Ancient Gay Warriors

[Yooper]

Having a brain fart here.

Which culture in antiquity had the big Gay Armies?

I sat through Humanities 101 and it is on the tip of my tongue but cannot remember at the moment.

It wasn't the Athenians, or those from Troy.

Any help?

($10 is riding on this)

 

[gdude30]

Was it the romans?

I mean they did have the bath houses

 

[Yooper]

Was it the romans?

I mean they did have the bath houses

Nope, it was a Greek City-State that was famous for incredibly fierce Gay Warriors.

And I can't remember this for the life of me.

 

[Nomenclature]

I thought it was Thebes in ancient Greece who had the entire squad made up of gay couples?

 

[Yooper]

I thought it was Thebes in ancient Greece who had the entire squad made up of gay couples?

Bingo! We have a winner!

They did eventually lose but were quite legendary.

Thank you!

(Neither of us win the $10.)

 

[Yooper]

Thanks again, guys for your help.

My partner who isn't sleeping well tonight was listening to a talk show on the radio about Gays in the Military.

The host takes emails and reads them pretty much verbatim on the air (they also are live streaming at the moment).

http://www.850koa.com/main.html

 

[asadoyayunta]

Known as The Pheban Band or Army of Lovers, they were eventually defeated by Philip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander (the Great).

All 300 warriors were supposedly killed and Plutarch records that Philip paid tribute to them with the words:

"Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly".

 

[ComNavFdgPk]

Known as The Pheban Band or Army of Lovers...

Also known as The Sacred Band of Thebes.

 

[geloge]

Warriors in Sparta were supposed to have gay relationships, to get more confident.

 

[star-warrior]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Band_of_Thebes ?

 

[bike10]

Bet they did not the problem of DON'T ASK DON'T TELL!

 

[bulge]

When researshers really want to know anything about homosexuality frequency, they must look at ancient societies not contaminated by our kind of homophobia. Any measurement of it in our societies is an exercice in self-deception.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_militaries_of_ancient_Greece

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa011500a.htm

http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/79946.html

Olympic games sometimes tried to calm down war (not always succesfully). There was quite some (much?) homosexuality going on around olympic games that could help foster goodwill on both sites.

http://www.stephanecompoint.com/11,387,en_US,THE CHAMPIONS OF OLYMPIA 1ST PART (TRAINING).html

http://www.stephanecompoint.com/11,384,en_US,THE CHAMPIONS OF OLYMPIA 2ND PART (COMPETITION).html

http://www.stephanecompoint.com/11,386,en_US,THE CHAMPIONS OF OLYMPIA 3RD PART (PORTRAITS).html

 

[Nomenclature]

They did eventually lose but were quite legendary.

They were defeated in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC by Philip II of Macedon, with his son Alexander. The Sacred Band Of Thebes was known as being invincible until Alexander broke them. Philip II honored and respected them so for their spirit in battle, and after they were defeated he said "Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly."

In about 300 BC, the town of Thebes erected a statue to honor them. It still stands today.


Edit: FUUUUUUUUUUU- i've been out wiki'd! That's a forum first.


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The Greek Olympics consisted of only male athletes, and they were all nude; The Olympics were a celebration of the power of the male body. As far as I understand, this was not considered erotic and was about as "sexual" as bodybuilding competitions are today, where they feature very muscular men wearing nothing but very small bikini briefs.