How an army of gay couples became the most revered & feared fighters in ancient Greece
from The Washington Post: A few years prior, the city-state of Thebes was under Spartan rule when a group of Theban rebels staged a coup and re-claimed their home.
Still, the threat remained, and the locals recognized they’d need an advanced military strategy if they were going to keep the Spartans at bay…Enter a commander named Gorgidas with a brilliant idea: What could possibly be more capable of defending the city than a battalion of armed and fabulous men-loving men?
Honestly, the logic checks out. Here’s what philosopher Plato had to say about it in his Symposium, written around that same time:“Even just a few such men, fighting side by side, could conquer practically the entire human race,” he theorized. “For surely the last person a lover could bear to see him abandoning his post or surrendering his weapons would be his boyfriend—he would sooner die many times over!”Okay, tea.These guys served it ancient city style.So, Gorgidas recruited 150 male couples, trained them in martial combat, and readied them for battle, dubbing them The Sacred Band Of Thebes (because of course they had to have a dramatic name like that).Interestingly, the ability to build up an all-gay army was an asset unique to Thebes.
Though it’s well-known that ancient Greek society was pretty chill about homosexuality, the WaPo piece explains that it was a bit more complicated than that.Yes, romantic relationships between men were widely accepted back then, though usually in the form adults who “mentored” teenaged boys through maturity.
