MARJORIE ROSEN13ERG
A handful of lovers and loved ones, fighting shoulder to should er,
could rout a whole army. For a love r to be see n by his beloved forsak–
ing th e ranks or throwing away his weapons would unquestionably be
less bearable dun to do so in th e prese nce of a crowd . He would a
thousa nd times rather die than be so humiliated. As for abandoning his
loved one on th e field o r refus ing to resc ue him when in peril, th e
worst of cowards would be insp ired by the god of love on such occa–
sions to prove himse lf th e equal of any man naturally bra ve. For th e
gallantry whi ch , as Homer says , a deity "breathes into the hea rts of
heroes" is truly a gift of Love to lovers, one whi ch they owe to him
alone.
257
This passage is credited with suppl y ing the name for the famous
"sacred band" of Th e bes, a military unit composed of pairs of love rs,
which was for a lo ng time cons idered invin cible in battle , until slain to
man , all with pike wounds in front, in the victory of Philip of M acedon
at Chaeronea. Man y suc h sto ries of the courage of male lovers were told
by the Greeks to each other for inspirati o nal effect, but p erh aps the most
famous - that of HarIllodius and Ari stogeiton of Athens - indi ca tes the
self-delusion as well as the intent of th e ideal.
Thucydides reco unts it "to show that the Ath e nians are not more
accurate than the rest of the world in their accounts of th eir own tyrants
and th e facts of their own history." The tale goes th at H armod ius, a youth
of striking beauty, beloved by Ari stogeito n , was soli cited for his favors by
Hipparchu s, the brother of the tyrant , Hippias. The unre c iproca ted ad–
vances enraged Ari stoge ito n and produced a calc ul ated insult to the sister
of Harmodius, who was forbidden to appear in the Panathenaic proces–
sion after having been invited to do so. A desire for revenge for thi s insult
on the part of th e youth united with jealousy and rage on the part of th c
lover, and th ey laid a plot to ove rth row the tyranny, which Thucydides
describes as " not grievous to the multitude , o r in any way odious in prac–
tice," addi ng that, " these tyrants cultivatcd wisdom and virtue as much as
any. " Confu sion at the time of the public festival during which the assas–
sination was to ta ke pla ce re sulted in the murde r by th e love rs of
Hipparchu s, thc man against whom their revc nge was indirectly aimed,
but it left the tyrant in power. After thi s, the tyranny presscd harder on
the Athenians, and Hippias, now grown more fearful, put to d ea th many
of the citize ns. Yct because of th ese evcnts, ho moscxuality acquired fresh
glory at Ath ens, being almost equated with love of liberty and hatred of
tyranny, and th e love rs were extolled by poe ts, paintcrs, and sculptors -
all this in spite of the personal ca use of th e ir action , thc misca rria ge of th e
efforts, and the repression which the y produ ced. This extreme and willful
misreading, so widely ce lebrated , of the effects of homosex ual love would
