[jpsb]

The Spartans had wives and children, but they also had many many slaves, so many slaves in fact that the Spartans were forced to become a highly disciplined militarist society. Young men, boys really, began training at an early age. Older males did the training, sexual relations were not part of the training, however male bonding was.

The reason we have a difficult time understanding the ancients is because we (westerners) have an entirely different view of women and the role of women in society. In the ancient world women were often thought of as only good for sex and having children. There were not thought of as being very smart, or very trust worthy. Hence, loving a woman was considered a mistake and would surely led to trouble, (hmmmm). Ergo, males tends to form close "loving" relationship with other males. These relationships were NOT sexual. They were platonic (notice the Plato in the word platonic). The queers want you to think that the world was homosexual until the nasty Christan's came along, that is simply not true. Male homosexuality was never been encourage by any society until now. We are in uncharted waters that the previous 10,000 years of human history has warned against.

[verifythentrust]

Thanx, I was repeating from the History channel special. I'm hip to the skip on the role of women.

[Racehorse]

The reason we have a difficult time understanding the ancients is because we (westerners) have an entirely different view of women and the role of women in society.

As always, there were notable exceptions.  Hypatia, mathematician and inventor of the astrolabe, would be one.