The Theban army had a "crack" team (ahem - not my joke) of 150 pairs of (male) homosexual soldiers who fought at the front of the battle. They were called the The Sacred Band of Thebes. Usually, the couple was an older guy with a younger bloke. Very Greek, eh? Weird.
The idea being that...
...when fighting at each other's side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this. Or who would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger?
The SBoTs fought against the Spartans several times and literally whipped their asses. Well maybe not 'literally', but I am sure the prospect of doing so would have fired them up had the opportunity arisen. Rape and pillage would have had a distinctly Platonic flavour when these guys came to ransack your village...
Another trivial 'so what' blogpost from the obscure history files of
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4 comments:
No "Don't ask, don't tell" for those dudes eh sweetie?. If it feels good, do it.
DH: Actually my discovery of this information came from reading a discussion of whether teachers should be whupping trouble kids in high school as opposed to letting them run amok and if this would result in a better, more successful Engerland! It was noted by a arsetute commenter to this article that the Spartan men used to enact severe corporal punishment on their male kiddies, to "tuffen 'em oop, laaaaark", whereas the poofterish Thebans were a bunch of layabutt hedonists who let their kids run amok with each others bottoms... yet who managed to whup those uber-strict Spartans in several battles (one of those intra-greek things about who's shagging whose mum (or dad as the case may be)) over a period of 30 years or so.
Well Philip of Macedon whupped the lot of them and he liked horses.
That's true.
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