The komos

Speranza

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Jeanmarie pouts out that Plutarch's version depicts Archias surrounded by a 'komos', a group of joyful companions.

The abduction set two groups against each other in a battle that was generally a sham.

One group consisted of the hero's friends, the other of the abductor's friends.

The same social groups participated in the ritual, and their behaviour was not different.

The erastes, himself a member of the local aristocracy, announced to the young man's 'friends' his intentions to abduct him three or more days in advance.

Immediately after the kidnapping, these 'friends' in fact the members of the youth's 'agele', of his own age cohort and social class, pursue the erastes and RECAPTURE the young man.

THEN, they return the youth to the erastes, provided the erastes offers the ncessary moral and aristocratic guarantees.

Their show of resistance does not end till the youth is received into the Andreium to which the ravisher belongs.

It is only then that the 'friends' of the erastes are allowed to intervene.

They do not take part in the abduction.