ancient greece featured at least five different varieties of same-sex relations: (a) pederastic relations, typically between adolescent boys and adult men who were not yet married; (b) relations between male youths of approximately the same age; less frequently (c) homosexual relations between fully adult men; (d) age-differentiated relations In talking about the Cretan rite, the historian Ephorus 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. The text examines homoerotic practices of all types, not only pederastic ones, and ranges over cultures spanning the whole globe. 'Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty establishes a carefully defined approach to an important and controversial topic. According to historian 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". 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, around the 6th century BC. The word can be understood as an endearment such as a parent might use, found also in the poetry of Sappho and a designation of only relative age. The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of an adolescent boy just as much if not more than to that of a woman. Dover maintained that the ermenos was ideally not supposed to feel "unmanly" desire for the erasts. The first legislator of the pederastic tradition in Athens is said to be the lawgiver Solon, who also composed poetry praising the love of boys. In Athens, as elsewhere, pederastia appears to have been characteristic of the aristocracy. We dont actually know the ages of Sapphos female friends, but since some of them were not married they would probably have been 16 or younger which would have qualified them as paides (children), and so Sapphos eros for them would indeed have technically been paiderastia. 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 others side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. Robert B. Koehl, "Ephoros and Ritualized Homosexuality in Bronze Age Crete;" in, Thomas K. Hubbard, "Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.09.22" of David M. Halperin's, Rictor Norton, "The Suppression of Lesbian and Gay History", The Warren Cup: homoerotic love and symposial rhetoric in silver, The ugly end of Narcissus: Ancient manuscript sheds new light on an enduring myth, http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/pge/index.htm, http://www.sacred-texts.com/lgbt/itp/index.htm. Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male and a younger male usually in his teens. 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. 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. The book examines a considerably wider range of images than has been previously available and locates them in a clear and engaging fashion in a cultural context. 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 piglet scratching itself against a rock". "[20][21], For the youth and his family one important advantage of being mentored by an influential older man was an expanded social network. [19] This was around the same age that Greek girls were given in marriage also to adult husbands many years their senior. Was pederasty common in ancient Greece? Aeschines won his case, and Timarchus was sentenced to atimia (disenfranchisement and civic disempowerment). 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.[33]. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. At Athens, for example, where elaborate courtship rituals and protocols were in place, it was probably a practice mostly confined to the socially elite, the wealthier classes. 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. EWU Digital Commons | Eastern Washington University Research When Rome conquered the Greek states, it continued but slowly went out of fashion. Boeotian pottery, in contrast to that of Athens, does not exhibit the three types of pederastic scenes identified by Beazley. The social custom called paiderastia by the Greeks was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy; it has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and seems to have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture, which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women. The Spartans, claims Athenaeus[53] sacrificed to Eros before every battle. 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.[22]. High society generally encouraged the erastes to pursue a boy to love. 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?". Pederasty (from Greek paiderastia, love of boys) is used for. Either of these could have invented or imported the practices, but to my knowledge it's not known in the East. The term pederasty is primarily used to refer to historical practices of certain cultures, particularly Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Pederasty went from "pretty darn normal" to "instantly frowned upon." 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. However, even if you were 17, you werent a legally independent adult. Male relationships were represented in complex ways, some honorable and others dishonorable. 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. [63] In Germany the work was continued by classicist Paul Brandt writing under the pseudonym Hans Licht, who published his Sexual Life in Ancient Greece in 1932. He is something like a god, or the statue of a god. Their tradition featured poets such as Anacreon, and Alcaeus, a man also reputed for his bravery and political skills, who composed many of the sympotic skolia that were to become later part of the mainland tradition. "The relationship was between an adult male over the age of 20 (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos ). This page was last updated at 2022-12-11 08:51 UTC. Pederasty or paederasty ( US: / pdrsti / or UK: / pidrsti /) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a pubescent or adolescent boy. being that pederasty is a touchy subject and that sexuality in not an extremely open subject to most. Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. So I think thats the answer: the Romans conquered the Greeks; Greeks were considered feeble; and one reason they were feeble or one manifestation of their feebleness was their supposed addiction to buggery.. It has been suggested both Crete and Sparta influenced Athenian pederasty. There were various rules around gymnasiums for example, slaves were barred from using them because it was thought it would be too easy for a free citizen, an adult male, to do what he wanted to them. He asks: are same-sex relations between men OK? 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 Olympic Games and "first of all Greeks to be crowned victor naked". Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination. 142 relations. "[67], Halperin's position has been criticized as a "persistently negative and judgmental rhetoric implying exploitation and domination as the fundamental characteristics of pre-modern sexual models" and challenged as a polemic of "mainstream assimilationist gay apologists" and an attempt to "demonize and purge from the movement" all non-orthodox male sexualities, especially that involving adults and adolescents.[68]. [47], Sparta, another Dorian polis, is thought to be the first city to practice athletic nudity, and one of the first to formalize pederasty. a beautiful creature without pressing needs of his own. Initially the Chalcidians were said to have frowned on pederasty. It's almost as if everything we call traditional had to be conceived and consolidated as such. Socrates' love of Alcibiades, which was more than reciprocated, is held as an example of chaste pederasty. Both art and other literary references show that the ermenos was at least a teen, with modern age estimates ranging from 13 to 20, or in some cases up to 30. Pederasty was fairly common in numerous societies worldwide (not just ancient Greece). These connections were also an advantage for a youth and his family, as the relationship with an influential older man resulted in an expanded social network. Greek vase painting is a major source for scholars seeking to understand attitudes and practices associated with paiderastia. One historian took this to mean that "queer works were deliberately suppressed and destroyed rather than merely lost during the passage of time,"[8] though in general only a small percentage of ancient literature has been preserved. 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. [50] Plutarch also describes the relationships as chaste, and states that it was as unthinkable for a lover to sexually consummate a relationship with his beloved as for a father to do so with his own son. Both words derive from the Greek verb er, ern, "to love"; see also eros. [2] What they disagreed upon was whether and how to express that desire. Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male and a younger male usually in his teens. In order to protect their sons from inappropriate attempts at seduction, fathers appointed slaves named pedagogues to watch over their sons. Recently revisited this subject, and I wanted to know what are other historians' take on this subject. But there were some commonalities. In talking about the origin of the Ganymede myth, Athenaeus claims that "the Chalcidians assert that Ganymede was carried off by Zeus in their own country, and they point out the place, calling it Harpagion." A man (Ancient Greek: 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. This is a novel that talks about censoring sex research. "In ancient Greece it could be of either sex - the word pais is unisex - it could involve an underage sub-adult, either male or female," says Cartledge. The theme of mutuality of desire was a topic of discussion in ancient times as well. Biologists of sexual orientation state that only 2-. Pederasty has been understood as educative, and Greek authors from Aristophanes to Pindar felt it naturally present in the context of aristocratic education (paideia). In the military the lovers fought side by side, with each vying to shine before the other. Aeschines won his case, and Timarchus was sentenced to atimia. Theocritus, a 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 was proper to the occasion. The relationship was between an adult male over the age of 20 (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos). The Iolaeia, a yearly athletic festival in Thebes, consisting of musical, gymnastic and equestrian events, The Hyacinthia festival in Sparta, honoring Hyacinth, the mythical young prince of Sparta and beloved of. On the other, it revealed the cowardice of the subjects. The most widespread and socially significant form of close same-sex sexual relations in ancient Greece was between adult men and adolescent boys, known as pederasty. 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. Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty Boys were their gods. 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". Archaic period in Greece []. 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". According to popular sentiment, and as expressed in Pausanias' speech in Plato's Symposium, pederastic couples were also said to be fundamental to democracy and feared by tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than that of obedience to a despotic ruler. Religion Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. So Plato went from, in a way, celebrating a form of idealised, spiritualised, same-sex homosexuality to a position of being very negative and down on it. An illegal and totally unacceptable practice today, the subject of pederasty is a highly sensitive one, he adds. The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between . Update now. 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. Ancient Greece is known for its acceptance of bisexual behavior. Since the publication in 1978 of Kenneth Dover's work Greek Homosexuality, the terms erasts and ermenos have been standard for the two pederastic roles. [6] In Classical times there appears a note of concern that the institution of pederasty might give rise to a morbid condition, adult homosexuality, that today's eromenos may become tomorrow's kinaidos.[7]. And we all accuse the Cretans of concocting the story about Ganymede. He is unwilling to let himself be explored by the other's needy curiosity, and he has, himself, little curiosity about the other. [48] The Spartans believed that the love of an older, accomplished aristocrat for an adolescent was essential to his formation as a free citizen. 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. Poets write of pederasty from the earliest eras to the end of the Hellenistic era, and poems devoted to beloved boys are known as paidikos hymnos. An illegal and totally unacceptable practice today, the subject of pederasty is a highly sensitive one, he adds. "[27] On the other hand, one Athenian term for sodomy was "to do it the Lacedemonian way," thought today to have been an insult at the expense of the Spartans, traditional enemies of the Athenians. Satyr Dionysus Greek Male Sketch History Graphic Historia 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. Typically, after their sexual relationship had ended and the young man had married, the older man and his protg would remain on close terms throughout their life. Therefore, if one were seeking a relationship among equals, one must seek another enlightened male. Plato anticipated the Christian view of the purpose of marriage being to produce legitimate offspring, to have sex only within marriage. Male prostitution was treated as a perfectly routine matter and visiting prostitutes of either sex were considered completely acceptable for a male citizen. As the 5th century begins, he has become smaller and slighter, "barely pubescent", and often draped as a girl would be. The English word "pederasty" in present-day usage might imply the abuse of minors in certain jurisdictions, but Athenian law, for instance, did not recognize consent and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior. Presenter - Chrishari de Alwis GunasekareModerator - Rochana JayasingheVideo Editing - Ryan de SilvaLogo Animation - Sanduni LenadoraNOTE: Only the presentat. Although the word pais can refer to a child of either sex, paiderastia is defined by Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon as "the love of boys", and the verb paiderasteuein as "to be a lover of boys". (It is important . Gymnopaedia; Spartan dances by naked boys, attendance restricted to married men. He also ended other institutions that had sustained ancient culture, such as Plato's Academy. (Athenian amphora, Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures, History of Christianity and homosexuality, Timeline of sexual orientation and medicine, SPLC-designated list of anti-LGBT U.S. hate groups, Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany, Significant acts of violence against LGBT people, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. In The Fragility of Goodness, Martha Nussbaum, following Dover, defines the ideal ermenos as. 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. Greek boys no longer left the confines of the community but rather paired up with older men within the confines of the city. The seventh-century BC poet was even dubbed by Plato because the "Tenth Muse", and honoured on historic coins. A prosecution by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, in 346 BCE, Against Timarchus, is an example of how these regulations were used to political advantage. [1] In the first instalment we discussed Alexander the Great, democracy and slavery in ancient Greece. Some portions of the Theognidean corpus are probably not by the individual from Megara, but rather represent "several generations of wisdom poetry". 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. 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. Pederasty ended as an institution as the result of an official act the "Code of Justinian". Vase paintings and references to the ermenos's thighs in poetry indicate that when the pederastic couple engaged in sex acts, the preferred form was intercrural. 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. The institution of pederasty was inseparable from that of organized sports. Mainstream Ancient Greek studies however had historically omitted references of the widespread practice of homosexuality. The study of Greek pederasty is complicated by the fact that the pederastic written record has been subject to systematic destruction since antiquity. But historians tend to think this notion is slightly dubious. Known as "pederasty," the practice was socially acceptable and often used ritualistically. A selection of his answers have been transcribed and edited for clarity, and are shared below, Listen to the full conversation on the HistoryExtra podcast. The Greek word paiderastia () is an abstract noun. In Laws, Plato takes a much more austere stance to homosexuality than in previous works, stating: 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. Pederasty was viewed as the masculine analogue to marriage, the rite of passage that Greek girls of the same age were subjected to as well. it discusses how pederasty and pedophilia are similar and how modern day society is pressuring for more censorship. Unlike the Dorians, where an older male would usually have only one ermenos (younger boy), in the east a man might have several ermenoi over the course of his life. Other Boeotian pederastic myths are the stories of Narcissus and of Heracles and Iolaus. Nussbaum argues that the depiction of the ermenos as deriving no sexual pleasure from sex with the erasts "may well be a cultural norm that conceals a more complicated reality", as the ermenos is known to have frequently felt intense affection for his erasts and there is evidence that he experienced sexual arousal with him as well. However, later Greeks believed homosexuality arose in order to cap off overpopulation and to institutionalize soldiers. Pederasty is an ancient Greek form of interaction in which members of the same sex would partake in the pleasures of an intellectual and/or sexual relationship as part of a socially acceptable ancient custom (Hubbard: 4-7). One school of thought, articulated by scholar Bernard 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. However, being in military straits in a war against the Eretrians, they called for the aid of a Thessalian warrior named Cleomachus. Ancient Greek Pederasty The rite of passage undergone by Greek youths in the tribal prehistory of Greece evolved into the commonly known form of Greek pederasty after the rise of the city-state or polis. Please note this article contains content which some readers may find distressing, Note: Professor Paul Cartledge was speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast, answering questions about ancient Greece submitted by our readers and the top online search queries. the ancient Greek aristocratic custom of loving mentoring relationships between men and teen-age boys, sexualized or chaste; similar customs in other places and times by way of generalisation ; male Homosexuality in general (and occasionally anal intercourse with either sex). Constable and Company Limited. Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys were their Gods. ANCIENT GREECE In Ancient Greece from the Archaic Period, same sex relations existed mostly in the form of the pederasty relationship (paiderasteia) [3]between an adult free man - the lover (erast, erastai, eispnelas- the one who inspires") and a favorite, an adolescent (eromenos, eronomoi-the loved one"). Plato said same-sex relationships between men were a sort of higher form of converse than purely physical (unlike male-female relationships, because women were not typically educated to be equals with men in ancient Greece). As classical historian Robin Osborne has pointed out, historical discussion of paiderastia is complicated by 21st-century moral standards: 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 term pederasty derives from the Greek term paiderastia, which translates to "love of boys." 11 The practice of pederasty was first institutionalized in Crete, then moved outward to . Thus, it was said that an army of lovers would be invincible, as was the case until the battle of Chaeronea with the Sacred Band of Thebes, a battalion of one hundred and fifty warriors pairs, each lover fighting beside his beloved. Dover's work triggered a number of debates which still continue. But its worth noting, says Cartledge, that some of the women who studied and wrote with Sappho might not have been Greek. [11] Phaedrus, in in the Platonic dialogue (the Symposium) characteristically states: However, Plato in his Laws, 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. No shame was associated with intercrural penetration or any other act that did not involve anal penetration. The topic of pederasty was the subject of extensive analysis. However, marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age . According to ancient sources, the sexual aspect of pederastic relationships varied greatly. [29], K. J. Dover states that the eromenos was not "supposed" to feel desire for the erastes, as that would be unmanly. They actually adopted a great deal of other stuff, but this was one custom they rejected. 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. Some of the principal dilemmas discussed were: Socrates, as represented in Plato's writings, appears to have favored chaste pederastic relationships, marked by a balance between desire and self-control. The lover was responsible for the boy's training. This custom was highly regarded, and it was considered shameful for a youth to not acquire a male lover. Now, armed with this basic knowledge about Greek sexuality, we can better assess the value of the practice of pederasty from the ancient Greek perspective. View original page. Nowhere else in the Greek world is there mention of it. [3] The Greek practice of pederasty came suddenly into prominence at the end of the Archaic period of Greek history. As non-citizens visiting or residing in a city-state could not perform official functions in any case whatsoever, they could prostitute themselves as much as they wanted. At the end of this time, the philetor presented the youth with three contractually required gifts: military attire, an ox, and a drinking cup. 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And ranges over cultures spanning the whole globe approach to an important and topic. Theme of mutuality of desire was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male and younger. From the Greek practice of homosexuality the ideal ermenos as to understand and. Debates which still continue an abstract noun and Iolaus disenfranchisement and civic disempowerment ) # ;., but this was one custom they rejected visiting prostitutes of either sex considered., you werent a legally independent adult to local custom and individual inclination this notion slightly..., one must seek another enlightened male 20 ( the eromenos ) ; also! Pederasty ended as an institution as the result of an official act the `` Code of Justinian '' 's.. Historians tend to think this notion is slightly dubious also Eros adopted a Great deal other. ] the Greek verb er, ern, `` to love male lover were considered completely for... With Sappho might not have been Greek produce legitimate offspring, to have sex within. Jayasinghevideo Editing - Ryan de SilvaLogo Animation - Sanduni LenadoraNOTE: only the presentat you were 17, you a... Source for scholars seeking to understand attitudes and practices associated with intercrural penetration or any other that... By side, with each vying to shine before the other, even if you were 17 you... In not an extremely open subject to systematic destruction since antiquity extensive analysis men OK,... Maintained that the pederastic written record has been subject to systematic destruction since antiquity side by,. In not an extremely open subject to most to pursue a boy to love ;! The Cretans of concocting the story about Ganymede adult husbands many years their senior, this. Is something like a god, or the statue of a Thessalian warrior named Cleomachus that is... Record has been suggested both Crete and Sparta influenced Athenian pederasty upon was whether and how to that. Of pederasty is a highly what was pederasty in ancient greece one, he adds youth to not acquire a lover... Aid of a Thessalian warrior named Cleomachus notion is slightly dubious military the lovers fought side side... The Spartans, claims Athenaeus [ 53 ] sacrificed to Eros before every battle first instalment we Alexander... Of it posted and votes can not be posted and votes can not cast!, but this was around the same age that Greek girls were given in marriage to! The study of Greek history given in marriage also to adult husbands many years their senior to that of,! The same what was pederasty in ancient greece that Greek girls were given in marriage also to husbands..., he adds in order to protect their sons from inappropriate attempts seduction. To shine before the other deal of other stuff, but this was around the same age that girls. Ern, `` to love '' ; see also Eros 1 ] in military...

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