Hence this characteristic existed among the Spartans, and in the time of their empire many things were controlled by the women yet what difference does it make whether the women rule or the rulers are ruled by the women? The result is the same. For it appears that the original teller of the legend had good reason for uniting Ares with Aphrodite, for all men of martial spirit appear to be attracted to the companionship either of male associates or of women. The inevitable result is that in a state thus constituted wealth is held in honour, especially if it is the case that the people are under the sway of their women, as most of the military and warlike races are, except the Celts and such other races as have openly held in honour passionate friendship between males. And given that even some of king Agesilaos' tent companions engaged in pederastic relationships (as Xenophon himself reports), it seems difficult to imagine that such things were taboo at Sparta. In other words, even if he preserved a genuine tradition that the Spartans had once frowned upon pederasty, we have no reason to assume that the Spartans of Xenophon's day still did. Indeed, even if we choose to believe that Xenophon believed Lykourgos really banned such practices, we have to bear in mind his remark at the end of his Constitution of the Spartans that the Spartiates no longer adhered to the laws of Lykourgos, and fell short of the supposed glory and purity of their ancestors in innumerable ways. He lived in a world in which, for both Spartiates and other Greeks, relationships between men were a normal part of leisure-class culture, and these relationships would certainly not be limited to "admiring a boy's soul".
Both in the Anabasis and in the Hellenika, he casually mentions relationships between Spartan and Spartan-led warriors without apparently seeing any reason to question the morality of these bonds or specify their nature. I already addressed this quote in the post linked above he is clearly idealising the ancient customs of the Spartans while also taking the fact of male attraction to other men entirely for granted. Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans 2.12-14
For in many states the laws are not opposed to the indulgence of these appetites. I am not surprised, however, that people refuse to believe this. But if it was clear that the attraction lay in the boy's outward beauty, he banned the connexion as an abomination and thus he caused lovers to abstain from boys no less than parents abstain from sexual intercourse with their children and brothers and sisters with each other. If someone, being himself an honest man, admired a boy's soul and tried to make of him an ideal friend without reproach and to associate with him, he approved, and believed in the excellence of this kind of training. The customs instituted by Lykourgos were opposed to all of these. Some, on the other hand, entirely forbid suitors to talk with boys. In other Greek states, for instance among the Boiotians, man and boy live together, like married people elsewhere, among the Eleians, for example, consent is won by means of favours. I think I ought to say something also about intimacy with boys, since this matter also has a bearing on education.
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