So, what's up with Spartans and homosexuality?

Question

they were g*y to be stronger?

Answer 1

Actually, Greeks everywhere (not just Spartans) during that era, practiced homosexual acts, although most were not g*y.  Older men "helped" bring adolescences into adulthood when the time was right to show them "how to be a man."  Those that were considered g*y were those that did not love women, but men (not adolescences).  They were ridiculed.  However, "straight" men loved women, and it was not considered abnormal to "help" an adolescent boy.

Answer 2

Among the middle "preori" class, yeah, there were many g**s.  Among the upper warrior classes though, they were all straight.

The Dorians were largely not homosexual.  Even accusations against Alexander the Great being g*y have been largely debunked by historians.

Besides, no insult meant to the homosexuals....

do you really think an army of g*y men would face 500,000 Persians with only 300 men and 700 Thespian allies?

Yeah, there was homosexuality in Sparta alright, but not among the warrior elite.  Also the majority of Spartan men claimed a bride through rape; true story.  Spartan women were taught how to wrestle, and in boxing actually, basically all the warrior arts because in case dad died, SOMEONE had to pass on the warrior arts.

First of all, to ensure only the strongest would breed, Spartan women were actively encouraged to fight off any attempts at rape.  That is, to claim a bride if a young man was unmarried, rape was legal, however, self-defense against rape, even taking it so far as killing the rapist, was also legal.  This way, according ot Spartan logic, only the strongest would live to breed.

The warrior elite at least where as pretty far from "g*y" as any ancient greeks would have been, and the warrior class of Sparta generally saw the athenian practice of pederasty as an aberration.

Regarding your question "they were g*y to be stronger" now, you are thinking of an athenian "brotherhood."

I forget, exactly, what they were called, but there was a "band of brothers," soldiers, who practiced homosexuality to, ah, "cement the bond," that way they would fight harder for one another in battle.

Yeah, a group of Greeks DID do that, but it wasn't the Spartans.

"a man issuing inside another man" Spartan logic went "isn't making warriors for Sparta."

So no, the Spartans were not g*y; not only were the warriors disgusted with the act, they saw it as a complete waste because ejaculating in a man, again, does not make warriors to defend Sparta, whereas in a woman, assuming its a boy child, it will...

hope that helped.

Answer 3

As Yekomus has already answered, practicing homosexual acts in those days was not considered as 'being g*y'. Most men were married, had children and had a male lover on the side.

It was believed back then that a man could only have a good relationship with another man, since women were considered a lower class than even slaves in some Greek citystates. Plus, if you had someone behind/beside you in battle, like the Spartan warriors, that you cared about you would do your utmost to defend him and vice versa, giving you more strength.

Only with the rising of Christianity was it considered a sin; for the ancient Greeks, Macedonians, Romans and other cultures it was all quite natural.