"Try it. And do visit the museum. Stand up."
Andreas stood and almost disbelieving found himself watching as Mariam unwound a thin leather strip like a bootlace from her wrist. She made a loop and took hold of his penis. She just reached and grasped. Andreas jumped, clearly quite taken aback that a strange woman had grasped his penis. With apparent ease she pulled forward the Akroposthion and tied the leather thong tightly around it so it was caught, pulled the ends around his waist and tied the thong ends in a neat bow. His penis was now pointing upwards, pulled sharply vertical by the noose around his prepuce; so the prepuce, the Akroposthion, appeared like a little brown flower above the knot. His scrotum and testes were exposed and sat tightly drawn up below his penis.
Mariam lent back in her chair, "You'll find it cooler like that and you won't flop around. I'll keep your clothes and you can collect them tomorrow - if you need them..."
Andreas moved his body, stretching his torso, moving his hips, presumably seeing if his movement pulled on the leash and hurt him. All seemed to move easily. The tightly drawn up penis and balls held firm.
"It doesn't hurt." He seemed surprised. It's quite OK really. But what if I see someone?"
"What is the problem, your balanos is hidden, this is a Greek island you know, you are running like a Greek."
"I suppose..."
"See you tomorrow. Just run back a bit so I can see you run and your kynodesme is working."
Mariam stood by her wall and watched her runner jog past wearing nothing but a thin leather thong looped around and holding up his penis. It and he looked fine as he ran away from her - more than fine to her - and just as fine when he came running along the track the next morning. He had clearly had no trouble tying his own kynodesme. There was no bouncing with his penis held so tight, perhaps just a slight oscillation to the balls but that was not a difficulty nor unattractive. He looked very manly with such prominence given to his fertility. Mariam waved and Andreas came into her garden. This time she had dispensed with the skirt and he noticed - he certainly noticed.
Restrained by the kynodesme the erection could not go up and instead it went forwards. Andrea's penis thickened considerably and curved sharply forward like a banana - but more so - but the kynodesme held, the knot binding the foreskin strong. It certainly trapped the balanos within but only notionally hid it as the acorn shape became very clearly defined within the prepuce as it expanded - a bulbous virile shape.
"You see how good the kynodesme is? No embarrassment of a stýsi, an erection, poking and swinging around: instead it is all neatly restrained and almost hidden. A Greek could be in any company like that and nothing would be said because what should be hidden is hidden."
To Andreas it was hardly hidden and he was painfully aware of what he was doing and even more aware that Mariam was looking at and talking about his erection. He had not at all missed her dark triangle under her shirt or the curve of her buttocks.
"Always flattering for a girl, inducing an erection. How old are you?"
"Twenty-two."
"Oh, almost too young for women then. I wondered if you were younger."
"Huh?"
"Young Greek boys only have sex with men. Perhaps next year, though, will be different, perhaps you will grow a beard. You would be expected to be with women then."
"I'm not gay."
"What a silly idea. Of course you are. All men are at a certain age – or ages. It is only natural"
"No."
Andreas had not seen another person at Mariam's villa before but already at that early hour, whilst it was still cool, a big burly man with dark hair was working with a fork in the garden of the villa. Clearly a powerful man used to hard work, his legs like tree trunks, his arms strong; moreover a hairy man with black beard and moustache and considerable body hair. Not a man to be trifled with.
Mariam saw the direction of Andreas' eyes, "Thanatos. He gardens and does other things for me." Mariam left unsaid the other things.
Like Andreas, Thanatos was naked except for a narrow cord around his waist. He turned and Andreas could see the man was, again like him, wearing the kynodesme; the thin leather thong around his waist tightly looped and pulling. It was strange seeing another man with his penis drawn up tightly and his balls exposed rather than hiding behind the drooping penis.
It was as easy swimming in the kynodesme as running. The water cooled Andreas' tumescence but it was not easy to miss the lush dark curls in Mariam's lap or the curve of her bottom when he left the pool for his glass of water. Not easy when seated to avoid glancing at the curls, not easy at all when Mariam moved her legs and he almost saw between them. Once again he found he was restrained by the kynodesme as his shaft curved thickly like a banana towards her. He could see she had noticed. The smile said it all.
"You could loosen the knot and release if it is uncomfortable."
"No, no, it's fine." Andreas knew to release would see his cock bounding forward like a lion uncaged, the foreskin immediately rolling back to reveal his balanos and all that signified whether to Ancient Greek or modern woman. It really did not matter. The appearance was the same. He glanced towards Andreas, worried another man should see his erection, but the man was busy working, taking no notice of him or Mariam.
Mariam returned to her theme as Andreas drank his water.
"The Ancients looked after their young men; a young man would come under the tutorage of an older more experienced man and it was considered quite proper, indeed expected, for the erômenos, the younger man, to submit to the advances of the erastês. Perfectly normal. Of course once the young man got older, grew a beard and so on - the things you men do - he would take a wife and engage in sexual relations with her - but he might then, as erastês, take a young man under his wing."
"I wouldn't want my bottom invaded. I'm not gay."
"No, no, quite improper. Such an act would be demeaning for the erômenos. No intercrural sex was the thing."
"What?"
"I shall explain, if I can see you as my protégé, a young man I am encouraging and found attractive with your smooth young skin and fine white thighs then, if I was a man, I would seek to take my pleasure between those thighs, gently easing my phallus, my erection, between them, perhaps thighs already made slippery with oil of olives, perhaps your whole body made slippery with oil, perhaps my erection made shiny and slippery with the oil."
Her hand eased quietly between his thighs. His erection did not subside but remained straining forward, banana like. Her hand disturbing; especially when it moved, simulating the movement of the erastês.
It was clear Andreas was confused. Mariam was talking of the sexual actions of men whilst her own very feminine hand was on his thigh - between his thighs – and so very close to his tightly restrained penis. The brown wrinkled flower of the foreskin, the tight leather thong and the so clear outline of the balanos or knob.
"The ideal was, strangely, for the erômenos, to be unmoved by the act. Merely the passive participant. I think that is difficult to believe, difficult to believe his young penis would not rise and strain at the kynodesme. You can imagine the erastês untying it, letting it rise freely, balanos exposed and for them both to rub themselves between each other's thighs."
"No, I suppose not. But not for me."
"Oh, come, come. It must have been so very pleasant. Here you are at the junction of boy and manhood. Don't you feel torn between being the erômenos, with the prospect of women to come, and being the erastês?" Her fingers were lightly stroking his erection now, running lightly over the veins of the shaft. He seemed spell bound under the words she was saying and the touch of her fingers.
"You think not, you think you could contain the excitement, be the passive recipient of the erastês? Tied by the kynodesme could you contain yourself realising that if you couldn't then your posthe would swell, become bloated by the pumping semen all held back by the tight noose of the leather thong. Would it hurt, the pressure building and still the ejaculation flowing?"
Andreas eyes were wide, "No, I wouldn't want..."
"We shall see - THANATOS." Mariam called and the big gardener looked up and came towards them.
Close to, he was even bigger than Andreas had thought.
Mariam's hand reached and undid the bow around Thanatos's barrel like waist letting his penis fall. The ends of the leather thong fell free, swinging gently from where they were tied around the end of the gardener's penis. Andreas stared. The akroposthion was long and tapered beyond the knot – had years of wearing the kynodesme caused it to lengthen?
Mariam reached, caught hold of the two ends of the leather and lifted pulling the penis upwards again as if she did indeed have Thanatos on the end of a leash, a leash tied to his most sensitive part. A slight tug and he came close to her, as if he was used to being tugged by his kynodesme, used to obeying the woman. Her fingers worked, loosening the knot.
"You see, Andreas, what a fine akroposthion Thanatos has, perfect in proportion, only his whole penis would be, to for the Ancients, aesthetically too big. They valued a small penis as can be seen from the vases and statues in the museum. You must visit that. But did they value small penises in bed I wonder? Thanatos' akroposthion would be admired but his large penis perhaps the butt of jokes. I like it though – very much. Do you?"
