The Sacred Band of Stepsons

The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BC in ancient Greece, where sexuality was a behavior, not an identity. The Sacred Band of Stepsons series of fantasy novels and stories take place in a myth-like milieu that mixes historical places such as Nisibis, Mygdonia and Chaeronea; warriors such as Theagenes (commander of the Theban Sacred Band at Chaeronea); gods such as Enlil, Maat and Harmonia; philosophers such as Heraclitus and Thales; cavalry tactics and customs such as homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece with those that exist only in fantasy. The exploits of the Stepsons are chronicled in eleven short stories and nine novels (as of 2012). In a fantasy context, this series explores the difficulties facing war-fighters in personal relationships and the enduring questions surrounding the military's historical mixing of homosexuals and heterosexuals in combat.

The Sacred Band of Stepsons first appeared as shock troops in the Thieves' World series in 1981 with the story, "A Man and His God," a novella introducing Plato's Sacred Band concept of an elite homosexual war-band (Hieròs Lókhos) to readers. "A Man and His God" was subsequently reprinted in one other anthology, Thirteen Short Fantasy Novels, edited by Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh and Charles; in the Thieves' World omnibus Sanctuary, Robert Asprin, ed.; and in Janet Morris's collection Tempus.

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