“The love that dare not speak its name”

Pederasty through a Victorian lens

Abstract

Aspects of Greco-Roman culture have faced periods of romanticization throughout history, particularly in the Victorian era, in which popular social figures and authors shaped social practices from antiquity to counter Victorian ideals and to fit in with their view of the world, largely based on misunderstandings. One such victim was the ancient practice of pederasty, in which an older man would mentor a young boy, in order to prepare him to enter society and serve his state. To the Victorians, and author Oscar Wilde in particular, pederasty was conflated with homosexuality, and Ancient Greece and Rome labelled as homosexual utopias, as a result.