Sparta (2)
2. Social relationships & gender roles within Spartan society
- Social structure and organisation
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The rich territory of Sparta provided nearly everything needed for the Spartan society, and the helots farmed and produced the food from this land.
☺ Equality. Homoioi established through land distribution.
☺ As the Helots did all labour, this allowed the Spartans to spend their days hunting or training. This also meant that women didn’t have to prepare and cook food, make clothes, or do household chores or (presumably) nurse their children, as helot women did this for them.
☺ New-born babies were examined by a group of elders. If thought too weak for the Spartan state, they were left to die of exposure on Mount Taygetos.
☺ Plutarch describes the care of a child that passed the inspection: “The nurses... made them sensible and not fussy about their food, not afraid of the dark or frightened of being left alone, not inclined to unpleasant awkwardness or whining. So even some foreigners acquired Spartan nurses for their children.” 1
☺ The state of Laconia was one of which was always prepared to fight. The highest object of every man’s life was to be able to fight when needed with his maximum capacity for his city.
☺ The syssitia/pheiditia: Failure to contribute monthly from the produce of his kleros to this mess would result in loss of citizenship. These communal meals would be shared in the barracks between groups of about fifteen men, with each man contributing barley meal, wine, cheese and figs, and money for fish or meat. The groups would be made up of different aged men, so the younger men could learn from the elders. At the messes political discussions and stories of great citizens’ deeds would be shared.
☺ Inferiors / hypomeiones: those who had lost their citizenship for failing to fill their duties.
☺ Until a man was able to leave the barracks (age thirty), he would not be able to see his wife in the daytime, he’d only be able to ‘see’ her in the cover of darkness. It was quite possible for a husband to have several children before he saw his wife in the daylight. “[a man] would warily visit his bride in secret… His bride at the same time devised schemes and helped to plan how they might meet each other unobserved at suitable moments.” 8
☺ Warfare was the purpose of which all Spartan laws and institutions were based, which were believed to be inspired by Apollo.
☺ As an example of the strong urge to fight for one’s state in Sparta, there is a story of a lame man, Androcleidas, who enlisted himself among the fighting men. When some tried to refuse him to the army because of his disability, he said, “But what’s needed to fight our foes is a man who stands his ground, not one who runs away”. 9
- Role of the Family:
There was a complete acceptance that the state was all-important. Because of this, they did not consider their family life any different to the other communities in Greek states.
☺ Male - to produce a healthy, masculine child
☺ Female - to bear children for the state
☺ “If both parents were strong their children would be more robust.” 10
☺ Men did not have to do agricultural jobs, as the helots did these for them. They also spent time away from their families each day and ate their meals at the public messes, the syssitia.
☺ Women managed estates and controlled their household/s with the help of their allocated helots.
☺ Women could be loaned to another man for the production of that man’s children.
☺ It was a general acceptance that boys would leave home at a young age to go to the agoge. They were taught to be warriors rather than craftsmen or farmers
☺ There was more contact between young men and women than in any other Greek state.
☺ According to Cartledge, “there was an overwhelming pressure for the state to maintain the strength of the adult male Spartan citizen community”2. This was because of the need to have a large military base to not only fight the enemy within (helots), but also the enemies outside Laconia.
☺ Something viewed as distinctly odd by other Greeks was the public benefits imposed on fathers of three or more sons. (This is once again promoting teknopoiia, or ‘children making’.)
- Spartan Women:
☺ Spartan women were ‘the only women who give birth to (real) men’3, according to Gorgo, daughter and wife of Spartan kings
☺ Aristotle completely agrees with his view that in Sparta the women ruled the men. According to him, this gynecocracy was a key part of why Sparta politically and morally failed.
☺ They were entitled to own and manage property, including inherited land, and Cartledge believes they also did this without the necessary legal intervention of a male guardian.
☺ Heiresses in Sparta (daughters without legitimate brothers of the same father) were called patrouchoi. They were highly sought after by single Spartan men, as they could be married to any Spartan - not only the nearest male kin on the father’s side.
☺ There were apparently no laws of adultery in Sparta. Thus, women were allowed to have sex with men other than their husbands. Husbands could also ‘loan’ his wife to another man for the other man’s household and lineage. ‘They were… ready to sacrifice their maternal instincts to the welfare of their country. Such was the spirit of the place.’ 4 According to Xenophon, they welcomed these arrangements, as it allowed them to manage more than one household.
☺ Spartan women enjoyed a freedom not given to women of other Greek states.
☺ Something most probably viewed as a distinctly odd thing of Spartan society, was the public humiliation by women at a religious festival towards adult men if they were late in getting married.
☺ “They go out With bare thighs and loose clothes, to wrestle and run races Along with the young men.” Euripides, Andromache, trans. by P. Vellacott, p.165. Antiquities 2 p59.
A Famous Spartan Woman:
☺ A woman of the name Kyniska ‘won’ the four-horse chariot race at Olympia twice, was honoured with a hero’s shrine after her death, and a statue and inscription were placed in her honour at Olympia. Here she did not actually drive the chariot; she merely gained the credit for her ‘jockey’ driving her chariot, yet was remembered for it in Sparta.
Plutarch’s examples of the continual encouragement of Spartan women towards their sons: 5
☺ ‘As a woman was burying her son, a worthless old crone came up to her and said: “You poor woman, what a misfortune!”
“No, by the two gods, a piece of good fortune”’ she replied, “because I bore him so that he might die for Sparta, and that is what has happened as I wished.”’
☺ ‘Another woman, as she was sending her lame son up to the battleline, said: “Son, with each step you take, bear courage in mind.”’
- Rites of passage
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The rites of passage were a stage in the development of the Spartan boys and indicated membership and belonging to the community.
☺ There were nine major festivals on the Spartan calendar, the three most important being the Carneia/Karneia, the Gymnopaedia, and the Hyakinthia.
☺ The display of rites of passage were portrayed through the Gymnopaedia and the cheese test of the temple of Artemis Orthia.
The Gymnopaedia - “The Festival of the Unarmed Boys”
☺ A series of athletic competitions and musical events among the boys and men.
☺ It had a horrible nature and in early times, it was part of the warrior code to initiate the young soldier to a life of physical excellence.
☺ Held in the marketplace.
☺ Older men who were unmarried or without children (agamoi) weren’t permitted to participate. This may have been due to the fact that had not fully contributed to the state by bearing healthy children.
☺ Commemorated the battle of Thyrea fought against Argos c.550 BC, and associated with a thank-offering to Apollo for military success.
The cult of Artemis Orthia
☺ Artemis = goddess of fertility and childbirth, as well as the protector of women and children’s health.
☺ Orthia = little is known about this earlier Spartan goddess.
☺ By combining these two deities, they became a particular religious observance of the Spartans.
☺ May - June was when the cheese stealing ritual took place at the alter of Artemis Orthia. It was also a time of separation of young men in the wild.
☺ The altar was defended by older boys with whips ordered to use them as hard as they could, while younger boys had to get to the alter of cheese and snatch as many as possible from the steps of the altar.
☺ Some boys did not have the strength to pass this endurance test and died as a result of being whipped so badly.
☺ Watched by family and friends.
☺ A parade of the young men in good clothes after this rite of passage took place and songs and dances had occurred.
☺ Archaeologists have found many small charms to the deities, lead figurines and masks that were used in this cult.
- Krypteia
The krypteia were somewhat like a secret police. They could kill any helot that they found roaming the countryside at night.
☺ As the system of Helotry was seen as a danger since the conquest of Messenia, the krypteia was instituted (it is not certain of what date).
☺ As part of the Spartan education system, young boys participated in the krypteia. Conflicting sources say that they had to live alone, while others state that the boys roamed in groups whilst undercover in the countryside. They lay low during the day and lived off the land and stole, spied, and “maintained order” (killed helots).
☺ The krypteia taught its members to be effective and ruthless fighters and instilled comradeship amongst its members which would be an ongoing effect throughout their military life.
☺ The young Spartans had the power to kill every Helot who they had reason to regard with suspicion.
☺ The main victims were helots that showed leadership qualities, or those who were strong or athletic, and these were hunted down by the krypteia.
☺ Every year upon entering office, the ephors proclaimed war against the helots. Because of this, “the youths could slay dangerous Helots without any scruple or fear of the guilt of manslaughter”. 6
☺ After completing the krypteia, single men who had survived were given a high rank or status in the army and had the potential to become one of the three hundred knights serving the king.
Plutarch’s views 7:
☺ “The magistrates from time to time sent out into the countryside at large the most discreet of the young men, equipped only with daggers and necessary supplies.”
☺ “In the night, they came down to the roads and killed every Helot whom they caught. Often… made their way across fields where the Helots were working and killed the sturdiest and best of them.”
“Aristotle in particular says also that the Ephors, as soon as they came into office, made formal declaration of war upon the Helots.”