Spartans 8

By Pueros

for Tom

Chapter 8 – Hadassah

(Sparta, Greece, 487 B.C.)

Lysander was 5 years old and playing with his new puppy when his father, a hero of the battle of Marathon three years previously, unexpectedly made a rare visit home from the military barracks. The tiny dog immediately went to try to protect his loving young master from the huge unknown intruder into the family dwelling, barking at the man’s feet.

The hoplite bent over, picked the animal up by the throat and hurled it against a wall, breaking the creature’s skull and causing it to fall lifeless to the floor. Lysander screamed and leapt at his father, uselessly beating the leather cuirass that protected the man’s upper torso.

Lysander’s father now picked his diminutive son up and, whilst holding the struggling shrieking youngster, sat in a chair with the boy over his lap. The man soon had the 5 years old’s naked bottom exposed and proceeded to give his heir a vicious spanking.

Lysander started to sob, not only with the pain but in distress at losing his pet. This caused his father, breath smelling of wine, to strike the boy’s buttocks even harder whilst declaring “Spartan’s don’t cry!”

The ignoble, ill-tempered, often drunken and violent man might have been a hero to others but he was nothing of the sort to his son.

(Sparta, Greece, 485 B.C.)

At the age of 7, Lysander too had to go to live in the military barracks to learn to be a Spartan warrior. The boy wanted to cry at being forced to leave his loving mother and his pleasant home but now knew better than to display such emotion.

Lysander’s agreeable personality, which mixed open friendliness with consideration, quickly earned him friends amongst his own age group, the closest of whom was Miltiades, son of a famous Spartan general of the same name, another hero of Marathon. However, being the son of a general, this boy was singled out for harsher treatment by some of the instructors.

Lysander had retained one incident vividly in his mind. Miltiades, usually very good at hurling the javelin, had made a mess of the direction of one particularly long throw, with the missile landing close to an instructor, who immediately ordered the 7 years old flogged for the mistake. Lysander knew that the punishment was unjust as all the boys made such deviant throws but said and did nothing as his frightened friend was stripped and led to the whipping post. Screams reverberated around the barracks as the whole of the boy’s rear was turned into a mishmash of bloody stripes.

Lysander never forgave himself for failing to try to defend Miltiades on that day.

(Persepolis, Persia, February 478 B.C.)

Lysander sneaked back from his own rooms to Xerxes’ bedchamber, unnoticed amongst the groups of guests and servants gathered to debate quietly the row between the Great King and his wife.

Lysander told the guards posted at Xerxes’ door that he had been sent to ensure that his master was comfortable, a not unusual command, and thereby gained entrance, after being searched for hidden weaponry. The young Spartan heard the Great King’s loud snoring as he approached the man’s bed and, once alongside, he took a deep breath before shaking the sleeping figure engulfed by bedcovers.

Xerxes was very surprised to be awakened, especially by Lysander. The Great King, beginning to suffer a hangover, was also very annoyed when he asked “Yes, what is it and it had better be good!”

Lysander prostrated himself before kneeling by the side of the bed and looking at the bearded man, glazed eyes full of anger at being disturbed. “Great Majesty,” the young Spartan began, “I come to beg you for justice!”

“Justice, justice, what do you mean?” replied the befuddled and still livid Xerxes. “Justice for Alexias,” responded Lysander before adding, because the Great King would probably not yet be aware of the names of his new Greek catamites, “Alexias, your new young Athenian servant. Please do not let him be flogged as he does not deserve such punishment.”

Xerxes was temporarily stunned by the request before pulling the covers back to extricate himself from the bed and exploding “You have wakened me to ask for mercy for your incompetent friend. How dare you!” The Great King, attired in a colourfully ornate night gown, stood up in front of Lysander and raised his hand to strike the face of the impertinent young petitioner.

Mordecai also raised his hand, the one containing the whip. He took aim at the back of the crying Alexias, naked except for his still attached genital cover and chained with feet on tiptoe as his hands were fastened together to the whipping post high above him. However, the Jew hesitated to inflict the first blow.

Like most heterosexual men of the time, Mordecai was unafraid to admire masculine beauty when he saw it and admit to the fact. His appreciation often extended from his mind to his loins, although he had never consummated such regard. However, the sight of the lovely nude young Athenian sorely tempted him and it was a delightful vision that he did not want to besmirch with whip marks, although he knew he must.

Mordecai therefore uttered a low sigh of regret before affirming his initial target, the upper part of Alexias’ back. The Jew had not been given a quotient of strikes to inflict and would keep them to a minimum. However, he knew that Xerxes would expect to see bloody stripes across most of the boy’s back and buttocks.

Mordecai heard Alexias begging between his sobs “No, no, please no!” but sadly appreciated that he could not comply with the young Athenian’s wishes. The whip was therefore raised high above him in readiness for the first hit when he heard another shout of “No!” but not from the intended recipient of the lash. The Jew looked around to see Lysander running towards him.

Lysander, despite his Spartan fitness, was almost out of breath by the time he arrived alongside Mordecai, as he had run so fast. The Jew lowered the whip and waited for the boy to recover to convey his message.

“The Great King,” Lysander eventually managed to announce, between deep intakes of air, “has reprieved Alexias from his punishment!”

Like Mordecai, Xerxes had hesitated in striking the boy who was at his mercy. Lysander had not cowered or shielded his head from the imminent blow of his master’s hand. Instead, the unguarded beautiful face had looked up at the Great King, with gorgeous sensuous blue eyes continuing to display brave entreaty.

Xerxes was not an unjust or uncaring man but rather one jealously conscious of his elevated position in life and history and, like many mortals, one possessed with some selfishness and a temper. However, he also appreciated beauty and courage and suddenly realised that he had both at his feet. The Great King, anger subsiding, therefore lowered his hand but not to strike the 13 years old’s face.

“Stand,” Xerxes commanded Lysander, “and tell me why your friend should not be flogged!”

Lysander and a redressed and deeply relieved Alexias later discussed events in their rooms. “You actually went to see Xerxes without permission,” queried the astounded but mightily beholden young Athenian rhetorically, “and woke him so that you could talk to him.” Tears returned to the 13 years old’s wonderful brown eyes, but with gratitude and admiration, as he hugged his friend and continued “You Spartans certainly have courage and honour!”

The young Athenian’s tears began to flow freely as he maintained his tight hold on his friend. The 13 years old had found the whole experience mentally agonising and his intensified crying was partly caused by delayed shock. However, the main reason for his lachrymation was revealed by his next sentence. “I love you, Lysander,” Alexias declared as sobs reverberated around the room.

Lysander appreciated friendship but had always been reluctant to accept that a relationship went any further. The experience of having a hateful uncaring cruel father, and losing his loving dog and mother so young, had had a traumatic effect on his character. However, on this occasion, he reciprocated his friend’s firm grip and announced “I love you too, Alexias,” knowing that he meant it. The young Athenian obviously needed his friend’s affection and protection desperately in order to survive the mental and physical dangers presented by their new environment. However, the young Spartan now appreciated that he too could not live without his close young companion, but entirely for reasons of the heart.

13 years olds lips soon met but alas young passion could not be consummated on this night because of the frustrating genital covers. Nevertheless, the friends found solace by sleeping in each other’s arms.

Mordecai returned to Susa after the conclusion of the resumed banquet several days later. He and his men accompanied Queen Vashti, who had maintained her anger with her similarly furious husband at the cost of exile from court. The Queen and the Great King were now irreconcilably estranged and so Xerxes declared himself divorced and immediately began to seek a replacement consort, his rush partly influenced by the wish to underline to his former wife her irretrievable displacement in his life.

Nevertheless, Xerxes’ displeasure with Queen Vashti did not extend to being ungenerous with the prison to which he had despatched the woman. The former Queen was to spend the rest of her years in a remote but luxuriant palace, which the Great King took care never to visit.

Mordecai was looking forward to returning to Susa for he kept a house in the city, looked after by his beautiful young cousin, Hadassah, whom he had adopted as his daughter when her parents died. The 17 years old was blossoming into full womanhood and gaining a lot of interest from potential suitors, attracted by her unparalleled loveliness and significant dowry. She had long brown hair with matching eyes that lit up her luscious face. Her female figure was immaculate, adorned by firm breasts with tight cleavage and the sumptuous curves of her bottom, all clearly appreciable despite the cover of her plain dresses.

Xerxes had remained relatively sober during the remaining days of the banquet and was therefore fully in control of his decisions when, after being readied for bed on the second day, he signalled for Lysander to remain whilst Alexias and the boy and adult eunuchs departed. As the young Athenian left, he looked sympathetically at his friend, whom he knew was dreading this moment. He saw the young Spartan respond with a sweet smile. However, it was insufficient to hide the look of worry and shame in his lovely blue eyes.

When Xerxes and Lysander were alone, the former gestured to the latter to disrobe. The Great King had already experienced the young Spartan’s defiant audacity on a couple of occasions, not least when the boy had persuaded him to reprieve the young Athenian from flagellation. It was not so much the boy’s verbal argument that had achieved success, although the 13 years old’s unprecedented and potentially treasonable suggestion that Xerxes had been unjust had been impressively delivered in a manner in which the man had found difficult to take offence. Rather, it had been observation of the brave immaculate beauty of the visage pleading the case that had completely disarmed the Great King to gain victory. However, it was now clearly noticeable that the lad’s sublime face exhibited out-of-character trepidation.

Xerxes might have forgiven Lysander his earlier impertinences but not his people for their part in defeating the Persian attempts to conquer Greece. The Great King therefore did not propose to forego vengeful sexual gratification because of the secret admiration he had just acquired for the young Spartan. In fact, the man’s cock was already throbbing in pleasurable expectation at the sight of the 13 years old reluctantly removing his slippers and unbuttoning his shirt.

Xerxes did not usually watch his male or female concubines perform their carefully instructed discreet undressing ritual, preferring to wait to view the completely naked scenery once it lay next to him. However, the Great King made an exception for Lysander, being excited by a Spartan’s obvious humiliation at submitting completely to royal Persian will. The man’s rigid member became engorged when the 13 years old’s trousers fell to the floor and the seal on the genital cover was broken prior to the chastity device’s removal.

Xerxes had not slept with an ungelded boy for a long time and did not believe that he would do so many more times. After accepting the total capitulation of the young whole Spartan and Athenian, the Great King intended to make them like his other catamites, if only to ensure that the boys were prevented from breeding more enemies of the Persians.

The next morning Xerxes attended the third day of the banquet displaying a fresh happier attitude whereas Lysander exhibited a rather sad and sullen disposition, as well as an inability to walk without grimacing. It was also the day when the Great King adopted the advice of his closest advisers regarding the expulsion of Queen Vashti from his life and the issue of several proclamations.

One of these decrees stipulated “Let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media, which cannot be repealed, that Vashti is never again to enter the presence of the Great King, Xerxes. Also, let it be known that the Great King will give her royal position to someone else who is better than she.” Another advised “The King's edict, proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, is that every man should be ruler over his own household and that all women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest." A third declared “Commissioners are appointed in every province of the realm to search for beautiful young virgins for the Great King. All these beautiful girls are to be brought into the Harem at the royal citadel of Susa, where one is to be chosen as Queen.”

Mordecai was to ask Hadassah whether she wished to be nominated.

(To be continued in chapter 9 – ‘Pageants’)