Historical pederastic couples: Encyclopedia II - Historical pederastic couples - Known or presumed pederastic couples

Historical pederastic couples - Known or presumed pederastic couples

In the following list the couples are listed in chronological order, and the name of the older partner precedes that of the younger. Though many more men are known to have engaged in such relationships, only those instances in which the name of the younger partner is known are included. In keeping with the Socratic tradition which allows (and actually privileges) the existence of chaste pederastic relationships (See Platonic love), included below are relationships in which there is evidence of an erotic component, even if the relationship was not sexually consummated.

Historical pederastic couples - Antiquity

• Chariton and Melanippus
  • The two lovers plotted against Phalaris around 560 BCE. They were discovered and tortured to divulge accomplices, but remained silent. The tyrant, impressed, set them free. Their valor and love were celebrated in a Delphic oracle:

• Aristogeiton and Harmodius
  • Heroic couple, later lionized by the Athenian democrats, whose 514 BCE plot to assasinate Hippias in was credited with the overthrow of tyranny in Athens.
• Parmenides of Elea and Zeno of Elea
  • According to Plato, Zeno was "tall and fair to look upon" and was "in the days of his youth . . . reported to have been beloved by Parmenides" (Plato, Parmenides, 127). This would have ocurred around 475 BCE.
• Themistocles and Stesilaus of Ceos
  • Around 420 BCE Themistocles competed for the boy's love with Aristides. As Plutarch recounts, "... they were rivals for the affection of the beautiful Stesilaus of Ceos, and were passionate beyond all moderation." (The Lives, Themistocles)
• Critias and Euthydemos
  • A relationship mocked by Socrates for the brutish physicality of Critias' desire.
• Agesilaus II and Megabates
  • By taking on Megabates as beloved, the king of Sparta was following Spartan law.
• Epaminondas and Asopichos
  • A couple famed for their military prowess, such as in their victory at Leuctra.
• Philip II of Macedon and Pausanias
  • Pausanias killed Philip out of jealousy over another lover.
• Gaozu of Han and Jiri
  • Reigned 206-195 BCE. All Han emperors openly had male lovers.
• Emperor Hui of Han and Hongru
  • Reigned 194-188 BCE. Before the tradition of meritocracy took root, male favorites rose to rank and power.
• Nicomedes III of Bithynia and Julius Caesar
  • Widely bruited about in Cesar's time, and a cause for mirth at his expense.
• Emperor Hadrian and Antinous
  • The Roman emperor met this 13 or 14 years old boy from Bithynia in 124 CE. Antinous was deified by Hadrian, when he died six years later. Many statues, busts, coins and reliefs display Hadrians deep affections for him: http://antinoos.info/antinous.htm
• Herodes Atticus and Polydeukion
  • Herodes emulated Hadrian in establishing a heroic cult for the boy upon his early death ca. 174 CE.

Historical pederastic couples - Middle Ages

• Yu Xin and Wang Shao
  • The great writer (513-581) was disowned by his beloved upon the latter's rise to power.
• Walibah ibn al-Hubab and Abu Nuwas
  • Both poets, the younger (b. 756 C.E.) becoming by far the greater of the two.
• Mahmud of Ghazni and Ayaz
  • The two, sultan and slave, are paragons of male love in Islamic culture. Mahmud appointed Ayaz ruler of Lahore in 1021.
• Raoul II, Archbishop of Tours and Jean, Archbishop of Orléans
  • Raoul appointed his adolescent lover (also known as "Flora) in 1097 to the post in Orléans over the vehement objections of other prelates. (Crompton, p.183)
• Nicoleto Marmagna and Giovanni Braganza
  • In 1357 the Venetian court I Signori di Notte ("The Gentlemen of the Night") sentenced the boatman and his young servant to be burned at the stake. Their relationship of many years standing had been discovered during a voyage from Mestre to Venice. Crompton, p.202)

Historical pederastic couples - Pre-modern period

• Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and Zeami Motokiyo
  • In the shudo tradition, most shoguns took boys as lovers. Zeami caught the eye of his patron (then 16) at 11, in 1374. He became a playwright, father of Noh theater.
• Ashikaga Yoshimochi and Akamatsu Mochisada
  • Shogun Yoshimochi, son of Yoshimitsu, granted lands which his beloved mismanaged. His own family denounced him, and he had to commit seppuku by order of his lover, the shogun.
• Ashikaga Yoshinori and Akamatsu Sadamura
  • For love of Sadamura, Shogun Yoshinori lost his life in 1441, assassinated by Akamatsu Mitsusuke, whose lands he had wanted to take and give to Sadamura.
• Ashikaga Yoshimasa and Akamatsu Norinao
  • Norinao, granted lands at the time in possession of Yamana Sozen, was attacked by the latter and took his own life. The conflict ballooned into the Onin civil war of 1467.

• Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Cavalcanti
  • Ficino lived with the youth at his villa for many years, only separating briefly in 1473, occasion of ardent love letters.
• Leonardo da Vinci and Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno (il Salaino)
  • Il Salaino entered his service in 1490 at 10, and remained for thirty years.
• Leonardo da Vinci and Francesco Melzi
  • Melzi was Leonardo's last love. In 1505, he joined Leonardo's household at the age of 15. Later he went to France with him and finally inherited the artistic and scientific works of the great Italian master.
• Hosokawa Takakuni and Yanagimoto Kenji
  • Takakuni, despite having sworn eternal love to Kenji, allowed Kenji's brother to be murdered. Later Kenji rose in vengeance against him with an army.

• Yanagimoto Kenji and Takahata Jinkuro
  • Knowing Kenji prepared a rebellion, Jinkuro vowed silence, but refused to break his allegiance to Lord Takakuni, warning Kenji that despite their love, he would not hesitate to kill him in battle.
• Michelangelo and Tommaso dei Cavalieri
  • They started a chaste relationship in 1532, when they were 57 and 16 respectively.

• The future pope hired the illiterate 14 year old street urchin for his charms in 1547. Upon being appointed pope in 1550, he raises the boy to the post of cardinal and indulges in pederastic orgies with him and other young cardinals. (Larivière, 1997)

• Ended after five years, in 1556, when Cellini, 56 had a falling out with his teen apprentice.

• Sadonokami remained as the Shogun's lover until he reached adulthood, when he entered the service of the Hosokawa family, where his descendants can be found to the present day.

• The Jesuit Father Luis Frois writes of the 13 year old page's seppuku upon the death of his lord, the Shogun in 1565.

• While on debauch in Venice in 1575, de Vere took the sixteen year old choir boy as lover and returned with him to London, where he kept the boy for a year. In 1580-81 Oxford was accused of pederasty with Cogno and other boys.[1]

• Both perished in an ambush in 1582, Ranmaru, still in his teens, fighting by Oda's side.

• One of many beloveds of the shogun, Manchiyo was a scion of an allied powerful clan. (Crompton, p.439)

• The youthful Cecco modelled for many of Caravaggio's most famous paintings, including Amor Vincit, and became a well-known artist himself, known as Cecco del Caravaggio.

• Counselor and friend to the Dauphin who was 23 years his junior, de Luynes was his lover from at least 1615, when the future Louis XIII - already experienced in male love - was 14.

• The childhood friend and retainer, aged 21, was murdered by his 16 year old beloved as they shared a bathtub. (Crompton, p.439)

• Yoshiyasu served the shogun, 12 years his senior, from ca. 1660 at an early age, and both played major roles in the incident of the 47 ronin of 1701.

• In 1685 the 53 year old composer was denounced for his dalliances with his young page. The boy confessed to Roman orgies involving so many of the great lords that all was hushed up.

• Van Keppel became the king's page and minion in 1688 at 18, and rose to nobility and wealth to the "disgust" of parliament.

• Tokoku was a young disciple loved by the poet, and mourned in his Saga Diary, 1691. (Crompton, p.440)

• The 18 years old crown prince Frederick wanted to escape from his brutal father in 1730. He asked his friend von Katte for help, but they didn't get very far. The king showed no mercy - he sentenced von Katte to death and forced his son to watch the execution.

• Both belonged to a French regiment that fought in Bohemia since 1740. Hippolyte was 18 and Vauvenargue 8 years older, when they became companions. The younger of the two died during the Siege of Prague in 1742. "He understood all the passions and opinions, even the most singular, that the world blames." —Vauvenargues about his friend.

• Beckford, 19, fell in love with Courtenay, 10, nicknamed Kitty and "one of the most beautiful boys in England," in 1789. Both pursued lifelong involvement with boys.

• Cheng I was a pirate of the Chinese coast, who kidnapped the 15 years old Chang Pao in 1801. Chang Pao later became the leader of Cheng's pirate fleet.

• Lord Byron fell in love with the French-Italian lad in 1810, when the boy was 15. "It is about two hours since, that, after informing me he was most desirous to follow him (that is me) over the world, he concluded by telling me it was proper for us not only to live, but 'morire insieme'. The latter I hope to avoid - as much of the former as he pleases." —Byron in his letter to John Cam Hobhouse - The Convent, Athens, August 23rd, 1810

• The poet met this 15 years old Greek teenager during the Greek War of Independence and dedicated several poems to him.

• Both major poets, they became lovers in 1871, at 27 and 17 respectively.

• In 1878, the writer, 50, is closely attached to the future president of the French Republic, 16 at the time, whom he picks up from school to bring to his own home. (Larivière, p.332; Moré, 2005)

• They were together from 1884 to 1889

• Ross, at 17 a journalist and future literary executor to Wilde, seduced his mentor, virginal and 32 in 1886.

• The composer and his nephew (b. 1871) were lovers for five years, from c. 1888 until the elder's death at 53. (R. Norton's article on their relationship and the composer's forced suicide)

• Gower adopted the boy (no later than 1894) and lived with him. "Gower may be seen, but not Hird." —Oscar Wilde

• Douglas had an affair with the youth, 15, in Capri in 1897.

• Von Gloeden, a famous fin de siècle photographer of Italian youths, hired Bucini in the early 1880's, when the boy was 13 or 14. Bucini, called "il Moro," was his lover, assistant and finally his heir. In 1936 Bucini, as curator of the collection, successfully defended himself against the charge of keeping pornography, accusation made by the Italian fascists, who destroyed most of the remaining three thousand picture plates.

Historical pederastic couples - 20th and 21st centuries

• A chaste love (one of many for George) which lasted one year, till the boy's death at 16 in 1904.

• The baron, 24, met the 14 year old laborer in Rome, 1904. They lived in Capri till Fersen's 1923 suicide.

• For love of a Syrian boy of 15 met in 1912 at 24, Lawrence fought for Arab independence. "I liked a particular Arab very much, and I thought that freedom for the race would be an acceptable present." —T.E. Lawrence

• Met in 1916 when they were 47 and 15, remained friends for life. Allégret became a renowned filmmaker.

• Forster met the 17 year old boy in Ramlah around 1917. Their love served as inspiration for much of the writer's later work.

• Cocteau met the young poet in 1918 at 29, when the boy was 15 years old.

• The elder, 37, a composer and author, the younger, 15, a poet and dancer, met in Elisavetgrad, 1919.

• Diaghilev's librettist for 8 years, till Sergei's death in 1929 at 57. Later, Monte Carlo ballet director.

• One of de Mérode's chaste pederastic friendships.

• The two met in 1939 - Auden was 32, Kallman, 18, and remained life-long partners.

• In 1940 the novelist Comisso (1895 - 1969) fell in love with the 16 years old Guido, who was later shot by partisans for being mistaken for a fascist spy.

• In 1949 during his stay in Burma the British journalist took the youth as his companion. (From The World, the Flesh and Myself)

• Met in 1952, at 49 and 18, respectively.

• The Italian poet took the 14 years old streetboy from Rome to his home in 1956 and lived with him for several years..

• During the years in which William S. Burroughs was living in Tangier he had a relationship with a Spanish teenager named "Kiki".

• Guy Hocquenghem began an affair with his teacher in 1959, when he was 15. The gay activist Hocquenghem and the philosopher Scherer remained lifelong friends.

• The Italian poet, novelist and film director Pasolini started a relationship with the 15 year old Calabrian boy in 1963 and let him play many Comic roles in his movies.

• Peyrefitte met the 14 year old aristocrat during the filming of his novel Les Amitiés particulières in late 1963. Their love is described in Notre amour and L'Enfant de cœur. Malagnac lived with him from the age of 16, was adopted by Peyrefitte, and eventually married Amanda Lear.

• In 1966 the twenty two year old Swiss actor and writer was sentenced to a two and a half year jail term for a love affair with the sixteen year old Stephan, documented in the autobiographical novel Die Konsequenz and later turned into a movie by director Wolfgang Petersen.

• In 1969, when they were 57 and 12 - a chaste relationship, as were his others.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Known or presumed pederastic couples", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki