In his 5th century BC lost tragedy The Myrmidons, Aeschylus casts Achilles and Patroclus as pederastic lovers. In a surviving fragment of the play, Achilles speaks of "our frequent kisses" and a "devout union of the thighs". Plato does the same in his Symposium (385–370 BC) the speaker Phaedrus cites Aeschylus and holds Achilles up as an example of how people will be more brave and even sacrifice themselves for their lovers. In his oration Against Timarchus, Aeschines argues that though Homer "hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship", Homer assumed that educated readers would understand the "exceeding greatness of their affection". Plato's Symposium also includes a creation myth that explains homo- and heterosexuality ( Aristophanes speech) and celebrates the pederastic tradition and erotic love between men ( Pausanias speech), as does another of his dialogues, Phaedrus. The tradition of pederasty in ancient Greece (as early as 650 BC) and later the acceptance of limited homosexuality in ancient Rome infused an awareness of male-male attraction and sex into ancient poetry.
In the second of Virgil's Eclogues (1st century BC), the shepherd Corydon proclaims his love for the boy Alexis.
Some of the erotic poetry of Catullus in the same century is directed at other men ( Carmen 48, 50, and 99), and in a wedding hymn ( Carmen 61) he portrays a male concubine about to be supplanted by his master's future wife. The first line of his infamous invective Carmen 16 - which has been called "one of the filthiest expressions ever written in Latin-or in any other language, for that matter" - contains explicit homosexual sex acts.