(Boylove Documentary Sourcebook) - Pederastic Desire in a Poem by Theognis

Eros Farnese (2nd Century AD). Roman marble copy of the "Centocelle" type, after a Greek original of the 4th century BC. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.

From Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents, edited by Thomas K. Hubbard (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

1.67 Theognis 1327–34

Boy, as long as your cheek is smooth, I’ll never
Stop praising you, not even if I have to die.
For you to give still is fine, for me there’s no shame in asking,
Since I’m in love. At your knees . . . I beg,
Respect me, boy, give pleasure, if you’re ever
To have the gift of Cypris with her wreath of violets,
When it’s you who’s wanting and approach another. May the goddess
Grant that you get exactly the same response.

Crouching ithyphallic man fondles boy who touches the back of his head with one hand while holding a bag of knucklebones with the other. Attic red-figure cup by the Brygos Painter, ca. 530–430 BC. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1967.304.

See also

• Adult friend (dictionary)
• Age of attraction (dictionary)
• Athenian pederasty
• Boylove
• Cretan pederasty
• Ephebophilia
• Eromenos
• Greek love
• Historical boylove relationships in ancient Greece
• Loved boy (dictionary)
• Minor-attracted person (dictionary)
• Pedophilia
• Philosophy of ancient Greek pederasty
• Spartan pederasty
• Theban pederasty
• Young friend (dictionary)

External links

• PURSUIT AND FLIGHT BY SIR KENNETH DOVER (Greek Love Through the Ages)
• DID THE GREEKS PEDICATE THEIR LOVED BOYS? (Greek Love Through the Ages)