Pederasty in Ancient Greece - Sexual Practices

Sexual Practices

Vase paintings and an obsession with the beloved's appealing thighs in poetry indicate that when the pederastic couple engaged in sex acts, the preferred form was intercrural. To preserve his dignity and honor, the erômenos limits the man who desires him to penetration between closed thighs.

Anal sex may be depicted, but far more rarely. The evidence is not explicit and is open to interpretation. Some vase paintings, which Percy considers a fourth type of pederastic scene in addition to Beazley's three, show the erastês seated with an erection and the erômenos either approaching or climbing into his lap. The composition of these scenes is the same as that for depictions of women mounting men who are seated and aroused for intercourse. As a cultural norm considered apart from personal preference, anal penetration was most often seen as dishonorable to the one penetrated, or shameful. A fable attributed to Aesop tells how Aeschyne (Shame) consented to enter the human body from behind only as long as Eros did not follow the same path, and would fly away at once if he did. Oral sex is likewise not depicted, or is indicated only indirectly; anal or oral penetration seems to have been reserved for prostitutes or slaves.

Dover maintained that the erômenos was ideally not supposed to feel "unmanly" desire for the erastês. David M. Halperin contended that boys were not aroused. More recent discussion holds that in actual practice — as contrasted with philosophical ideals — there would have been reciprocation of desire.