Today pederasty is defined as the perverse sexual attraction of an adult towards an innocent child. Although pederasty was illegal in ancient Greece, many considered it merely the love of an older man for a young boy who had not yet come of age, as the following passage suggests:
"The burgeoning of a boy of two renders him desirable, at thirteen he is adorable. The bloom of love at fourteen is very sweet, at fifteen his charm is irresistible, but sixteen is the most divine of ages." Straton "Anthologia Palatinus" XII, 4
