Pederasty describes a relationship between an older and younger man, typically of a consensual, sexual nature. In Ancient Greece, the practice of pederasty was quite common and heavily tied to education and training. An older, well-established man would form a romantic relationship with a boy who was somewhere between the ages of twelve and eighteen. This relationship was more a dynamic of master and apprentice than a romantic couple, and the older man was at least partly responsible for the education, socialization, and skill training of his younger partner. In some parts of Greece, the older man would also provide gifts to his younger partner to help him establish a life. One such tradition involved presenting the young man with military clothing as a gift to begin his military training.
Though such a relationship strikes discomfort in the heart of many a modern person, it is important to note that these relationships were fundamentally different from pedophilic behavior. The pederastic relationship involved much more than sexual intimacy, and though there was an age-based power dynamic involved, the younger partner is understood to have consented to the relationship. Some historians debate the degree of consent or affection involved in pederasty, but we can glean knowledge from the term itself. The root word erastes translates as "love" or "lover" and was used in terms describing relationships of both hetero- and homosexual natures. In contrast to the nurturing and romantic connotations of pederasty, pedophilia is a pathological, consumptive, and abusive sexual impulse which has no regard for whether a younger partner consents.
In short, the pederastic relationships of Ancient Greece were not only romantic or sexual, but also involved the tutelage and training of a younger man by someone who was older and more experienced.
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/175/examining-greek-pederastic-relationships
Friday, November 3, 2017
What is the connection between pederasty and education?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
No comments:
Post a Comment