In the Symposium, Plato portrays Orpheus as effeminate. At the end of the second century A. D., Clement of Alexandria subscribes to this view and gives it a new meaning within the context of the religious controversy of his time. Both indictments refer to Orpheus either as a pederast or as a man distant from women and constitute a disparaging attitude towards a legend that other pagan interpretations and testimonies are far from criticising so harshly. As alluded to by Phanocles, these other interpretations take two particular directions. The paper deals with the first of these, which is adopted by Colon and Pausanias, both of whom speak of the pederast Orpheus as the man par excellence: the warriors' initiator. The analysis of this first interpretation of Orpheus' pederasty illustrates the changing reflections projected by the same myth, depending on the controversial positions which have perhaps participated in its creation.