In Ancient Greece, pederasty was a socially acknowledged relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens.C.D.C. Reeve, Plato on Love: Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades with Selections from Republic and Laws (Hackett, 2006), p. xxi online; Martti Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective, translated by Kirsi Stjerna (Augsburg Fortress, 1998, 2004), p. 57 online; Nigel Blake et al., Education in an Age of Nihilism (Routledge, 2000), p. 183 online.

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.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. It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and may have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture,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. which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women.Percy, Reconsiderations about Greek Homosexualities, p. 17 et passim.

Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy.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 The Statesman in Plutarch's Works (Brill, 2004), p. 303; and the pioneering view of Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1921, 3rd ed.), vol. 2, p. 12. For Stoic "utopian" views of paiderastia, see Doyne Dawson, Cities of the Gods: Communist Utopias in Greek Thought (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 192. The argument has recently been made that pederasty was idealized in Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture.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).

Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination.Michael Lambert, "Athens", in Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (Taylor & Francis, 2000), p. 122. The English word "pederasty" in present-day usage might imply the abuse of minors in certain jurisdictions, but Athenian law, for instance, recognized both consent and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior.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 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.

Terminology

Since the publication in 1978 of Kenneth Dover's work Greek Homosexuality, the terms erastês and erômenos have been standard for the two pederastic roles.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 online; John Grimes Younger, Sex in the Ancient World from A to Z pp. 91–92 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 online; Richard C. Friedman and Jennifer I. Downey, Sexual Orientation and Psychoanalysis: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice (Columbia University Press, 2002), pp. 168–169 online; Michael R. Kauth, True Nature: A Theory of Sexual Attraction (Springer, 2000), p. 87 online; Roberto Haran, Lacan's Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (2004), p. 165ff. online. Both words derive from the Greek verb erô, erân, "to love"; see also eros.

In Dover's strict dichotomy, the erastês (, plural erastai) is the older sexual actor, seen as the active or dominant participant,Kenneth Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1989), p. 16. with the suffix -tês (-) denoting agency.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 euphonic (§836). Erastês should be distinguished from Greek paiderastês, which meant "lover of boys" usually with a negative connotation.Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1286. The Greek word paiderastia () is an abstract noun. It is formed from paiderastês, which in turn is a compound of pais ("child", plural paides) and erastês (see below).Etymologies in American Heritage Dictionary, Random House Dictionary, and Online Etymology Dictionary 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".Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940 9th ed., with 1968 supplement in 1985 reprinting), p. 1286. The erastês himself might only be in his early twenties, and thus the age difference between the two males who engage in sexual activity might be negligible.

The word erômenos, or "beloved" (ἐρώμενος, plural eromenoi), is the masculine form of the present passive participle from erô, viewed by Dover as the passive or subordinate sexual participant. An erômenos can also be called pais, "child".Dover, Greek Homosexuality, p. 16. The pais was regarded as a future citizen, not an "inferior object of sexual gratification", and was portrayed with respect in art.Marguerite Johnson and Terry Ryan, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook (Routledge, 2005), p. 4 online. The word can be understood as an endearment such as a parent might use, found also in the poetry of SapphoIt 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 online; Jane McIntosh Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre (Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), p. 3 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. 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 eromenos was usually of an age when an aristocrat began his formal military training,"We can conclude that the erômenos is generally old enough for mature military and political action": Nussbaum, "Platonic Love and Colorado Law", p. 309 online. that is, from fifteen to seventeen.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 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 online; Martha Nussbaum, "Eros and the Wise: The Stoic Response to a Cultural Dilemma," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 13 (1995, 2001), p. 230 online. Nuances of age also discussed by Ferrari, Figures of Speech, pp. 131–132 online. 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.Dover, Greek Homosexuality, pp. 16, 85; Ferrari, Figures of Speech, p. 135. Another word used by the Greeks for the younger sexual participant was paidika, a neuter plural adjective ("things having to do with children") treated syntactically as masculine singular.

In poetry and philosophical literature, the erômenos is often an embodiment of idealized youth; a related ideal depiction of youth in Archaic culture was the kouros, the long-haired male statuary nude.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 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 online.

Dover insisted that the active role of the erastês and the passivity of the erômenos is a distinction "of the highest importance", 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.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.

Origins

The Greek practice of pederasty came suddenly into prominence at the end of the 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 and artistic sources show it as being established custom in many cities by the 5th century BC.Dover, pp. 205–207.