What is an erastes?

What is an erastes?

erastes (plural erastai) (historical) An adult man in Ancient Greece who courted or was in a pederastic relationship with an adolescent boy. quotations ▼coordinate term ▼

What is the role of the erastes in ancient Greece?

Throughout the ancient Greek world pederasty was a deeply engrained social customs whose terms and conditions were often codified in law. An erastes would court an eromenos, who, joining in a union, became a combination of something akin to a protégé and a sexual object.

What is the purpose of pederasty?

Pederasty was a social custom in which an adult male would court a young Greek boy to become his model, guide, and initiator, and would become responsible for the evolution of his chosen young counterpart.

What does Kinaidos mean?

In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is κίναιδος kinaidos (cinaedus in its Latinized form), or μαλακοί malakoi: a man “whose most salient feature was a supposedly ‘feminine’ love of being sexually penetrated by other men”.

What does erastes mean in Greek?

Erastes (Ancient Greece), an adult male in a relationship with a younger male, also known as the philetor. Erastes tou oneirou, a 1974 Greek comedy.

Who is the author of Greek homosexuality?

Kenneth DoverGreek Homosexuality / Author

Was there a word for homosexuality in ancient Greek?

In ancient Greece, there never was a word to describe homosexual practices: they were simply part of aphrodisia, love, which included men and women alike.

What does the ancient Greek term Eromenos mean?

In ancient Greece, an eromenos was the passive (or ‘receptive’) partner in a male homosexual relationship. The partner of an eromenos was the erastes, the older and active partner.

What are erastes and eromenos in ancient Greece?

In an effort to avoid accepting the notion of citizens engaging in socially outlandish homosexual behavior, in addition to spread political agenda; the Greeks enforced order to differing sexualities in the form of erastes and eromenos relations. Sexual relationships between young boys (eromenos) and adult men (erastes) were considered lawful.

What is the erastes-eromenos relationship?

The erastes-eromenos relationship can not only be between humans but also between humans and gods. The love between Apollo and Hyacinth was said to have been the archetype of pederasty in Sparta. Apollo fell in love with Hyacinth on account of his youthful beauty, and became his instructor in archery, music, hunting and the gymnasium.

What does eromenos mean?

What does eromenos mean? Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word eromenos. Did you actually mean earnings or erroneous? An adolescent boy who was courted by an older man, or was in an erotic relationship with him. Etymology: From ἐρώμενος, from ἐράω.

What is the meaning of Erastes?

In his early twenties the young aristocratic lover ( erastes) took a teen-aged youth, the eromenos or beloved, to bond with and train before going on at about age thirty to matrimony and fatherhood. He was a physician, and an eromenos of the philosopher Empedocles, who dedicated to him his poem On Nature.