Boys have been the object of adoration among rich and for powerful men to have a
catamite in their entourage was quite normal.
shared
catamite. Since the 1990's, and probably due to the
But the impression we get from records, reinforced by the likelihood that he was the painter's model, is of a wanton
catamite; and Caravaggio's unsettled life would not appear conducive to teaching an apprentice or anyone else.
Further down the same page, a
catamite attacks with his buttocks
Even in the rare instances that the khristos, the customer, is as committed as any Jewdean to the belief that carnal recreation should involve a man and a woman, the khristianos, the bathboy, is bound to be a
catamite slave.
Such referenced traditions include that of the "
catamite," the youthful lover of an older man.
The appearance of Surenas - dressed effeminately (in Roman eyes), wearing make-up and with his hair parted like a women - prompted Crassus to ridicule him openly and call him a
catamite. This served to anger the Parthians and made it certain that when the time came they would show Crassus and his men no mercy.
In fact the rib-cage drops without much transition into the pelvis and inordinately inflated muscles of the sprawling thighs; none more widely unclasped than those of Ganymede, his calves pinioned apart by Jove's eagle as he is carried off to become the god's
catamite (Harvard Art Museum).
He asked if I knew the word "
Catamite." When I said I did not, Konrad explained the word was a corruption of the Greek "Ganymedes," the name of the lovely boy who had been abducted by Zeus (in the shape of an eagle) and became his cup bearer.
DeMille's 1932 The Sign of the Cross, particularly in Ustinov's effete interpretation of the Emperor Nero, originally played by Charles Laughton in the DeMille film." Not only was Laughton gay in real life, but DeMille allowed him to turn his Nero into an outrageous queen, complete with a young, male
catamite at his side (Callow 1987:51).