Penetrative sex, however, was seen as demeaning for the passive partner, and outside the socially accepted norm. These men, like their earlier counterparts, played an educational and instructive role in the lives of their young companions likewise, just as in earlier times, they shared a sexual relationship with their boys. Greek boys no longer left the confines of the community, but rather paired up with older men within the confines of the city. The rite of passage undergone by Greek youths in the tribal prehistory of Greece evolved into the commonly known form of Greek pederasty after the rise of the city-state, or polis. This older man would educate the youth in the ways of Greek life and the responsibilities of adulthood. When it came time for a boy to embrace the age group of the adult and to "become a man," he would leave the tribe in the company of an older man for a period of time that constituted a rite of passage. These tribal communities were organized according to age groups. 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. 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.
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 an arrow while grabbing a younger man by the arms- who is carrying a goat.
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. In Athens the older man was called erastes.
A boy was considered a "boy" until he was able to grow a full beard. It was a relationship between an older male and an adolescent youth. The most common form of same-sex relationships between elite males in Greece was paiderastia (pederasty), meaning "boy love". Īttic kylix depicting a lover and a beloved (480–470 BCE) Ashmolean Museum Within the traditions of pederasty, active/passive polarization corresponded with dominant and submissive social roles: the active (penetrative) role was associated with masculinity, higher social status, and adulthood, while the passive role was associated with femininity, lower social status, and youth. 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 ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier as modern Western societies have done. 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. Though sexual relationships between adult men did exist, it is possible at least one member of each of these relationships flouted social conventions by assuming a passive sexual role according to Kenneth Dover, though this has been questioned by recent scholars. Nevertheless, homosexuality and its practices were still wide-spread as certain city-states allowed it, while others were ambiguous or prohibited it. 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). In classical antiquity, writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, Athenaeus and many others explored aspects of homosexuality in Greek society. Young man and teenager engaging in intercrural sex, fragment of a black-figure Attic cup, 550 BC–525 BC, Louvre