l hours, received half-human shape in Pan and
Silenus, the Satyrs and the Fauns. In this department of semi-bestial
instincts we find one solitary instance bearing upon paiderastia. The
group of a Satyr tempting a youth at Naples stands alone among numerous
similar compositions which have female or hermaphroditic figures, and
which symbolise the violent and comprehensive lust of brutal appetite.
Further distinctions between the several degrees of love were drawn by
the Greek artists. Himeros, the desire that strikes the spirit through
the eyes, and Pothos, the longing of souls in separation from the object
of their passion, were carved together with Eros by Scopas for
Aphrodite's temple at Megara. Throughout the whole of this series there
is no form set aside for paiderastia, as might have been expected if the
fancy of the Greeks had idealised a sensual Asiatic passion. Statues of
Ganymede carried to heaven by the eagle are, indeed, common enough in
Graeco-Roman plastic art; yet, even here, there is nothing which
indicates the preference for a specifically voluptuous type of male
beauty.

It should be noticed that the mythology of the Greeks was determined
before paiderastia laid hold upon the race. Homer and Hesiod, says
Herodotus, made the Hellenic theogony, and Homer and Hesiod knew only of
the passions and emotions which are common to all healthy semi-civilised
humanity. The artists, therefore, found in myths and poems
subject-matter which imperatively demanded a no less careful study of
the female than of the male form; nor were beautiful women wanting.
Great cities placed their maidens at the disposition of sculptors and
painters for the modelling of Aphrodite. The girls of Sparta in their
dances suggested groups of Artemis and Oreads. The Hetairai of Corinth
presented every detail of feminine perfection freely to the gaze. Eyes
accustomed to the "dazzling vision" of a naked athlete were no less
sensitive to the virginal veiled grace of the Athenian Canephoroi. The
temples of the female deities had their staffs of priestesses, and the
oracles their inspired prophetesses. Remembering these facts,
remembering also what we read about AEolian ladies who gained fame by
poetry, there is every reason to understand how sculptors found it easy
to idealise the female form. Nor need we imagine, because Greek
literature abounds in references to paiderastia, and because this
passion played an important part in Greek history, t