"Often will the folk speak vain things against thee in my ears, and against me in thine. Pay thou no heed to them."[1]
Again, he frequently reminds the boy he loves, whether it be Kurnus or some other, that the bloom of youth is passing, and that this is a reason for showing kindness.[2] This argument is urged with what appears like coarseness in the following couplet:—
"O boy, so long as thy chin remains smooth, never will I cease from fawning, no, not if it is doomed for me to die."[3]
A couplet, which is also attributed to Solon, shows that paiderastia at this time in Greece was associated with manly sports and pleasures:—
"Blest is the man who loves brave steeds of war,
Fair boys, and hounds, and stranger guests from far."[4]
Nor must the following be omitted:—
"Blest is the man who loves, and after play,
Whereby his limbs are supple made and strong,
Retiring to his home, 'twixt sleep and song,
Sports with a fair boy on his breast all day."[5]
The following couplet is attributed to him by Plutarch,[6] nor does there seem any reason to doubt its genuineness. The text seems to be corrupt, but the meaning is pretty clear:—
"In the charming season of the flower-time of youth thou shalt love boys, yearning for their thighs and honeyed mouth."
Solon, it may be remembered, thought it wise to regulate the conditions under which the love of free youths might be tolerated.
The general impression produced by a careful reading of Theognis is that he entertained a genuine passion for Kurnus, and that he was anxious to train the young man's mind in what he judged the noblest principles. Love, at the same time, except in its more sensual moments, he describes as bitter-sweet and subject to anxiety. That perturbation of the emotions, which is inseparable from any of the deeper forms of personal attachment, and which the necessary conditions of boy-love exasperated, was irksome to the Greek. It is not a little curious to observe how all the poets of the despotic age resent and fret against the force of their own feeling, differing herein from the singers of chivalry, who idealised the very pains of passion.
