For the student of sexual inversion, ancient Greece offers a wide field
for observation and reflection. Its importance has hitherto been
underrated by medical and legal writers on the subject, who do not seem
to be aware that here alone in history have we the example of a great
and highly-developed race not only tolerating homosexual passions, but
deeming them of spiritual value, and attempting to utilise them for the
benefit of society. Here, also, through the copious stores of literature
at our disposal, we can arrive at something definite regarding the
various forms assumed by these passions, when allowed free scope for
development in the midst of refined and intellectual civilisation. What
the Greeks called paiderastia, or boy-love, was a phenomenon of one of
the most brilliant periods of human culture, in one of the most highly
organised and nobly active nations. It is the feature by which Greek
social life is most sharply distinguished from that of any other people
approaching the Hellenes in moral or mental distinction. To trace the
history of so remarkable a custom in their several communities, and to
ascertain, so far as this is possible, the ethical feeling of the Greeks
upon this subject, must be of service to the scientific psychologist. It
enables him to approach the subject from another point of view than that
usually adopted by modern jurists, psychiatrists, writers on forensic
medicine.