Review

Reviewed Work(s): Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece by William A. Percy III
Review by: David J. Murphy
Source: The Classical World, Vol. 92, No. 1, Articulating the Curriculum from School to
College (Sep. - Oct., 1998), p. 82
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Classical Association of
the Atlantic States
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4352225
Accessed: 28-09-2017 05:00 UTC

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 82 CLASSICAL WORLD

the expense of archaeological illustrations, since illustration has always played

a key role in archaeological analysis.
Of course, no single-volume history of archaeology can be truly compre-
hensive and, for example, much more could have been said here on the
impact of computer technology and on the institutional setting of archaeol-
ogy. Furthermore, it is not surprising that small errors of fact can be found
in such a wide-ranging book. So, for example, the "Ten Lost Tribes of
Israel" got "lost" when they were deported by Sargon II and not as a result
of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua (p. 21). However, such problems are
slight, given the global perspective and historical detail offered here. If one
is looking for a book that is pleasant to look at, enjoyable to read, and
fairly easy on the pocketbook, I recommend this one.

University of Pennsylvania BRUCE ROUTLEDGE

CW 92.1 (1998)

William A. Percy III. Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece. Urbana

and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996. Pp. x, 260. $24.95. ISBN
0-252-02209-2.

This book promises to go beyond power relations between active and

passive male lovers and to focus instead on the educative aspects of early
Greek pederasty. Percy rightly denies that Greek pederastic institutions were
proper initiation rites, and he rejects derivation of them from Indo-Euro-
pean or Near Eastern forebears. Instead, he follows those classical authors
who make pederasty originate in Dorian Crete as part of the system of
military discipline that the island shared with Sparta. Against scholars who
believe that Crete and Sparta retained this custom after it had died out
elsewhere, Percy uses a line in Aristotle's Politics to posit that Cretan law-
givers ca. 650 B.c. instituted pederasty to limit the exploding aristocratic
population and keep estates intact. Unfortunately, Cretan population appears
to have increased but slowly, and we have no evidence earlier than the
fourth century about lawgivers initiating pederasty in Crete or Sparta.
Seeking next to establish a rapid spread of pederasty outwa:d from Crete
and Sparta, Percy collects a wealth of material from a wide area, including
many little-known rites of pederastic local heroes. When Percy describes
Aeolian and Ionian pederasty, however, he fails to show why the type of
boy-love that we see in, say, Anacreon should be derived from the type of
pederasty he postulates among his Cretan lawgivers. Although we are re-
minded that the cultural achievements of Greece flowered in an atmosphere
where love of man and youth was meant to inspire greatness, the promised
investigation of how the experience "affected the 'spirit"' of the beloved
youth offers little beyond generalizations.
The book's arguments, in fact, are vitiated by extremely faulty research. One
encounters incorrectly cited references to authors ancient and modern, references
that do not support inferences drawn from them, and references that do not
discuss the topic attributed to them (e.g., no pederasty in Diod. Sic. 12.11-19).
Passages that could be useful are not discussed. The errors make the book un-
trustworthy as a factual compendium, and its more ambitious hypotheses remain
undemonstrated. Readers are still better served by Dover and, now, Calame.

The Nightingale-Bamford School DAVID J. MURPHY

CW92.1 (1998)

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