eromenos

thumb|Erastes (lover) and eromenos (beloved) kissing. Tondo of an Classical Athens|Attic red-figured cup, ca. 480 BCE. Louvre Museum In ancient Greece, an eromenos was the younger and passive (or 'receptive') partner in a male homosexual relationship. The older and active partner of an eromenos was the erastes. The eromenos was often depicted as beautiful, beardless 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.