In
ancient Greece and
Rome, a catamite (
Latin: catamītus) was a
pubescent boy who was the intimate companion of an older male, usually in a
pederastic relationship.[1] It was generally a term of affection and literally means "
Ganymede" in Latin, but it was also used as a term of insult when directed toward a grown man.[2] The word derives from the
proper nounCatamitus, the
Latinized form of Ganymede, the name of the beautiful
Trojan youth abducted by
Zeus to be his companion and cupbearer, according to Greek mythology.[3] The
Etruscan form of the name was Catmite, from an alternative Greek form of the name, Gadymedes.[4]
In its modern usage, the term catamite refers to a boy as the passive or receiving partner in anal intercourse with a man.[5]
References in literature and popular culture
In
Plato's dialogue Gorgias (at 494e),
Socrates uses the phrase κιναίδων βίος in a conversation with Callicles contrasting appetites and contentment.
The word appears widely but not necessarily frequently in the
Latin literature of antiquity, from
Plautus to
Ausonius. It is sometimes a synonym for puer delicatus, "delicate boy".
Cicero uses the term as an insult.[2] The word became a general term for a boy groomed for sexual purposes. It also appears in Meditations by
Marcus Aurelius (Books 3.16, 5.10 and 6.34).
C. S. Lewis in his partial autobiography Surprised by Joy described the social roles during his time at Wyvern College (by which he meant
Malvern College) as including the role of "Tart": "a pretty and effeminate-looking small boy who acts as a catamite to one or more of his seniors ..." and noted that "
pederasty ... was not [frowned upon as seriously as] wearing one's coat unbuttoned."[6]
Anthony Burgess's 1980 novel Earthly Powers uses the word in its[7] opening sentence: "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
In the post-apocalyptic landscape of
Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, the narrator describes an army on the move on foot with "women, perhaps a dozen in number, some of them pregnant, and lastly a supplementary consort of catamites".[8]
On TikTok and other social media sites, from 2022-2023, the term "Roman Towel Boy" has seen a surge in popularity to describe young people (primarily women, but occasionally men) who are skinny, possess masculine facial traits and short hair, and have large eyes. The use of the term is an ahistoric representation of catamites, and is often leveled as an evaluation of a woman's sexuality. [9]
^Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), pp. 52–55, 75.
^
abCicero, frg. B29 of his orations and Philippics 2.77; Bertocchi and Maraldi, "Menaechmus quidam," p. 95.
^Alastair J. L. Blanshard, "Greek Love," in Sex: Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p. 131. Both
Servius, note to Aeneid 1.128, and
Festus state clearly that Catamitus was the Latin equivalent of Ganymedes; Festus says he was the concubinus of Jove. Alessandra Bertocchi and Mirka Maraldi, "Menaechmus quidam: Indefinites and Proper Nouns in Classical and Late Latin," in Latin vulgaire–Latin tardif. Actes du VIIème Colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif. Séville, 2–6 septembre 2003 (University of Seville, 2006), p. 95, note 16.
^Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 73.
In
ancient Greece and
Rome, a catamite (
Latin: catamītus) was a
pubescent boy who was the intimate companion of an older male, usually in a
pederastic relationship.[1] It was generally a term of affection and literally means "
Ganymede" in Latin, but it was also used as a term of insult when directed toward a grown man.[2] The word derives from the
proper nounCatamitus, the
Latinized form of Ganymede, the name of the beautiful
Trojan youth abducted by
Zeus to be his companion and cupbearer, according to Greek mythology.[3] The
Etruscan form of the name was Catmite, from an alternative Greek form of the name, Gadymedes.[4]
In its modern usage, the term catamite refers to a boy as the passive or receiving partner in anal intercourse with a man.[5]
References in literature and popular culture
In
Plato's dialogue Gorgias (at 494e),
Socrates uses the phrase κιναίδων βίος in a conversation with Callicles contrasting appetites and contentment.
The word appears widely but not necessarily frequently in the
Latin literature of antiquity, from
Plautus to
Ausonius. It is sometimes a synonym for puer delicatus, "delicate boy".
Cicero uses the term as an insult.[2] The word became a general term for a boy groomed for sexual purposes. It also appears in Meditations by
Marcus Aurelius (Books 3.16, 5.10 and 6.34).
C. S. Lewis in his partial autobiography Surprised by Joy described the social roles during his time at Wyvern College (by which he meant
Malvern College) as including the role of "Tart": "a pretty and effeminate-looking small boy who acts as a catamite to one or more of his seniors ..." and noted that "
pederasty ... was not [frowned upon as seriously as] wearing one's coat unbuttoned."[6]
Anthony Burgess's 1980 novel Earthly Powers uses the word in its[7] opening sentence: "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
In the post-apocalyptic landscape of
Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, the narrator describes an army on the move on foot with "women, perhaps a dozen in number, some of them pregnant, and lastly a supplementary consort of catamites".[8]
On TikTok and other social media sites, from 2022-2023, the term "Roman Towel Boy" has seen a surge in popularity to describe young people (primarily women, but occasionally men) who are skinny, possess masculine facial traits and short hair, and have large eyes. The use of the term is an ahistoric representation of catamites, and is often leveled as an evaluation of a woman's sexuality. [9]
^Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), pp. 52–55, 75.
^
abCicero, frg. B29 of his orations and Philippics 2.77; Bertocchi and Maraldi, "Menaechmus quidam," p. 95.
^Alastair J. L. Blanshard, "Greek Love," in Sex: Vice and Love from Antiquity to Modernity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p. 131. Both
Servius, note to Aeneid 1.128, and
Festus state clearly that Catamitus was the Latin equivalent of Ganymedes; Festus says he was the concubinus of Jove. Alessandra Bertocchi and Mirka Maraldi, "Menaechmus quidam: Indefinites and Proper Nouns in Classical and Late Latin," in Latin vulgaire–Latin tardif. Actes du VIIème Colloque international sur le latin vulgaire et tardif. Séville, 2–6 septembre 2003 (University of Seville, 2006), p. 95, note 16.
^Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 73.