In classical antiquity , writers such as Herodotus , [ 2 ] Plato , [ 3 ] Xenophon , [ 4 ] Athenaeus [ 5 ] and many others explored aspects of homosexuality in Greek society.
The most widespread and socially significant form of same-sex sexual relations in ancient Greece amongst elite circles was between adult men and pubescent or adolescent boys, known as pederasty marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age structured, with men in their thirties commonly taking wives in their early teens. It is unclear how such relations between same-sex partners were regarded in the general society, especially for women, but examples do exist as far back as the time of Sappho.
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The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identity as modern Western societies have done. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated.
The most common form of same-sex relationships between elite males in Greece was paiderastia pederasty. It was a relationship between an older male and an adolescent youth. A boy was considered a "boy" until he was able to grow a full beard. In Athens the older man was called erastes. He was to educate, protect, love, and provide a role model for his eromenos , whose reward for him lay in his beauty, youth, and promise. Such a concept is backed up by archeological evidence experts have found throughout the years, such as a bronze plaque of an older man carrying a bow and arrow while grabbing a younger man by the arms- who is carrying a goat.
Furthermore, the boy's genitals are exposed in the plaque, thus experts interpret this, and more evidence comparative to this, as the practice of pederasty. The roots of Greek pederasty lie in the tribal past of Greece, before the rise of the city-state as a unit of political organization.
