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The Magic of Reality
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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
Sacred Band of Thebes, anyone? Composed of 150 male couples, it was the fiercest fighting force in Ancient Greece before being destroyed by Philip II of Macedon at Chaeronea.
That is to say nothing about the rest of Greece and, to a certain extent, Rome. Nor the widespread homosexual and bi-sexual practices in pre-Islamic (and post-Islamic for a while) Arabia. While certainly none of those cultures adopted homosexuality exclusively, I doubt any example can be found of a society that was exclusively homosexual. But bisexual practices in Ancient Greece and Rome were very much widespread. In Sparta, males were expected to be homosexual for the majority of their life before eventually settling down with a wife for the perpetuation of the society. But even then, males had to sneak out of the barracks because leaving your male partner behind to sleep with your wife was looked at with a negative light.
I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.
Permalink Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:50:00 UTC | #146673