hand and reaching to fondle his genitals with the other. The boys are shown in varying degrees of rejecting or accepting the man's attentions. Less frequently, intercrural intercourse is depicted, where the erastes is shown inserting his penis between the thighs of the younger one. Only very rarely is anal sex suggested or shown, though there are literary and epigraphic indications suggesting it was more common.

All this was claimed to be endured by the youth without physical excitement. In his book Greek Homosexuality, K. J. Dover states that the eromenos was not "supposed" to feel desire for the erastes, as that would be unmanly. More recent evidence suggests that in actual practice (as opposed to theory) there was, in fact, reciprocation of desire. As Thomas Hubbard points out in a critique of David Halperin's contention that boys were not aroused, some vases do show boys as being sexually responsive, and "Fondling a boy's organ (cf. Aristophanes, Birds 142) was one of the most commonly represented courtship gestures on the vases. What can the point of this act have been unless lovers in fact derived some pleasure from feeling and watching the boy's developing organ wake up and respond to their manual stimulation?" [2]

The theme of mutuality of desire was a topic of discussion in ancient times as well. While the passive role was seen as problematic, to be attracted to men was often taken as a sign of masculinity, and it was thought that the boys who most sought the company and affections of men were the most likely to be successful in life.

Religious aspects

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Ganymede rolling a hoop and bearing aloft a cockerel - a love gift from Zeus (in pursuit, on obverse of vase).
Attic red-figure crater, 500-490 BCE; Painter of Berlin; Louvre, Paris)

Myths provide more than fifty examples of young men who were the lovers of gods (Sergent). Poets and traditions ascribe Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Orpheus, Hercules, Dionysus, Hermes, and Pan to such love. All the main gods of the pantheon except Ares had these relationships.

Mythographic material suggests that the initiate experienced ecstatic states of spirit journey leading to mystic death and transfiguration, analogous to practices still reported today in shamanic work. If so, by the fifth century the Greeks had forgotten the connection. In 476 BC, the poet Pindar, in his Olympian Ode I, claims to be horrified by suggestions that the gods would eat human flesh – in this context, an obvious shamanic metaphor. An opposite theory (discussed by Murray in his Homosexualities) gives credence to the texts that credit (or blame) the Cretans with its origination (Aristotle et al.) and notes the anomaly of an apparent path of diffusion radiating from Crete, while the areas (in the north of Greece) closest to the Indo-European sources are not known to have institutionalized the practice.

Myths also were a vehicle for conveying a set of moral standards for such relationship. In the myth of Zeus and Ganymede, when Zeus sends gifts and assurances to Tros, king of Troy and father of Ganymede, the ancients were reminded that even the king of Heaven must show consideration to the father of the eromenos. Many of the other pederastic myths likewise incorporate the presence of the father, suggesting an essential role for the father in these relationships. The myths also spoke directly to the youths, as is shown by a recently discovered version of the Narcissus myth. This, a more archaic version than the one related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, is a moral tale in which the proud and unfeeling Narcissus is punished by the gods for having spurned all his male suitors.[3]

Political aspects

The state benefitted from these relationships, according to the statements of ancient writers. The friendship functioned as a restraint on the youth, since if he committed a crime it was not he but his lover who was punished. In the military the lovers fought side by side, with each vying to shine before the other. Thus it was said that an army of lovers would be invincible, as was the case until the battle of Chaeronea with the Theban Sacred Band, a batallion of one hundred and fifty warriors, each aided by his beloved charioteer.

Pederastic couples were also said to be feared by tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than that of obedience to a tyrannical ruler. Athenaeus, in his Deipnosophists, 602, states that "Hieronymus the Aristotelian says that love with boys was fashionable because several tyrannies had been overturned by young men in their prime, joined together as comrades in mutual sympathy."

He gives as examples of such pederastic couples the Athenians Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were credited (perhaps symbolically) with the overthrow of the tyrant Hippias and the establishment of the democracy, and also Chariton and Melanippus. Others, such as Aristotle, claimed that some states encouraged pederasty as a means of population control, by directing love and sexual desire into non-procreative channels, a feature of pederasty also employed by other cultures.

Political leaders Solon, Peisistratus, Hippias, Hipparchus, Themistocles, Aristides, Critias, Demosthenes, and Aeschines of Athens; Pausanias, Lysander, and Agesilaus of Sparta; Polycrates of Samos; Hieron and Agathocles of Syracuse; Epaminondas and Pelopidas of Thebes; and Archelaus, Philip II, and Alexander of Macedon were recorded to have had same-sex love.

Crete

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Zeus and Ganymede

The Cretans, a people described by Plutarch as renowned for their moderation and conservative ways, practiced an archaic form of pederasty (described by Ephorus of Cyme in Strabo's Geography 10.21.4) in which the man enacted a ritual kidnapping of a boy of his choosing, with the approval of the boy's father. The practice seems to have been reserved for the aristocracy: the beloved was known as kleinos, glorious, and enjoyed high status. Not surprisingly, these same Cretans were credited with introducing the myth of Zeus kidnapping Ganymede to be his lover in Olympus – though even the king of the gods had to make amends to the father. (Plato, Laws)

As Strabo records it,

• "(The Cretans) have a peculiar custom in regard to love affairs, for they win the objects with their love, not by persuasion, but by abduction; the lover tells the friends of the boy three or four days beforehand that he is going to make the abduction; but for the friends to conceal the boy, or not to let him go forth the appointed road, is indeed a most disgraceful thing, a confession, as it were, that the boy is unworthy to obtain such a lover; and when they meet, if the abductor is the boy’s equal or superior in rank or other respects, the friends pursue him and lay hold of him, though only in a very gentle way, thus satisfying the custom; and after that they cheerfully turn the boy over to him to lead away; if, however, the abductor is unworthy, they take the boy away from him."

In this passage it is the boy’s masculinity that consigns him his lover. Together the boy and his lover live in the wilderness for a time. Upon their return the lover gives the boy expensive gifts, among which a military outfit, an ox (a sacrifice to Zeus), and a drinking cup (symbolic of spiritual accomplishment). Strabo also states in the same work:

• "It is disgraceful for those who are handsome in appearance or descendants of illustrious ancestors to fail to obtain lovers, the presumption being that their character (masculinity) is responsible for such a fate. But the parastathentes (those who stand by their lover in battle) receive honors; for in both the dances and the races they have the positions of highest honor, and are allowed to dress in better clothes than the rest, that is, in the habit given them by their lovers; and not then only, but even after they have grown to manhood, they wear a distinctive dress, which is intended to make known the fact that each wearer has become kleinos, for they call the loved one keinos (distinguished) and the lover philetor."

Aristotle stated that the Cretans encouraged homosexuality as a means of population control on the island community in his Politics: [They] “segregated the women and instituted sexual relations among the males so that women would not have children.”

Thebes

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Laius abducting Chrysippus, who is reaching out to Pelops, his father.
Apulian volute crater, ca. 320 BCE (detail). The Getty, Malibu, California.

In Thebes, another renowned center of pederasty, the practice was enshrined in the founding myth of the city. In this instance the story was meant to teach by counterexample: it depicts Laius, one of the mythical ancestors of the Thebans, in the role of a lover who betrays the father and rapes the son. For his double crime the gods meted out exemplary punishment, visited not only upon him, but upon his own son, Oedipus, and his children. (In an apparent attempt to emphasize Laius' criminality, ancient artistic convention had his victim depicted not as an adolescent – the usual representation of beloved boys in Greek paintings on ceramic – but as a child, a reference to the contempt the Greeks had for men who pursued under-age boys) See [4] on the protection of Athenian boys against unlawful acts. Theban pederasty, however, was not the result of the "disaster of Laius," but it was the Theban lawgivers who instituted pederasty as an educational device for boys, in order to "soften, while they were young, their natural fierceness," and to "temper the manners and characters of the youth." (Plutarch, Life of Pelopidas)

Sparta

The Spartans required all their adult men to engage a boy in a pederastic relationship, and Aelian reports that Spartiates who failed to take an eromenos were fined by the ephors. Plutarch claims that the relationships were chaste, and that it was as unthinkable for a lover to sexually consumate a relationship with his beloved as for a father with his own son. The law was given to them by their quasi-mythical founding legislator, Lycurgus, who fashioned the Spartan state into an idealistic community that lasted hundreds of years. However, unlike in Crete, in Sparta, Athens and most other Greek city-states the man first had to win the affection of the boy he sought.

The title given lover was eispnelas, "inspirer," while the beloved was known as the aites, "hearer." Pederasty and military training were intimately connected in Sparta, as in many other cities. The Spartans supposedly sacrificed to Eros before every battle. The man was responsible for the boy's training, and if his pupil showed any sign of weakness, like crying out in pain in battle, it was his lover who was punished.

Athens

The founder of the pederastic tradition in Athens is said to be the lawgiver Solon, who also composed poetry praising the love of boys. One fragment survives, in which he praises a "boy in the lovely flower of youth, desiring his thighs and sweet mouth." In Athens, the lover was known as the erastes, and his young partner as the eromenos. beloved. Athenian society generally encouraged the erastes to pursue a boy to love, tolerating excesses like sleeping on the youth's stoop and otherwise going to great lengths to make himself noticed. At the same time, the boy and his family were expected to put up resistance and not give in too easily. Boys who succumbed too readily, or were seduced by gifts and wealth were looked down upon.

Tyranny

The rise of democracy

Influence on literature and the arts

A lover and a beloved kiss
Tondo from an Attic kylix, 5th c. BCE by the Briseis painter. Louvre

Poets write of pederasty from the earliest eras to the end of the Hellenistic era. Five philosophical dialogues debate its ethical implications. Notable scholars and writers such as Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and pseudo-Lucian would discuss the topic. Tragedies on the theme became very popular. Aristophanes made comical theater about sexual relationships between men and youths.

The famous poets Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Theognis, Pindar and of course Sappho all wrote of pederastic love. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides made plays on the subject.

Vases portray numerous homoerotic depictions with hundreds of inscriptions celebrating the love of youths. Famous politicians, warriors, artists, and writers would enjoy these relationships. Such idealized relationships held an honored place in their culture from at least 600 BC to 400 AD. (Dialogues)

The sculptor Phidias even memorialized his lover Pantarces in marble by inscribing his name on the finger of a colossal statue of Zeus. During the Hellenistic era (332 BC – 400 AD) Plutarch, Athenaeus, and Aelian traced the history of Greek homosexuality to its beginning.

Ceremonies and proverbs

• Oath of loyalty at the tomb of Iolaus in Thebes; rite undertaken by lovers to consecrate the relationship. (Plutarch, Eroticus, cap. xvii)

• The Hyakinthia festival in Sparta, honoring Hyacinth, the mythical young prince of Sparta and beloved of Apollo. The festivities continued for three days, with the first mourning the death of Hyacinthus and the last two celebrating his rebirth. It has been suggested that the cycle symbolizes the development of a youth in such relationships, in which he dies as a child in order to be reborn as an adult.

• Gymnopaedia; Spartan dances by naked boys, attendance restricted to married men.

• The Diocleia festival at Megara in honour of Diocles, lover of Philolaus; A kissing contest was held in which the boys would kiss a male judge, with a wreath awarded to the one with the best kiss. (Theocritus, Idyll 12:30)

• A lover is the best friend a boy will ever have. From Plato's Phaedrus, 231.

• You can carry a bull, if you carried the calf. Also in Ancient Rome, as Taurum tollet, qui vitulum sustulerit. Petronius, The Satyricon, III.67; Said to excuse men's relations with "boys" who were no longer adolescents.

Modern scholarship

The ethical views held in those societies (such as Athens, Thebes, Crete, Sparta, Elis, and others) on the practice of pederasty have been explored by scholars only since the end of the nineteenth century. One of the first to do so was John Addington Symonds, who wrote his seminal work A Problem in Greek Ethics in 1873, but had to wait twenty eight years to be able to publish it (in revised form) in 1901 [5]. Edward Carpenter expanded the scope of the study, with his 1914 work, Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk. The text examines homoerotic practices of all types, not only pederastic ones, and ranges over cultures spanning the whole globe[6].

Mainstream Ancient Greek studies however had historically omitted references of the widespread practice of homosexuality. In 1910 a book called Maurice by E. M. Forster made reference to this "code of silence" by having a Cambridge professor employing “Omit: a reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks.” Four decades later in the 1940s: “This aspect of Greek morals is an extraordinary one, into which, for the sake of our equanimity, it is unprofitable to pry too closely”, by H. Michell. It would not be until 1978 when an English book on Greek homosexuality was first in the public realm by K. J. Dover.

See also

• Pedophilia
• Age disparity in sexual relationships
• Friendship
• Homosexuality in ancient Greece
• Mythology of same-sex love
• Sodomy

References

General

• Growing Up Sexually: A World Atlas
• Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Vol. 2: Sexual Inversion, by Havelock Ellis

Ancient Greece

• Greek Homosexuality, by Kenneth J. Dover; New York; Vintage Books, 1978. ISBN 0394742249
• Percy, William A. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0252022092
• Die Griechische Knabenliebe [Greek Pederasty], by Herald Patzer; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982. In: Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Vol. 19 No. 1.
• Homosexuality in Greek Myth, by Bernard Sergent; Beacon Press, 1986. ISBN 0807057002
• Homosexualité et initiation chez les peuples indo-européens, by Bernard Sergent, Payot & Rivages, 1996, ISBN 2228890529
• Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths, by Andrew Calimach; Haiduk Press, 2001. ISBN 0971468605
• Lovers' Legends Unbound, by Andrew Calimach et al.; Haiduk Press, 2004. ISBN 0971468613
• Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, by Thomas K. Hubbard; U. of California Press, 2003. [7] ISBN 0520234308

External links

• Intergenerational and Egalitarian Models
• The Androphile Project – The World History of Male Love: Male Love in Greece
• Ephorus on Cretan pederasty
• Pederasty and Pedagogy In Archaic Greece