According to Plutarch, the 300 hand-picked men were chosen by Gorgidas purely for ability and merit, regardless of social class. It was composed of 150 male couples, each pair consisting of an older erastês (ἐραστής, "lover") and a younger erômenos (ἐρώμενος, "beloved"). Athenaeus of Naucratis also records the Sacred Band as being composed of "lovers and their favorites, thus indicating the dignity of the god Eros in that they embrace a glorious death in preference to a dishonorable and reprehensible life"; while Polyaenus describes the Sacred Band as being composed of men "devoted to each other by mutual obligations of love". The origin of the "sacred" appellation of the Sacred Band is unexplained by Dinarchus and other historians. But Plutarch claims that it was due to an exchange of sacred vows between lover and beloved at the shrine of Iolaus (one of the lovers of Hercules) at Thebes. He also tangentially mentions Plato's characterization of the lover as a "friend inspired of God".

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." ~Aristotle

"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another." ~Homer

"When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." ~Leonard P. Matlovich

一次一步，我们可以改变世界

"I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion." ~Alexander the Great