Isidas
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Isidas (Greek: Ἰσίδας) or Isadas (Greek: Ἰσαδας), son of the Spartan general Phoebidas, was a Spartan youth of remarkable beauty and stature celebrated for two feats of courage, both of which involved him fighting naked against the Thebans.
However, since both feats occurred eight years apart, if in both cases it was the same Isidas then in one case he would have been in his puberty and in the other in his late teens or early twenties.
The British painter Sir Charles Lock Eastlake made a painting of the scene for the Duke of Devonshire, entitled The Spartan Isidas or The Spartan Isadas at the Siege of Thebes (c. 1827), which hangs at Chatsworth House in England.[1][2]
In 370 BCE, after winning the battle of Leuctra (371 BCE), the Thebans led by Epaminondas launched their first invasion of the Peloponnese to undermine the forces of Sparta, which had been defeated in that war. It was when the Thebans installed a garrison in the port city of Gythium that we first learn of Isidas.
According to Polyaenus, at Gythium, Isidas gathered a hundred youths from his circle of acquaintances, who anointed themselves with oil and tied olive wreaths on their heads. Then they hid daggers under their arms and ran naked across the plain, with Isidas in the lead and the others following. The Thebans were deceived by their appearance and thought they were just exercising, but the Laconians drew their daggers and attacked them. After killing some of the Thebans and driving out others, they recaptured Gythium.[3]