Magpie, as usual, you think way too much *grin* but I wanted to say that I agreed with this: "while there was tons of homoeroticism ... homosexuality was quite rare. It wasn’t homosexuality as we understand it today it was...something else." completely.

There is a difference between homosexuality as we think of it today and homoeroticism, especially in war or other situations of extreme stress. In "Band of Brothers" there is a passage where the author describes the relationship between the men as "closer than a wife; closer than a lover." It is...something else. Not "just friends." But not "lovers" either. Something else...something more.

Maybe there is a word for it in Greek...