Spartans: Their Values, Customs, Culture and Lifestyle | Early European History And Religion

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SPARTAN SOCIETY

Spartans were people from Sparta, a prominent city-state in Laconia (on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula) in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in the Eurotas valley of Laconia. [Source Wikipedia]

The were three classes in Sparta: 1) Citizens-soldiers, the only people with political rights; 2) traders and merchants (Perioeci), who lived in surrounding villages and had no political rights; and 3) slaves (helots), who mostly worked the land and were treated brutally by their masters. Slaves that were killed were usually tagged as unreliable. Perioeciwere neither slaves nor citizens but foreigners, visitors, and traders.

According to Listerverse: Helots were occupied as farmers, as house servants, and in most activities that would distract the free Spartan citizens from their military duties. The helots were culturally Greek, reduced to servitude by the Spartans, and with new conquests, their number increased. During the late eighth century and after a long war, the Spartans annexed Messenia (southwest of the Peloponnese) and its inhabitants were reduced to slavery and turned into helots.Plato (Critias, fragment 37) claimed that Spartans had special locks on their doors because they had little trust of the helots. It is also known that the Spartans had a secret police, the Krypteia, who were responsible for keeping the helots in check. According to Plutarch (“Life of Lycurgus”: 28), the Krypteia would kill any helot found in the countryside during the night, and they would kill any helot who looked strong and fit during the day. [Source by Cristian Violatti, Listverse, August 3, 2016]

The Spartans had little interest in the traditional ancient Greek pursuits of poetry and philosophy. They preferred to institute a military system for training their male offspring, separating them from their families from the age of seven and drilling them in warfare. The boys were kept in austere conditions and fed only survival rations. They were expected to learn to steal food to survive. They drilled constantly until, at the age of 20, they became full-time soldiers and remained soldiers until they were allowed to retire at 60, assuming they lived that long.Bravery in battle was expected of all soldiers, and on the eve of war, mothers were said to hand their sons their shields with the words, “Either with this or upon this,” thus exhorting them to either carry their shield home as victors or be carried home dead upon it. The Spartans were not known for being maternal. [Source Ward Hazell, Listverse, August 31, 2019]

Websites on Ancient Greece: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org; British Museum ancientgreece.co.uk; Illustrated Greek History, Dr. Janice Siegel, Hampden–Sydney College hsc.edu/drjclassics ; The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization pbs.org/empires/thegreeks ; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org/web; Ancient Greek Sites on the Web from Medea showgate.com/medea ; Greek History Course from Reed web.archive.org; Classics FAQ MIT classics.mit.edu;

Book: “The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece” by Paul Cartledge, a professor at Cambridge University

Spartan Values

Spartan mother give a shield to her son

In ancient Sparta strength was admired and weakness was despised. The greatest virtue was bravery and the greatest honor was to die fighting in battle. The most serious crime for a Spartan was to retreat from battle. Endurance, putting up with pain without complaining and following orders without questioning were all traits that were greatly esteemed. The Spartan poet Tyrtaios wrote: "It is a novel thing for a good man to die...fighting for his fatherland. Make life your enemy, and the black spirits of death does as the rays of the sun.”

Mothers gave their sons a shield and said, “Bring back this shield or be brought back on it,” a reference to the way the dead were carried from the battlefield. Greek historians described how the relatives of soldiers killed in battle celebrated while the wives of men who survived look depressed. Men who returned from a battle were ostracized if they were seen smiling and one "coward" was even killed by his own mother. The only two survivors of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which the Spartans saved Greece from a Persian attack, were so humiliated they committed suicide on their return to Sparta. One Spartan boy reportedly ashamed to reveal that he was hiding a fox underneath his cloak let the fox rip out his stomach.

Menelaus, the King of Sparta, was the husband of Helen, who was lured by Paris to Troy, causing the Trojan War. After the Trojans were defeated Helen was brought pack to Sparta. The Spartans built a shrine in her honor where pregnant women went to pray for children who were not deformed. Herodotus described how Athena once appeared at the temple and told an ugly girl there that she would become a beautiful woman.

Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: In addition to their reputation as fine warriors, the Spartans were also known for the brevity and directness of their speech.Shortly before Philip of Macedon (Alexander’s father) invaded Laconia, he wrote a letter to the Spartans saying, “If I invade Laconia, I will drive you out.” The Spartans wrote a one-word letter back to Philip saying, “If.” (Plutarch, On Talkativeness: 511a). Philip eventually entered Laconia and sent another letter to the Spartans asking whether they would receive him as a friend or a foe. The Spartans replied, “Neither.” (Plutarch, “Sayings of the Spartans”: 233e).Plutarch wrote that Spartans do not say much, but what they say grabs the listener’s attention and they go straight to business (“Life of Lycurgus”: 19). A lost Greek comedy (we know some fragments of it due to the latter quotations) had a line saying, “Smaller than a letter sent from Sparta.” [Source by Cristian Violatti, Listverse, August 3, 2016]

Spartan warriors had to be strong and fit. This was particularly important for young men who were still in the process of becoming fully developed warriors. Aelian (Miscellaneous History: 14.7) recorded that Spartan law required young men to stand naked in public so that their bodies could be inspected.This was a routine check performed every 10 days, and they were expected to display a healthy and strong physique. Those who had flaccid limbs, excessive body fat, or both were beaten and censured. [Source by Cristian Violatti, Listverse, August 3, 2016]

Xenophon: On Spartan Customs

Xenophon, an Athenian born 431 B.C., was a pupil of Socrates who marched with the Spartans, and was exiled from Athens. He was a great admirer of the Spartans. Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move on and settling in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.

On the Spartans and the laws of quasi legendary king Lycurgus, Xenophon wrote: “Lycurgus ... thought that female slaves were competent to furnish clothes; and, considering that the PRODUCTION OF CHILDREN WAS THE NOBLEST DUTY OF THE FREE, he enacted ...that the female should practice bodily exercise no less than the male sex..." ".....He ordained that a man should think it shame to be seen going in to his wife, or coming out from her. When married people meet in this way, they must feel stronger desire for the company of one another...and produce more robust offspring.... [Source: Xenophon, CSUN]

"....He took from the men the liberty of marrying when each of them pleased, and appointed that they should contract marriages only when they were in full bodily vigor, deeming this injunction also conducive to producing excellent offspring...An old man should introduce to his wife whatever man in the prime of life he admired for his bodily and mental qualities, so that she might have children by him... "

Lycurgus, Semi-Legendary king of Sparta

"He also assigned some of the grown-up boys as ‘whip-bearers’ so that they might inflict whatever punishment was necessary (on younger boys), so that the great dread of DISGRACE, and great willingness to obey, prevailed among them. Lycurgus, though he did not give the boys permisson to take what they wanted without trouble, DID GIVE them the liberty to steal certain things to relieve the cravings of nature; and he made it honorable to steal as many cheeses as possible... "

“He taught the children from a desire to render them more dexterous in securing provisions, and better qualified for warfare....I must also say something of the boys as objects of affection, for this likewise has some reference to education.... Lycurgus thought proper, if any man (being himself such as he ought to be) admired the disposition of a youth, and made it his purpose to render him a faultless friend, and to enjoy his company, to bestow praise on the boy; and he regarded this as the most excellent kind of education..."

“"Lycurgus prohibited free citizens from having anything to do with business.... they should not desire wealth with a view to sensual gratification. At Sparta the citizens pay strictest obedience to the magistrates and the laws. Lycurgus did not attempt to establish such an ‘Excellent Order of Things’ (EUNOMIA) until he had brought the most powerful men in the state to be of the same opinion as he was with regard to the constitution... OBEDIENCE is of the greatest benefit, as well in a State as in an army anda family...An honorable death is preferable to a dishonorable life.... At Lacedaemon (Sparta) everyone would be ashamed to allow a coward into the same tent as himself, or allow him to be his opponent in a match at wrestling...."

“"Lycurgus also imposed on his countrymen an obligation, from which there is no exception, of practising every kind of political virtue; for he made the privileges of citizenship EQUALLY available to all those who observed what was commanded by the Laws, without taking any account either of bodily weakness or limited financial means; but if anyone was too lazy to do what the Laws demanded, Lycurgus commanded that he should no longer be counted among the number of ‘equally privileged citizens’ (the HOMOIOI)."

Spartan Infanticide and Death

Shortly after birth, the story goes, a Spartan child was brought before the elders of the tribe, who decided whether it was to be reared: if defective or weakly, it was exposed to the elements to die in the so called Apothetae. According to the historian Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus, the Spartans submitted newborn infants to a council for assessment and if they were found to be “lowborn or deformed” they were left to die from exposure. The reasons for exposing infants, Plutarch — and Plato — said was that it is “neither better for themselves nor for the city for [these children] to live [their] natural life poorly equipped.” According to this logic, people with severe disabilities were ‘better off dead’ and a drain on social resources. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, January 30, 2022]

Mark Oliver wrote in Listverse: “When a baby was born, the father would carry the newborn to the town’s elders. The elders would examine the child, looking for weaknesses and deformities. If any were found, the father was ordered to leave the child defenseless and alone in a pit called the Apothetae, where it would starve to death. Even if a child passed inspection, though, there was no guarantee it would live. When the father returned home, the mother would wash the baby in wine as an early epilepsy test. If the child was epileptic, the wine would make it break into a fit . . . and tell the mother that it wasn’t worth raising. If a baby could survive all this, it was promised a free plot of land...It’s estimated that about half of all babies born in Sparta died from either neglect or murder.” [Source: Mark Oliver, Listverse, September 6, 2016]

Spartans only got tombstones if they died in combat. If a Spartan died in battle, he’d be buried where his body laid, and, as a special honor, he’d be given a tombstone with his name and the words “in war” written below it. Women, who didn’t fight in the wars, could still get tombstones, but only under one circumstance: If a mother died in childbirth, she was given a warrior’s honors. To the Spartans, she had died fighting a battle of her own—and creating more boys to become the soldiers of Sparta.

Was Spartan Infanticide a Myth?

But what if the stories of Spartan infanticide are a myth? An article, published in Hesperia magazine in January 2022 by Dr. Debby Sneed, a lecturer in the department of Classics at California State University, Long Beach, argues that the Greeks did not routinely expose disabled children to the elements based on a lack of ancient evidence that it occurred.

The most famous piece of literary evidence, Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus was written hundreds of years after the subject’s death and is focused not on informing us about Spartan social control but, rather, painting a picture of Lycurgus’s character. Sneed told The Daily Beast “The practice is not mentioned in any other literary source, including those that discuss Spartan law or Lycurgus, even where the author was similarly eugenicist (e.g., Aristotle) and would have appreciated the validation of their own thinking. And we have no archaeological evidence for it, either.” [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, January 30, 2022]

Rejection of a Spartan Infant

At this juncture, some might object, on principle, that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because we don’t know about the exposure of disabled infants in Sparta from other sources doesn’t mean that they didn’t practice eugenics. To this, Sneed replies, that “In addition to having zero evidence of the Spartan practice, we have a wealth of evidence of ancient Greek adults actively encouraging the survival of infants with congenital disabilities.” Among them was the fourth-century B.C. disabled Spartan king Agesilaus II, whose military prowess and skills as a leader were widely admired.

More broadly, Sneed notes, ancient medical texts associated with Hippocrates discuss the treatment of “infants with congenital limb difference, clubfoot, and cleft palate. They discuss the economic and productive potential of these infants, outline treatments and discuss the benefits of physical therapy, and refer to assistive devices that will be helpful for such people as they grow and develop.” This rather feels like a waste of space if these infants were killed shortly after birth. More important, Sneed told me, “Physicians were not typically present at childbirth, so if physicians interacted with such infants, it was because their parents did not kill them and instead sought assistance with their care. Other ancient authors refer to congenitally disabled infants, and they not only don’t recommend infanticide, but they discuss ways to treat and care for them.”

Archaeological discoveries support Sneed’s case. The burial of a 6-to-8-month-old child with hydrocephaly found in a second-century B.C. deposit in the Athenian agora, she said, suggests that the infant, whose condition would have been apparent earlier in its life, “was not abandoned at the first sign of hydrocephaly, but was cared for as the condition worsened, until it died.” Similarly, the discovery of feeding bottles in the graves of infants (and sometimes older children and adults) from Pydna suggests that people assisted small children who had difficulty nursing, potentially because of disabilities. What all of this means, says Sneed, is that “instead of abandoning infants who require additional care, ancient Greek adults took extra steps to care for them.”

None of this means, Sneed says, that ancient Greeks didn’t expose infants. In fact, we know that exposure happened in antiquity, and I’ve written about it myself. But the fact of exposure does not mean, as Eleanor Scott, Christian Laes, and others have argued, that these infants were abandoned just because they were disabled. All kinds of financial, social, and familial pressures contributed to the practice. Moreover, infants did not always die as a consequence of exposure. In the Roman period there was a clear expectation that children were abandoned at locations — often trash heaps and dunghills — known to human traffickers. Not all those children abandoned at these sites were trafficked into slavery. The Roman poet Juvenal writes of women who went to “foul pools” to find infants to pass off as their own. These were brutal and bloody times, but it is much too simple to suggest that it’s all about eugenics. The goal of historical research, said Sneed, is to gain “a more accurate picture of ancient Greek life” and it’s important to recognize that out-and-out eugenicists like Aristotle and Plato are not as representative of ancient Greek thought and behavior as some would believe.

Spartan Lifestyle

The word Spartan, which has come to mean disciplined and austere, was derived from the Spartans regimented life and lack of material comforts. Spartans dressed in course clothes. Their meals consisted primarily of porridge and black soup made with pigs blood. An Athenian pundit once joked that observing how the Spartans lived made him understood why they were so eager to die in battle.

Spartan dwellings, though they could be large and roomy, were of the simplest description, and in other respects, too, the life of the Dorians was distinguished by simplicity, yet even here refinements of life gradually gained ground. It is said No Greek people despised handicrafts when pursued for the sake of money as much as the Dorians; no Spartan would pursue a craft or trade. Still thre were Spartans that engaged in such practices. [Source “The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks” by Hugo Blümner, translated by Alice Zimmern, 1895]

Sparta was more like an armed camp than a city. The men carried their weapons with them at all times and ate in mess halls together. The primary duty of Spartan wives was to produce future soldiers and wife swapping was permissible as long as it furthered this goal. Men were not allowed to own silver or gold. Spartan money was iron bars. Music consisted primarily of war-songs to which men danced with their armor to increases their strength. Conversation was kept to a minimum. People were expected to say little and get to the point. The word laconic comes from Spartan city of Laconia.

"Courage of the Spartan Women"

Spartan Women

Spartan women had more freedoms and rights than other Greek women. Plutarch wrote that Spartan marriage was matrilocal and that "women ruled over men." Spartan women were almost as tough as the men. They worked out by by running, wrestling and exercising so they could "undergo the pains of childbearing.” Girls were trained in athletics, dancing and music. They lived at home, while boys lived apart in their barracks. As adults, women participated in their own athletic events and performed naked like the men.

In Sparta women competed in front of the men nude in "gymnastics," which at that times meant "exercises performed naked." The Spartan women also wrestled but there is no evidence that they ever boxed. Most events required the women to be virgins and when they got married, usually the age of 18, their athletic career was over. [Source: "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin,μ]

Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: Spartan women were not secluded like women in many other Greek cities, and girls ad gymnastics side by side with boys, all naked. They were trained in casting the dart, running, wrestling, and throwing the bar, among other skills. All this was supposed to make women stronger, more flexible, and better equipped to endure the pain of bearing children. Spartan women had a reputation among other Greeks of being chaste. This admiration coexisted with the fact that if a married woman was childless, the state could order her to see if another man could do a better job in begetting children. Usually, women would accept this initiative. Spartan law was strict about encouraging new children, and there was little or no room for maneuvering in this regard. [Source by Cristian Violatti, Listverse, August 3, 2016]

Spartan Marriage and Sex

In Sparta, the bride was usually kidnapped, her hair was cut short and she dressed as a man, and laid down on a pallet on the floor. "Then," Plutarch wrote, "the bride groom...slipped stealthily into the room where his bride lay, loosed her virgin's zone, and bore her in his arms to the marriage-bed. Then after spending a short time with her, he went away composedly to his usual quarters, there to sleep with the other men." [Source: "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum]

Cristian Violatti wrote in Listverse: Although Spartan law permitted anyone over age 20 to get married, men had the obligation of living in military housing until age 30. As a result, young married couples were forced to live their marriage as a sort of illegal and secret affair. Many couples would even have children years before they lived under the same roof.Even during their wedding night, a newly married Spartan couple had to conduct themselves as if they were doing something wrong. A Spartan bride was dressed like a man and left alone on a couch in a dark bedroom. Her husband had to sneak into the room in secret, making sure that nobody noticed his presence.“This would go on for a long time, and some Spartans even became fathers before seeing their wives in the daylight.” (Plutarch, “Life of Lycurgus”: 15). [Source by Cristian Violatti, Listverse, August 3, 2016]

Homosexuality appears to have been the norm for both men and women with more than a touch of sadomasochism thrown in. The Spartans believed that beating was good for the soul. Heterosexual sex was primarily just to have babies. There was also a lot of inbreeding. Spartan King Leonidas, the main character in the film “300", was the product of an uncle-niece marriage and his wife Gorgo was the daughter of his half brother.

Aristotle on Spartan Women

On Spartan Women, Aristotle (384-323 B.C.) wrote: “Again, the license of the Lacedaemonian women defeats the intention of the Spartan constitution, and is adverse to the happiness of the state. For, a husband and wife being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and, therefore, in those states in which the condition of the women is bad, half the city may be regarded as having no laws. And this is what has actually happened at Sparta; the legislator wanted to make the whole state hardy and temperate, and he has carried out his intention in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury. The consequence is that in such a state wealth is too highly valued, especially if the citizen fall under the dominion of their wives, after the manner of most warlike races, except the Celts and a few others who openly approve of male loves. The old mythologer would seem to have been right in uniting Ares and Aphrodite, for all warlike races are prone to the love either of men or of women. This was exemplified among the Spartans in the days of their greatness; many things were managed by their women. But what difference does it make whether women rule, or the rulers are ruled by women? [Source: Aristotle, “The Politics of Aristotle,: Book 2", translated by Benjamin Jowett (London: Colonial Press, 1900)]

Spartan woman
“The result is the same. Even in regard to courage, which is of no use in daily life, and is needed only in war, the influence of the Lacedaemonian women has been most mischievous. The evil showed itself in the Theban invasion, when, unlike the women other cities, they were utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy. This license of the Lacedaemonian (Spartan) women existed from the earliest times, and was only what might be expected. For, during the wars of the Lacedaemonians, first against the Argives, and afterwards against the Arcadians and Messenians, the men were long away from home, and, on the return of peace, they gave themselves into the legislator's hand, already prepared by the discipline of a soldier's life (in which there are many elements of virtue), to receive his enactments. But, when Lycurgus, as tradition says, wanted to bring the women under his laws, they resisted, and he gave up the attempt. These then are the causes of what then happened, and this defect in the constitution is clearly to be attributed to them. We are not, however, considering what is or is not to be excused, but what is right or wrong, and the disorder of the women, as I have already said, not only gives an air of indecorum to the constitution considered in itself, but tends in a measure to foster avarice.

“The mention of avarice naturally suggests a criticism on the inequality of property. While some of the Spartan citizen have quite small properties, others have very large ones; hence the land has passed into the hands of a few. And this is due also to faulty laws; for, although the legislator rightly holds up to shame the sale or purchase of an inheritance, he allows anybody who likes to give or bequeath it. Yet both practices lead to the same result. And nearly two-fifths of the whole country are held by women; this is owing to the number of heiresses and to the large dowries which are customary. It would surely have been better to have given no dowries at all, or, if any, but small or moderate ones. As the law now stands, a man may bestow his heiress on any one whom he pleases, and, if he die intestate, the privilege of giving her away descends to his heir. Hence, although the country is able to maintain 1500 cavalry and 30,000 hoplites, the whole number of Spartan citizens fell below 1000. The result proves the faulty nature of their laws respecting property; for the city sank under a single defeat; the want of men was their ruin.”

Having a Good Time and Enjoying Lyre Poetry in Ancient Sparta

Ted Scheinman wrote in Smithsonian magazine: King Agesilaus II — who led the Spartan Army at the peak of its power in the fourth century B.C. — proclaimed that one of Sparta’s greatest strengths was its citizens’ “contempt of pleasure.” Nonsense. Spartans were devoted to all kinds of pleasurable pursuits, particularly the arts: It is widely believed that there were more poets in Sparta during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. than in any other Greek city-state. [Source: Ted Scheinman, Smithsonian magazine, October 2021]

Full citizens had ample time for entertainments because Spartan law forbade them to work, and there were two lower classes of people to look after their needs. The city-state’s helots, or serfs, took care of agriculture, while the higher-ranking but non-citizen perioikoi oversaw crafts, military procurement and commerce.

Granted, Spartan citizens also pursued rugged pastimes such as equestrianism, but their love of poetry and dance belies a contempt of pleasure. In histories written by Plutarch, Herodotus and others, we find a picture not of stern, militaristic ascetics but of bons vivants and patrons of the arts. Indeed, foreign poets would often go to Sparta to perform because they were assured of a warm reception.

In seventh-century B.C. Sparta, the poet Alcman helped pioneer lyric poetry, which diverged from the epic’s celebration of war and focused instead on desire, emotion and a fascination with nature (“the birds, long-winged, who bring their omens, are now in slumber....”). It was performed to the strumming of a lyre — hence the name. This revolutionary style would prove central to many poetic traditions, from ancient Rome to medieval France to Renaissance England and into the present.

Meanwhile, Spartans were surprisingly serious about music. Plutarch reports that a magistrate named Emprepes once winced to hear a harpist named Phrynis butchering a song by playing too many notes. In response, Emprepes used a hatchet to slice two of the nine strings off Phrynis’ harp, admonishing the minstrel: “Do not abuse music.” Lionized for declaring war on other city-states, Spartans also went into battle for art’s sake.

3,400-Year-Old Spartan Temple-Palace?

In August 2015, archaeologists announced that they may have been discovered a long-lost Spartan temple-palace — a 10-room structure holding cultic objects and clay tablets written in a lost script — in what was the ancient city of Sparta. Tia Ghose wrote in Live Science: The palace burnt to the ground in the 14th century B.C. History and other written artifacts such as Homer's epics, reveal that during the Mycenaean period, Sparta was a flourishing culture. Yet no palace had been found from that time period until now. [Source Tia Ghose, Live Science, August 28, 2015]

Researchers found a file artifact within the remains of the possible Spartan temple. The site was home to many clay tablets written in Linear B, an early form of ancient Greek that was used for administrative purposes. The team has deciphered a few words on the clay tablets so far and names, some religious elements, and records for financial transactions appear. Scientists also investigated a second structure on the ancient Greek site, which preserved fragments of ancient murals. In addition, a sanctuary east of the courtyard at this site held various cultic religious objects, including ivory idols and figurines, a rhyton, or drinking vessel, with a bull's head on it (shown here), large newts and decorative gems.

The neck stone of a ritual jug and seal depicting a nautilus was found at the ancient Greek palace. Researchers say the fact that both religious and administrative objects were found at the site point to it being a very significant place in the Bronze Age. The site was first discovered in 2009. To avoid damaging the valuable olive trees that dot the landscape, researchers are excavating trenches that are carefully placed to avoid the trees.

Art from Archaic-Period Sparta

Spartan relief

Contrasting the austerity of Sparta (Lacedaemon) to the rich artistic scene in Athens, Thucydides wrote at the end of the fifth century B.C. in “The Peloponnesian War,” Book 1:1:“I suppose if Lacedaemon (Sparta) were to become desolate, and the temples and the foundations of the public buildings were left, that as time went on there would be a strong disposition with posterity to refuse to accept her fame as a true exponent for her power. … [A]s the city is neither built in a compact form nor adorned with magnificent temples and public edifices, but composed of villages, after the old fashion of Hellas, there would be an impression of inadequacy. Whereas, if Athens were to suffer the same misfortune, I suppose that any inference from the appearance presented to the eye would make her power to have been twice as great as it is."

“Painted pottery was produced in Laconian workshops already in the eighth century B.C., in a local version of the Geometric style, and circulated to most regions and centers of the Greek world. After the mainly nonfigural decoration of the Orientalizing period, around 630 B.C., Laconian vase painters adopted the black-figure technique from Corinth, at about the same time the more famous and important Athenian black-figure style began. Although it cannot be compared to the Athenian in quantity and in artistic invention, Laconian black-figure vase painting produced a characteristic style and reached even remote regions of the Mediterranean, beyond the boundaries of the Greek world. Its heyday coincides roughly with the second and third quarters of the sixth century B.C., when five leading masters and some lesser painters were active. The most popular pottery shape was a local variant of the kylix (a rather shallow, two-handled drinking cup on a more or less tall stem), usually decorated with a figural scene in the tondo and with ornamental rows and compact black bands on the exterior. In the tondos, mythological subjects are frequent, alternating with scenes from real life, which, however, always bear a heroic connotation. Laconian black-figure painters had a predilection for special variations on conventional mythological scenes, symbolic figures like winged human figures, sirens, and sphinxes, and floral ornamental patterns including pomegranates and tendrils . A specific Laconian vase shape is the lakaina, which, however, was never decorated with figural scenes. Laconian pottery was widely distributed in the Greek East (Samos, Rhodes), in North Africa, where part of the Greek population claimed Spartan origins (Naucratis, Cyrene), in Southern Italy (where Taras, the only city-state founded by Spartans in the West, could play a role as a center of distribution), Sicily, and Etruria. It can be argued that the representation of myth and life seen on Laconian vases also inspired some local artistic creations in the Greek West and in Etruria. \^/

“The Spartan sanctuary of Artemis Orthia is also the find-spot of other unusual series of votive offerings, among which are the curious tiny lead relief-figurines, representing a winged goddess , a variety of human figures, and different kinds of animals. \^/

“Literary sources confirm that in the sixth century B.C., Sparta was also a major artistic center and home to several important artists and workshops. Some of the artists may have been immigrants, mainly of East Greek origin, such as Bathykles of Magnesia, whose elaborate "throne" of Apollo in Amyclae is described in detail by Pausanias (Description of Greece, Book 3: 18.6–19.5). Others seem to have been born and educated in Sparta, such as Gitiadas, creator of the cult statue of Athena Chalkioikos and of prestigious votive gifts to Artemis in Amyclae (Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 3:18.7 and 4:14.2). While these works of art, however famous in late antiquity, are now lost, we can rely on some extant stone sculptures for an idea of Laconian large-scale art: such works include the Archaic Spartan hero reliefs, especially the monumental piece found in Chrysapha, and an early sixth-century B.C. female head in Olympia, which can be connected with Sparta on firm stylistic grounds. \^/

“In the second half and particularly in the last quarter of the sixth century B.C., Laconian crafts declined in quantity and quality. Laconian painted pottery was driven out of its old markets by Athenian exports. There were still remarkable achievements in bronze statuary, as evinced by a hollow-cast bronze statue head in Boston, but gradually Laconian artists abandoned the characteristic stylistic traits of the region and adopted more generic conventions of Late Archaic Greek art.” \^/

Bronze Art from Archaic-Period Sparta

Agnes Bencze and Péter Pázmány wrote: “An outstanding field of Laconian art and craft was bronzeworking, in particular small-scale bronze sculpture and the production of decorated bronze vessels. Solid cast, small-scale bronze figures usually embellished vessels, tripods, mirrors, and other utensils; however, isolated pieces found in sanctuaries could also have been votive offerings on their own. A characteristic Spartan figural type can already be recognized in the eighth century B.C. in the representation of horses, a widespread subject in early Greek small-scale bronze sculpture: among these extremely abstract renderings of the late Geometric period, a large number of statuettes found in Laconia and in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia can be ascribed to Laconian craftsmen. [Source: Agnes Bencze, Department of Art History, Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Budapest, June 2014, metmuseum.org \^/]

Spartan amphorae

“Towards the end of the seventh century B.C., Laconian bronzeworkers began to produce magnificent decorated vessels and other artistic objects. The greatest assets of Laconian workshops are large kraters (mixing bowls) and smaller hydriai (water jars), made by hammering and decorated with solid cast figures, ranging from floral ornaments and snakes to animal and human protomes and mythological figures. Vertical handles can assume the shape of a human figure; in other cases, mainly on the earlier pieces, we find a pair of lions or the face of a goddess at the base of a handle or below the rim. Laconian bronze vessels are distinguished essentially on stylistic grounds from contemporary Corinthian, Argive, Athenian, and other products, taking into account both the shape and technical traits of the vessels themselves and the rendering of the figural decoration. One particular class of bronze objects can be entirely ascribed to Sparta on the account of their special iconography: disk-shaped mirrors supported by figures of nude girls. The subject of naked women is extremely rare in archaic Greek art, but the conspicuously young, almost childish female figure, naked except for a series of ritual attributes, can be plausibly ascribed to Laconia, where the local cult of Artemis Orthia may have inspired this unusual iconography. Sometimes Spartan mirrors of this type were exported as well, with examples from as far away as Cyprus. \^/

“Laconian bronze artifacts were especially popular in the West: they were not only exported to Southern Italy, Sicily, and Central Italy, but also inspired important local productions of bronze artifacts. While in the case of painted pottery, imports and local imitations can be distinguished rather clearly, the same task becomes extremely complicated with bronzes. In fact, decorated bronze artifacts were prestigious goods and traveled along different itineraries than pottery, reaching sometimes surprisingly distant destinations. Craftsmen specialized in this art could travel more easily, following commissions to remote regions. They could settle down in new places and found new workshops whose stylistic and iconographic repertory could derive at least partly from the tradition of their founders. For this reason, often fine bronzes are tentatively ascribed to a Spartan workshop, although discovered in Italy, or even beyond, in France or Central Europe. However, these attributions are subject to long debates, sometimes without a real possibility of conclusion. This problem is particularly evident in Southern Italy, where a number of bronze artifacts show characteristic traits that recall the Laconian tradition, nevertheless they cannot be ascribed to Sparta with certainty. A famous example is an elaborate tripod found in Metaponto.” \^/

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024