Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece

[1] Although the primary example is the Sacred Band of Thebes, a unit said to have been formed of same-sex couples, the Spartan tradition of military heroism has also been explained in light of strong emotional bonds resulting from homosexual relationships.

In Plato's Symposium, the interlocutor Phaedrus commented on the power of male sexual relationships to improve bravery in the military:[3] ... he would prefer to die many deaths: while as for leaving the one he loves in a lurch, or not succoring him in peril, no man is such a craven that the influence of Love cannot inspire him with a courage that makes him equal to the bravest bornHowever, the Symposium is a dialectical exploration of the nature of true love, in which Phaedrus' views are soon found to be inadequate compared to the transcendent vision of Socrates, who: ...seizes this favourable moment in the talk at Agathon's party to suggest that visible beauty is the most obvious and distinct reflection in our terrene life of an eternal, immutable Beauty, perceived not with the eye but with the mind.

For men of the same tribe little value one another when dangers press; but a band cemented by friendship grounded upon love is never to be broken.One such example took place during the Lelantine War between the Eretrians and the Chalcidians.

He said this type of behavior was horrible because it was entirely based on physical attractions:[10] If as was evident it was not an attachment to the soul, but a yearning solely towards the body, Lycurgus stamped this thing as foul.Nonetheless, city states that employed the practice in determining military formation enjoyed some success.

He also gave a harsh criticism of the Spartan views of the band:[11] Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered aught disgraceful.One of the prominent Greek military figures enjoying such a relationship was Epaminondas, considered the greatest warrior-statesmen of ancient Thebes by many, including the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus.

And such was the effect of the passion, which they had conceived for each other, that they scarcely ever turned to flight; but they either died for each other, or bravely conquered.Aside from a viewpoint of homosexual bonds as conducive to bravery, these relations are thought to have formed for a number of other reasons.

Pederastic relations are thought to have played some role with Sparta’s overarching “contest-system” or the agoge, which aimed to shape male Spartans into soldiers.

This relationship may have been an uncharacteristic extension of pederastic feeling to a youth who was not necessarily Spartan and possibly a slave, considering how he was accompanying rather than fighting alongside Anaxibius.