Masculine, Courageous Gay Army

[Críostóir]

Love was more closely linked to sex in a sacred band of homosexual thieves, who fought alongside their lovers.

Who the hell WRITES this crap?!?!?! THIEVES?!!?!? Fracking idiot.

You know what? I've been thinking about this and I wonder why in gay hell there are no shows or movies focusing on Greek and Roman gays. I would love to fucking see movies or shows on The Sacred Band Of Thebes, Achilles, Hadrian, Caesar, etc...I'm sick of the same ones over and over again. If I see another fucking show or movie only focusing on Perseus or Hercules or taking the gay out or another Troy or Alexander...

Well, we can't have Brad Pitt fucking BOYS, now can we? That would be...why people might thing Achilles was some kinda homo or somethin'.

 

[Krakenbwool]

I'm pretty sure King Richard I was homosexual/bisexual, and he's one of my favorite historical figures.

I almost feel that the word "gay" doesn't exactly mean just "homosexual" anymore. It has taken on its own culture and connotation in this day and age, and while nothing is particularly wrong with that, it no longer just means "loving men." I doubt that a lot of the homosexual men in history would identify with being "gay" as it is percieved by today's mainstream.

 

[IllgetyouHackman]

Sparta had the same system (if not more profound), so did Athens, so did Rome. It wasn't frowned upon until the emergence of Monotheistic Religion. Oh, and for the person who asked why doesn't it appear in history books, it does, and professors talk about it, but back then there was no word for homosexuality as much as there was one for heterosexuality, it was just there.

 

[Críostóir]

Sure, the Sacred Band of Thebes would make a great action film but if you want a political soap opera worthy of lust- and blood-happy Shakespeare, try:

Harmodius & Aristogeiton:
Tyrannicide We Can Believe In

Well, Hipparchus wasn't the tyrant; Hippias was. They killed Hipparchus, not Hippias. A fine point lost on many people, especially Athenians of the period right after the fall of the tyrant.

Sparta had the same system (if not more profound), so did Athens, so did Rome.

No, they didn't. While Sparta and Athens honored loving pairings between men (and always between an older and a younger, with strict rules for who could do what to whom), only Thebes had a specific Sacred Band made up exclusively of pairs of lovers.

And the Band was highly structured as well. The older partner, the erastes, always wielded the spear, on the right; the younger, the eromenos, always held the shield (big enough to cover both) from the left. Even after the boy grew his beard,* and even if he was bigger and stronger than his partner once they were both adults, that would never change.
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*Yeah, they got together before the younger guy could grow facial hair. Get over it. But remember that guys didn't reach puberty at 13 back then; as recently as Mozart's time, boys often sang soprano at age 17.

 

[Nomenclature]

They don't want to admit one of the best armies in the world was made up of queers, much less the reason they were so good; they were partnered and would die protecting one another.

That would kind of fuck up the "Having gays in the military would destroy the cohesiveness of the unit" bullshit they have going on in today's American military.


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Sparta and Athens honored loving pairings between men (and always between an older and a younger, with strict rules for who could do what to whom)

Correct, in that a Spartan would take on a boy as his lover, and they would kiss and cuddle. . .but they had to be separated by a sheet at all times; intercourse was strictly forbidden. If a Spartan man had sex with his boy, it was comparable to a father molesting his son today. The guy had two options if he was found guilty of sodomizing his apprentice: Either willingly exile himself out of the state of Sparta (to almost certain death), or commit suicide.

*Yeah, they got together before the younger guy could grow facial hair. Get over it. But remember that guys didn't reach puberty at 13 back then; as recently as Mozart's time, boys often sang soprano at age 17.

Growth hormones in meat.


No, but seriously: Didn't European male sopranos used to be eunuchs?

 

[Críostóir]

No, but seriously: Didn't European male sopranos used to be eunuchs?

Yes, but those were adults, singing adult roles in opera and so on. Not boys in the choir. They did both. In fact, I believe the idea was to castrate boys with talent and good voices, so they could go on singing lifelong.