Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece [Paperback]

It is nonetheless an impressive study in which the technicalities do not obscure - for the less informed reader - the enjoyment of a closely argued and richly diversified discussion. Percy's espousal of the theory of a seventh century Cretan origin of institutionalized pederasty subsequently spread by the Spartans to Greece, is persuasive rather than compelling. As is clearly acknowledged in the Introduction, the Archaic period provides virtually no evidence: reliance is placed on later writers such as Plutarch, Lucian and Athenaeus. Historical texts survive in many versions about which scholars disagree more often than not: `almost every detail of early Greek history, especially of Greek sexuality is open to doubt and indeed is hotly debated'. Repeated references to Aristotle's observation about the curbing of overpopulation by encouraging male sexual relations does little to advance the argument.

Percy is an enthusiast for his subject, though in no sense an apologist. The book is outstanding by virtue - as the author points out - of the paucity of works which treat fairly and without distaste of the topic of Greek pederasty, a term which he defines unequivocally from the outset as a love-bond (whether spiritual or sexual) between men and adolescent boys. The Greeks, it seems, showed little sexual interest in adult males, and indeed `would be quick to condemn our prevalent androphilia as extremely distasteful and even reprehensible in that it serves no pedagogical purpose'.

This then is the crucial element in Percy's thesis: the link between pederastic custom and the rise of Hellas and the `Greek Miracle', in spite of the acknowledged absence of surviving documents giving more precise testimony to that link. At the outset, he stresses that `the Greeks we most admire almost always practised pederasty, at least before marriage.' The list is impressive, embracing poets, statesmen and philosophers. The Epilogue which looks forward to the `Golden Age of Greek love' seeks to underline the argument that the intimate bonding of youths and older males transcended mere eroticism, quoting the Platonic dialogues, Aristotle and others who debated the spiritual versus the physical aspects of the `erastes' and `eromenos' relationship. In the wide, though detailed overview offered by this book, the argument is palpable.

The place of women in Greek society is perhaps understandably neglected in this study, except to argue a causal link between `seclusion of women' and the proliferation of male love. The description of Spartan marriage customs and the attempt by Sparta `to correlate marriage patterns and birthrates with population pressures' introduces a wider perspective, as does the reference to the `love poetry' of Alcman and his `sensual glorification of beautiful Spartan girls'. To the Greek mind, pederastic desire and heterosexual love were clearly not incompatible, on which point the author chooses to reserve comment. A brief reference to Sappho's poetry as `a clear parallel in the world of females to cardinal features of Greek pederastic practice' has the odour of a starkly irrelevant concession to contemporary sexual politics. Similarly, the chapter entitled `Situational Homosexuality and Demography' in its descriptions of `womenless colonists', comradeship on voyages, and the `parastates' (battle companion) smacks of modern sexology in its attempt to establish `elements in the background to institutionalized pederasty'. Nevertheless, the case for the `uniqueness' of Greek pederasty is well made.

The author intends the book for a wide audience and not just specialists or homosexual sympathizers in the hope `that a true understanding of Greek institutionalized pederasty will at long last permit the educated world to confront the accomplishments of that practice honestly, without embarrassment or outrage'.