Gorgidas, according to some, first formed the Sacred Band of three
hundred chosen men, to whom, as being a guard for the citadel,
the State allowed provision, and all things necessary for exercise:
and hence they were called the city band, as citadels of old were
usually called cities. Others say that it was composed of young
men attached to each other by personal affection, and a pleasant
saying of Pammenes is current, that Homer's Nestor was not well
skilled in ordering an army, when he advised the Greeks to rank
tribe and tribe, and family and family together, that-
"So tribe might tribe, and kinsmen kinsmen aid."
but that he should have joined lovers and their beloved. For men
of the same tribe or family little value one another when dangers
press; but a band cemented by friendship grounded upon love is
never to be broken, and invincible; since the lovers, ashamed
to be base in sight of their beloved, and the beloved before their
lovers, willingly rush into danger for the relief of one another.
Nor can that be wondered at since they have more regard for their
absent lovers than for others present; as in the instance of the
man who, when his enemy was going to kill him, earnestly requested
him to run him through the breast, that his lover might not blush
to see him wounded in the back. It is a tradition likewise that
Iolaus, who assisted Hercules in his labours and fought at his
side, was beloved of him; and Aristotle observes that, even in
his time, lovers plighted their faith at Iolaus's tomb. It is
likely, therefore, that this band was called sacred on this account;
as Plato calls a lover a divine friend. It is stated that it was
never beaten till the battle at Chaeronea: and when Philip, after
the fight, took a view of the slain, and came to the place where
the three hundred that fought his phalanx lay dead together, he
wondered, and understanding that it was the band of lovers, he
shed tears and said, "Perish any man who suspects that these
men either did or suffered anything that was base."
It was not the disaster of Laius, as the poets imagine, that first
gave rise to this form of attachment amongst the Thebans, but
their lawgivers, designing to soften whilst they were young their
natural fierceness, brought, for example, the pipe into great
esteem, both in serious and sportive occasions, and gave great
encouragement to these friendships in the Palaestra, to temper
the manners and characters of the youth. With a view to this they
did well, again, to make Harmony, the daughter of Mars and Venus,
their tutelar deity; since, where force and courage is joined
with gracefulness and winning behaviour, a harmony ensues that
combines all the elements of society in perfect consonance and
order.
Gorgidas distributed this Sacred Band all through the front ranks
of the infantry, and thus made their gallantry less conspicuous;
not being united in one body, but mingled with so many others
of inferior resolution, they had no fair opportunity of showing
what they could do. But Pelopidas, having sufficiently tried their
bravery at Tegyrae, where they had fought alone and around his
own person, never afterward divided them, but, keeping them entire,
and as one man, gave them the first duty in the greatest battles.
For as horses ran brisker in a chariot than singly, not that their
joint force divides the air with greater ease, but because being
matched one against the other emulation kindles and inflames their
courage; thus he thought brave men, provoking one another to noble
actions, would prove most serviceable, and most resolute, where
all were united together.
Source.
From: The Sacred Band of Thebes, from Plutarch, Life of Pelopidas, trans. John Dryden
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