Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially recognized relationship between an older man, called the erastês, and a younger male, called the erômenos or beloved, mainly associated with the aristocratic upper class. The practice combined elements of mentorship, education, and in many cases sexual relations. Scholars date its formal emergence to the late seventh century BC.
Most evidence indicates the erômenos was usually between fifteen and seventeen years old, when an aristocratic youth began formal military training. Modern age estimates range from thirteen to twenty, and in some cases up to thirty. The erastês himself might only be in his early twenties, so the age gap was sometimes small.
The oldest surviving representation of pederastic custom is a brass plaque from Crete dated to roughly 650-625 BC. Some scholars trace its origins to Cretan initiation rituals involving a ritual abduction, two months of hunting and feasting in the countryside, and the presentation of three contractually required gifts: military attire, an ox, and a drinking cup.
Pederastic bonds were invoked both as a threat and as a support to democratic government. In Plato's Symposium, Pausanias argues the bond between erastês and erômenos was stronger than obedience to a tyrant. The Athenians Harmodius and Aristogeiton, credited with helping overthrow the tyrant Hippias, were celebrated as a pederastic pair. In 346 BC, the politician Timarchus was stripped of civic rights under the speech "Against Timarchus" by Aeschines, because Attic law barred anyone who had prostituted himself from holding public office.
Hundreds of pederastic scenes survive on Attic black-figure vases. Art historian John Beazley classified them into three types: the erastês reaching for the boy's chin and genitals, the erastês presenting a gift such as a hare or rooster, and the couple engaging in intercrural sex. Most images depict the erômenos without an erection, though at least one bowl from the Athens National Museum shows both figures aroused.
Practices varied by region. In Crete, the institution involved a formal ritual abduction and initiation. Sparta is disputed: some ancient sources describe it as chaste, others as sexual. Athens subjected pederasty to increasing criticism during the democratic period, associating it with aristocratic excess. Thebes was distinctive in supporting male unions that continued after the younger partner reached adulthood, a practice associated with the legislator Philolaus of Corinth, who lived with his companion Diocles in Thebes until both died.
John Addington Symonds published A Problem in Greek Ethics in a private edition of ten copies in 1883, with a revised edition appearing in 1901. Kenneth Dover's Greek Homosexuality in 1978 triggered debates that continue today. Michel Foucault described pederasty as a site of intense moral preoccupation in Greek culture. Subsequent scholars including David M. Halperin, Eva Keuls, Enid Bloch, and Thomas K. Hubbard have contested and extended Dover's framework in different directions.