Who are the Spartans? How could Cyrus have never heard of such a
group of awesome people? How dare he regard such people with disdain? Did he
not fear their wrath? The answer is simply no! How could he be expected to
know? After all to Cyrus, Sparta was merely an insignificant city edged on a
corner of his empire, in a forgotten backwater of mountainous and inhospitable
Hellas (the term the Greeks used to refer to Greece). In his ignorance about
the existence of Sparta, the great king probably never heard of this parable as
well:
“The Spartan boy was terrified, but nonetheless determined. He
must not let himself or his comrades down. They were under strict instructions
of their trainers to steal wherever and whatever they could. Their only crime
was “to be caught”.
His group has stolen a tame young fox and handed it to him to look
after. When its owner came to look for it, the teenager immediately hid the fox
under his cloak. The frightened animal struggled to escape. It began biting
through the boy’s side and lacerated his intestines. The teenager did not move
or make a single noise. He did not want “to be caught”.
The owner left and the teenager’s friends realised what had
happened. They told him off for his stupidity. Is it not better to be caught
than losing his life? “No” he resolutely answered, though mortally wounded.
“Far better to die with honour without giving in to the pain than save his own
life and live ever after in disgrace.”
A grim and brutal, yet crucial, lesson for young Spartans. Though
unlikely to be true, the story vividly paints a picture of a ruthless and
unforgiving society, in which its individuals were tested at every turn of
their life. The first test came early. On their birth, a committee of elders
examined the infant to decide its fate. The life of the epileptic, the sickly,
and the disabled infant was held to be “of no advantage to itself or to the
state,” and these infant were then taken to the “Apothetae”, a ravine which
means “a place reserved for special occasions.” Those special occasions were
the weakling infant’s exposure to the elements and death. Indeed, to allow
these weaklings to grow up would amount to giving them a life of disgrace, and,
to quote the parable above, “far better to die with honour…than…live ever
after in disgrace.”
This succinctly reminds every Spartan of one ugly truth about
their very existence: that their lives are the property of their polis,
and are at the polis’ disposal. A Spartan would always have to
subordinate their personal desire and motive to those of their polis.
Their polis is their very life-blood. It gives them a sense of identity
and purpose. Without his polis, a Spartan is nothing! Spartan infant,
who survived their first grueling test and escaped the Apothetae, were reared
without traditional swaddling clothes. Their limbs and physiques were left to
develop naturally. Their nurses taught them to be content, to eat up their food
and not to fear the dark. Tantrums and tears were strictly discouraged.
 |
| Life in the Agoge would have involved all kinds of training including wrestling |
Military life for boys began at the age of seven, when they were
taken by the state and divided into companies. They were to be educated in the
art of war at the institution called agoge, which was designed to make
them “obey orders, cope with stress and win battles.” Reading and writing were
taught only to the extent “necessary.” They went about barefoot, had their hair
cropped, and played naked. They wore no tunic, and were given only one cloak
per year. They slept together in dormitories on the rush-filled pallet beds.
They were supervised by older men who attended their competitions and fights
and identified the most fearless and aggressive individuals.
“Any boy who is caught is beaten and has to go hungry. For their
meals are meager, so they have to take into their own hands the fight against
hunger. In this way, they are forced into daring and villainy.”
Another horrific rite of
passage took place when a Spartan boy reached his adolescence. This rite was in
honour of Artemis Orthia (Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo; she was
identified with Orthia, a local Peloponnese goddess), and was held at the
goddess’ sanctuary on the bank of Eurotas. Cheese were piled on an altar and
guarded by men with whips. The goal was to snatch as many cheeses as possible
while running a gauntlet of flagellators. Blood stained the altar. Death was
not uncommon.
Thus, the
Spartans were bred from a young age to embody a set of contradictory qualities,
just as their polis stood for a set of confusing paradox: criminal
guile, aggression, and tolerance of pain coupled with obedience, deference, and
modesty. Good manner was taught and strictly enforced. Boys were required to
keep his hands inside his cloak, to walk in silence, and to fix their eyes
firmly on the ground. Food at the Spartan dinner table was terrible, being the
famous “back broth” made from pig’s blood and vinegar. Alcohol was permitted
but only on a moderate degree. The focus was always on austerity and moderation.
A traveller to Sparta, having tasted it famous black broth, remarked that he
could now see why “the Spartans are so willing to die.”
One of the
reasons why we know so little about Sparta is the Spartans’ aversion to long
speeches. They spoke very little and wrote very little, that virtually no
records survived through the centuries. They were men of very few words, hence
our word “laconic.” The Spartans’ down-to-earth brevity only served to enhance
their charm and allure. When a Spartan king was asked what type of training was
most practiced at his polis, he replied “knowing how to take orders,
and how to give orders.”
To be continued in the next
blog
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