ANTH 3020 Chapter Notes -Great Rhetra, Spartiate, Gerousia
Document Summary
1. 59, 65-69, 5. 39ff. , 6. 51ff. , 9. 32-38 & via index; thuc. 88, 4. 80, 5. 68; pausanias, guide to greece book 2; xenophon, constitution of the spartans. Helen and menelaus; kings descended from heracles; a dorian people; tyrtaeus a martial poet. Topography of laconia: 950 b. c. proto-spartans settled in eurotas river valley between the taegetus & parnon ranges; wonderfully fertile, but isolated region in se peloponnese. War with western neighbours, finally crushed and enslaved them by 650s, cemented spartan social system; note aristomenes of messenia a robin hood" figure. Damos; 5 ephors (magistrates) elected annually to balance kings" power. Infanticide; the agoge (rearing or upbringing) from age 7, brutal, austere, diet of black bread & bean soup; physical training in gymnastics & music; institutionalised pederasty; the krypteia (ss), see plut. Hallmarks of a spartan: discipline, duty, submission to law. 4 villages (obae), no walls, few public buildings. Enjoyed much more freedom and power than elsewhere, but baby-factories .
