AncientGreekPederasty

1. I delight in the prime of a twelve-year-old,
but a thirteen-year-old is far more
desirable. He who is fourteen is a still
sweeter flower of the Loves, and one who
is just beginning his fifteenth year is even
more delightful. The sixteenth year
belongs to the gods, and as for the
seventeenth year not for me is it to seek
but for Zeus. But whoever desires still
older is no longer playing, but seeking a
lover who says, “Now let me do it to you.”
– Strato, Greek Anthology, XII, 4

2. No person who is older than the boys shall
be permitted to enter the room while they are
there, unless he be a son of the teacher, a
brother or a daughter’s husband. If any one
enter in violation of this prohibition, he shall be
punished with death. The superintendents of
the gymnasia shall under no conditions allow
any one who has reached the age of manhood
to enter the games of Hermes together with the
boys. (law attributed to Solon)
– Aeschines’ Contra Timarchus, 12

4. Kylix by Macron, ca 480 BCE, currently at the Louvre, Paris

5. Black figure Attic Hydria, 540 BCE. Louvre Museum, Paris. Source: Jastrow (2007)

6. Amphora by the Painter of Cambridge 47. (Image Lear p. 30)

7. Kylix by the Brygos Painter, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Image: Lear, Cantarella 56

10. …Disgraced by Aphrodite of the roving gaze,
Either he struggles for money with all his might,
or, a slave to female arrogance,
is towed down every path. But me,
I melt at her urging like wax
Of sacred bees stung by sunlight, whenever I see
the fresh young limbs of boys. Yes on Tenedos too
Persuasion and Charm are at home
in the son of Hagesilas [Theoxenos].
-Pindar 123
(Bing-Cohen trans)