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Agoge
The ( in Attic Greek, or , in Doric Greek) was the training program prerequisite for Spartiate (citizen) status. Spartiate-class boys entered it at age seven, and would stop being a student of the agoge at age 21. It was considered violent by the standards of the day, and was sometimes fatal. The was divided into three age groups, paides, paidiskoi, and hēbōntes, roughly corresponding to young boys (7-12), adolescents (12-20), and young men (20-30). The deliberately deprived boys of food, sleep, and shelter. It involved cultivating loyalty to Sparta through military training (e.g., pain tolerance), hunting, dancing, singing, and rhetoric. There seems to have been ritual beating. It was intensely competitive, and the boys were encouraged to use violence against each other; by Plutarch's account, this included sexual violence by hēbōntes against paides, while Xenophon says the relationships were widely but wrongly considered to be sexual. Participants were required to li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycurgus (Sparta)
Lycurgus (; ) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of its (), involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Delphic oracle. The Spartans in the historical period honoured him as a god. As a historical figure, almost nothing is known for certain about him, including when he lived and what he did in life. The stories of him place him at multiple times. Nor is it clear when the political reforms attributed to him, called the Great Rhetra, occurred. Ancient dates range from – putting aside the implausibly early Xenophonic 11th century BC – the early ninth century () to as late as early eighth century (). There remains no consensus as to when he lived; some modern scholars deny that he existed at all. The reforms at various times attributed to him touch all aspects of Spartan society. They included the creation of the Spartan constitution (in most traditions a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helots
The helots (; , ''heílotes'') were a subjugated population that constituted a majority of the population of Laconia and Messenia – the territories ruled by Sparta. There has been controversy since antiquity as to their exact characteristics, such as whether they constituted an Ancient Greek tribe, a social class, or both. For example, Critias described helots as "slaves to the utmost", whereas according to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves". Tied to the land, they primarily worked in agriculture as a majority and economically supported the Spartan citizens. The proportion of helots in relation to Spartan citizens varied throughout the history of the Spartan state; according to Herodotus, there were seven helots for each of the 5,000 Spartan soldiers at the time of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Thus the need to keep the helot population in check and to prevent rebellion were major concerns of the Spartans. Helots were ritually mistreated and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spartiate
A Spartiate (, ''Spartiátēs'') or ''Homoios'' (pl. ''Homoioi'', , "alike") was an elite full-citizen men of the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Spartiate-class men (including boys) were a small minority: estimates are that they made up between 1/10 and 1/32 of the population, with the proportion decreasing over time; the vast majority of the people of Sparta were helots (slaves). Spartan citizenship was restricted to adult men without metic ancestry, as in most Greek poleis. Spartiate-class women could not hold citizenship but were eligible to marry Spartiates, and their sons could become Spartiates. After the First Messenian War, the mass enslavement of the Messenian population created a slave society (60-79% slaves; by contrast, US slave states generally had 30-65%). This society was recognized as unusual by both modern historians and contemporary non-Spartans. Spartiate-class people came to be barred from work by law and strong social norms and were supported by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crypteia
The Crypteia, also referred to as Krypteia or Krupteia (Greek: κρυπτεία ''krupteía'' from κρυπτός ''kruptós'', "hidden, secret"; members were κρύπται ''kryptai''), was an ancient Spartan state institution. The ''kryptai'' either principally sought out and killed helots across Laconia and Messenia as part of a policy of terrorising and intimidating the enslaved population, or they principally did a form of military training, or they principally endured hardships as an initiation ordeal, or the Crypteia served a combination of all these purposes, possibly varying over time. The Krypteia was an element of the Spartan state's child-rearing system for upper-class males. Modern historians often translate "Krypteia" as "secret police" or "secret service", but its precise structure is debated. Overview Much of the debate surrounding the Crypteia comes from the differing accounts provided by the few surviving Classical texts that mention the Crypteia, and the fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syssitia
The syssitia ( ''syssítia'', plural of ''syssítion'') were, in ancient Greece, common meals for men and youths in social or religious groups, especially in Crete and Sparta, but also in Megara in the time of Theognis of Megara (sixth century BCE) and Corinth in the time of Periander (seventh century BCE). The banquets spoken of by Homer relate to the tradition. Some reference to similar meals can be found in Carthage and according to Aristotle (''Politics'' VII. 9), it prevailed still earlier amongst the Oenotrians of Calabria. The syssitia in the Carthginian constitution may have been called in the Phoenician origin " marzēaḥ". The origin of the ''syssítia'' is attributed to Rhadamanthus, the legendary lawgiver of Knossos of Crete. This is explained by Cleinias of Crete in conversation with an Athenian and a Spartan, in Plato's dialogue the Laws. Lycurgus of Sparta certainly made use of the practice in Sparta. Sparta In Sparta, where the system was most evolve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelianism, Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science. Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira (ancient city), Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical Greece, Classical period. His father, Nicomachus (father of Aristotle), Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At around eighteen years old, he joined Plato's Platonic Academy, Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty seven (). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laws (dialogue)
The ''Laws'' () is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The conversation depicted in the work's twelve books begins with the question of who is given the credit for establishing a civilization's laws. Its musings on the ethics of government and law have frequently been compared to Plato's more widely read ''Republic''. Some scholars see this as the work of Plato as an older man having failed in his effort to guide the rule of the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse. These events are alluded to in the '' Seventh Letter''. The text is noteworthy as the only Platonic dialogue not to feature Socrates. Setting Characters Unlike most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates does not appear in the ''Laws''. The conversation is instead led by an Athenian Stranger * An Athenian "Stranger" () * Cleinias of Knossos * Megillus of Sparta Summary The Athenian Stranger joins the other two on their religious pilgrimage from Knossos, on Crete to the cave of Zeus on Mount Ida. The entire dialogue takes p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Lives
* Culture of ancient Greece Culture of ancient Rome Ancient Greek biographical works Ethics literature History books about ancient Rome Cultural depictions of Gaius Marius Cultural depictions of Mark Antony Cultural depictions of Cicero Depictions of Julius Caesar in literature Cultural depictions of Pompey Cultural depictions of Marcus Junius Brutus Cultural depictions of Marcus Licinius Crassus Cultural depictions of Theseus Cultural depictions of Romulus and Remus Cultural depictions of Cato the Younger Cultural depictions of Sulla Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great The ''Parallel Lives'' (, ''Bíoi Parállēloi''; ) is a series of 48 biographies of famous men written in Greek by the Greco-Roman philosopher, historian, and Apollonian priest Plutarch, probably at the beginning of the second century. The lives are arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings. While any historically valuable similarities are often forced, these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eromenos
In ancient Greece, an ''eromenos'' was the younger and passive (or 'receptive') partner in a male homosexual relationship. The partner of an ''eromenos'' was the ''erastes'', the older and active partner. The ''eromenos'' was often depicted as beautiful, beardless and more youthful-looking than the ''erastes''. Terminology ''Erômenos'' (ἐρώμενος) means 'one who is sexually desired' in Greek language and is the past participle of the verb ''eramai'', to have sexual desire. In '' Greek Homosexuality'', the first modern scholarly work on this topic, Kenneth Dover used the literal translation of the Greek word as an English word to refer to the passive partner in Greek homosexual relationship. Though in many contexts the younger man is also called ''pais'', 'boy', the word can also be used for child, girl, son, daughter and slave, and therefore ''eromenos'' would be more specific and can "avoid the cumbrousness and…imprecision of 'boy'". It is in contrast to the mascul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erastes (Ancient Greece)
Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged relationship between an older male (the ''erastes'') and a younger male (the ''eromenos'') usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, Classical periods. Some scholars locate its origin in initiation ritual, particularly rites of passage on Crete, where it was associated with entrance into military life and the religion of Zeus. It has no formal existence in the Homeric epics, and may have developed in the late 7th century BC as an aspect of Greek homosociality, homosocial culture, which was characterized also by Nudity in sport, athletic and Depictions of nudity, artistic nudity, delayed marriage for aristocrats, symposium, symposia, and the social seclusion of women. Pederasty was both idealized and criticized in ancient Greek literature, ancient literature and Greek philosophy, philosophy. The argument has recently been made that idealization was universal in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
