071 Love, Sex, and Prostitution
The History of Ancient Greece
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Athenian Homosexuality in Athens
There are some debate among scholars about whether pedarasty was widespread in all social classes or largely limited to the aristocracy. The red figure vases that had become popular by the end of the 6th century BC onwards more frequently depict heterosexual activity. Although homosexual practice within certain limitations was regarded as normative by the Greeks, homosexual relations were not expected to replace heterosexual relations. So it seems that Plato's symposium provides a misleading picture of Athenian sexual maurays at the turn of the classical period.
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