Pederastic couples at a symposium, as depicted on a tomb fresco from the Greek colony of

Paestum in Italy
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult
male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. It was characteristic
of the Archaic and Classical periods. 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.
The social custom called paiderastia by the Greeks was both idealized and criticized in ancient
literature and philosophy; it has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and seems to have
developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosocial culture, which was
characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and
the social seclusion of women. The influence of pederasty was so pervasive that it has been
called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."
Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to
local custom and individual inclination. The English word "pederasty" in present-day usage
might imply the abuse of minors in certain jurisdictions, but Athenian law, for instance,
recognized consent but not age as a factor in regulating sexual behavior. As classical historian
Robin Osborne has pointed out, historical discussion of paiderastia is complicated by 21stcentury moral standards:
It is the historian's job to draw attention to the personal, social, political and indeed moral issues
behind the literary and artistic representations of the Greek world. The historian's job is to
present pederasty and all, to make sure that we come face to face with the way the glory that
was Greece was part of a world in which many of our own core values find themselves
challenged rather than reinforced