Order of Chaeronea

The Order of Chaeronea was a secret society for the cultivation of a homosexual moral, ethical, cultural, and spiritual ethos.

Founded by George Cecil Ives in 1897, based on his belief that homosexuals would not be accepted openly in society, the Order offered a network for underground communication.

Ulrichs wrote dozens of books and pamphlets which argued that the preference for same-sex love is hereditary; therefore it should not be a crime.

Less radical thinkers in Germany, Austria and France began to argue that same-sex attraction and relations between men were a psychological disturbance to be treated by physicians, rather than a crime to be punished by the courts.

Members of the Order were 'Brothers of the Faith', and were required to swear under the 'Service of Initiation', that "you will never vex or persecute lovers" and "That all real love shall be to you as sanctuary.

[5] Other members may have included Charles Kains Jackson, Samuel Elsworth Cottam, Montague Summers, and John Gambril Nicholson.

The Order, according to Ives' notebooks, had a specific purpose, distinct prescriptions and philosophy, and its particular symbolism: the "sign-word" AMRRHAO and "the seal of the double wreath."

George Ives around 1900
Funerary relief for Athenian footman Panchares, who probably fell at the Battle of Chaeronea .
Order of Chaeronea seal, transcribed from a signet ring which appeared in a Norfolk auction room in 2023, illustrated by Ben Thompson @Bye.BT.