Over the course of history there have been a number of recorded love affairs between adult men and adolescent boys. All these bonds followed at least some aspects of classical pederasty, which has both love and mentoring as principal characteristics. While the erotic element is routinely present, in some cases the relationship remained chaste, in emulation of the Socratic ideal, or out of religious principle. In some of these cases both members eventually became well known historical figures, in others only one of the two achieved that distinction.
Though all such relationships are by definition homoerotic in nature, the individuals engaging in them do not necessarily identify themselves as homosexual, and in many cases the relationship is concurrent with heterosexualmarriage for the older partners. In antiquity and non-western cultures the pattern is for the younger partners to remain in the relationship until reaching maturity. Upon coming of age the majority of them would be expected to marry and fulfil other typical adult duties. In modern western culture however, these relationships sometimes evolve into life-long partnerships to the exclusion of heterosexual marriage for either partner.
The legal status of these relationships has varied with culture and jurisdiction. In antiquity pederasty was sometimes mandated by law, a requirement eventually superseded under the early Christian emperors by prohibition under pain of death. This move was impelled at least in part by their intent to promote Christianity by suppressing the Greco-Roman religion. This was accomplished by the systematic destruction of its central features, such as the Eleusinian mysteries, the Olympic Games, and – equally important – classical pederasty, which was an important educational and cultural aspect of that religion, and which had a number of cults sacralizing pederastic homosexuality, such as that of Antinous, and that of Dionysus at Lerna.
From eastern lands like Japan, Mughal India, Central Asia, to the Middle East and North Africa, the relationships were variously integrated into the social structure. In the west their status has varied. Grouped with other corporal transgressions under the rubric of sodomy, their treatment ranged from benign indulgence to death by hanging or funeral pyre for both members. At present pederastic relationships between unrelated individuals are legal in most countries as long as the younger member is above the local age of consent (which varies worldwide from 14 to 21) and that age is set low enough to include some part of the teenage years.
In the premodern and modern west their equivocal status has made pederastic relationships hard to document, since it was in the interest of both participants to keep the relationship secret. Another obstacle to the documentation of such relationships has been the destruction of "incriminating" personal and public records, either to "preserve the honor" of the individuals involved, or as retribution against their perceceived transgressions.
Some examples of this destruction of personal records by solicitous next-of-kin are the burning of the papers of Richard Francis Burton (among which his autobiographical magnum opus) by his wife at the time of his death, a project reported to have taken a number of days. Likewise, the sister of Horatio Alger destroyed his correspondence upon his death. The same fate befell the personal papers of Philip II, Duke of Orléans, whose wife entered his chambers upon his death and disposed of his voluminous correspondence with his various minions. Death is not the only occasion when such records are lost. The wife of André Gide burned thirty years of almost daily correspondence between them ("The best of myself," he later claimed) upon learning of his elopement to London with Marc Allégret, his teenage boyfriend, declaring she had been left with "nothing else to do."
Nevertheless a very small percentage of these relationships has become public knowledge, usually because one of the members disclosed it as part of his artistic production, or because the relationship came to the attention of the authorities and the legal record was preserved. In recent years, with the greater public acceptance of homosexual expression, such information has become somewhat easier to come by, especially in those cases where the relationship is no longer illegal.
Typology of relationships
Pederastic relationships fall into two principal categories of sexual expression,
Age-structured, in which men pair up with boys concurrent with, or preceding, relationships with women. These relationships are engaged in by individuals regardless of their primary sexual attraction and are usually culturally determined, as exemplified by classical pederasty, shudo, and Florentinesodomy. Such relationships are inherently of a temporary nature, in that their sexual phase lasts only until the coming of age of the younger member. The friendship, however, may continue indefinitely and is seen as one of the chief benefits of such relationships. (In some cultures, such as in Central Asia, this form of age-structured homosexuality may also exhibit a gender-structured aspect, but primarily as a subset and in connection with commercial sex.)
Egalitarian (or at least potentially so), in which the relationship is between individuals whose primary attraction is to others of the same sex. These can continue into the adulthood of the younger member, and can be life-long sexual relationships. When occurring in age-structured pederastic cultures, the later phase of such bonds is problematized and seen as transgressive, especially if it displaces the pater familias role of either member. In cultures where pederasty is not as widely practiced by heterosexually-inclined individuals, such as the modern west, it is the earlier phase that is problematized and seen as transgressive of custom and occasionally of law as well. In non-pederastic cultures, these potentially egalitarian bonds make up a greater proportion of pederastic relationships.
Known or presumed pederastic couples
In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Though many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with various traditions which allow (and actually privilege) chaste pederastic relationships (See Philosophy of pederasty and Nazar ill'al-murd), included below are also relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component even in the absence of actual sexual relations.
*The two lovers plotted against Phalaris around 560 BCE. They were discovered and tortured to divulge accomplices, but remained silent. The tyrant, impressed, set them free. Their valor and love were celebrated in a Delphic oracle:
::''Blessed were Chariton and Melanippus:
::They showed mortals the way to a friendship that was divine.Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 13.602
*Heroic couple, later lionized by the Athenian democrats, whose 514 BCE plot to assassinate Hippias in was credited with the overthrow of tyranny in Athens.
*According to Plato, Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth . . . reported to have been beloved by Parmenides."Plato, Parmenides, 127 This would have occurred around 475 BCE.
*Around 420 BCE Themistocles competed for the boy's love with Aristides. As Plutarch recounts, "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation."Plutarch, The Lives,'' "Themistocles"
*The king of Macedon was assassinated in 399 BCE by this eromenos, upon reneging on a promise to give the boy his daughter in marriage.Aelian, ''Varia Historia, 8.9
*The Roman emperor met this 13 or 14 years old boy from Bithynia in 124 CE. Antinous was deified by Hadrian, when he died six years later. Many statues, busts, coins and reliefs display Hadrian's deep affections for him: http://antinoos.info/antinous.htm
*The two, sultan and slave, are paragons of male love in Islamic culture. Mahmud appointed Ayaz ruler of Lahore in 1021.
Raoul II, Archbishop of Tours and Jean, Archbishop of Orléans
*Raoul appointed his adolescent lover (also known as "Flora) in 1097 to the post in Orléans over the vehement objections of other prelates. (Crompton, p.183)
Nicoleto Marmagna and Giovanni Braganza
*In 1357 the Venetian court I Signori di Notte ("The Gentlemen of the Night") sentenced the boatman and his young servant to be burned at the stake. Their relationship of many years standing had been discovered during a voyage from Mestre to Venice. Crompton, p.202)
*In the shudo tradition, most shoguns took boys as lovers. Zeami caught the eye of his patron (then 16) at 11, in 1374. He became a playwright, father of Noh theater.
*Shogun Yoshimochi, son of Yoshimitsu, granted lands which his beloved mismanaged. His own family denounced him, and he had to commit seppuku by order of his lover, the shogun.
*For love of Sadamura, Shogun Yoshinori lost his life in 1441, assassinated by Akamatsu Mitsusuke, whose lands he had wanted to take and give to Sadamura.
*Norinao, granted lands at the time in possession of Yamana Sozen, was attacked by the latter and took his own life. The conflict ballooned into the Onin civil war of 1467.
*Melzi was Leonardo's last love. In 1505, he joined Leonardo's household at the age of 15. Later he went to France with him and finally inherited the artistic and scientific works of the great Italian master.
*Takakuni, despite having sworn eternal love to Kenji, allowed Kenji's brother to be murdered. Later Kenji rose in vengeance against him with an army.
Mori Ranmaru
Yanagimoto Kenji and Takahata Jinkuro
*Knowing Kenji prepared a rebellion, Jinkuro vowed silence, but refused to break his allegiance to Lord Takakuni, warning Kenji that despite their love, he would not hesitate to kill him in battle.
*In 1543 the 22-year-old future Daimyo sealed a written vow of love (still in existence) with his 16-year-old retainer, who served him as samurai in battle and page in peacetime. (Leupp, pp.53-54)
*The future pope hired the illiterate 14-year-old street urchin for his charms in 1547. Upon being appointed pope in 1550, he raised the boy to the post of cardinal and indulged in pederastic orgies with him and other young cardinals. (Larivière, 1997)
*Sadonokami remained as the Shogun's lover until he reached adulthood, when he entered the service of the Hosokawa family, where his descendants can be found to the present day.
*The youthful Cecco modelled for many of Caravaggio's most famous paintings, including Amor Vincit, and became a well-known artist himself, known as Cecco del Caravaggio.
*Counselor and friend to the Dauphin who was 23 years his junior, de Luynes was his lover from at least 1615, when the future Louis XIII - already experienced in male love - was 14.
*In 1685 the 53-year-old composer was denounced for his dalliances with his young page. The boy confessed to Roman orgies involving so many of the great lords that all was hushed up.
*The 18-year-old crown prince Frederick wanted to escape from his brutal father in 1730. He asked his friend von Katte for help, but they didn't get very far. The king showed no mercy - he sentenced von Katte to death and forced his son to watch the execution.
*Both belonged to a French regiment that fought in Bohemia since 1740. Hippolyte, also an aristocrat, was 18 and Vauvenargue 8 years older when they became companions. The younger of the two died during the Siege of Prague in 1742. De Clapiers addressed his philosophical work Conseil à un jeune homme(Advice to a young Man) to Hippolyte de Seytres. "He understood all the passions and opinions, even the most singular, that the world blames." —Vauvenargues about his friend.
*Beckford, 19, fell in love with Courtenay, 10, nicknamed Kitty and "one of the most beautiful boys in England," in 1789. Both pursued lifelong involvement with boys.
*Cheng I was a pirate of the Chinese coast, who kidnapped the 15 years old Chang Pao in 1801. Chang Pao later became the leader of Cheng's pirate fleet.
*Lord Byron fell in love with the French-Italian lad in 1810, when the boy was 15. "It is about two hours since, that, after informing me he was most desirous to follow him (that is me) over the world, he concluded by telling me it was proper for us not only to live, but 'morire insieme'. The latter I hope to avoid - as much of the former as he pleases." —Byron in his letter to John Cam Hobhouse - The Convent, Athens, August 23rd, 1810
*The future writer fell in love at the University of Oxford in 1858 (age 17) with a fourteen year old choir boy. Their love affair lasted a year but apparently remained chaste, and was cut off on the intercession of Symonds' father.
*Brooks, an impoverished British pianist about twenty six at the time, had an affair in 1890 with the sixteen year old Maugham in Heidelberg, where the latter was at university. It was the boy's first sexual experience.Morgan, Ted Somerset Maugham, Jonathan Cape, 1980. ISBN 0224018132; p.24
Lord Ronald Gower and Frank Hird
*Gower adopted the boy (no later than 1894) and lived with him. "Gower may be seen, but not Hird." —Oscar Wilde
*Von Gloeden, a famous fin de siècle photographer of Italian youths, hired Bucini in the early 1880s, when the boy was 13 or 14. Bucini, called "il Moro," was his lover, assistant and finally his heir. In 1936 Bucini, as curator of the collection, successfully defended himself against the charge of keeping pornography, accusation made by the Italian fascists, who destroyed most of the remaining three thousand picture plates.
*Became lovers in 1916 when they were 47 and 15, remained friends for life. Allégret was the son of Elie Allégret, best man at Gide's 1895 wedding, and later became a renowned filmmaker.
*Cocteau met the young poet in 1918 at 29, when the boy was 15 years old. The two collaborated extensively, socialized, and undertook many journeys and vacations together. Cocteau got the youth exempted from military service and exerted his influence to garner the "Nouveau Monde" literary prize for Radiguet's novel, Le Diable au Corps. Some sources suggest that their friendship was loving and sexual.François Bott, Radiguet, Flammarion, 1995;Michel Larivière, Homosexuels et bisexuels célèbres, Delétraz, 1997 Their relationship has been placed in the context of "a series of younger lovers and collaborators". [link] An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet (known in the Parisian literary circles as "Monsieur Bébé") with decadence for his tryst with a model: "Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes." ("Baby is depraved. He likes women." [Note the use of the feminine adjective]). Radiguet, Heminway implies, employed his sexuality to advance his career, being a writer "who knew how to make his career not only with his pen but with his pencil," a salacious and phallic allusion.Thurston, Michael: "Genre, Gender, and Truth in Death in the Afternoon," The Hemingway Review, Spring 1998Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, p.71 Cocteau however was guarded in his discussion of his relationships: "Cocteau never put his name to an openly, unashamedly homosexual text and invariably alluded to his male lovers - the most celebrated being the precocious novelist Raymond Radiguet and the actors Jean Marais and Edward Dermott - as his 'adopted sons' (in the case of Dermott, even formally adopting him)".Gilbert Adair, "Comfortable in hell, The Back Half" in The New Statesman, Monday 23rd February 2004 In 1919 Radiguet's father discovered a "compromising correspondence" between Cocteau and his son, giving rise to an exchange of letters in November of that year between the two adults in which Cocteau compared the youth to Rimbaud. In mid-March 1921 he hastened from Paris to join Radiguet (among others, including Georges Auric and Monsieur et Madame Hugo Valentin), who had left alone for Carqueiranne. On the 30th of the same month he replied to his mother, who had commented on this voyage: "Have you not yet understood that my life is spent releasing my instincts, watching them, sorting them once they are out, and forging them to my advantage?" After Radiguet's death (of Typhoid Fever), Cocteau did not attend the funeral. However, in this version of the story, Cocteau takes to his bed prostrated with grief (see below to see what happened according to Cocteau)Touzot, Jean. Jean Cocteau. Lyon: La Manufacture, 1989 After the death of Radiguet, Cocteau began to use opium, to which he became addicted. The people who wish to say that Cocteau and Radiguet had a relationship say that this was the direct result of Radiguet's death, but this reading of the story is contradicted by Cocteau himself (see below)[link]
*Others contest this interpretation, claiming that it has not been confirmed in any correspondence or writings by Cocteau or those close to both of them, and that Radiguet had any number of well-documented liaisons with women and generally spent his nights alone at the apparments of Max Jacob and Juan Gris, sleeping on the kitchen table or the floor. Cocteau, speaking about Radiguet in a transcription of a Television interview made three months before Cocteau's death claimed that he did not particularly care for Radiguet personally and only respected his talent as a writer. Upon Radiguet's death, which was due to typhoid fever complicated by heavy drinking, Cocteau was, in his own words, "paralyzed with stupor and disgust". He did not attend the funeral--Cocteau did not attend anyone's funeral, as a rule-- but instead immediately left Paris with Sergei Diaghilev for Monte Carlo for a performance of Les Fâcheux of Auric and Les Biches of Poulenc. While Cocteau began to smoke opium after Radiguet's death, to which he became addicted, he himself said that this was pure coincidence and had nothing to do with Radiguet's death. Roger Stéphane "Portrait Souvenir de Jean Cocteau" Tallandier 1989
*Szymanowski, 37, the foremost early 20th c. Polish composer, met Kochno, 15, a poet and dancer, in Elisavetgrad, 1919. The composer wrote [four love poems] to the boy, and also gave him a Russian translation of "Symposium," the central chapter of his legendary lost novel, Efebos.
*In 1943 the novelist Comisso (1895 - 1969) fell in love with the 16 years old Guido, who later was shot by partisans for being mistaken for a fascist spy.
*Guy Hocquenghem began an affair with his teacher in 1959, when he was 15. The gay activist Hocquenghem and the philosopher Scherer remained lifelong friends.
*The Italian poet, novelist and film director Pasolini started a relationship with the 15 year old Calabrian boy in 1963 and let him play many Comic roles in his movies.
*Peyrefitte met the 14 year old aristocrat during the filming of his novel Les Amitiés particulières in late 1963. Their love is described in Notre amour and L'Enfant de cœur. Malagnac lived with him from the age of 16, was adopted by Peyrefitte, and eventually married Amanda Lear.
*In 1966 the twenty two year old Swiss actor and writer was sentenced to a two and a half year jail term for a love affair with the sixteen year old Stephan, documented in the autobiographical novel Die Konsequenz and later turned into a movie by director Wolfgang Petersen.
Thomas K. Hubbard. Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, U. of California Press, 2003. [link] ISBN 0520234308
Herald Patzer. Die Griechische Knabenliebe [Greek Pederasty], Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1982. In: Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Vol. 19 No. 1.
W. A. Percy III. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece, University of Illinois Press, 1996. ISBN 0252022092
Muslim Lands
Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, et al. Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature, New York: New York University Press, 1997. ISBN 0814774687
J. Wright & Everett Rowson. Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature. 1998.
