The relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion may well have been sexual. Between young men such a relationship carried no social stigma. At the time, such a relationship was encouraged between warriors. The Spartans, for example, were said to place lovers together in the line of battle on the basis that they would not only fight for Sparta, but also for their partner. It is certainly true that Alexander saw in his relationship with Hephaestion a reflection of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus as told by Homer in the Illiad.