Ancient Greece: Pederast Nation

In the Sept. 24, 2009 issue of the NY Review of Books, G.W. Bowerstock makes a strong and shocking case for the ancient Greeks' widespread toleration of the sexual molestation of boys by adult males. (As Bowerstock points out, we owe the word 'pederasty' for this activity to the Greek pais for boy and erastês for lover). While Mr. Bowerstock concealed his own sympathies for most of his book review, he seems to have revealed them in his conclusion and this became a subject for a letter to the editor by this writer. His review ("Men and Boys") was of the following two books: The Greeks and Greek Love: A Bold New Exploration of the Ancient World, by James Davidson, Random House, 789 pp., $45.00. Images of Ancient Greek Pederasty: Boys Were Their Gods, by Andrew Lear and Eva Cantarella, Routledge, 262 pp., $41.95.

Here is the (as yet unpublished)  letter I submitted in response:

To the Editor of the New York Review of Books

G.W. Bowersock concludes his review of the history and artifacts of ancient Greek pederasty with the statement: "The sexual life of the ancient Greeks was as variegated and inventive as its resplendent culture...To this day it stubbornly resists all modern ideologies and prejudices, and yet it had its own principles of decency."

In addition to the molestation of boys, the Greeks also practiced slavery. Can anyone imagine referring to slavery as "stubbornly resisting modern ideologies and prejudices" and possessed of its own "decency"?

Is it a "prejudice" to view the sexual molestation of youth as abhorrent, and to regard the term "decency" in connection with it as a grotesque - if not depraved - whitewash of this predation?

Michael Hoffman

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