"Harsh and sweet, alluring and repellent, until it be crowned with
completion, is love for young men. If one brings it to perfection,
then it is sweet; but if a man pursues and does not love, then it
is of all things the most painful."[58]
The same strain is repeated in the lines which begin, "a boy's love is
fair to keep, fair to lay aside."[59] As one time Theognis tells his
friend that he has the changeable temper of a hawk, the skittishness of
a pampered colt.[60] At another he remarks that boys are more constant
than women in their affection.[61] His passion rises to its noblest
height in a poem which deserves to rank with some of Shakespeare's
sonnets, and which, like them, has fulfilled its own promise of
immortality.[62] In order to appreciate the value of the fame conferred
on Kurnus by Theognis, and celebrated in such lofty strains, we must
remember that these elegies were sung at banquets. "The fair young men,"
of whom the poet speaks, boy-lovers themselves, chaunted the praise of
Kurnus to the sound of flutes, while the cups went round or the lyre was
passed from hand to hand of merry-making guests. A subject to which
Theognis more than once refers is calumny:--
"Often will the folk speak vain things against thee in my ears, and
against me in thine. Pay thou no heed to them."[63]
Again, he frequently reminds the boy he loves, whether it be Kurnus or
some other, that the bloom of youth is passing, and that this is a
reason for showing kindness.[64] This argument is urged with what
appears like coarseness in the following couplet:--
"O boy, so long as thy chin remains smooth, never will I cease from
fawning, no, not if it is doomed for me to die."[65]
A couplet, which is also attributed to Solon, shows that paiderastia at
this time in Greece was associated with manly sports and pleasures:--
"Blest is the man who loves brave steeds of war,
Fair boys, and hounds, and stranger guests from far."[66]