verything which the Greek genius touched
acquired a portion of its distinction, so that what in semi-barbarous
society may be ignored as vice, in Greece demands attention as a phase
of the spiritual life of a world-historic nation.

Like climate, ethnology must also be eliminated. It is only a
superficial philosophy of history which is satisfied with the
nomenclature of Semitic, Aryan, and so forth; which imagines that
something is gained for the explanation of a complex psychological
problem when hereditary affinities have been demonstrated. The deeps of
national personality are far more abysmal than this. Granting that
climate and descent are elements of great importance, the religious and
moral principles, the aesthetic apprehensions, and the customs which
determine the character of a race, leave always something still to be
analysed. In dealing with Greek paiderastia, we are far more likely to
reach a probable solution if we confine our attention to the specific
social conditions which fostered the growth of this passion in Greece,
and to the general habit of mind which permitted its evolution out of
the common stuff of humanity, than if we dilate at ease upon the climate
of the AEgean, or discuss the ethnical complexion of the Hellenic stock.
In other words, it was the Pagan view of human life and duty which gave
scope to paiderastia, while certain special Greek customs aided its
development.

The Greeks themselves, quoted more than once above, have put us on the
right track in this inquiry. However paiderastia began in Hellas, it was
encouraged by gymnastics and syssitia. Youths and boys engaged together
in athletic exercises, training their bodies to the highest point of
physical attainment, growing critical about the points and proportions
of the human form, lived of necessity in an atmosphere of mutual
attention. Young men could not be insensible to the grace of boys in
whom the bloom of beauty was unfolding. Boys could not fail to admire
the strength and goodliness of men displayed in the comeliness of
perfected development. Having exercised together in the
wrestling-ground, the same young men and boys consorted at the common
tables. Their talk fell naturally upon feats of strength and training;
nor was it unnatural, in the absence of a powerful religious
prohibition, that love should spring from such discourse and
intercourse.

The nakedness, which Greek custom permitted in gymnastic games and some
religi