Did the Spartan warriors practice homosexuality?

Answer 1

Pederasty and military training were intimately connected in Sparta, as in many other cities. The Spartans, claims Athanaeus, sacrificed to Eros before every battle: "Thus the Lacedaemonians offer preliminary sacrifices to Eros before the troops are drawn up in battle-line, because they think that their safe return and victory depend upon the friendship of the men drawn up." However, unlike other cities which stationed lovers side by side in battle to encourage each to fiercer efforts, Spartan youths were so well trained that they fought nobly regardless of where they were positioned. The lover was responsible for the boy's training. An anecdote relates the story of a Spartan magistrate who was fined by the city because his beloved had cried out while he was fighting, which was considered to be a sign that the young man was overly effeminate and had therefore not been properly educated by his distinguished lover. And while the ephors were lenient with a youth who committed a misdemeanor, they made sure to punish his lover, since it was his responsibility to watch and control his beloved.

Addition:

The position is more understandable in the context of Greek social mores. There were heavy sanctions on pre-marital sex between men and women, and men married late after they had proved themselves. So it was common for a young man to take a boy as a lover in the interim until he was married, at which stage he usually thereafter adopted an hetrosexual life. There was no slur on the boy - the only criticism was if the boy was/became effeminate.

The boy similarly, when he became an adult, took a boy as lover, then got married etc etc. Some societies still do this today. It was generally a temporary expedient - rather different to those who prefer ongoing homosexual relations.

Addition:

I think it is difficult, at best, for most people in our post Classical world dominated by Judeo -Christian-Muslim thinking/values to understand the ancients' mind & attitudes re sex & sexuality. To oversimplify, they were not really concerned with its "moralness" re being something good or evil, and so understood lust/love, gratification/caring, giving/sharing, Eros/Psyche, all as part of human nature both physical & spiritual, and thus good to satisfy & fulfill as pleased. They had their protocal & mores re sexual behavior - as every culture in History has - but the idea of "homosexuality" in our modern sense of concepts would have been foreign to them. Afterall, heros like Alexander the great and eminent Roman emperors like Hadrian were celebrated for their male lovers, as were many other notable Classical era personages. This is not to say all happenings re sex then were nice, however. Greco-Roman civilization was largely slave labor & so gross abuses did occure. Notwithstanding, virtually all of the ideas & issues we associate with "homosexual" today would not have been part of their mind & so not in their thinking.

Comment:

The above commentary on modern vs ancient views of homosexuality is very much a modern viewpoint. The ancients had very clear standards on sexuality, and eg Hadrian was not 'celebrated' on his male lovers. It was simply accepted because it was difficult not to accept it, and it was accepted with relief that he was doing it with consent rather than compelling other males. And the jury is still out on Alexander's sexuality. We get a clear viewpoint on their attitude from Socrates' advice to Alcibiades. Also, while the later philosophers often emphasised pleasure and self-satisfaction, this was generally based on avoiding pain rather than taking unlimited licence. Also the satirists give no support to the idea of condoning forced sexual relations with slaves.

The question of whether Spartans were homosexual comes back to it being a temporary expedient for most until they were eligible for marriage, as is found in recent times with Zulus and Sikhs, to name but a couple. Nothing has changed over two and a half thousand years.