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In the pederastic tradition
Pederasty in ancient Greece

Greek pederasty, as idealised by the Ancient Greece from Archaic period in Greece onward, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family....
 of Classical Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, the eromenos (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ???µe???, pl. ???µe???, "eromenoi") was an adolescent
Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental Human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological , social, and psychological changes, though the biological or physiological ones are the easiest to measure objectively....
 boy who was in a love relationship with an adult man, known as the erastes
Erastes

In ancient Greece, the 'erastes' was an adult male involved in a Pederasty in ancient Greece with an adolescent boy called the eromenos....
 (??ast??).

The term for the role often varied from one polis
Polis

A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. When used to describe Classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state."...
 to another.






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Symposiumnorthwall
In the pederastic tradition
Pederasty in ancient Greece

Greek pederasty, as idealised by the Ancient Greece from Archaic period in Greece onward, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family....
 of Classical Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, the eromenos (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ???µe???, pl. ???µe???, "eromenoi") was an adolescent
Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental Human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological , social, and psychological changes, though the biological or physiological ones are the easiest to measure objectively....
 boy who was in a love relationship with an adult man, known as the erastes
Erastes

In ancient Greece, the 'erastes' was an adult male involved in a Pederasty in ancient Greece with an adolescent boy called the eromenos....
 (??ast??).

The term for the role often varied from one polis
Polis

A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. When used to describe Classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state."...
 to another. In Athens, the eromenos was also known as the paidika; in Sparta they used aites (hearer), a term also used in Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
; in Crete the boys were known as kleinos (glorious) and if they had fought in battle with their lover, as parastathenes (one who stands beside).

The ideal eromenos - as well as his erastes - was expected to be ruled by the principles of enkrateia, or "self-mastery," which presumed an attitude of moderation and self-restraint in all matters.

Characteristics of the role

The youth was expected to put up resistance to the entreaties of the various erastai seeking to win his affection, in order to test their seriousness of purpose, and to choose the most deserving. As a result, in Attica, eromenoi were assiduously courted, and were the object of street fights and arguments among the young men vying for their affection. Some of the eromenoi moved in with their lovers, with whom they lived for some period of time, usually until coming of age. Many erestes/eromenoi relations broke apart after the young partner became of age. Some stayed together as full time lovers, but not the majority.

The Greeks recognized and valued that time in the life of a boy when he was considered to be ripe for loving; the Greek word used to describe such a boy was hôraios, meaning "in season" or "in bloom". Eromenoi were generally males aged twelve to seventeen. Though the eromenos was valued for his beauty, he was valued even more for his modesty, industriousness and courage. In Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
's Symposium
Symposium (Plato)

The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written by Plato sometime after 385 BC. It is a discussion on the nature of love, taking the form of a group of speeches, both satirical and serious, given by a group of men at a symposium or a wine drinking gathering at the house of the Tragedy#Greek tragedy Agathon at Athens....
, the character Aristophanes says that the eromenoi who "love men and enjoy lying with men and being embraced by men" are not shameless, but rather "the best of boys and lads, because they are the most manly in their nature" (191e-192a). (Though this may have been a view held by aristocratic Athenians of Plato and Aristophanes
Aristophanes

Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comedy playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays have come down to us virtually complete....
' type, the nature of Platonic dialogues makes it uncertain whether it was actually held by either Plato or Aristophanes themselves.)

The eromenos was typically portrayed as undergoing pedagogical training
Pedagogy

Pedagogy , or paedagogy is the art or science of being a teacher. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
 and while he typically was also the object of affection and passion, he was not necessarily sexually engaged. When present, sexual expression is depicted in the iconography as having consisted primarily of fondling and intercrural sex
Intercrural sex

Intercrural sex , also known as femoral/interfemoral sex/intercourse, is a type of intercourse variously regarded as Sexual penetration and non-penetrative sex, in which a male partner places his penis between the other partner's thighs , and thrusts to create friction....
. Anal sex
Anal sex

Anal sex most often refers to the sex act involving insertion of the penis into the rectum. The term anal sex can also sometimes include other sexual acts involving the anus, including but not limited to Anal-oral sex and fingering #Anal fingering....
 appears to have been less common, yet frequent enough to be a topic of comedy, and of criticism based on the opinion that it was a practice which was shameful and risked feminizing the boys who grew to like it.

Upon reaching the age of maturity (ca. eighteen years), the eromenos would cut his long hair and become eligible for taking on the role of erastes
Erastes

In ancient Greece, the 'erastes' was an adult male involved in a Pederasty in ancient Greece with an adolescent boy called the eromenos....
 and courting and winning an eromenos of his own.

Eromenos is traditionally translated into English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 as "beloved", although this is not a perfect match for the concept.

See also

  • Athenian pederasty
    Athenian pederasty

    Athenian pederasty entailed a formal bond between an adult man and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family, consisting of loving and often sexual relations....
  • Erastes
    Erastes

    In ancient Greece, the 'erastes' was an adult male involved in a Pederasty in ancient Greece with an adolescent boy called the eromenos....
  • Mentoring
    Mentoring

    Mentorship refers to a developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person, referred to as a prot?g?, apprentice, mentee, or being mentored, develop in a specified capacity....
  • Pederasty in ancient Greece
    Pederasty in ancient Greece

    Greek pederasty, as idealised by the Ancient Greece from Archaic period in Greece onward, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family....