ABSTRACT
Until the 1970s homosexuality in ancient Greece (as everywhere else) was a subject often passed over in silence. It was opened up by Sir Kenneth Dover's pioneering work Greek Homosexuality and since then has been discussed a good deal, but mainly from a sociological or anthropological point of view. It is clear that the Athenians generally regarded a homosexual relationship not as a partnership between equals, but as a relationship between an older, active partner, called 'lover', and a younger, passive partner, called 'loved'. Typically it would be a relationship between an adult man and a boy or youth, though relationships between an older and a younger adult or between a youth and a boy are not excluded. This inequality in a relationship is clearly presupposed in the legislation, and Aiskhines in his account distinguishes laws concerning boys, laws concerning youths, and laws concerning adults; however, since each relationship involves two persons, these categories cannot be entirely separated.
