It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. The man on the right tries to kiss the youth with whom he is sharing a couch. Pederastic couples at a symposium, as depicted on a tomb fresco from the Greek colony of Paestum in Italy.