MSU Red Cedar Message Board

The same social pressures that cause entirely straight girls to make out and fool around now caused entirely straight men to bugger each other back then.

all ancient greeks were pretty open to Bi sexual man/boy loving...so it wasn't just a spartan thing. So were the romans.

changes the interpretation of "Spartans!!! What is you profession!!! OHHH OHHH OHHH!!!!"

I don't know if they all did. Certainly a lot of them did. Bi-sexual (with young boys) is a more accurate description than gay. That was not unusual in ancient Greece or Rome. I don't believe this was considered immoral in their pagan religion as it is in the Old Testament of the Bible and the Koran.

Many were also bi-sexual in Athens and Thebes for example. The army of Thebes had a bi-sexual or gay "sacred 300" unit.

There is much to be deplored in the Spartan culture. The worst is their reliance on slave (Helot) labor. Once again the other Greek city states also dealt in the slave trade. Sparta was reviled for enslaving fellow Greeks which was considered offensive. Of course the Athenians enslaved POWs of Greek city states that rebelled against them. The difference was Athens was not nearly as dependent on slave labor.

Their practice of infanticide was also deplorable. Every new born Spartan was tested for weakness and killed if he or she failed the test. One reason why Sparta had such a low birth rate and ultimately fell.

In fairness the Spartan were also widely respected for their virtues of courage, honor and simplicity. Generally speaking they were considered more moral than most Greeks in terms of personal character.

I suggest reading several books written by Victor Davis Hanson and the ancients such as Herodotus for more information.