The Sacred Band Of Thebes: The All-Gay Regiment From Ancient Greece
TwitterEpaminondas, one of the leaders of the Sacred Band in Greece.
For decades, the American military discouraged LGBTQ soldiers from enlisting. But in ancient Greece, one army was made up exclusively of gay heroes.
The so-called Sacred Band of Thebes fought between 378 and 338 BCE and consisted of 300 soldiers — 150 pairs of lovers. As the philosopher Plato mused in Symposium a few years after the army’s creation, “No man is such a craven that love cannot inspire him with a courage that makes him equal to the bravest born.”
In other words, lovers fought fiercely. “An army of lovers and their beloveds,” noted Plato, “fighting side by side, though few in number, might defeat nearly the entire world.”
Ancient Greeks had a different view of homosexuality than many modern nations. Though Plato acknowledged that gay relationships were “complicated” in his native Athens, he explained that they were considered common in places like Elis and Thebes, where the Sacred Band originated.
But the Sacred Band was more than a philosophical idea. This army of gay soldiers saw action. In 371, they soared to victory over the Spartans in the Battle of Leuctra and loosened the Spartans’ grip on power.
Sadly, however, the Sacred Band’s winning streak didn’t last. In 338, all 300 men were slaughtered during the bloody Battle of Chaeronea. Though they had the opportunity to surrender, the army opted instead to fight to the death.
Wikimedia CommonsA stone lion marks the place in Chaeronea, Greece, where the Sacred Band was defeated.
The deaths of these gay soldiers so moved the victorious general, Philip II, that he wept. Plutarch reported that Philip exclaimed, “Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly.”
Since their defeat, the story of the Sacred Band slowly faded from history. But not everyone forgot the romantic valor of these soldiers. LGBTQ rugby players in Scotland proudly call their team The Caledonian Thebans, after the Sacred Band itself.
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