Paidika

To those who know Greek and many who don’t this blog will be transparently Symposium-inspired. “Paidika” is a curious term, and one I quite enjoy for its nuance and playfulness, its complex references. From my Middle Liddell:

παιδικός, ή, όν [paidikos, e, on]- of, for or like a child, boyish; 2. playful, sportive; II. of or for a beloved youth; 2. as substantive, a darling, favourite.

Those who don’t read Greek can now see why “Paidika”—a neuter plural used as a masculine singular substantive—is very fine. It’s both love and play, serious and silly, meek and forward. The term blurs number and gender in one go, which I feel quite describes me. As a friend likes to say, I’m large; I have contained multitudes.

And I think it also connotes the photography I’ll be putting up here, obsessed and feisty and fetishistic as it is about objects and toys and bodies.

The line that more or less struck me into titling the blog as I have is from Phaedrus’ speech, Symposium 178c:

οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγ’ ἔχω εἰπεῖν ὅτι μεῖζόν ἐστιν ἀγαθὸν εὐθὺς νέῳ ὄντι ἢ ἐραστὴς χρηστὸς καὶ ἐραστῇ παιδικά
“For I’m not able to say that there’s a greater good for a young man than a good lover or for a lover than a youth [paidika].”
Why don’t we see whether or not that’s true?
I look forward to having you read me.