Pederasty in ancient Greece: a view of a now forbidden institution

By Catherine S. Donnay

(from her Master's dissertation shared in the link below, see Pg. 12)

The Social Upheavals of Pederasty

Adapting the Mythological Tradition to Emerging Pederastic Norms

With the emergence of the intuition of pederasty in classical Athens, myths which originally had no homosexual erotic elements were changed to include these types of relationships, especially that of pederasty. Although myths recorded before 600 BCE portrayed Greek gods and heroes as heterosexually promiscuous, after that time pederastic episodes were introduced into the established mythology. As it did not exist before, these pederastic scenes became newly created literature. Again, we will examine the evidence of vase painting for this transition below. It is the lyric poets who first present us with these new mythological episodes. While neither challenging the heterosexuality of the Olympians, nor restructuring the basic society of Olympus these poets assigned at least one eromenos to every important god as well as many legendary figures. It is noteworthy that the only male deity not subjected to a pederastic episode was Ares, the god of war. Almost two centuries later, the Greek comic poets, would use the introduction of the immortals’ eromenoi as a satirical routine on stage.

In these new stories, the eromenoi of the gods were heroes, either half or fully mortal. These heroic eromenoi would in turn, upon reaching adulthood, become erastes themselves. They did not invent pederastic myths about the gods to excuse a human custom that they found immoral, but rather they considered pederasty an improvement over an earlier, and what they considered more primitive, system. Immortal approval of pederastic couples provided mythological legitimization for this growing custom. Among the numerous examples of the changing of mythology to include pederastic relations, this paper will provide only two, that of Zeus and Ganymede, and that of Achilles and Patroclus.

Zeus and Ganymede

Zeus, as most school children know, was the king of the gods of the Greek pantheon. Ganymede was a young half divine Trojan boy, son of a great hero and of the daughter of the river Scamander. Homer described the relationship between Zeus and Ganymede in the following way: …

1. Tross [was] king among the Trojans, and from Tross three peerless sons were born, Ilus, Assaracus, and godlike Ganymede who was born the fairest of mortal men; wherefore the gods took him up on high to be cupbearer to Zeus by reason of his beauty, that he might dwell with the immortals.

Homer does not depict in anyway, or even infer, a sexual relationship between Ganymede and Zeus.

However lyric poetry of the sixth century BCE presents a vastly different picture. For at least one poet depicts Zeus and Ganymede as the perfect model of a pederastic relationship. Indeed, the example of the king of gods is used as a justification for pederasty on earth:

1. The love of boys is sweet. Even the king Of gods, the son of Kronos, loved a boy Ganymede, and he took him to his home Olympus, and he gave divinity To him, because he had the lovely bloom Of youth. Don't be surprised, Simonides, To see me love and serve a handsome boy.

Achilles and Patroclus

A similar situation occurs with Achilles’ relationship with Patroclus. In the Illiad, Homer depicts this pair as very close, but not physically intimate:

Patroclus-the man I loved beyond all other comrades, loved as my own life-I’ve lost him… My spirit rebels-I’ve lost the will to live… Let me die at once… since it was not my fate to save my dearest comrade from his death.

Although Homer is specific in describing the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus as one of love, Homer is also specific in indicating that the sexual partner of Achilles is Bryseis, his slave woman. However, by the time of Plato, it is generically accepted that Patroclus and Achilles: …

1. "the man whom the gods honored above all was Achilles… they sent him to the islands of the blessed… Out of loyalty to his lover Patroclus, he chose without hesitation to die-not to save him, but to avenge him; for Patroclus had already been killed. The gods were full of admiration and gave him the highest possible honor, because he valued his lover so highly.

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