Education Spartan

The education Spartan is a digest of the strangeness of Sparte, it summarizes its values and its goals. Considered to be the work of Lycurgue, to seventh century BC, it has the effects of being obligatory, collective and organized by the city.

Antiquated education

With the {{VIIIe}} - seventh century BC, education Spartan is already devoted to soldiering. The young Spartans should not seek any more, as at the former centuries, their personal glory (Homeric ideal ), but collective glory, the victory of the city. The poet Tyrtée symbolizes this new ethics well: “it is beautiful to die, with the first rank, as a brave man who fights for the fatherland. ”

Antiquated education preserves nevertheless features of Homeric education: the Athletics and the equestrian sports preserve a great importance. With the Olympic Games, of 720 with 576, out of 81 known winners, 46 are Spartiates. For the race on foot, on 36 known, there are 21 Spartans. Then, the music occupies a place of honor (at that time, Sparte is the musical capital of the Greece). The various festivals (Hyacinthies, Karneia or Gymnopédies) are pretext with contests of dance of an high level of refinement, requiring a specialized drive.

The agôgè

From (towards 550 av. J. - C.), education changes nature. It becomes it ἀγωγή / agôgế - the name itself dating only from the hellenistic time - deeply original since it is:

obligatory : it is necessary to be last by there, inter alia, to be fully citizen. For Xénophon, the not-participants are decreased citizens, who cannot reach the magistratures nor with the crack corpses, for Plutarque, they are simply private civic rights. Conversely, of the individuals not-citizens undergoing the agôgè can become free: they are them μόθακες / móthakes (see Hilotes);
collective , by age bracket;
organized by the city , which attracts to him the praises of Plato and Aristote.

The citizen involves himself from now on with the warlike activity as of his more young age: as of the 7 years age, the children are withdrawn with their family and are involved in order to become perfect warriors, seeking the good of the State.

This education is placed under the patronage of Lycurgue, but it is attested only starting from the beginning of the 4th century, at Xénophon ( Constitution of Lacédémoniens ).

From 0 to 7 years

Sparte sets up a policy eugenist intended to select healthy and strong children. As of the birth, according to Plutarque ( Life of Lycurgue ), the baby is examined by a commission of old in Lesché ( Λέσχη / Léskhê , “covered place, gantry”), which must determine if the child is beautiful and of robust constitution. If it is not the case, it is thrown to Apothètes, a pit located at the foot of the Taygète: a newborn should not be a load for the city.

Seven days after the birth of the child, the front of the house was decorated with garlands with olives for the boys and wools for the girls. The family made a sacrifice with the Gods and organized a festival.

Then, education, or rather the breeding ( ἀνατροφή / anatrophế ), according to the expression used, is delegated to the family, or rather to the nurse. They are left naked and rubbed with wine to harden them. The goal is already to train warriors. At 7 years, they are removed with their family. It is the beginning of the agôgè strictly speaking.

From 7 to 20 years

When the young Spartan is seven years old completed, it is withdrawn with his parents and is placed under the authority of παιδνομός / paidonomós , magistrate especially charged to supervise education.

The young Spartans learn how to read and write (Plutarque reports that this part of education is reduced to the strict minimum), like singing (elegies of Tyrtée primarily, who are used as songs of walk). The essence of their formation consists in becoming hardened physically by the Athlétisme, handling the weapons, going in formation, and especially, obeying blindly the superiors and always seeking the good of the city. Plutarque explains thus in its Vie of Lycurgue :

“Lycurgue accustoms the citizens not to even know to live alone, with being always, like the bees, plain for the public property around their chiefs. ”

They are dealt with by the State until the 20 years age. During childhood, one stresses the discipline and the rigor. These two principles are at the origin of the term Spartan : the children have the shaven head, go barefeet and have one coat per annum. A chronic Sous-alimentation obliges them to steal their food, and they sleep on straw mattresses of reeds of the Eurotas which they themselves cut, without tool. The anecdote of the Enfant to the fox reported by Plutarque symbolizes this rigor. The children have all the same, except during the Kryptie, of the servants at their disposal.

This rigor, far from being a heritage of Lycurgue, is growing to the wire of the centuries, a way completely décorrélée with the real military needs for the city. Thus, during the pax romana , whereas Sparte is only one village of the province of Achaïe, the brimades of the type Bizutage with the Sanctuaire of Artémis Orthia (ritual combat for cheese piles posed on the furnace bridges) leave room to the sadistic ritual of διαμαστίγωσις / diamastígôsis where young children, naked, with the sun, are whipped sometimes until death, in front of the eyes of spectators come from the remainder of Greece.

During adolescence, one rather stresses αἰδώς / aidốs , decency, decency. Towards the adulthood, one insists on the emulation and the competition, mainly to become one of the Hippeis .

After their 20 years, the young Spartans remain embrigadés: they integrate the groups of σφαρεῖς / sphareĩs , literally “players of balloon”. This drive turns into to Spartans the most dreaded soldiers of all Greece. They probably appear among the best soldiers of Antiquity.

Pederasty

Education Spartan causes to cut the young person of its family circle and to replace this solidarity by another, also natural, that of the age group. However, Sparte makes it possible to the teenagers to also tie bonds of the vertical type with young adults, by the means of a pederastic relation.

The couple pederastic is composed of a “inspirer” ( ἐισπνήλας / eispnêlas , of ἐισπνέω / eispnéô , “to blow on, inspire”) and by a “listener” ( ἀΐτας / aïtas , of ἀΐω / aïô , “to hear, listen”). Sexual nature their relations is discussed abundantly by the Old ones. Plutarque and Xénophon ensures that, if the fine young men are explicitly required (contrary to the traditions crétoises), the couple pederastic remains pure. In the Republic of Lacédémoniens (II, 13), Xénophon even declares that a éraste wishing its eromene would have been as ashamed as a father wishing his son. However, the sexual character of the pederasty Spartan is a subject of joke running in the comic authors attics. The verb λακωνίζω / lakônízô (“to imitate Lacédémoniens”) on their premises means “to sodomize”. In a more serious register, Plato denounces in the Lois (I, 636b-c) what he judges being of the loves against nature.

It is certain that there exists in Sparte an ideal of the “Platonic” love binding a teenager and a young person, following the example ideal of the “beautiful death” to the combat. No doubt these relations were to also respect the aidos , the decency and discretion: Plutarque quotes the case of a teenager ashamed of having met somebody whereas he walked with his éraste ( Apophtegmes laconiens , 222b). According to the ideal pederastic, the éraste must to some extent replace near the young person the paternal authority, while learning how to him with good to behave and raising its heart. For this reason, the connections are controlled by the State Spartan: according to Élien, the éphore S strike fines the young person preferring a rich éraste with a poor but valorous éraste. Conversely, the éraste undergoes a fine when its eromene shows weakness.

Lastly, the pederastic connection makes it possible to tie politically invaluable bonds thereafter. Thus, Agésilas is helped by its éraste, Lysandre, to go up on the throne. In return, the son of Agésilas uses of his influence near his father to make discharge Sphodrias, the father of his eromene.

The education of the girls

The women also undergo an official education, containing Gymnastique and of Athlétisme, which aims at making them produce healthy and vigorous children. One seeks to fight the female features judged (grace, culture) to harden the body. The woman Spartan carries usually it πέπλος / péplos antiquated, décousu on the side, which causes gravelly mockeries and comments at the Greek , particularly the Athéniens which call them them φαινομηρίδες / phainomêrides , “those which show their thighs”. In the religious ceremonies and the festivals, it must be naked.

One endeavors to reduce the feelings to the minimum: the marriage must be only the occasion to produce future warriors. If the loan of wives between friends is regarded as normal, the illegitimacy is considered with attention, especially in the case of the kings. In 412, the connection of Timaïa, girl of Stilpon and woman of the Acted king II, with Alcibiade, made scandal. Their son Léotychidès was isolated throne for illegitimacy.

They occupy a very important place in the city, because the men found a hearth only at age the 30 years. In fact, at third century BC, the women of the aristocracy movable fortune and the grounds control.

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