The Father Of The “Spartan” Lifestyle Allegedly Played A Huge Role In Circulating Homer’s Epic Poetry

A great deal of what we know about Spartan history comes from Plutarch (c. 50-120), a Greek scholar born in Boeotia while the region was under Roman influence. In a series of biographies known as the Parallel Lives, Plutarch alternated between accounts about Roman and Greek figures from history, including several influential men of Sparta. One of Plutarch’s many subjects was Lycurgus, the man credited with founding Sparta’s iconic culture of pragmatic simplicity and disciplined militancy. By the time Plutarch was writing, the legends of Lycurgus were more myth than history, a reality that Plutarch freely admitted in his work. Nevertheless, he recounted the stories he had collected about Lycurgus, often listing out his sources and judging which versions he believed were more feasible. As many of the sources he used regarding Sparta have now been lost or damaged, modern historians rely heavily on Plutarch’s summaries.

Concerning Lycurgus, Plutarch admitted that there were conflicting accounts that clashed on almost every part of the legend’s life.  Nevertheless, the scholar impressively pieced together a narrative and notified his readers where most of the inconsistencies occurred. Even the century in which Lycurgus was supposed to have lived was unknown, ranging from as early as the 9th century BCE, in the age of Homer, or as late as the 6th century BCE, by which time Sparta had become noticeably militant and adverse to luxury.

According to Plutarch’s sources, Lycurgus was a king of Sparta for eight months until he abdicated in favor of his infant nephew. So as not to be a threat to the boy-king’s power, Lycurgus allegedly decided to travel the Mediterranean, collecting information that would be helpful for Sparta, as well as recruiting wise people that would be beneficial to Spartan society. The various sources that Plutarch browsed disagreed on where exactly Lycurgus traveled. Most stated that the wandering Spartan sailed to Crete, and then wandered around Anatolia, spending time in the Greek-settled coastal region of Ionia. In addition, Plutarch claimed that other individual sources reported Lycurgus as also having traveled through Libya, Iberia, Egypt and India.

While in Ionia, the homeland of Homer, Lycurgus was said to have run across a community that descended from Creophylus, a legendary figure who was close to the poet. This unnamed community had apparently taken it upon themselves to preserve the works of Homer. According to the tale, the Greeks of Lycurgus’ time had a vague notion of the Ionian poet, but had not fully embraced the famous epics. Plutarch wrote that Lycurgus initially dismissed the poetry as useless, but once he recognized the wise military, political and cultural lessons embedded in the verses, he changed his mind and made copies of Homer’s works. Therefore, according to the tale, Lycurgus helped popularize the poems of Homer by bringing his copies home to mainland Greece. Ironically, along with the timeless poetry, Lycurgus also brought back with him the “Spartan” way of life, which was famously opposed to art and excessive education.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Lycurgus of Sparta, by Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781–1853), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• On Sparta (Life of Lycurgus), by Plutarch excerpted from his Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

The Ancient Spartan Attitude Toward “Cowards”

In the 6th century BCE, Sparta started to become noticeably more militant and frugal than their neighboring Greek cities. These changes were attributed to a semi-mythical man named Lycurgus, who lived anywhere from as early as the 9th century BCE up to the 6th century BCE, when the changes in Sparta became visible. Whatever the cause, Sparta’s culture changed dramatically, with Spartan citizens strategically banned from doing manual labor so that they could devote more time to training their bodies and minds for war. King Agesilaus II of Sparta (r. 400-360 BCE) was said to have explained the Spartan culture for war in an interesting way to his allies. During a meeting of his coalition forces, Agesilaus gathered the allied troops together and told them all to stand up if their profession was announced. After shouting many jobs—potters, smiths, carpenters, builders, laborers, etc…— the Spartans soldiers were the only warriors still sitting down, as soldiering was their sole profession.

With this attitude and mindset, cowardice was not tolerated in Sparta. They had such pride in their military might that they did not build a defensive wall around their city, and they allegedly bragged that none of their women had ever seen the smoke from an enemy campfire. They also teased other Greek cities about how few foreign dead were found near Sparta, for few could, or would, attack the Spartan homeland, whereas heroic Spartan dead were scattered throughout Greece. From the 6th century BCE until the early 4th century BCE, Sparta’s arrogant mindset was backed by spectacular military victories, which increased Spartan pride and created an illusion that the Spartans were unbeatable on the battlefield.

With such pride and devotion to war, the Spartans had little pity for the man who did not meet the high standard that was demanded of a Spartan warrior. Evaluation began as soon as a Spartan was born. According to the Greek-Roman historian Plutarch (c. 50-120 CE), Spartan newborns were brought to a meeting called a lesche, where the elders would determine the fate of the child. If healthy, Plutarch wrote that the child would be approved for upbringing and granted a portion of land. If the elders disliked what they saw, the newborn was allegedly condemned to abandonment at Apothetae, “the place of rejection,” located near Mount Taygetus. If infants were not spared for weakness, neither would grown adults be spared for cowardice. Sparta’s fluid definition for cowardice did not just describe a person who failed to face their fears, but also applied to soldiers who fought bravely in a battle but survived when the Spartan leadership and citizenry thought they should have died in a final last stand.

As long as Sparta kept alive its reputation as an undisputed infantry power, most Spartans could accept such a view on cowardice. After all, the Spartans thought themselves to be unbeatable on a pitched battlefield, so they presumably believed dramatic final stands would be the rare exception, not the norm. With such confidence in their armed forces, the Spartans thought that the only honorable way to fight was to win the battle or to literally die trying. That meant that if a lone Spartan warrior survived while his comrades died in battle, the rest of the Spartan community would call that survivor a coward.

Plutarch wrote of at least six ways that the so-called cowards were ostracized by the Spartan community:

1. They were disqualified from holding a Spartan office.
2. Women were discouraged from marrying a man who was labeled as a coward.
3. It was deemed disgraceful for a Spartan man to marry a close female relative of an accused coward.
4. Accused cowards were commanded to live in a shabby and unwashed state. 
5. Accused cowards supposedly were forced to maintain an odd physical appearance. This supposedly included a requirement to shave off half of their mustaches and to wear easily recognizable patchwork cloaks. 
6. Finally, Spartan citizens could apparently strike and beat accused cowards without fear of repercussion or reprimand. 

In the 4th century BCE, Epaminondas, a gifted military leader from Thebes, finally forced the Spartans to reevaluate their treatment of the so-called cowards. Epaminondas wrecked havoc in the Peloponnesus for several years, shattering Sparta’s carefully cultivated illusion of invincibility on land. The Thebans defeated a Spartan army at Tegyra (c. 375) and later won an even more significant battle against Spartan forces at Leuctra, in 371 BCE. Epaminondas followed that up by invading the Peloponnesus and besieging the city of Sparta, itself, not once, but at least twice in separate campaigns, the first in the winter of 370-369 BCE, and the second in 362 BCE. Facing so many defeats, countless Spartan warriors could have been classified under Sparta’s definition of cowardice. Therefore, to reassure his men and to avoid a mutiny, King Agesilaus II gave his defeated troops a pardon.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Statue of an Ancient Spartan, [Public Domain] via maxpixel.net).

Soiurces:

• On Sparta (Life of Agesilaus), by Plutarch excerpted from his Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

Thales of Crete—The Singer-Songwriter Allegedly Employed By Lycurgus To Brainwash Sparta

The survival of information about ancient Spartan history owes a great deal of credit to Plutarch (c. 50-120), a Greek-Roman scholar from Boeotia, Greece. In his influential series of biographies, known as the Parallel Lives, Plutarch compared and contrasted Roman and Greek figures from history, including several influential Spartans. One of Plutarch’s many subjects was Lycurgus, the man credited with founding Sparta’s iconic culture of pragmatic no-nonsense militancy. In Plutarch’s day, stories of Lycurgus were more myth than history, a reality that Plutarch freely admitted in his own writing. Nevertheless, he recounted the stories that he had collected about Lycurgus, often listing his sources and judging which versions he believed were more feasible. As many of the sources he used regarding Sparta have now been lost or damaged, modern historians rely heavily on Plutarch’s summaries.

Plutarch confessed that there were many conflicting accounts that clashed on almost every part of Lycurgus’ life.  Nevertheless, he impressively pieced together the various tales into a timeline of Lycurgus’ career and went out of his way to notify his readers where inconsistencies occurred. The first major unknown piece of information regarding Lycurgus was the time in which he was supposed to have lived. Plutarch placed Lycurgus anywhere from as early as the 9th century BCE, in the age of Homer, to as late as the 6th century BCE, when Sparta had become noticeably militant and adverse to luxury.

According to the folklore-laden tales, Lycurgus was a member of the Spartan royal family. He was apparently a king of Sparta for the short span of eight months until he abdicated in favor of his infant nephew. Not wanting to overshadow the young king, Lycurgus allegedly decided to explore the world, collecting useful information and recruiting wise minds as he waited for his nephew to mature.

The first stop on Lycurgus’ grand tour allegedly was Crete. There, he found a masterful poet, singer and songwriter named Thales. Although Lycurgus was generally opposed to such luxury and art, he found that he had much in common with Thales of Crete. Law and obedience were said to have been the most common themes portrayed by Thales in his songs, and these were ideas that meshed perfectly with Lycurgus’ vision for Sparta.

According to Plutarch, Lycurgus recruited Thales of Crete as either an employee or a disciple. Thales traveled to Sparta, where he began performing and popularizing songs about servitude, respect for authority and the achievement of communal excellence. His performances were said to have been almost supernatural in their potency, with his lyrical words and music having the ability to mellow out even the most rowdy personalities.

While Thales prepared and enthused the Spartans for the upcoming revolution in their way of life, Lycurgus reportedly continued with his travels, gathering more ideas from surrounding cultures. The various sources that Plutarch browsed disagreed on where Lycurgus traveled during this period. In addition to Crete, most sources stated that he traveled through Ionia and Anatolia. Other individual sources reported that Lycurgus may have also traveled through Libya, Iberia, Egypt and India before returning home to revolutionize Sparta.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Musicians from the Zliten mosaic, c. 200 CE, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• On Sparta (Life of Lycurgus), by Plutarch excerpted from his Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

Infant Wine Baths In Ancient Sparta

The great scholar, Plutarch (c. 50-120), was a polymath born in Roman-controlled Greece. Though he wrote prolifically on theology, philosophy and other topics, he is best known for his series of biographies on important figures from ancient Greece and Rome, known together as the Parallel Lives. Interestingly, Plutarch’s biographies on the people who shaped the city of Sparta provide much of what we know about daily life in ancient Sparta.

According to Plutarch, a mysterious man named Lycurgus brought about the famous ascetic militancy that came to define ancient Sparta. Plutarch freely admitted that the accounts about Lycurgus presented more of a myth than man, and that accurately dating Lycurgus’ life was nearly impossible. At best, Lycurgus could be said to have lived as far back as the 9th century BCE, in the time of Homer, or as late as the 6th century BCE, when Sparta started to become noticeably more militant and luxury-opposed than their neighbors. No matter the date of Lycurgus’ life, the Spartans attributed their new lifestyle to his teachings.

One of the more notorious elements of the ancient Spartan way of life was how the elders would reportedly decide which newborns lived or died. Plutarch wrote that Lycurgus imposed a system of state-sponsored eugenics, where procreation was encouraged among pairs who would bring about strong children—even if extramarital affairs were required to do so. In this societal model, children were not raised for the sake of a family, but rather for the protection and longevity of Sparta. As such, Plutarch reported that Spartan parents did not have the right to decide if their children were worthy of joining the community. Instead the newborns were brought to a meeting called a lesche, where the elders would determine the fate of the child. Plutarch wrote that, if healthy, the child was guaranteed a portion of land and was approved for upbringing. If the elders disliked what they saw, the newborn was condemned to abandonment at Apothetae, “the place of rejection,” located near Mount Taygetus.

Even though the fate of their child was out of their hands, Plutarch wrote that some Spartan mothers were impatient, or perhaps anxious, about the lesche and therefore devised their own tests to evaluate the vigor of their infants. In one such test, the baby was bathed not in water, but in undiluted wine. According to Plutarch, the mothers could get a sense of their child’s fate based on the baby’s reaction to the potent alcohol. Lycurgus’ ideal baby supposedly would endure the stinging, staining and powerful fumes, while the weak would allegedly lose control of their senses or stiffen in discomfort.

Despite the obvious ethical issues with the extreme Spartan attitude toward children, Plutarch wrote that nurses from the Spartan culture were coveted in other regions of Greece. The Spartan nursemaids had talents that any parent would dream about—Plutarch listed that they were skilled at teaching children not to be fussy about their food, could root out childhood fears of the dark and even specialized in stopping temper tantrums and fits of crying. Nevertheless, these enviable abilities by far did not make up for the horrid system of Spartan child culling.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Wine selling advertisement and prices, "Ad Cucumas" shop, ancient roman painting in Herculaneum, Italy. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• On Sparta (Life of Lycurgus), by Plutarch excerpted from his Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Parallel-Lives
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plutarch 
• https://www.ancient.eu/sparta/
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Sparta