The Greeks thought it was a passing phase. The “passive” partner was an adolescent or youth, who they’d assumed would outgrow it. The “active” partner was a mature man who already had a wife and probably children. The attachment wouldn’t last for him either, though he might move on to another youth.
Yep. Another way to put it is the person on the receiving end was subservient, boys, women and slaves. There was no stigma for the man who used any of them for his gratification. The only stigma was if a grown man wanted to be the passive partner, which was considered unmanly.
Ancient societies weren’t without morals - they simply had different ones. And in their societies, free men of the tribe had the highest status, free women and children in the next level, slaves in the next ring out, foreigners in the outside.
In Greek and Roman society, they distinguished between the penetrator and penetrated. The penetrator had to be a man, but the penetrated could be male or female, free or slave.
It was considered unacceptable for a free man to be penetrated. It was a violation of his status. However, he could penetrate anyone outside.
When the boy was elevated to the inner circle as an adult male, being penetrated then became an act of dishonor and disgrace.
Conversely, in ancient Rome, this meant the only way upper class homosexuality was allowed was if the man was a pedophile penetrator but never the receiver.