ephebophilia

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔφηβος (éphēbos, “adolescent”) + φιλία (philía, “love, friendship”). By surface analysis, ephebe +‎ -philia.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪliə

Noun

ephebophilia (uncountable)

1. A sexual preference for adolescents.
   • 1932, Hans Licht [pseudonym; Paul Brandt], translated by J. H. Freese, “[Male Homosexuality] History of Greek Love of Boys”, in Lawrence H. Dawson, editor, Sexual Life in Ancient Greece, London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. […], published 1933, part II, pages 449–450:

     The assertion, often naïvely made, that in the Homeric poems there is as yet no trace of the love of boys to be met with, and that it was a phenomenon which first appeared during the so-called decadence is, in my opinion, false, for I have already shown in an earlier work (in Anthropophyteia, ix, pp. 291 ff.) that the bond of friendship between Achilles and Patroclus (the most important passages are Il., xxiii, 84; ix, 186, 663; xviii, 22 ff., 65, 315, 334; xix, 209, 315), however ideal it was, yet contains a high percentage of homoerotic sentiment and action; that the Homeric epos also abounds in undoubted traces of ephebophilia, and that no one in the ancient times of Greece ever supposed otherwise.

   • 1981 Brian Taylor, PhD Perspectives on Paedophilia page XIII

     Thus, paedophilia, denoting sexual interest in pre-pubertal children, can be distinguished from paederasty, indicating sexual interest in pre-pubertal boys alone. These two together could then be distinguished from ephebophilia, denoting sexual preference for post-pubertal and adolescent boys.

   • 1983 Robin Scroggs The New Testament and Homosexuality: Contextual Background for Contemporary Debate page 148:

     Freund, "Male Homosexuality," p. 44 .. "Paedophilia is the erotic preference for children, ephebophilia that for male ... pubescents."

   • 1989 Robert H. Rencken Intervention Strategies for Sexual Abuse page 10:

     paraphilias are included: hebephilia (adolescent girls) and ephebophilia (adolescent boys), although the dynamics of these latter two may be closer to those of adult attraction.

   • 2006 Looking at Ephebophilia through the Lens of Cleric Sexual Abuse from volume 13 issue 4 of "Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity"
   • 2016, Encyclopedia of Homosexuality‎^[1], page 361:

     The term ephebophilia seems to have been coined by Magnus Hirschfeld in his Wesen der Liebe (1906), where he applied to sexually mature youths from puberty up to the age of 20; in his 1914 magnum opus, Die Homosexualitat des Mannes und des Weibes, Hirschfeld specified the range of love objects as from "the beginning to the completion of maturity, so approximately ages 14-21." The German research estimated that 45 of all homosexuals were ephebophiles. For women, he used the term "parthenophiles."
     The authors propose that the diagnosis of ephebophilia, which is a sexual attraction to pubescent or post-pubescent males, is better suited to the sample of Catholic priests in the John Jay study.

2. Primary adult sexual attraction towards postpubescent adolescents, usually between 15 and 19 years old.

   Coordinate terms: hebephilia, pedophilia, teleiophilia

Derived terms

• ephebophile
• ephebophilic

See also

• pederast
• hebephilia, a preference for pubescents or early adolescents.

Further reading

• ephebophilia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia