moral relaxation

One might surmise that Dame Sirith was written to create and fill a brief space of moral relaxation for an audience who knew well both the moral and the social conventions the tale plays with.

The Barberini Faun, showing a satyr sprawled asleep, presumably after drink, is an example of the moral relaxation of the period, and the readiness to create large and expensive sculptures of subjects that fall short of the heroic.