Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates

Mate HoMoOSEXUALITY

the joy of sacrifice by saying that one who loves is animated by two gods, Ares and Eros, while the warrior who does not love is only inspired by Ares. Even in the Eroticus of Plutarch, which does not approve of the love of boys, the power of love in war is shown by many examples. Wolfflin (Philologus, Xxxiv, 413) has drawn attention to the company of friends in the army of Scipio and Czsar speaks of a league of youth in the land of the Sontiates, a Gallic tribe (Bell. Gall., i11, 22).

After these parallels, which could easily be increased, one will no longer find what is reported of the Theban “sacred band” to be exaggerated. Certainly the life of this phenomenon, like that of the whole of Hellenism itself, was only of short duration. We hear of it first at the battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.) and after the unhappy battle of Chzeronea (338 B.C.) its end had come; thus it existed only 33 years.

The story told by Plutarch (Lycurgus, 18) also deserves mention. When a youth uttered a painful scream in battle, his lover was afterwards punished by the State.

Consequently, one who loves will, with the assistance of Eros who inspires him “ go through fire, water, and raging storm ” (Plut., Amat., 760d) for the loved one (as a line from the unknown tragedian runs), and the courage of the lover even defies the divine wrath. When the sons of Niobe (Soph., frag. 410 —TGF., 229) were shot by Apollo for their mother’s sin, the friend endeavours to protect the tender body of the youngest daughter, and when this is in vain, he carefully wraps the body in the sheltering garment. Even of the ideal of Greek heroic might, of Heracles, it is related that his mighty deeds became easier, when he carried them out before the eyes of his beloved Iolaus, a gymnasium and shrine in honour of whom existed until comparatively late times before the gate of the Preetidee in Thebes (Pausan. IX, xxiii, 1; cf. also

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