This article traces the historicization of the "pedagogue" as a social function in Graeco-Roman antiquity. The article examines the position of the pedagogue as representative of a space or interval between the varying social authorities of the family and state, as well as the early Christian church, and asks how a pedagogue identified himself: could he bring value or desire to his duties? In asking what the pedagogue looked like, the article implicitly refers to the pedagogic gaze, and to the social and sexual boundaries through which it was constituted. The study utilizes the analytical methods of Luce Irigaray, which provide strategies for the interpretation of cultural narrative, specifically in relation to questions of sexual difference and the production of discourse. This method also enables a critical analysis of why the pedagogue was a man. The paper suggests that sex is essential to the construction of images and symbols of the pedagogue. It argues that the concept of the pedagogue referred essentially to an object which, while recognizably male, could not speak or act as a "man", but, paradoxically, as both male and as excessive to the masculine. (Contains 23 notes.)