WEEK 8: LIFE IN SPARTA (3/5)
the problem of Thermopylae
Prehistory: Trojan War (Helen and Clytemnestra), Heracles, Mycenaean site (Menelaion)
Conquest of Messenia, ca. 715 BC: helots
one of the first slave societies in the Western world
subsequent expansion
Lycurgus (ca. 700-650 BC) reformed the constitution into a militaristic society in response to the helotization of Messenia
The Great Rhetra (Tyrtaeus 4)
Political structure:
* 2 kings
* 5 ephors
* gerousia (council of elders)
* assembly: the "Equals" (Homoioi = Spartiates): maximum 9000weighted toward oligarchy (Aristotle: Sparta a combination of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy)
criteria of citizenship:
* agoge: military training and socialization through age classes (age 7-20) - Artemis Orthia
* consequences for the individual and the oikos: the primacy of the "state"* allotted land (one of 9000 kleroi or plots of land in Laconia) at birth after inspection for physical and mental perfection
* admission on adulthood to a mess club (pheiditia or syssition)
* simple diet: barley bread, water, figs, black broth (pork boiled in its own blood, salt, and vinegar -- yum!)
* all members contributed to the messgoal: invincible warrior (hoplite) "machine" (Tyrtaeus 10-12)
other notable features: no money (to avoid acquisition of wealth), xenelasia (expulsion of foreigners), honors for the dead had to be earned, art and culture, gods: Artemis, Athena, Apollo, Dioscuri
national characteristics: laconism, slow to act, distrustful of foreigners
Spartan Women
liberation and education
public role (Alcman)
Sparta and Laconia
surrounding towns perioecoi ("neighbors")
What Made Spartan Society Work?
almost total suppression of the individual
suppression of the helots despite three Messenian Wars
complete respect for and submission to nomos
a competition for honor...to see who can be the best in obedience
the problem of Thermopylae again
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Updated 3-1-08, bolmarcich[at]mail.utexas.edu