Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Here I will explain something about the “setting” of my fanfiction, since it is a heavy-historic one; a little bit of background information is needed. When a chapter will address something specific, I will explain it in a small glossary at the end.
But, first off all, one little thing: I am not going to friend-lock this fic, even if it DOES contain some harsh thing. Ancient Greek was a culture which allows and encourages a kind of pederasty (between a man and a boy about 13/14 years old, until the boy reaches his 18/20 birthday). It was supposed to help the boy to become a man and a citizen/soldier, had a social and a ritual meaning. Plus, Sparta (the city settling of the fanfic) was an incredibly harsh place to grow up. But such is history. I don’t agree with racism, but if I am going to write a story settled in the years between 1933 ad 1945 in Germany, I would have to write about it, and explain the fucked-up reasons those men believed into such things.
Now, more about my story…
Sparta is a city in southern Greece. In antiquity it was a Greek military state. As a city-state devoted to military training, Sparta possessed the most formidable army in the Greek world. The hoplite was a heavy infantryman that was the central focus of warfare in Ancient Greece. It was formed by men who fight side by side, protecting themselves and their comrades with heavy, big shields. The spears sticked out from the shields, and the resulting formation was something between a turtle and a hedgehog.
Sparta society was divided in three classes: the Spartiates, noble, upper class who in war were the hoplites and who in life did nothing but warfare, the Perieces, who did all the manufactory jobs and who were free, even if without any kind of civil rights, and the Hilotes, who were true serf. Every year, the Kings of Sparta made a formal declaration of war against Hilotes, so they could be killed without committing crime. The story will explain more about the history of those three classes.
The Spartan political form was something between an oligarchy and a monarchy. Roughly, it was oligarchic in peace and monarchic in war. The two kings were chosen by birth-right. Every Spartiate, when they reached the age of sixty and could no more go in war, could become one of the Ephores.
Education in Sparta was rough. Only the stronger children, both male and female, were accepted. The other were either thrown of a cliff or abandoned over the Taygeto, a mountain rage next to Sparta. Every male child left the mother at the age of seven, and from now on they were educated in community. Life was hard for them: they were supposed not to cry or show feeling. They were poorly feed and encouraged to steal food but severely punished if caught. Their only suit was a tunic, only at the age of twelve they were given a cloak. To keep themselves warm, they put thistles into their tunic and camp bed. The pricks gave them a resemblance of warmth.
At the age of nineteen, the stronger of them enter in a sort of initiation rite/secret police: the Kripteya. I will explain more about it later on. They usually get marry at the age of twenty, after the Kripteya, but keep to live in communities called sissytias until the age of thirty.
Women in Sparta were considerably freer than in the rest of the ancient world. They had to be strong, to bear strong children, and were encouraged to practice sports. Their only duty was to bear and to raise children, but they could go out of home [which was unthinkable in Athene] and enjoy a quite free life.
Homosexuality in Sparta was, like in mostly, but not all, Greek cities, accepted under some circumstances. I will talk about it in the story.
I have set the story in a particular period in Greek’s History: the Persian War. I will explain pretty much everything about it into the fanfiction itself.
Also, I do like happy ending and I plan a happily-ever-after though maybe a particular one.