thumb|Erastes (lover) and eromenos (beloved) kissing. Tondo of an [[Classical Athens|Attic red-figured cup, ca. 480 BCE. Louvre Museum]]
In ancient Greece, an eromenos was the younger partner in a formalized relationship of mentorship and love between an older man (the erastes) and an adolescent male.
Terminology
Erômenos (ἐρώμενος) means 'one who is sexually desired' in Greek language and is the past participle of the verb eramai, to have sexual desire. In Greek Homosexuality, the first modern scholarly work on this topic, Kenneth Dover used the literal translation of the Greek word as an English word to refer to the passive partner in Greek homosexual relationship. Though in many contexts the younger man is also called pais, 'boy', the word can also be used for child, girl, son, daughter and slave, and therefore eromenos would be more specific and can "avoid the cumbrousness and…imprecision of 'boy'". It is in contrast to the masculine active participle erάn ('be in love with...', 'have a passionate desire for'). According to Garrison, for Cretan boys, the passage to adulthood is the ‘prewedding’ of sex with a mature man.
Representation
Visual art
thumb|[[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede rolling a hoop and bearing aloft a cockerel, a love-gift from Zeus, early fifth century B.C., Musée du Louvre.]]
The image of Ganymede in the figure on the right is an idealized portrait of an eromenos. The muscles on his body contrasts with the hoop, a child's toy which emphasises the shape of his genitals and inner thighs, and he holds the cockerel, which is the love gift from Zeus. There is no moustache or pubic hair.
John Beazley's three types of erotic scenes appear in Athenian vase paintings. Eromenoi are often touched on chin and genitals by their erastes (alpha group), presented with gifts (beta group) or entwined between the thighs of their erastes (gamma group). Meanwhile, Eva Cantarella discovered that representations of pederastic relationships contain two successive moments of courtship. The first phase is similar to Beazley's alpha group, while in the second phase the eromenos stands behind the erastes with his penis between his thighs, somehow similar to the gamma group.
This vase (Brygos Painter) depicts a classical scene of an erastes courting an eromenos. As the eromenos’ legs are positioned between the erastes’ thighs with the erastes touching his penis and his chin, it is similar to the alpha group. The pectoral and belly muscles show that he was well-trained in wrestling schools, and the bag of ‘Kydonian apples’ or quinces is a sign of his sexual awakening.
Poems and literature
The love for an eromenos is a frequent topic in Ancient Greek poems. Dover studied poems related to pederasty and quoted some verses expressing love to the eromonos, 'O boy with the virginal eyes, I seek you, but you do not listen, not knowing that you are the charioteer of my soul!' Also, a surviving fragment of Solon from the early sixth century B.C. writes that ‘Till he loves a lad in the flower of youth, bewitched by thighs and by sweet lips.’ Also, literature suggested that the charm of the eromenos lay in his attractive anal area, which was described by various metaphors such as rosebud, fruits, figs or gold. According to Foucault, an eromenos should avoid being chased too easily, receiving too many gifts or quickly getting into a relationship before the erastes proved their passion, love and responsibility. Moreover, the perception of pederasty varied in different cities. While it was allowed in Elis and Boeotia, Ionians did not accept pederastic courtship. Athenians held a complicated attitude, as it was considered that Athenian fathers ought to protect their sons from suitors. However, Michel Foucault argued that, according to Plutarch, the erastes sexual contact was imposed through violence, and the eromenos would feel anger, hatred, the desire for revenge and social shame through having become an object of contempt, which Foucault called acharistos.
Comparison with women
In heterosexual erotic images in Ancient Greece, the gender roles of male and female are often depicted as the dominant and subordinate positions. Women are depicted bending over, recumbent, or supported by men positioned upright or on top; while eromenoi are often depicted as experiencing ‘intercrural sex’ (i.e., between the thighs), with their partners standing face-to-face with them.
To erastes, whether the appeal and seduction of the eromenos lies in their masculinity or femininity is contested. Dover discovered a line of Athenian Kritias quoted by a Roman writer, 'In males, the most beautiful appearance is that which is female; but in females, the opposite.' However, due to the lack of specific context and further supporting evidence, we cannot conclude that female characteristics of eromenos are the stimuli of pederasty. He also found that beardless male and female faces share the same contours, except for the eyes. Some scholars like Eva Cantarella and Cohen found that the lengths of time during which one ought to resist one's suitors' advances were similar in both same-sex and different-sex courtships; since the honour lay not in the refusal, but the choice of which was the best time to give in. Also, Garrison argues that the love of boys by men is emblematic of attitudes prevalent among the ruling class, in which love for women is devalued. The love for eromenoi can be related to misogyny in Ancient Greece.