View source for Pederasty in ancient Greece

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{{Short description|Social institution of ancient Greece}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}

[[File:Detail of fresco from lateral walls of the Tomb of the Diver depicting a symposium scene, 5th century BC, Paestum Archaeological Museum (14603183465)2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A pederastic couple at a symposium sharing a couch. It has been commented that the figure on the right is seeking a kiss from the figure on the left.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0|url-access=registration|author=Kenneth James Dover|title=Greek Homosexuality|date=1989|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0674362616|page=118}}</ref> A wall painting from the [[Tomb of the Diver]] from the Greek town of [[Paestum]] in Italy. 470 BCE]]

'''Pederasty in ancient Greece''' was a socially acknowledged relationship between an older 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> It was characteristic of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece|Classical periods]].<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>  
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| image1            =Fresco from the Tomb of the Diver, near Paestum, ca. 470 BCE, Paestum museum (4).jpg
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| footer            = Two frescos with each showing pederastic couples at a symposium. Frescos from the [[Tomb of the Diver]]. Top image is from the north wall. Bottom image from the south wall. 470 BCE}}

[[File:Coupe – MSR – Rituels Grecs – AGER inv G 467.jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic couples. Boy at centre is holding an oenochoe in his left hand and giving a kylix to a person on a couch in his right hand. Attic kylix. Around 460-450 BCE]]
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", ''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 may 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, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ejPZu3Ktu5cC&pg=PA17 ''Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities''], p. 17 ''et passim''.</ref>

Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in [[ancient Greek literature|ancient literature]] and [[Greek philosophy|philosophy]].<!--this is a point too fundamental to cite fully here; it will be discussed at length in a section--><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'' 149–159. Paul Gilabert Barberà, "John Addington Symonds. ''A Problem in Greek Ethics''. Plutarch's ''Eroticus'' Quoted Only in Some Footnotes? Why?" in [https://books.google.com/books?id=cruTUAFuWWMC&pg=PA303 ''The Statesman in Plutarch's Works''] (Brill, 2004), p. 303; and the pioneering view of [[Havelock Ellis]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=-tgTAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA12 ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex''] (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1921, 3rd ed.), vol. 2, p. 12. For [[Stoicism|Stoic]] "utopian" views of ''paiderastia'', see Doyne Dawson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HwsWp43OWjsC&pg=PA192 ''Cities of the Gods: Communist Utopias in Greek Thought''] (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 192.</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> The English word "[[pederasty]]" in present-day usage might imply the [[Laws regarding child sexual abuse|abuse]] of [[minor (law)|minors]] in certain jurisdictions, but [[Classical Athens|Athenian]] law, for instance, recognized both [[Consent (criminal law)|consent]] and [[Age of consent|age]] as factors in regulating sexual behavior.<ref>See Osborne following. Gloria Ferrari, however, 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>

==Terminology==
[[File:Kouros anavissos.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Kouros]]'' representing an idealized youth. Around 530 BCE]]

Since the publication in 1978 of [[Kenneth Dover]]'s work ''[[Greek Homosexuality (book)|Greek Homosexuality]]'', the terms ''erastês'' and ''erômenos'' have been standard for the two pederastic roles.<ref>The pair of terms are used both within and outside the field of classical studies. For surveys and reference works within the study of ancient culture and history, see for instance ''The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture'', a publication of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers (Cambridge University Press, 1984, 2003), pp. 149–150 [https://books.google.com/books?id=VgDKeqi4or8C&pg=PA149 online]; John Grimes Younger, ''Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z'' pp. 91–92 [https://books.google.com/books?id=IEqPs2Toy7YC&pg=PA92 online.] Outside classical studies, see for instance Michael Burger, ''The Shaping of Western Civilization: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment'' (University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. 50–51 [https://books.google.com/books?id=MQUs2QnC2F4C&pg=PA50 online]; Richard C. Friedman and Jennifer I. Downey, ''Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice'' (Columbia University Press, 2002), pp. 168–169 [https://books.google.com/books?id=mwtokhymV_4C&pg=PA168 online]; Michael R. Kauth, ''True Nature: A Theory of Sexual Attraction'' (Springer, 2000), p. 87 [https://books.google.com/books?id=PzDKr-qCdTAC&pg=PA87 online]; Roberto Haran, ''Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis'' (2004), p. 165ff. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SOl1hki9tSMC&pg=PA165 online.]</ref> Both words derive from the Greek verb ''erô'', ''erân'', "to love"; see also [[eros]]. 

In Dover's strict dichotomy, the ''erastês'' ({{lang|grc|ἐραστής}}, plural ''erastai'') is the older sexual actor, seen as the active or dominant participant,<ref>Kenneth Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'' (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1989), p. 16.</ref> with the [[suffix]] ''-tês'' (-{{lang|grc|τής}}) denoting [[Agent (grammar)|agency]].<ref>Herbert Weir Smyth, "Formation of Substantives", sections 838–839, ''Greek Grammar'' (Harvard University Press, 1920, 1984), pp. 229–230. The insertion of the [[sigma]] between verb stem and suffix is [[Phonaesthetics|euphonic]] (§836).</ref> ''Erastês'' should be distinguished from Greek ''paiderastês'', which meant "lover of boys" usually with a negative connotation.<ref>Liddell and Scott, ''Greek-English Lexicon'', p. 1286.</ref> The Greek word ''paiderastia'' ({{lang|grc|παιδεραστία}}) is an [[abstract noun]]. It is formed from ''paiderastês'', which in turn is a compound of ''pais'' ("child", plural ''paides'') and ''erastês'' (see below).<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pederasty Etymologies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308130049/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pederasty |date=8 March 2016 }} in ''American Heritage Dictionary'', ''Random House Dictionary'', and ''Online Etymology Dictionary''</ref> Although the word ''pais'' can refer to a child of either sex, ''paiderastia'' is defined by [[Henry Liddell|Liddell]] and [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Scott]]'s [[A Greek-English Lexicon|''Greek-English Lexicon'']] as "the love of boys", and the verb ''paiderasteuein'' as "to be a lover of boys".<ref>[[Henry Liddell|Henry George Liddell]] and [[Robert Scott (philologist)|Robert Scott]], ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940 9th ed., with 1968 supplement in 1985 reprinting), p. 1286.</ref> The ''erastês'' himself might only be in his early twenties,<ref>William Armstrong Percy III, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'' (University of Illinois Press, 1996), p. 1 [https://books.google.com/books?id=TCvoj1efp8UC&pg=PA1 online.]</ref> and thus the age difference between the two males who engage in sexual activity might be negligible.<ref>[[Martha Nussbaum]], "Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies", ''Sex and Social Justice'' (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 309: "because the popular thought of our day tends to focus on the scare image of a 'dirty old man' hanging around outside the school waiting to molest young boys, it is important to mention, as well, that the ''erastês'' might not be very far in age from the ''erômenos''."</ref>

The word ''erômenos'', or "beloved" (ἐρώμενος, plural ''eromenoi''), is the [[grammatical gender|masculine]] form of the [[Ancient Greek grammar#Participle|present passive participle]] from ''erô'', viewed by Dover as the passive or subordinate sexual participant. An ''erômenos'' can also be called ''pais'', "child".<ref name="autogenerated1">Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', p. 16.</ref> The ''pais'' was regarded as a future citizen, not an "inferior object of sexual gratification", and was portrayed with respect in art.<ref>Marguerite Johnson and Terry Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook'' (Routledge, 2005), p. 4 [https://books.google.com/books?id=HhjWNd2R1F8C&pg=PA4 online.]</ref> The word can be understood as an endearment such as a parent might use, found also in the poetry of [[Sappho]]<ref>It is uncertain whether the ''pais'' Kleis is Sappho's actual daughter, or whether the word is affectionate. [[Anne L. Klinck]], "'Sleeping in the Bosom of a Tender Companion': Homoerotic Attachments in Sappho", ''Same-sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West'' (Haworth Press, 2005), p. 202 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ejPZu3Ktu5cC&pg=PA202 online]; Jane McIntosh Snyder, ''The Woman and the Lyre'' (Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), p. 3 [https://books.google.com/books?id=X4CLx2PMk4wC&pg=PA3 online.] The word ''pais'' can also be used of a bride; see Johnson and Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society'', p. 80, note 4.</ref> and a designation of only relative age. Both art and other literary references show that the ''erômenos'' was at least a teen, with modern age estimates ranging from 13 to 20, or in some cases up to 30. Most evidence indicates that to be an eligible ''erômenos'', a youth would be of an age when an aristocrat began his formal military training,<ref>"We can conclude that the ''erômenos'' is generally old enough for mature military and political action": Nussbaum, "Platonic Love and Colorado Law", p. 309 [https://books.google.com/books?id=7zoaKIolT9oC&pg=PA309 online.]</ref> that is, from fifteen to seventeen.<ref>See especially Mark Golden, endnote to "Slavery and Homosexuality at Athens: Age Differences between ''erastai'' and ''eromenoi''," in ''Homosexuality in the Ancient World'' (Taylor & Francis, 1992) pp. 175–176 [https://books.google.com/books?id=JrpU6O3VnawC&pg=PA175 online]; also Johnson and Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Culture'', p. 3; Barry S. Strauss, ''Fathers and Sons in Athens: Ideology and Society in the Era of the Peloponnesian War'' (Routledge, 1993), p. 30 [https://books.google.com/books?id=pYcOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA30 online]; Martha Nussbaum, "Eros and the Wise: The Stoic Response to a Cultural Dilemma," ''Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy'' 13 (1995, 2001), p. 230 [https://books.google.com/books?id=OHcl0NCon7EC&pg=PA260 online.] Nuances of age also discussed by Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', pp. 131–132 [https://books.google.com/books?id=adP_n7PziZIC&pg=PA131 online.]</ref> As an indication of physical maturity, the ''erômenos'' was sometimes as tall as or taller than the older ''erastês'', and may have his first facial hair.<ref>Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', pp. 16, 85; Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', p. 135.</ref> Another word used by the Greeks for the younger sexual participant was ''paidika'', a [[grammatical gender|neuter]] plural [[adjective]] ("things having to do with children") treated [[syntax|syntactically]] as masculine singular.<ref name="autogenerated1" />

In poetry and philosophical literature, the ''erômenos'' is often an embodiment of idealized youth; a related ideal depiction of youth in [[Archaic Greece|Archaic culture]] was the ''[[kouros]]'', the long-haired male statuary [[art nude|nude]].<ref>Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', p. 61, considers the ''kouroi'' to be examples of pederastic art. "The particular attributes that ''kouroi'' display match those of such 'beloveds' in the visual and literary sources from the late archaic to the classical age": Deborah Tam Steiner, ''Images in Mind: Statues in Archaic and Classical Greek Literature and Thought'' (Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 215 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Zah23ru6oCMC&pg=PA218 online.] The presence of facial and pubic hair on some ''kouroi'' disassociates them with the ''erômenos'' if the latter is taken only as a boy who has not entered adolescence; thus Jeffrey M. Hurwit, "The Human Figure in Early Greek Sculpture and Vase-Painting," in ''The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 275 [https://books.google.com/books?id=6LUcuGdJF30C&pg=PA275 online.]</ref> In ''[[The Fragility of Goodness]]'', [[Martha Nussbaum]], following Dover, defines the ideal ''erômenos'' as
<blockquote>[a] beautiful creature without pressing needs of his own. He is aware of his attractiveness, but self-absorbed in his relationship with those who desire him. He will smile sweetly at the admiring lover; he will show appreciation for the other's friendship, advice, and assistance. He will allow the lover to greet him by touching, affectionately, his genitals and his face, while he looks, himself, demurely at the ground. … The inner experience of an ''erômenos'' would be characterized, we may imagine, by a feeling of proud self-sufficiency. Though the object of importunate solicitation, he is himself not in need of anything beyond himself. He is unwilling to let himself be explored by the other's needy curiosity, and he has, himself, little curiosity about the other. He is something like a god, or the statue of a god.<ref>[[Martha Nussbaum]], ''The Fragility of Goodness: (Cambridge University Press, 1986, 2001), p. 188 [https://books.google.com/books?id=GCKqZkyzFO0C&pg=RA2-PA188 online.]''</ref>
</blockquote>

[[File:Peithinos, kylix con incrontri erotici, attica, 500 ac ca., da vulci 04.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Pederastic couples. Outside of an Attic kylix. Peithinos Painter. Around 500 BCE. Altes Museum]]
[[File:Vase - Getty Museum (82.AE.53) - 3.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Pederastic scene between two males. Attic Psykter. Terracotta. Attributed to Smikros. Around 510 BCE]]
Dover insisted that the active role of the ''erastês'' and the passivity of the ''erômenos'' is a distinction "of the highest importance",<ref name="autogenerated1" /> but subsequent scholars have tried to present a more varied picture of the behaviors and values associated with ''paiderastia''. Although ancient Greek writers use ''erastês'' and ''erômenos'' in a pederastic context, the words are not technical terms for social roles, and can refer to the "lover" and "beloved" in other hetero- and homosexual couples.<ref>Dover, "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation," pp. 19–20, notes the usage of "the same words for homosexual as for heterosexual emotion … and the same for its physical consummation" from the archaic period on.</ref>

==Origins==
[[File:Kylix - Terracotta - 2.jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic scene. Kylix. Terracotta. Carpenter Painter. 510–500 BCE]]

The Greek practice of pederasty came suddenly into prominence at the end of the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]] of Greek history. There is a brass plaque from [[Crete]], about 650–625 BC, which is the oldest surviving representation of pederastic custom. Such representations appear from all over Greece in the next century; literary sources show it as being established custom in many cities by the 5th century BC.<ref>Dover, pp. 205–207.</ref>

Cretan pederasty as a social institution seems to have been grounded in an initiation which involved [[Bride kidnapping|abduction]]. A man ({{langx|grc|φιλήτωρ}} – ''philetor'', "lover") selected a youth, enlisted the chosen one's friends to help him, and carried off the object of his affections to his ''andreion'', a sort of men's club or meeting hall. The youth received gifts, and the ''philetor'' along with the friends went away with him for two months into the countryside, where they hunted and feasted. At the end of this time, the ''philetor'' presented the youth with three contractually required gifts: military attire, an ox, and a drinking cup. Other costly gifts followed. Upon their return to the city, the youth sacrificed the ox to [[Zeus]], and his friends joined him at the feast. He received special clothing that in adult life marked him as ''kleinos'', "famous, renowned". The initiate was called a ''parastatheis'', "he who stands beside", perhaps because, like [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]] the cup-bearer of Zeus, he stood at the side of the ''philetor'' during meals in the ''andreion'' and served him from the cup that had been ceremonially presented. In this interpretation, the formal custom reflects [[myth and ritual]].<ref>The main source for this rite of initiation is [[Strabo]] 10.483–484, quoting [[Ephoros]]; the summary given here is the construction of Robert B. Koehl, "The Chieftain Cup and a Minoan Rite of Passage", ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 106 (1986), pp. 105–107.</ref>

==Social aspects==

[[File:Kiss Briseis Painter Louvre G278 full.jpg|thumb|Attic [[Kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] depicting a lover and a beloved kissing. Artist: painter of Briseis. Around 480 BCE. Louvre Museum<ref name="Brendle 47">{{cite journal |last=Brendle |first=Ross |date=April 2019 |title=The Pederastic Gaze in Attic Vase-Painting |journal=Arts |volume=8|issue=2 |page=47 |doi=10.3390/arts8020047 |doi-access=free }}</ref>]]

The ''erastês-erômenos'' relationship played a role in the [[Classical Greece|Classical Greek]] social and educational system, had its own complex social-sexual etiquette and was an important social institution among the upper classes.<ref>John Pollini, "The Warren Cup: Homoerotic Love and Symposial Rhetoric in Silver", ''Art Bulletin'' 81.1 (1999), pp. 21–52.</ref> Pederasty has been understood as educative,<ref>Blake ''et al.'', ''Education in an Age of Nihilism'', p. 183.</ref> and Greek authors from [[Aristophanes]] to [[Pindar]] felt it naturally present in the context of aristocratic education (''[[paideia]]'').<ref>[[Gregory Nagy]], "Early Greek Views of Poets and Poetry", in [https://books.google.com/books?id=qNCDdy6fD18C&dq=paiderastia&pg=PA40 ''The Cambridge History of Literary Criticis: Classical Criticism''] (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 1997), p. 40. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424042816/https://books.google.com/books?id=qNCDdy6fD18C&dq=paiderastia&pg=PA40 |date=24 April 2023 }}</ref> 

In general, pederasty as described in  Greek literary sources is an institution reserved for free citizens, perhaps to be regarded as a [[Dyad (sociology)|dyadic]] mentorship. According to  [[Sarah Iles Johnston]] , "pederasty was widely accepted in Greece as part of a male's coming-of-age, even if its function is still widely debated".<ref>Johnston, Sarah Iles. ''Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004. p. 446; see also Cocca, Carolyn. ''Adolescent Sexuality: A Historical Handbook and Guide''. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2006. p. 4</ref> However sexual pederasty was subjected to heavy criticism in ancient Athens.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hubbard |first=T. K. |date=1998 |title=Popular Perceptions of Elite Homosexuality in Classical Athens |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20163707 |journal=Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=48–78 |issn=0095-5809}}</ref> The scene of Xenophon's ''[[Symposium (Xenophon)|Symposium]]'', and also that of [[Plato]]'s ''[[Protagoras (Plato)|Protagoras]]'', is set at [[Callias III]]'s house during a banquet hosted by him for his beloved [[Autolycus of Athens|Autolykos]] in honour of a victory gained by the handsome young man in the [[pentathlon]] at the [[Panathenaic Games]].<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Callias and Hipponicus|display=Callias and Hipponicus s.v. 3. Callias|volume=5|page=57}}</ref>

In [[Crete]], in order for the suitor to carry out the ritual abduction, the father had to approve him as worthy of the honor. Among the Athenians, as [[Socrates]] claims in [[Xenophon]]'s ''Symposium,'' "Nothing [of what concerns the boy] is kept hidden from the father, by an [[Kalos kagathos|ideal]]<ref>The term here rendered as "ideal" is καλοκἀγαθίᾳ, translated as "a perfect man, a man as he should be" in Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1968; p. 397)</ref> lover".<ref>Xenophon, ''Symposium''; VIII.11</ref> To protect their sons from inappropriate attempts at seduction, fathers appointed slaves called ''pedagogues'' to watch over their sons. However, according to [[Aeschines]], Athenian fathers would pray that their sons would be handsome and attractive, with the full knowledge that they would then attract the attention of men and "be the objects of fights because of erotic passions".<ref>Victoria Wohl, ''Love among the Ruins: The Erotics of Democracy in Classical Athens'', p. 5 referring to Aeschines, (Tim.134)</ref>

The age range when boys entered into such relationships was consonant with that of Greek girls given in marriage, often to adult husbands many years their senior. Boys, however, usually had to be courted and were free to choose their mate, while marriages for girls were arranged for economic and political advantage at the discretion of father and suitor.<ref>Henri Irénée Marrou & George Lamb, ''History of Education in Antiquity'', p. 27</ref> 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.

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| footer            = Pederastic scenes. Two sides of the same cup. Attic Kantharos. Greek, Late Archaic Period. Around 520 BCE. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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In parts of Greece, pederasty was an acceptable form of [[homoeroticism]] that had other, less socially accepted manifestations, such as the sexual use of slaves or being a ''[[Prostitution in ancient Greece#Pornai|pornos]]'' ([[prostitution|prostitute]]) or ''hetairos'' (the male equivalent of a [[hetaira]]).<ref>{{cite book|title=Greek Homosexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0674362616|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0/page/20 20–21]}}</ref> [[Male prostitution]] was treated as a perfectly routine matter and visiting prostitutes of either sex was considered completely acceptable for a male citizen.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Martha C. |last=Nussbaum|title=Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies|journal=Virginia Law Review|date=1994|volume=80|issue=7|page=1546|doi=10.2307/1073514 |jstor=1073514|quote=Indeed, Dover, like David Halperin, produces and stresses the evidence that visiting both male and female prostitutes was considered perfectly acceptable for a male citizen, and male prostitution is treated as a perfectly routine matter in texts of many kinds.}}</ref> However, adolescent citizens of free status who prostituted themselves were sometimes ridiculed, and were permanently prohibited by [[Ancient Greek law|Attic law]] from performing some seven official functions{{Refn|group=nb|The seven functions that a free Athenian citizen who had prostituted himself was prohibited from performing:
* Becoming one of the nine archons—because the myrtle wreath was worn as sign of the sacred character of that office
* Carrying out a priestly function—because a prostitute was not considered "clean in body"
* Acting as an advocate in the state's interest
* Holding any office whatsoever at any time, in Attica or abroad, whether filled by lot or by election
* Serving as a herald
* Serving as an ambassador
* Addressing the senate or assembly<ref>{{cite web|title=Aeschines, Against Timarchus|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D1%3Asection%3D19|website=Perseus Digital Library|access-date=25 September 2015|archive-date=8 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508034220/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0002%3Aspeech%3D1%3Asection%3D19|url-status=live}}</ref>}}<ref>Aeschines, ''Against Timarchus'' 1.19–20</ref><ref name="Greek Homosexuality">{{cite book|author1=Kenneth Dover|title=Greek Homosexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=United States|isbn=0674362616|page=[https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0/page/20 20]}}</ref> because it was believed that since they had sold their own body "for the pleasure of others" ({{lang|grc|ἐφ' ὕβρει}}, ''eph' [[hubris|hybrei]]''), they would not hesitate to sell the interests of the community as a whole.<ref name="Greek Homosexuality" /> If they, or an adult citizen of free status who had prostituted himself, performed any of the official functions prohibited to them by law (in later life), they were liable to prosecution and punishment. However, if they did not perform those specific functions, did not present themselves for the allocation of those functions and declared themselves ineligible if they were somehow mistakenly elected to perform those specific functions, they were safe from prosecution and punishment. As non-citizens visiting or residing in a [[Polis|city-state]] could not perform official functions in any case whatsoever, they could prostitute themselves as much as they wanted.<ref>{{cite book|first=Kenneth J. |last=Dover|title=Greek Homosexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0|url-access=registration|date=1989|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0674362616|page=[https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0/page/29 29]|quote=Since foreigners visiting or residing at Athens had no right in any case to hold office or address the assembly, they were free to prostitute themselves as much as they pleased, without incurring any penalty or any disability greater than that which their status as non-citizens already imposed on them. The second implication is that if an Athenian citizen made no secret of his prostitution, declared his unfitness if through someone's inadvertence he was elected to office, and abstained from embarking on any of the procedures forbidden to him by the law, he was safe from prosecution and punishment.}}</ref>

===Political expression===
[[File:Attic Kylix - Douris - Python - Around 480BCE - J. Paul Getty Museum - Object Number; 86.AE.290 - (3).jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic courtship scenes.<ref name=Getty>{{cite web |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103W7E?altImage=7490ee8e-d0d5-469d-bcee-619ba67fe444 |title=Attic Red-Figure Cup|author=J. Paul Getty Museum |website=www.getty.edu |publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum |access-date=8 August 2024}}</ref> It has been commented that "Hares were popular love gifts in Athenian society&nbsp;... [and]&nbsp;... a hare can be seen siting tamely on the lap of one of the seated figures."<ref name=Getty/> The outside of an Attic cup. Kylix. Artist; Douris. Potter; Attributed to the Python potter. Around 480 BCE. J. Paul Getty Museum]] 

Transgressions of the customs pertaining to the proper expression of homosexuality within the bounds of ''pederaistia'' could be used to damage the reputation of a public figure. In his speech "[[Against Timarchus]]" in 346 BC, the Athenian politician [[Aeschines]] argues against further allowing Timarchus, an experienced middle-aged politician, certain political rights, as Attic law prohibited anyone who had prostituted himself from exercising those rights<ref>{{cite book|first=Kenneth J. |last=Dover|title=Greek Homosexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=0674362616|page=[https://archive.org/details/greekhomosexuali00dove_0/page/19 19]}}</ref> and Timarchus was known to have spent his adolescence as the sexual partner of a series of wealthy men in order to obtain money.<ref>Aeschines, ''Against Timarchus'' 1.51–52</ref> Such a law existed because it was believed that anyone who had sold their own body would not hesitate to sell the interests of the city-state.<ref name="Greek Homosexuality" /> Aeschines won his case, and Timarchus was sentenced to ''[[atimia]]'' (disenfranchisement and civic disempowerment). 

By contrast, as expressed in [[Pausanias of Athens|Pausanias']] speech in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]],'' pederastic love was said to be favorable to [[democracy]] and feared by tyrants, because the bond between the ''erastês'' and ''erômenos'' was stronger than that of obedience to a despotic ruler.<ref>Clifford Hindley, "Debate: Law, Society and Homosexuality in Classical Athens", in ''Past and Present,'' 133 (1991), p. 167n4.</ref><ref>Plato ''Symposium'' 182c.</ref> [[Athenaeus]] states that "Hieronymus the [[Aristotelianism|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 (tyrant)|Hippias]] and the establishment of democracy, and also [[Chariton and Melanippus]].<ref>Athenaeus, ''Deipnosophists'', p. 602</ref> Others, such as [[Aristotle]], claimed that the Cretan lawgivers encouraged pederasty as a means of [[population control]], by directing love and sexual desire into non-procreative channels:

{{quote|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>Aristotle, ''Politics'' 2.1272a 22–24</ref>}}

===Philosophical expression===
<!--clearer outline of different philosophical positions needed; where are the Stoics, for instance?-->

[[Phaedrus (Athenian)|Phaedrus]] in Plato's ''Symposium'' remarks:

{{quote|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.<ref>Plato, Phaedrus in the ''[http://faculty.sgc.edu/rkelley/SYMPOSIUM.pdf Symposium]'' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008144522/http://faculty.sgc.edu/rkelley/SYMPOSIUM.pdf |date=8 October 2021 }}, p. 8.</ref>}}

In ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]'', Plato takes a much more austere stance to homosexuality than in previous works, stating:

{{quote|... one certainly should not fail to observe that when male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature when male mates with male or female with female, and that those first guilty of such enormities [the Cretans] were impelled by their slavery to pleasure. And we all accuse the Cretans of concocting the story about [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]].}}

Plato states here that "we all", possibly referring to society as a whole or simply his social group, believe the story of Ganymede's homosexuality to have been fabricated by the Cretans to justify immoral behaviours. The Athenian stranger in Plato's ''Laws'' blames pederasty for promoting civil strife and driving many to their wits' end, and recommends the prohibition of [[sexual intercourse]] with youths, laying out a path whereby this may be accomplished.<ref>Plato, ''Laws'', 636d and 835e.</ref>

===In myth and religion===
<!-- This section is linked from [[Religion and sexuality]]--><!--For instance, if there's any basis to treating Narcissus as a pederastic myth, that should be moved here-->
[[File:Jupiter küsst Ganymed (nach Wilhelm Böttner).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|Zeus kissing [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]. A copy of an original by Wilhelm Böttner. Originally painted circa 1780. This copy was painted in the 19th century.]]

The [[Greek mythology|myth]] of [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]'s abduction by [[Zeus]] was invoked as a precedent for the pederastic relationship, as [[Theognis of Megara|Theognis]] asserts to a friend:

{{quote|
There is some pleasure in loving a boy (''paidophilein''), since once in fact even the son of [[Cronus]] [that is, Zeus], king of immortals, fell in love with Ganymede, seized him, carried him off to [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]], and made him divine, keeping the lovely bloom of boyhood (''paideia''). So, don't be astonished, [[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]], that I too have been revealed as captivated by love for a handsome boy.<ref>Theognidean corpus 1345–1350, as cited by [[Deborah Kamen|Kamen]], ''The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece'', p. 91. Although the speaker is identified here conventionally as Theognis, certain portions of the work attributed to him may not be by the Megaran poet.</ref>}}

The myth of Ganymede's abduction, however, was not taken seriously by some in Athenian society, and deemed to be a Cretan fabrication designed to justify [[homoeroticism]].<ref>Plato's Laws, 636c</ref>

The 5th century BC poet [[Pindar]] constructed the story of a sexual pederastic relationship between [[Poseidon]] and [[Pelops]], intended to replace an earlier story of cannibalism that Pindar deemed an unsavoury representation of the Gods.<ref>Joseph Pequigney, ''Homosexuality in ancient Greek myth''</ref>{{fcn|date=November 2024}} The story tells of Poseidon's love for a mortal boy, Pelops, who wins a chariot race with help from his admirer Poseidon.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Berlin Painter Ganymedes Louvre G175.jpg|right|thumb|Ganymede rolling a [[hoop rolling|hoop]] and carrying a cockerel, a love gift from Zeus who is depicted in pursuit on the other side of this Attic [[krater]]. Around 500 BCE]]
Though examples of such a custom exist in earlier Greek works, myths providing examples of young men who were the lovers of gods began to emerge in [[Classical Literature|Classical literature]], around the 6th century BC. In these later tales, pederastic love is ascribed to [[Zeus]] (with [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]]), [[Poseidon]] (with [[Pelops]]), [[Apollo]] (with [[Cyparissus]], [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]] and [[Admetus]]), [[Orpheus]], [[Heracles]], [[Dionysus]], [[Hermes]], and [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]]. All the [[Twelve Olympians|Olympian gods]] except [[Ares]] are purported to have had these relationships, which some scholars argue demonstrates that the specific customs of ''paiderastia'' originated in initiatory rituals.<ref>Sergent, ''Homosexuality and Greek Myth'', passim.</ref><ref name="GLBTQ Mythology">{{cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth.html |title=Classical Mythology |publisher=[[glbtq.com]] |access-date=5 February 2015 |last=Pequigney |first=Joseph |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129042407/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth.html |archive-date=29 November 2014 }}</ref>

Myths attributed to the homosexuality of [[Dionysus]] are very late and often post-pagan additions.<ref>[[Ampelos]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2018}} The tale of Dionysus and [[Ampelos]] was written by the Egyptian poet [[Nonnus]] sometime between the 4th and 5th centuries CE, making it unreliable. Likewise, the tale of Dionysus and [[Polymnus]], which tells that the former anally masturbated with a fig branch over the latter's grave, was written by [[Christians]], whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology.<ref>Hyginus, ''Astronomy'' 2.5; Clement of Alexandria, ''Protreptikos'' 2.34.2–5; Arnobius, ''Against the Gentiles'' 5.28 (Dalby 2005, pp. 108–117)</ref>

[[Kenneth Dover|Dover]], however, believed that these myths are only literary versions expressing or explaining the "overt" homosexuality of [[Archaic Greece|Greek Archaic culture]], the distinctiveness of which he contrasted to attitudes in other ancient societies such as Egypt and Israel.<ref>Dover, "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation", ''passim'', especially pp. 19–20, 22–23.</ref>

===Creative expression===
====Visual arts====
[[File:Pederastic courtship Louvre CA3096.jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic scene on an Attic Lekythos. 530–520 BCE]]
[[Greek pottery|Greek vase painting]] is a major source for scholars seeking to understand attitudes and practices associated with ''paiderastia''.<ref>For a recent collation of evidence from vase-painting and an introduction to its interpretation, see [[Andrew Lear]], and [[Eva Cantarella]], ''Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods'' (Routledge, 2008); {{ISBN|978-0-415-22367-6}}.</ref> Hundreds of pederastic scenes are depicted on [[Black-figure pottery#Attica|Attic black-figure vases]].<ref>[[Deborah Kamen]], "The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece", in [https://books.google.com/books?id=6LUcuGdJF30C&dq=%22hundreds+of+representations+of+pederastic+relationships%22&pg=PA91 ''The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece''] (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 91. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424042816/https://books.google.com/books?id=6LUcuGdJF30C&dq=%22hundreds+of+representations+of+pederastic+relationships%22&pg=PA91 |date=24 April 2023 }}</ref> In the early 20th century, [[John Beazley]] classified pederastic vases into three types:
* The ''erastês'' and ''erômenos'' stand facing each other; the ''erastês'', knees bent, reaches with one hand for the beloved's chin and with the other for his genitals.
* The ''erastês'' presents the ''erômenos'' with a small gift, sometimes an animal.
* The standing lovers engage in [[intercrural sex]].<ref>Beazley, as summarized by Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', p. 119.</ref>

Certain gifts traditionally given by the ''erômenos'' became symbols that contributed to interpreting a given scene as pederastic. Animal gifts—most commonly hares and roosters, but also deer and felines—point toward hunting as an aristocratic pastime and as a metaphor for sexual pursuit.<ref>Judith M. Barringer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PMqCYtXqub4C&dq=%22Attic+vase+painting+scenes+of+pederastic+courtship%22&pg=PA70 ''The Hunt in Ancient Greece''] (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), pp. 70–72. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417051629/https://books.google.com/books?id=PMqCYtXqub4C&dq=%22Attic+vase+painting+scenes+of+pederastic+courtship%22&pg=PA70 |date=17 April 2023 }}</ref>
These animal gifts were commonly given to boys, whereas women often received money as a gift for sex. This difference in gifts furthered the closeness of pederastic relations. Women received money as a product of the sexual exchange and boys were given culturally significant gifts. Gifts given to boys are commonly depicted in [[ancient Greek art]], but money given to women for sex is not.<ref>Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', p. 92</ref>

[[File:Courtship - Bowl - Ancient Greek - Athens National museum.jpg|thumb|right|A pederastic scene with two figures that both have erections. Bowl. Ancient Greek. Athens National museum]]
The explicit nature of some images has led in particular to discussions of whether the ''erômenos'' took active pleasure in the sex act. In most images of pederastic scenes the youthful beloved is pictured without an erection; his penis "remains flaccid even in circumstances to which one would expect the penis of any healthy adolescent to respond willy-nilly".<ref>Nussbaum, ''The Fragility of Goodness'', p. 188; see also Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', p. 96; Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', p. 119.</ref> One painting on a bowl from the Athens National Museum shows a pederastic scene where both of the figures have erect penises.

Fondling the youth's genitals was one of the most common images of pederastic courtship on vases, a gesture indicated also in [[Aristophanes]]' comedy ''[[The Birds (play)|Birds]]'' (line 142). Some vases do show the younger partner as sexually responsive, prompting one scholar to wonder, "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?"<ref>Thomas Hubbard, [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003-09-22.html review of David Halperin's ''How to Do the History of Homosexuality'' (2002)], ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 22 September 2003. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505082014/http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003-09-22.html |date=5 May 2010 }}</ref>

Chronological study of the vase paintings reveals a changing aesthetic in the depiction of the ''erômenos''. In the 6th century BC, he is a young beardless man with long hair, of adult height and physique, usually nude. As the 5th century begins, he has become smaller and slighter, "barely pubescent", and often draped as a girl would be. No inferences about social customs should be based on this element of the courtship scene alone.<ref>Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', p. 140; Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', pp. 119–120.</ref>

====Poetry====
[[File:Erastes eromenos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1468.jpg|thumb|upright|Bearded man in a traditional pederastic courtship scene showing the "up-and-down" gesture: one hand reaches to fondle the young man, the other grasps his chin so as to look him in the eye.<ref>J. D. Beazley, "Some Attic Vases in the Cyprus Museum", ''Proceedings of the British Academy'' 33 (1947); p. 199; Dover, ''Greek Homosexuality'', pp. 94–96.</ref> Athenian amphora, {{circa}} 540 BCE<ref name="Brendle 47"/><ref>{{cite journal
|last=Shapiro |first=H. A.
|date=April 1981 
|title=Courtship Scenes in Attic Vase-Painting |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/505033|journal=American Journal of Archaeology 
|volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=133–143 
|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.2307/505033 
|jstor=505033
|s2cid=192965111
|access-date=14 April 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414024306/https://www.jstor.org/stable/505033|archive-date=14 April 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref>]]

There are many pederastic references among the works of the [[Megara]]n poet [[Theognis]] addressed to Cyrnus (Greek ''Kyrnos''). Some portions of the Theognidean corpus are probably not by the individual from Megara, but rather represent "several generations of [[wisdom poetry]]". The poems are "social, political, or ethical precepts transmitted to Cyrnus as part of his formation into an adult Megarian aristocrat in Theognis' own image".<ref>Thomas K. Hubbard, ''Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a sourcebook of basic documents in translation'', University of California, 2003; p. 23</ref>

The relationship between Theognis and Kyrnos eludes categorization. Although it was assumed in antiquity that Kyrnos was the poet's ''erômenos'', the poems that are most explicitly erotic are not addressed to him{{Em dash}}the poetry<ref>Theognis, 2.1353–1356.</ref> on "the joys and sorrows" of pederasty seem more apt for sharing with a fellow ''erastês'', perhaps in the setting of the [[symposium]]{{Em dash}}"the relationship, in any case, is left vague".<ref>Robert Lamberton, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BL2AZpopNu8C&dq=Theognis+Kyrnos&pg=RA1-PA26 ''Hesiod''] (Yale University Press, 1988), p. 26. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424042823/https://books.google.com/books?id=BL2AZpopNu8C&dq=Theognis+Kyrnos&pg=RA1-PA26 |date=24 April 2023 }}</ref> 

In general, Theognis (and the tradition that appears under his name) treats the pederastic relationship as heavily pedagogical.<ref>On the contrast between the Theognidean and Anacreontic visions of pederasty, see [[Andrew Lear]], "Ancient Pederasty:  an introduction", in ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', ed. Thomas K. Hubbard (Wiley Blackwell, 2014), pp. 104–105.</ref> [[Theocritus]], a [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] poet, describes a kissing contest for youths that took place at the tomb of a certain [[Diocles of Megara]], a warrior renowned for his love of boys; he notes that invoking [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]] was proper to the occasion.<ref>Theocritus, Idyll XII.</ref>

==Sexual practices==
[[File:Pederastic erotic scene Louvre F85bis.jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic intercrural sex. Attic cup. 550–525 BCE]]
[[File:Intercrural Sex, Cup.jpg|thumb|right|Intercrural sex between a winged [[Eros]] and a boy. 490–480 BCE]]

Vase paintings and references to the ''erômenos''{{'s}} thighs in poetry<ref>For examples, see Johnson and Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society'', p. 116, note 4, quoting a fragment from [[Solon]]: "a man falls in love with a youth in the full-flower of boy-love / possessed of desire-enhancing thighs and a honey-sweet mouth"; Nussbaum, ''Sex and Social Justice'', p. 450, note 48, quoting a fragment of the lost ''Myrmidons'' of [[Aeschylus]] in which [[Achilles]] mourns the dead [[Patroclus]], their "many kisses", and the "god-fearing converse with your thighs".</ref> indicate that when the pederastic couple engaged in sex acts, the preferred form was [[intercrural sex|intercrural]].<ref>Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', p. 119; Nussbaum, ''Sex and Social Justice'', pp. 268, 307, 335; Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', p. 145.</ref> To preserve his dignity and honor, the ''erômenos'' limits the man who desires him to penetration between closed thighs.<ref>Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', p. 145.</ref>

[[File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus 3.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Zephyrus]] and [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]]. The latter was a patron hero of pederasty in Greece.Attic red-figure cup from [[Tarquinia]], c.&nbsp;490&nbsp;BC [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] ]]
[[File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus.png|right|upright=1.1|thumb|[[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]] and Zephyrus. Attic Red Figure Kylix. Attributed to Manner of Douris Painter. 500–450 B.C.]]
Some vase paintings, which historian [[William Armstrong Percy III|William Percy]] considers a fourth type of pederastic scene in addition to [[John Beazley|Beazley]]'s three, show the ''erastês'' seated with an erection and the ''erômenos'' either approaching or climbing into his lap. The composition of these scenes is the same as that for depictions of women mounting men who are seated and aroused for intercourse.<ref>Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Ancient Greece,'' p. 119.</ref> As a cultural norm considered apart from personal preference, anal penetration was most often seen as dishonorable to the one penetrated, or shameful,<ref>Nussbaum, ''Sex and Social Justice'', pp. 268, 335; Ferrari, ''Figures of Speech'', p. 145.</ref> because of "its potential appearance of being turned into a woman" and because it was feared that it may distract the ''erômenos'' from playing the active, penetrative role later in life.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nussbaum|first1=Martha C.|title=Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies|journal=Virginia Law Review|date=1994|volume=80|issue=7|pages=1547, 1550|doi=10.2307/1073514|jstor=1073514|quote=Where relations between two male citizens are concerned, we again find no general condemnation, but instead a complex system of caveats or reservations. We must begin by noting that these relations, even when they involve people close to one another in age, always involve an asymmetry of roles: the erastes or 'lover' is the older partner, who actively pursues and courts the younger, drawn by the sight of youthful male beauty. The eraste's is expected to be keenly interested in sexual contact; this interest, and the active, penetrative conduct that follows from it, is taken to be perfectly normal and natural. The younger partner, the eromenos or 'beloved', is likely to be pleased at being the object of admiration and interested in benefits such as friendship, education, and political advancement that a relationship with an erastes may bestow. The relationship may in this sense involve a real reciprocity of benefits and mutual affection based on it. But the cultural norm dictates that the eromenos is not to have a keen sexual interest in being penetrated, nor to develop habits of enjoying that sort of penetration; for that would be, in effect, to be turned into a woman, and one could expect that this would make him unfit to play, later in life, an active manly role. The important point to stress, in any case, is that the shame potentially at issue was not about the fact of same-sex copulation, but about the 'womanish' position of passivity and its potential appearance of being turned into a woman. No such shame, it would seem, attached even potentially to conduct that did not involve anal penetration, thus not to conduct involving intercrural intercourse, apparently the most common mode of male-male copulation}}</ref> A fable attributed to [[Aesop]] tells how [[Aidos|Aeschyne]] (Shame) consented to enter the human body from behind only as long as [[Eros]] did not follow the same path, and would fly away at once if he did. A man who acted as the receiver during anal intercourse may have been the recipient of the insult ''"kinaidos"'', meaning effeminate.<ref>[[Aesop]], "Zeus and Shame" (Perry 109, Chambry 118, Gibbs 528), in ''Fables''.</ref> No shame was associated with intercrural penetration or any other act that did not involve anal penetration.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nussbaum|first1=Martha C.|title=Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies|journal=Virginia Law Review|date=1994|volume=80|issue=7|page=1550|doi=10.2307/1073514|jstor=1073514|quote=No such shame, it would seem, attached even potentially to conduct that did not involve anal penetration, thus not to conduct involving intercrural intercourse, apparently the most common mode of male–male copulation}}</ref> This interpretation is largely based on the thesis presented by [[Kenneth Dover]] in 1979. Oral sex is likewise not depicted,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/04/26/greek-love-an-exchange/|title=Greek Love: An Exchange|last1=Halperin|first1=David M.|date=1990-04-26|access-date=2019-04-15|last2=Griffin|first2=Jasper|journal=New York Review of Books|language=en|issn=0028-7504|archive-date=15 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415025810/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/04/26/greek-love-an-exchange/|url-status=live}}</ref> or directly suggested; anal and oral penetration seem to have been reserved for prostitutes or slaves.<ref>Johnson and Ryan, ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature'', p. 3, based on Attic red-figure pottery; Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Ancient Greece'', p. 119.</ref>

Dover maintained that the ''erômenos'' was ideally not supposed to feel "unmanly" desire for the ''erastês''.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> [[Martha Nussbaum|Nussbaum]] argues that the depiction of the ''erômenos'' as deriving no sexual pleasure from sex with the ''erastês'' "may well be a cultural norm that conceals a more complicated reality", as the ''erômenos'' is known to have frequently felt intense affection for his ''erastês'' and there is evidence that he experienced sexual arousal with him as well.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Martha C. |last=Nussbaum|title=Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies|journal=Virginia Law Review|date=1994|volume=80|issue=7|pages=1554–1555|doi=10.2307/1073514 |jstor=1073514|quote=We must now also address the issue of mutuality, which Finnis misuses to make the erastes–eromenos relationship look inherently exploitative. It is true that the eromenos is depicted typically as deriving no sexual pleasure from the conduct, although this may well be a cultural norm that conceals a more complicated reality. Dover aptly compares the situation of the eromenos to that of a young woman in Britain in the 1930s (Dover, Greek Homosexuality, supra note 48, at 88). He might have extended the comparison to take in this point: just as a proper Victorian woman was publicly expected not to enjoy sex, but frequently did in private, so too it is possible that the eromenos derived more pleasure than is publicly depicted. In his postscript to the second edition, Dover grants that there is some literary evidence that the erastes stimulated the penis of the eromenos, and that one vase shows an eromenos with an erection. What is more important is that it is perfectly clear that a successful relationship of this sort produced many advantages for the younger man—education, political advancement, friendship and that he frequently felt intense affection for the erastes as a result.}}</ref> In Plato's ''[[Phaedrus (dialogue)|Phaedrus]]'', it is related that, with time, the ''erômenos'' develops a "passionate longing" for his ''erastês'' and a "reciprocal love" (''[[anteros]]'') for him that is a replica of the ''erastês''’ love. The ''erômenos'' is also said to have a desire "similar to the erastes', albeit weaker, to see, to touch, to kiss and to lie with him".<ref>{{cite journal|first=Martha C. |last=Nussbaum|title=Platonic Love and Colorado Law: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies|journal=Virginia Law Review|date=1994|volume=80|issue=7|pages=1572–1573|doi=10.2307/1073514 |jstor=1073514|quote=Nor is passionate arousal a mere stage in the soul's progress: it gives rise to an enduring relationship in which physical infatuation is deepened by conversation and the pursuit of shared spiritual goals and in which the 'mad' lover's state gives rise to generous and stable friendship, rather than to the dangers of which 'Lysias' warns. Most remarkable of all, it also gives rise to a reciprocation of sexual desire on the part of the younger man who, taking note of the unparalleled generosity of his lover, finds himself suffused with a stream of desire from 'the source of that stream that Zeus, in love with Ganymede, called "passionate longing".' The younger man conceives a longing and desire for his erastes, 'having a "reciprocal-love" [anteros] that is a replica of the other's love.' But he calls it, and thinks that it is, philia rather than eros. He has desire similar to the other's, albeit weaker, to see, to touch, to kiss, to lie with him. Recall that Greek homosexuality involves reciprocity conventionally of a sort, for the eromenos receives kindliness and education in return for his beauty. Here the language indicates the culturally unusual nature of the proposal, for the young man lacks a word for his own desire. Plato, thus, constructs a more thoroughgoing understanding of reciprocity, extending to the body's longing for beauty. The relationship is envisaged as a long-lasting one, in which the erastes and eromenos 'associate with touching in the gymnasia and in other places of association'. What is at issue is a complicated etymological play on the word himeros, or 'passionate longing'. Himeros has been etymologized as deriving from 'particles' (mere') that 'flow' (rhein) from the beloved to the lover. The dialogue is suffused with this sort of word play, much of it erotic. See id.; cf. Plato, Cratylus 419e (using similarly expressive and erotic language). Such reciprocity was not unknown before this-Socrates describes the experience as one that is likely to follow upon the young man's perception of his lover's generosity-but what is clear is that the cultural vocabulary lacks a description for it.}}</ref>

==Regional characteristics==
===Athens===
Many of the practices described above concern Athens, while [[Greek pottery|Attic pottery]] is a major source for modern scholars attempting to understand the institution of pederasty.<ref>Rommel Mendès-Leite et al. ''Gay Studies from the French Cultures'', p. 157; Percy, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities", pp. 30–31.</ref> In Athens, as elsewhere, ''pederastia'' appears to have been characteristic of the aristocracy. The age of youth depicted has been estimated variously from 12 to 18.<ref>Percy, "Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities", p. 54.</ref> A number of [[Law court (ancient Athens)|Athenian laws]] addressed the pederastic relationship.

===The Greek East===
Unlike the [[Dorians]], where an older male would usually have only one ''erômenos'' (younger boy), in the east a man might have several ''erômenoi'' over the course of his life. Poems of [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]] indicate that the older male would customarily invite his ''erômenos'' to dine with him.<ref>Percy, William A. ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece,'' , University of Illinois Press, 1996, pp. 146–150</ref>

===Crete===
Greek pederasty was seemingly already institutionalized in [[Crete]] at the time of [[Thaletas]], which included a "Dance of Naked Youths".<ref name=Perc>Percy, William A. ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', University of Illinois Press, 1996, p. 79</ref> It has been suggested both Crete and [[Sparta]] influenced Athenian pederasty.<ref name=Perc/>

===Sparta===
[[File:Pittore guglielmi del gruppo tirrenico, anfora con scene erotiche e dionisiache, 565-550 ac. ca. 01 da necrop. crocif. del tufo, orvieto.JPG|thumb|right|At the centre of the image is pederastic anal sex between two males. At the far left is a pederastic scene between two males. Tyrrhenian amphora. Around 565–550 BCE.<br>Museo Civico, [[Orvieto]]]]

The nature of Spartan pederasty is in dispute among ancient sources and modern historians. Some think Spartan views on pederasty and homoeroticism were more chaste than those of other parts of Greece, while others find no significant difference between them.<ref>Paul Cartledge, ''Spartan Reflections'', University of California Press, 2003, p. 93</ref>

According to [[Xenophon]], a relationship ("association") between a man and a boy could be tolerated, but only if it was based around friendship and love and not solely around physical, sexual attraction, in which case it was considered "an abomination" tantamount to incest.<ref>[[Xenophon]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.+Lac.%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D13 ''Constitution of the Lacedaemonians''], 2.13. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117062025/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.+Lac.%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D13 |date=17 January 2021 }}. "The customs instituted by Lycurgus were opposed to all of these. If someone, being himself an honest man, admired a boy's soul and tried to make of him an ideal friend without reproach and to associate with him, he approved, and believed in the excellence of this kind of training. But if it was clear that the attraction lay in the boy's outward beauty, he banned the connexion as an abomination; and thus he caused lovers to abstain from boys no less than parents abstain from sexual intercourse with their children and brothers and sisters with each other."</ref> Conversely, [[Plutarch]] states that, when Spartan boys reached puberty, they became available for sexual relationships with older males.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Life of Lycurgus'', 17.1: "When the boys reached this age, they were favoured with the society of lovers from among the reputable young men. The elderly men also kept close watch of them, coming more frequently to their places of exercises, and observing their contests of strength and wit, not cursorily, but with the idea that they were all in a sense the fathers and tutors and governors of all the boys. In this way, at every fitting time and in every place, the boy who went wrong had someone to admonish and chastise him."</ref> [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] talks about the responsibilities of an older Spartan citizen to younger less sexually experienced males.<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus]] ''Various History'', 3.10: "I could cite many fine features on the [[ephor]]s of Sparta: I chose a few, I'll report. If a young Spartan, beautiful and well made, preferred a rich friend to a poor righteous man, the [[ephor]]s condemned him to a fine; no doubt, that he might be punished by his love for wealth by the loss of part of his. They punished the same every citizen honest man, who was attached by friendship to none of the young people that we knew to be well born: they thought that an honest man would have made his friend, and perhaps some others, in people like him. Indeed, the kindness of those who love, if indeed deserves to be respected, is a powerful stimulus to excite the beloved's virtue. A Spartan law even ordered to pardon a young man, for his youth and inexperience, the mistakes he committed, and to punish in its place the citizen who loved him, to teach him to be the supervisor and judge of the actions of his friend."</ref>

Historian Thomas F. Scanlon argues [[Sparta]], during its [[Dorians|Dorian]] [[polis]] time, was the first city to practice [[athletic nudity]], and one of the first to formalize pederasty.<ref>Thomas F. Scanlon, "The Dispersion of Pederasty and the Athletic Revolution in Sixth-Century BC Greece", in ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West,'' pp. 64–70.</ref> Sparta also imported Thaletas' songs from Crete.<ref name=Perc/>

In Sparta, the ''erastês'' was regarded as a guardian of the ''erômenos'' and was held responsible for any wrongdoings of the latter.<ref name="Sykoutris43">I. Sykoutris, ''Introduction to Symposium'', 43</ref> Researchers of the Spartan civilization, such as [[Paul Cartledge]], remain uncertain about the sexual aspect of the institution. Cartledge underscores that the terms "εισπνήλας" ("eispnílas") and "αΐτας" ("aḯtas"){{Clarification needed|reason=What do these words mean? This is their first mention in the whole article.|date=September 2022}} have a moralistic and pedagogic content, indicating a relationship with a paternalistic character, but argues that sexual relations were possible in some or most cases. The nature of these possible sexual relations remains, however, disputed and lost to history.<ref>P. Cartledge, ''The Spartans'', pp. 272–274</ref>

===Megara===
[[Megara]] cultivated good relations with Sparta, and may have been culturally attracted to emulate Spartan practices in the 7th century, when pederasty is postulated to have first been formalized in Dorian cities.<ref>N. G. L. Hammond, ''A history of Greece to 322 BC,'' 1989; p.150</ref> One of the first cities after Sparta to be associated with the custom of [[athletic nudity]], Megara was home to the runner [[Orsippus]] who was famed as the first to run the footrace naked at the [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] and "first of all Greeks to be crowned victor naked".<ref>W. Sweet, ''Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece,'' 1987; p.125</ref><ref>Pausanias, 1.44.1</ref> In one poem, the Megaran poet [[Theognis of Megara|Theognis]] saw athletic nudity as a prelude to pederasty, writing, "Happy is the lover who works out naked / And then goes home to sleep all day with a beautiful boy."<ref>Theognis, 2.1335–1336.</ref>

===Boeotia===
The legislator [[Philolaus of Corinth]], lover of the stadion race winner [[Diocles of Corinth]] at the [[Ancient Olympic Games]] of 728 BC,<ref>[[Aristotle]]. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D2%3Asection%3D1274a ''Politics'', 1274a31–b5] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913221634/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0058:book%3D2:section%3D1274a |date=13 September 2022 }}.</ref> crafted laws for the Thebans in the 8th century BC that gave special support to male unions, contributing to the development of Theban pederasty in which, unlike other places in ancient Greece, it favored the continuity of the union of male couples even after the younger man reached adulthood, as was the case with him and Diocles, who lived together in Thebes until the end of their lives.<ref>Romm, J. (6 June 2021). [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/180453 "The legacy of same-sex love in ancient Thebes"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220913230322/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/180453 |date=13 September 2022 }}. ''History News Network'', [[Columbian College of Arts & Sciences]]. Retrieved 13 September 2022</ref>

According to [[Plutarch]], Theban pederasty was instituted 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".<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of [[Pelopidas]]'', 19.1: "Speaking generally, however, it was not the passion of Laius that, as the poets say, first made this form of love customary among the Thebans; but their law-givers, wishing to relax and mollify their strong and impetuous natures in earliest boyhood, gave the flute great prominence both in their work and in their play, bringing this instrument into preeminence and honour, and reared them to give love a conspicuous place in the life of the palaestra, thus tempering the dispositions of the young men."</ref> According to tradition, the [[Sacred Band of Thebes]] comprised pederastic couples.<ref>David Leitao, "The legend of the Theban Band", in M. Craven Nussbaum and J. Sihvola ''The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome'', Chicago University Press (2002), pp. 140–150.</ref>

Boeotian pottery, in contrast to that of Athens, does not exhibit the [[#Visual arts|three types of pederastic scenes]] identified by Beazley. The limited survival and cataloguing of pottery that can be proven to have been made in Boeotia diminishes the value of this evidence in distinguishing a specifically local tradition of ''paiderastia''.<ref>Charles Hupperts, "Boeotian Swine: Homosexuality in Boeotia", in [https://books.google.com/books?id=ejPZu3Ktu5cC&dq=%22we+notice+that+we+do+not+find+on+the+Boeotian+vases%22&pg=PA190 ''Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity,''] p. 190. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424042817/https://books.google.com/books?id=ejPZu3Ktu5cC&dq=%22we+notice+that+we+do+not+find+on+the+Boeotian+vases%22&pg=PA190 |date=24 April 2023 }}</ref>

==Modern scholarship==
[[File:Pederastic courtship Louvre CA3096 n2.jpg|thumb|right|Pederastic scene on an Attic Lekythos. 530–520 BCE]]

The ethical views held in ancient societies, such as [[Athens]], [[Thebes (Greece)|Thebes]], [[Crete]], [[Sparta]], [[ancient Elis|Elis]] and others, on the practice of pederasty have been explored by scholars only since the end of the 19th 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 after a private edition of 10 copies (1883), only in 1901 was the work published in revised form.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/pge/index.htm|title=A Problem in Greek Ethics Index|website=www.sacred-texts.com|access-date=24 October 2008|archive-date=12 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212151135/https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/pge/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[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 globe.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/itp/index.htm|title=Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk Index|website=Internet Sacred Text Archive|access-date=7 December 2005|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125030904/https://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/itp/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In Germany the study was continued by classicist Paul Brandt writing under the pseudonym Hans Licht, who published ''Sexual Life in Ancient Greece'' in 1932.

[[Kenneth Dover|Kenneth J. Dover]]'s seminal ''[[Greek Homosexuality (book)|Greek Homosexuality]]'' (1978) triggered a number of debates which still continue. 20th-century [[sociologist]] [[Michel Foucault]] declared that pederasty was "problematized" in Greek culture, that it was "the object of a special—and especially intense—moral preoccupation", which was "subjected to an interplay of positive and negative interplays so complex as to make the ethics that governed it difficult to decipher".<ref>{{cite book|first1=Mark |last1=Masterson|first2=Nancy Sorkin |last2=Rabinowitz|first3=James |last3=Robson|title=Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World|date=5 December 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317602774 |page=115 |edition=revised |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1G2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |access-date=30 July 2015}}</ref> A modern line of thought leading from Dover to Foucault to [[David M. Halperin]] holds that the ''erômenos'' did not reciprocate the love and desire of the ''erastês'', and that the relationship was factored on a sexual domination of the younger by the older, a politics of penetration held to be true of all adult male Athenians' relations with their social inferiors—boys, women and slaves. This theory was also propounded by Eva Keuls.<ref>Eva Keuls, ''The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens,'' 1985</ref>

Similarly, 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|first=Enid |last=Bloch|publisher=Journal of Men's Studies|volume=9 |issue=2 |date=March 2001|pages=183–204|doi=10.3149/jms.0902.183|s2cid=143726937|url=https://metapress.com/ |archive-date=24 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424042808/https://metapress.com/|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> From this and the previous perspectives, the relationships are characterized and factored on a power differential between the participants, and as essentially asymmetrical.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Other scholars point to more artwork on vases, poetry and philosophical works such as the [[Plato]]nic discussion of ''[[anteros]]'', "love returned", all of which show tenderness and desire and love on the part of the ''erômenos'' matching and responding to that of the ''erastês''.<ref>Andrew Lear, Eva Cantarella, ''Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods'', Routledge, 2009.</ref> Critics of the posture defended by Dover, Bloch and their followers also point out that they ignore all material which argued against their "overly theoretical" interpretation of a human and emotional relationship<ref>James Davidson, ''The Greeks and Greek Love,'' Orion, 2006</ref> and counter that "clearly, a mutual, consensual bond was formed",<ref>Robert B. Koehl, "Ephoros and Ritualized Homosexuality in Bronze Age Crete", in Martin Duberman, ed. ''Queer Representations: Reading Livers, Reading Cultures'', New York University, 1997.</ref> and that it is "a modern fairy tale that the younger ''erômenos'' was never aroused".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/greek-homosexuality/|first=Hein |last=van Dolen |title=Greek homosexuality|website=Livius.org |access-date=26 March 2020|archive-date=3 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503175101/http://www.livius.org/ho-hz/homosexuality/homosexuality.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Halperin's position{{Clarification needed|reason=What is Halperin's position?|date=September 2022}} has been criticized by Thomas K. Hubbard as a "persistently negative and judgmental rhetoric implying exploitation and domination as the fundamental characteristics of pre-modern sexual models", challenging it as a polemic of "mainstream assimilationist gay apologists" and an attempt to "demonize and purge from the movement" all non-orthodox male sexualities, especially those involving adults and adolescents.<ref>Thomas K. Hubbard, [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003.09.22/ "How to Do the History of Homosexuality"] (book review), ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'', 22 September 2003. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805075325/https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2003/2003.09.22/ |date=5 August 2020 }}</ref>

As classical historian [[Robin Osborne]] has pointed out, historical discussion of ''paiderastia'' is complicated by 21st-century moral standards:

{{quote|
It is the historian's job to draw attention to the personal, social, political and indeed moral issues behind the literary and artistic representations of the Greek world. The historian's job is to present pederasty and all, to make sure that … we come face to face with the way the glory that was Greece was part of a world in which many of our own [[value system|core values]] find themselves challenged rather than reinforced.<ref>[[Robin Osborne]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=4baOPEunQgoC&pg=PA12 ''Greek History''] (Routledge, 2004), pp. 12, 21.</ref>}}

==See also==

{{Portal|Ancient Greece|LGBTQ}}
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Age disparity in sexual relationships]]
*[[Apollo]]
*[[Autolycus of Athens]]
*[[Callias III]]
*[[Catamite]]
*[[Cyparissus]]
*[[Greek love]]
*[[Hispano-Arabic homoerotic poetry]]
*[[History of erotic depictions]]
*[[History of human sexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality in ancient Greece]]
*[[Homosexuality in ancient Rome]]
*[[Intercrural sex]]
*[[Kagema]]
*[[Paideia]]
*[[Pederasty]]
*[[Platonic love]]
*[[Prostitution in ancient Greece]]
*[[Sacred Band of Thebes]]
*[[Sexuality in ancient Rome]]
*[[Wakashū]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Selected bibliography==
* [[Kenneth J. Dover|Dover, Kenneth J.]] ''Greek Homosexuality''. Duckworth 1978.
* Dover, Kenneth J. "Greek Homosexuality and Initiation", ''Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology''. Continuum, 1997, pp. 19–38.
* [[Havelock Ellis|Ellis, Havelock]]. ''Studies in the Psychology of Sex'', vol. 2: Sexual Inversion. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13611 Project Gutenberg text]
* Ferrari, Gloria. ''Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece''. University of Chicago Press, 2002.
* Hubbard, Thomas K. ''Homosexuality in Greece and Rome''. University of California Press, 2003.[https://web.archive.org/web/20051206061508/http://www.utexas.edu/courses/cc348hubbard/ Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: a sourcebook of basic documents in translation]
* Johnson, Marguerite, and Ryan, Terry. ''Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook''. Routledge, 2005.
* [[Andrew Lear|Lear, Andrew]], and [[Eva Cantarella]]. ''Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods''. Routledge, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-415-22367-6}}.
* [[Andrew Lear|Lear, Andrew]].  'Ancient Pederasty:  an introduction' in ''A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities'', editor Thomas K. Hubbard (Blackwell, 2014), pp.&nbsp;102–27.
* [[Martha Nussbaum|Nussbaum, Martha]]. ''Sex and Social Justice''. Oxford University Press, 1999.
* Percy, William A. ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece''. University of Illinois Press, 1996.
* {{cite book|last=Plato|title=Charmides|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|location=Chicago}}
* ''Same–Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West''. Binghamton: Haworth, 2005.
*[[Bernard Sergent|Sergent, Bernard]]. ''Homosexuality in Greek Myth''. Beacon Press, 1986.

== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|Pederasty in ancient Greece}}

{{Ancient Greece topics}}
{{LGBTQ|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pederasty in Ancient Greece}}
[[Category:Pederasty in ancient Greece| ]]
[[Category:Sexuality and society]]
[[Category:Anal sex]]