Revised with ideas from Scott and V, and thoughts of my own.

My new paper on Spartan boyhood.

Historically, Sparta has been known as a utopia of Militaristic Society. The Spartans becoming such a military juggernaut didn’t just start when a youth enrolled in the military. A child was groomed his entire life to grow into a warrior hero; the kind of hero that would become legend in the world’s histories. They concentrated on both physical fitness and mental fitness and from the age seven till eighteen, they were in a specialized secluded educational system. It was a process that began at birth and ruled the lives of children till after they married.

To understand how the Spartans raised their children, you first have to understand why they raised them that way and what kind of culture Sparta was. First of all, in a world where the Golden Age of Democracy out of Athens was starting to take hold, Sparta was totalitarian with shades of Oligarchy and Democracy sprinkled throughout (Cartledge, 2003). They were ruled by a dual king system. These rulers had to act in harmony and could not overrule a veto from the other king. These Kings were in charge of the Military and religious and judicial affairs. At home publicly elected Ephors controlled both Domestic and foreign policy. Sparta was a highly controlled city-state. Everything was strictly controlled by the Oligarchic segment of the government (Cartledge, 2003). The government of Sparta made sure you married, had children, had you’re hair the correct length and even when you were allowed to have a tombstone (Cartledge, 2001).

This control of your life started immediately at birth. From the moment a Spartan child was born, they were tested to make sure they embodied the image of a Spartan warrior. Immediately after birth, a Spartan child was dipped into a bath of wine to test its strength and fortitude. The Spartans believed that a weak child bathed in wine would convulse and die (Fant and Lefkowitz, 2005). If the child passed this particular test they were then taken by the father before a group of elders. If the Elders found the child deficient in any way (Frail looking, Deformed etc…) then the child was left on the sides of Mount Taygetos to die (Harley, 1934).

From birth till the age of seven a child lived with their parents (Harley, 1934). The child was raised by the family nurse to overcome its fears as a child. During the day the child accompanied their father to the dining halls or “syssitia” as a way to learn Spartan culture (Harley, 1934). The Syssitia was equivalent to a military mess today, but differed in that at the age of 20 you had to apply for and be accepted to one, and that you were required to attend it daily unless there was a good excuse (performing a sacrifice, being on a hunt, etc…). Children didn’t wear any shoes as a way to harden their feet and make them move faster. They only owned one garment per year as a way to toughen them to the elements and were never fed extravagant meals (Harley, 1934).

After the home schooling stage, the boys joined the “Agoge”. The Agoge was the educational system that the Spartan boys were enrolled. The boy never lived with his birth parents again. This started when a state sponsored official or “paidonomos” assigned the child to a group of 60 other boys called an “ilea”. The “ilea” was run by another Spartan youth, an “eiren” of around 20 who helps them develop into warriors (Harley, 1934). The boys eat at the older Spartan’s home and at night the “eiren” quizzes them or teaches and has them sing songs of war and history. During the day the children play ball games, ride and swim and study dancing and wrestling. The boys slept on beds of reeds as to further strengthen them and desensitize them to pain and were regularly whipped. If they cried out during these whippings they were punished again till they could suffer in silence the whipping (Harley, 1934). This lasted until the age of 16.

At the age of 16 the boys begin further training for war in something called the Krypteia, translates as “secret thing”. The Krypteia was basically a war waged against the “Helots” or slaves of Sparta (Forest, 1968). The boys would hide in the woods during the day and come out at night and kill any Helots they found. This was done as a way to teach the boys survivability, stealth and adaptability in the wild. It also desensitized the boys to killing and helped keep the overwhelming slave population in check (Forest, 1968).

Also at 16 a male child was expected to find an older male and begin a “relationship” (Forest, 1968). The word relationship is used because even though there is much evidence to support even though this wasn’t a homosexual relationship, it was bordering on it. Cicero (Roman philosopher and author) himself is very clear on this stating, “The [Spartans], while they permit all things except [sexual contact] in the love of youths, certainly distinguish the forbidden by a thin wall of partition from the sanctioned, for they allow embraces and a common couch to lovers.(Scanlon, 2005)” This relationship was formed as a way to help educate the boy growing up and as a way to reinforce the boys’ masculinity.

At the age of 20 the boy, now a man, finally joined the military and applied to join a syssitia. The syssitia was made up of 15 others and the soldier would eat and sleep with his syssitia until the age of 30 (Forest, 1968). If a man married a woman before the age of 30, they were not permitted to live together until he reached 30, when Spartan men were permitted to live on their own. The only way he was able to see his wife was to sneak out at night. When a man and woman were married, on her wedding night the bride was shaved bald and dressed as a man. The groom then took his wife back to his barracks that he shared with his syssitia for the evening. At the age of 30 a man was finally allowed his own home (Forest, 1968).

As is evident, the childhood development of a Spartan boy may have been one of the most unique this world has ever seen. The entire purpose of its development was for the concept of war and to help further the Spartan way of life. No thought was ever given to the child’s comfort or enjoyment. These things didn’t help make a warrior stronger or better in their mind so they were ignored. The whole of Spartan culture can be summed up with this one quote from a Spartan wife to her husband regarding him returning from war with his shield, “[Return] with this or upon this” (Cartledge, 2003). A Spartan expected either victory or death at all times.

Works Cited

Cartledge, P. (2001). Spartan Reflections. London: Duckworth.

Cartledge, P. (2003). The Spartans: The World of Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece. New York: Overlook Press.

Fant, M & Lefkowitz, M. (2005). Women’s life in Greece & Rome. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press.

Forest, W.G. (1968). A History of Sparta, 950–192 B.C. New York: W. W. Norton & Co

Harley, T. Rutherford. (1934) The Public School of Sparta.[Electronic Version]. Greece and Rome, Vol. 3, No. 9, 129-139.

Scanlon, T. (2005). The Dispersion of Pederasty and the Athletic Revolution in Sixth-Century BC Greece in Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West. Verstraete and V. Provencal, Harrington Park Press, pp.64-70.

I think I need to mess with the opening a little bit.

First impressions:

• Good title
• Great content. I didn't know a lot of this stuff.
• Any info about the women other than the wedding night part?

Things that need to be fixed:

• You're right about the first two paragraphs. They are very jumbled.
• This sentence is confusing: "If the child passed this particular test they were then the child was taken by the father before a group of elders."
• The paragraph that talks about the agoge, paidonoms, ilea, etc needs some work at the beginning. Maybe just explain that there was a hierarchical structure in the agoge (public school) which was made up of an ilea (60 boys). That was then broken down into eirens (20 boys). I don't know. There are too many old Greek words that it's hard to understand what's going on without reading it over a few times. The rest of that paragraph is good.
• You didn't explain what the "Syssitia" was.
• Who the hell is Cicero?
• Change the sentence that reads "If a man married a woman..." to read "If a man married a woman before the age of 30, they were not permitted to live together until he reached 30, when Spartan men were permitted to live on their own."
• Stop using the word "basically".

One more thing - What happened when they dipped them in wine? I mean, how could they fail that test?

Alcohol soaking into the skin of the baby maybe or getting into certain oraphisus thus making the baby drunk or seem disoriented possibly. I dunno just my guess.





Pretty hardcore these guys truly were gangsters.

I lol'd.


P.S. I'd personally call it a totalitarian dystopia, but that's just me.

Harley states that the children with defects were left on the sides of Mount Taygetos to die while other historians say they were thrown in, though I doubt that cause I've been there and climbing to the mouth of the mountain would be quite a feat lol.

Nice article Apok, keep up it up, I always love reading about my ancestors.

a couple other Spartan notes

- They are the only Greek city state to not treat women like property, they could own land, etc
- They married for love, the only Greek city state to do so, usually women where married for "status"
- They didn't drink in excess, drunks where exiled
- When a child was born and was declared a Spartan (after the wine) They where given land, and a
set number of helots (slaves) Everyone had equal land and slaves.
- There was 3 branches of spartan government, 2 kings (that's right) and a counsel of elders.
- No one branch of government could make a decision without the others
- Only during times of war could the kings decisions be executed without question.
- When a child reaches age 18. To become a man, they need to go out and Kill the largest Helot he
can find. Only then they are accepted into Spartan Society.
(The idea was the get them used to blood)


Some neat stuff.


Source: Famous Greeks Lectures Prof. Rufus Fears http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Rufus_Fears

They were also fully educated and trained physically and had their own olympics. They believed that strong and smart women gave birth to strong and smart soldiers.



Hmmm. All I really read about when it came to marriage was that if you married before you were 30, the woman's head was shaved bald and dressed as a man and ritualistically raped in the men's barracks.



Didn't read about this, but it makes perfect sense when you read everything else.



At the age of 30. They were given land and Helots to farm for them. Spartans didn't have to actually do any work other than train and war.



The Kings, the Ephors and the general assembly. It seems that the Ephors were the real power in Sparta. The reason there were two kings was that when Sparta became established there were two major Families, so to avoid conflict they just shared the kingship.



Otherwise known as the Krypteia.

-We're talking about Greeks dude...

Quiet, we owned you.

Faithdies, this is a very interesting piece. The theaters in my area have not received 300 yet. It will be interesting to see how closely they follow history.

LOL me too, im white traah and i know that.

Interesting article FAITHDIES aka Joe.

Some thoughts I had from reading comments from people.


Yet they shared everything. If the woman wanted to be with a man, the husband would let her. If a man wanted to be with another man's wife, the husband would consent if the wife was OK with it.


They didn't do anything in excess, but this was not unique to the Spartans. All Greeks had this same practice.

Heh...Do I know you?