Pederasty or paederasty (/ˈpɛdəræsti/) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a boy. It was a socially acknowledged practice in Ancient Greece and Rome and elsewhere in the world, such as Pre-Meiji Japan.

In most countries today, the local age of consent determines whether a person is considered legally competent to consent to sexual acts, and whether such contact is child sexual abuse or statutory rape. An adult engaging in sexual activity with a minor is considered abusive by authorities for a variety of reasons, including the age of the minor and the psychological and physical harm they may endure.

Pederasty derives from the combination of Ancient Greek: παίδ-, romanized: paid-, lit. 'boy, child (stem)'^[1][2] with ἐραστής, erastēs, 'lover' (cf. eros). Late Latin pæderasta was borrowed in the 16th century directly from Plato's classical Greek in The Symposium. (Latin transliterates αί as æ.) The word first appeared in the English language during the Renaissance, as pæderastie (e.g. in Samuel Purchas' Pilgrimes), in the sense of sexual relations between men and boys.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "Homosexual relations between a man and a boy; homosexual anal intercourse, usually with a boy or younger man as the passive partner".^[3]

Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos), usually in his teens.^[4] This age difference between a socially powerful and socially less-powerful partner was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods, in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.^[5] The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called "the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens."^[6] The practice was viewed with concerns and disapproval by certain social groups.^[7] In some Greek cities, such as Sparta, pederastic relationships were explicitly accepted; in other locations, such as Athens, laws were eventually enacted to limit such relationships, though not explicitly prohibit all instances of them.^[8]

In the writings of Xenophon, Socrates says, "A man who sells his favours for a price to anyone who wants them is called a catamite; but if anyone forms a love-attachment with someone whom he knows to be truly good, we regard him as perfectly respectable."^[9] In the writings of Plato, Socrates considered pederasty as a superior form of love compared to the love of women. Each author may have used Socrates as a spokesman for their own viewpoints. The Socratic writings of the two authors were one of the main texts that led to Kenneth Dover's and Michel Foucault's understanding of pederasty as a matter of debate in Ancient Greece.^[7]

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.^[10] 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,^[11] which was characterized also by athletic and artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposia, and the social seclusion of women.^[12] Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient literature and philosophy.^[13] The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the Archaic period; criticism began in Athens as part of the general Classical Athenian reassessment of Archaic culture.^[14]

Scholars have debated the role or extent of pederasty, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination.^[15] Athenian law, for instance, recognized both consent and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior.^[16]

Enid Bloch argues that many Greek boys in these relationships may have been traumatized by knowing that they were violating social customs, since the "most shameful thing that could happen to any Greek male was penetration by another male." She further argues that vases showing "a boy standing perfectly still as a man reaches out for his genitals" indicate the boy may have been "psychologically immobilized, unable to move or run away."^[17] One vase shows a young man or boy running away from Eros, the Greek god of desire.^[18]

In Latin, mos Graeciae or mos Graecorum ("Greek custom" or "the way of the Greeks") refers to a variety of behaviors the ancient Romans regarded as Greek, including but not confined to sexual practice.^[19]: 72 Homosexual behaviors at Rome were acceptable only within an inherently unequal relationship; male Roman citizens retained their masculinity as long as they took the active, penetrating role, and the appropriate male sexual partner was a prostitute or slave, who would nearly always be non-Roman.^[20] In Archaic and classical Greece, paiderasteia had been a formal social relationship between freeborn males; taken out of context and refashioned as the luxury product of a conquered people, pederasty came to express roles based on domination and exploitation.^{[21]: 37, 40–41 et passim} Slaves often were given, and prostitutes sometimes assumed Greek names regardless of their ethnic origin; the boys (pueri) to whom the poet Martial is attracted have Greek names.^[22][23] The use of slaves defined Roman pederasty; sexual practices were "somehow 'Greek'" when they were directed at "freeborn boys openly courted in accordance with the Hellenic tradition of pederasty".^[19]: 17

Effeminacy or a lack of discipline in managing one's sexual attraction to another male threatened a man's "Roman-ness" and thus might be disparaged as "Eastern" or "Greek". Fears that Greek models might "corrupt" traditional Roman social codes (the mos maiorum) seem to have prompted a vaguely documented law (Lex Scantinia) that attempted to regulate aspects of homosexual relationships between freeborn males and to protect Roman youth from older men emulating Greek customs of pederasty.^{[21]: 27 [24]}

Theologian Edith Humphrey commented that "the Graeco-Roman 'ideal' regarding homosexuality entailed erotic love, not of children, but of young (teenage) males of the same age that a young woman would be given in marriage, and that frequently the more mature male was only slightly older than the partner."^[25]

Bacha bāzī (Persian: بچه بازی, lit. 'boy play') is a practice in which men (sometimes called bacha baz) buy and keep adolescent boys (sometimes called dancing boys) for entertainment and sex.^[26] It is a custom in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males.^[27]

The most comprehensive study of young male dancers in Afghanistan in the second half of the twentieth century perhaps belongs to German folklorist Ingeborg Baldauf, who studied bacabozlik (bachah-bāzi) among Uzbeks in the north. Baldauf's study, published in 1988 in German under the title Die Knabenliebe in Mittelasien: Bacabozlik (Boy Love in Central Asia: Bachah-bāzī), contended that a significant percentage of the Uzbek male population in Afghanistan's northern provinces were involved in bachah-bāzī at some point in their lives—either as a dancing-bachah or a bachah-lover (or perhaps both in the course of their lives). Bachahs were expected to be familiar with Chagatai literature, have a good grasp of music, know how to sing and dance, have good manners, and accompany their lovers in homosocial occasions. In return, their lovers, or bachah-bāz, had to generously spend money to outdo their rivals, otherwise the bachah would leave for a wealthier man. While the exchange of a few kisses and caresses was permissible between the bachah and bachah-bāz, no sexual intercourse was allowed, or the relationship would end abruptly. According to Baldauf, some men even ruined their families and went bankrupt after spending lavishly on bachahs for years.^[28]

Similarly, Gunnar Jarring, a Swedish diplomat and ethnographer who studied the Turkish dialects of Andkhoy in the mid-1930s, heard from an Andkhoy resident about a “current custom” among Afghan Turkmens and Uzbeks in the northern provinces who would keep boys in a cellar for a few years to teach them to dance. “If young boys are to be found,” writes Jarring, “[the people of Afghan Turkistan] never let women dance.^[29]

Pederasty in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration was present in similar forms across different societal contexts. Accounts of Buddhist monasteries, samurai circles, and kabuki theatres all commonly noted the presence of relationships between adolescent or pre-pubescent boys (sometimes classified as wakashū) and older male mentor figures.^[30][31] Art and literature of these relationships was common, with perhaps the most well-known collection being ukiyo-zōshi poet Ihara Saikaku's The Great Mirror of Male Love.

Classical studies during the time of the Victorian era rapidly changed with the exploration of what ancient Greece had to offer, quickly garnering admiration by those in study and capturing the attention of Victorian writers. Holding esteem of the Greeks, the Victorians began to model and apply Greek concepts and more onto their modern life. This application of Greek philosophy manifested with the Victorians' examination of Plato and subsequently the Greek concept of pederasty which had them evaluating and applying this conception of intimate Greek encounters to those found within the Victorian era.^[32] This fascination and admiration led to works of literature which commemorated Pederasty and same-sex love by numerous individuals of this time such as John Addington Symonds with his essay "A Problem in Greek Ethics", or Oscar Wilde with his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, amongst others.

While there was a celebration of same-sex love to be found in pederasty by some individuals during this time, there was also a moral repudiation of it as well that found pederasty to be a degradation of the youthful soul. This view was put into law with the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 under section 11, the Labouchere Amendment.^[33] It was this piece of legislation that cemented the discussion on pederasty and its reception by the public and mainstream media with the legal prosecution of Oscar Wilde, whose novel The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence to secure his imprisonment and conviction, labeling him as a "sodomite" under the eyes of the law.^[34]

Pederasty is also associated with the late-19th-century Decadent movement which took place amidst the European literary and artistic community. The Greek practice was used by decadents to reinforce their own identity and non-conformance with heterosexuality.^[35]

Within this movement was the emergence of the coterie known as the Uranians, pederasty being a theme often written upon in their poetry. The group was one of intimacy and wrote their works for themselves and shared amongst themselves, the group meaning to be a safe space and a source of consolidation for those who admired pederasty, devising it as "erotically and aesthetically superior to heterosexuality".^[36]

Though Victorians took inspiration from the Greeks regarding pederastic relationships, the social context of Victorian pederasty was different from Greek pederasty. Victorian pederasty did not share the factor of community acknowledgement. The Victorian era also lacked the notion that "asymmetry" in relationships, including age disparity and social status, was to be expected and aspired to. Sandra Boehringer and Stefano Caciagli comment that Greek and other ancient societies existed "before sexuality". Having a preference for gender or age did not assign a label to a relationship, but this did not preclude groups from disapproving of or enacting laws against pederastic practices.^[37]

Linda C. Dowling, author of Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford,^[38] discusses in her novel the intricacies of homosexuality and homoeroticism that were part of Victorian culture in mid-century Oxford. Pederasty was briefly mentioned in lieu of William Hurrell Mallock's The New Republic, which is a parody of "aesthetic" verse in the epigraph for the Oxford pamphlet Boy-Worship, where pederasty is cited as "being a mode of male romantic attachment".^[38] In The New Republic, Mallock mocks many important figures in Oxford University, including Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, and its references to Aestheticism and Hellenism.

In Dowling’s Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford,^[39] it was noted that William Johnson Cory's classic paen paiderastia, Ionica (1858), enabled the Oxford cult of “boy worship” to surface, and influence the upbringing of the Uranian literary movement, which celebrated “heavenly” love between men, which is highly influenced by Plato's Symposium of 180e. Similarly to pederasty, Uranians have been influenced by the Ancient Greek to write poetry that represented homoeroticism and homosexuality of adolescent boys in the Decadent era. Dowling notes these detailed accounts of many different scholars in Victorian Oxford in order to reform the homosexual studies of Hellenistic culture that influenced the Decadent movement of the nineteenth century.

Oscar Wilde expresses a pederastic ethos to his stories by focusing on the intersection between “sensual experience and moral enlightenment."^[40] Beginning in 1885, Wilde would look for attractive boys and invite them to a dinner party under the notion of mutual pleasure and the satisfaction of all the senses; emphasizing “physical senses as a means to artistry.”^[40] Wilde often utilized fairy-tale conventions by writing events and actions in threes, clarifying structure by repeating images or phrases, and using biblical style and diction.^[40] "The Happy Prince" is the first tale in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) that describes a growing relationship between a Prince and a Swallow until they both meet their fateful deaths.

In Wilde’s general story model, the connection between the older and younger man is spurred by the fact that they are completely different in nature.^[41] The Prince is a large statue towering over the city, inherently an inanimate object, while the Sparrow is a tiny bird, always moving “of a family famous for its agility.”^[42] In this work, the Prince is portrayed as a youthful character, as his own experience in life has been limited to playing with his companions in the garden and dancing in the Great Hall. His childishness is also seen in his lack of knowledge regarding emotions, as he “did not know what tears were,” living a life “where sorrow is not allowed to enter.” ^[42] The Swallow is older, as he has had many experiences in life, having traveled to many places. In addition to this foundation of inequality, exchanging ideas is also a vital proponent of pederastic thoughts.^[41] The Prince educates the Sparrow on the cruelties of the city he oversees, teaching him societal virtues. The story ends with the Sparrow asking the Prince, “Will you let me kiss your hand?” and the Prince responds, “But you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you," showing the extremely intense love that is shared between these two male figures.^[42] This story presents a pederastic view of a tale where there is mutual growth between student and teacher.

• Ionica (1858) by William Johnson Cory^[43]
• The Romance of Lust (1873-1876) by Anonymous
• The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881) by Anonymous (attributed to pseudonym - Jack Saul)
• Psychopathia sexualis (1886) by Richard von Krafft-Ebing
• Long Ago (1889) by ‘Michael Field’ (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde
• Teleny, or The Reverse of the Meda (1893) by Anonymous
• Boy-Worship (1880) by Charles Edward Hutchinson
• The New Republic (1877) by William Hurrell Mallock
• The Happy Prince and Other Tales

• Phaedrus by Plato
• Symposium a liber amoris by Plato

In the modern world, an adult engaging in sexual activity with a underage person may be considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape, depending upon the local age of consent. In the case of underage heterosexual relationships, which were also practiced by the Greeks, it may also be considered child marriage. Age of consent laws exist because minors are considered incapable of meaningfully consenting to sexual activity until they reach a certain age.^[44][45] Prepubescent and adolescent children are not socially equal to adults, and abusers emotionally manipulate the children they victimize.^{[46]: 65–66} These laws aim to give the minor some protection against predatory or exploitative sexual interaction with adults.^[45][47]

Child sexual abuse has been correlated with depression,^[48] post-traumatic stress disorder^[49] and anxiety.^{[50][51][52][non-primary source needed]}

Contemporary homosexual pedophiles may describe themselves as "boy lovers",^[53][54] and sometimes appeal to practices in Ancient Greece as a justification of sexual relationships between adults and minors.^[55][56]

Though outlawed, bacha bazi is still practiced in certain regions of Afghanistan.^[57][58]