Gorgidas

Who is Gorgidas?

In 378 BCE, Theagenes was the founder and first known developer and fielder of a Sacred Band, a military unit of age-weighed couples of "lovers and beloveds" who, Plato postulated, would stand fight together and show greater courage before a loved one, in a time where desertion and surrender were significant issues to early military organizations. Whether Gorgidas heard about Plato's concept in Athens or not is debatable, given the relative timing of the formation of the Sacred Band of Thebes and the creation of Plato's work, the Symposia, in which the concept is mentioned. However the idea developed, Gorgidas founded and trained the first Sacred Band as 300 elite warriors. But he did not field them together; rather he spread the pairs throughout the Theban army. It was Pelopidas, who followed him. who kept the Sacred Band together as a war-band of 300, when Gorgidas relinquished the command. The circumstances surrounding Gorgidas's relinquishment of command of the Sacred Band of Thebes or his death are not known.