In ancient Greece, an eromenos was the younger and passive (or 'receptive') partner in a male homosexual relationship. The partner of an eromenos was the erastes, the older and active partner. The eromenos was often depicted as a beautiful, and smaller and more youthful-looking than the erastes. 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’). The word erastes (lover), however, can be adapted to a married man’s role in both heterosexual and homosexual relationship. Characteristics In vase paintings and other artworks, the eromenos is often depicted as a beautiful young adult. His relatively smaller stature suggests his passive role in the relationship and younger age as well as social status. Usually, they show a combination of a youthful-looking face with a body which possesses mature musculature. The lack of beard and pubic hair are an important clue in identifying an eromenos, though this may possibly be attributed to style. A poem quoted in Greek Sexuality (couplet 1327f) shows that ‘the poet will never cease to ‘fawn on’ the boy so long as the boy’s cheek is hairless. His specific age is a nuanced issue for the eromenos, and the writer Strato put it: The youthful bloom of the twelve-year-old gives me joy, but much more desirable is the boy of thirteen. He whose years are fourteen is a still sweeter flower of the Loves, and even more charming is he who is beginning his fifteenth year. The sixteenth year is that of the gods, and to desire the seventeenth does not fall to my lot, but only to Zeus. But if one longs for one still older, he no longer plays, but already demands the Homeric ‘but to him replied.’ Therefore, we can conclude that eromenos is not a