Engraved bronze plaque

Speranza

There is an engraved bronze plaque that Boardman says dates from the seventeenth ceuntury.

The plaque shows a man carrying a bow meeting and grasping the forearms of a young hunter who is carrying a while goat on his shoulders.

Both wear short tunics, in such a way that the younger man's genitals are visible.

The eromenos, already grown up, is capable of hunting alone, and the motif -- a hunting exploit by a young man, instructed by an older man who enjoys rihgts over him -- gives full expression to the spirit of the initiation rite.