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Please provide the exact passages where such claims happen. Without context, it's more than reasonable to assume that these things were before the claim of him no longer being a boy. They are not inherently contradictory. It is repeated further in later passages, e.g: 49 - "For not only is this youthful appearance characteristic of [Misgolas], but moreover Timarchus was already past boyhood when he used to be in his company." 51 - "Now, fellow citizens, if Timarchus here had remained with Misgolas and never gone to another man’ s house, his conduct would have been more decent—if really any such conduct is decent—and I should not have ventured to bring any other charge against him than that which the lawgiver describes in plain words, simply that he was a kept man." 74 - "But pray consider the case with the help of illustrations; and naturally the illustrations will have to be like the pursuits of Timarchus. You see the men over yonder who sit in the bawdy-houses, men who confessedly pursue the profession. Yet these persons, brought to such straits as that, do nevertheless make some attempt to cover their shame: they shut their doors. Now if, as you are passing along the street, any one should ask you, Pray, what is the fellow doing at this moment? you would instantly name the act, though you do not see it done, and do not know who it was that entered the house; knowing the profession of the man, you know his act also." And, note the "ἄνθρωπος" and "ἀνθρώπου" being used to refer to the prostitutes in 74. That is used typically of adult males, not boys. |