Pederasty
The word first appeared in the English language during the Renaissance, as pæderastie (e.g. in Samuel Purchas' Pilgrimes), in the sense of sexual relations between men and boys.
[8] In the writings of Xenophon, Socrates says, "A man who sells his favours for a price to anyone who wants them is called a catamite; but if anyone forms a love-attachment with someone whom he knows to be truly good, we regard him as perfectly respectable.
The Socratic writings of the two authors were one of the main texts that led to Kenneth Dover's and Michel Foucault's understanding of pederasty as a matter of debate in Ancient Greece.
[10] It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and seems to have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture,[11] which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women.
[20] In Archaic and classical Greece, paiderasteia had been a formal social relationship between freeborn males; taken out of context and refashioned as the luxury product of a conquered people, pederasty came to express roles based on domination and exploitation.
[19]: 17 Effeminacy or a lack of discipline in managing one's sexual attraction to another male threatened a man's "Roman-ness" and thus might be disparaged as "Eastern" or "Greek".
Fears that Greek models might "corrupt" traditional Roman social codes (the mos maiorum) seem to have prompted a vaguely documented law (Lex Scantinia) that attempted to regulate aspects of homosexual relationships between freeborn males and to protect Roman youth from older men emulating Greek customs of pederasty.
[26] It is a custom in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.
Accounts of Buddhist monasteries, samurai circles, and kabuki theatres all commonly noted the presence of relationships between adolescent or pre-pubescent boys (sometimes classified as wakashū) and older male mentor figures.
[30][31] Art and literature of these relationships was common, with perhaps the most well-known collection being ukiyo-zōshi poet Ihara Saikaku's The Great Mirror of Male Love.
[32] This fascination and admiration led to works of literature which commemorated Pederasty and same-sex love by numerous individuals of this time such as John Addington Symonds with his essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics", or Oscar Wilde with his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, amongst others.
[33] It was this piece of legislation that cemented the discussion on pederasty and its reception by the public and mainstream media with the legal prosecution of Oscar Wilde, whose novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence to secure his imprisonment and conviction, labeling him as a "sodomite" under the eyes of the law.
The Victorian era also lacked the notion that "asymmetry" in relationships, including age disparity and social status, was to be expected and aspired to.
Having a preference for gender or age did not assign a label to a relationship, but this did not preclude groups from disapproving of or enacting laws against pederastic practices.
[38] In The New Republic, Mallock mocks many important figures in Oxford University, including Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, and its references to Aestheticism and Hellenism.
Similarly to pederasty, Uranians have been influenced by the Ancient Greek to write poetry that represented homoeroticism and homosexuality of adolescent boys in the Decadent era.
Dowling notes these detailed accounts of many different scholars in Victorian Oxford in order to reform the homosexual studies of Hellenistic culture that influenced the Decadent movement of the nineteenth century.
[50][51][52][non-primary source needed] Contemporary homosexual pedophiles may describe themselves as "boy lovers",[53][54] and sometimes appeal to practices in Ancient Greece as a justification of sexual relationships between adults and minors.
