boys in sparta -- 3/26/24

26 Mar 2024

boys in sparta -- 3/26/24

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Today's selection -- from Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World by Donald G. Kyle. The very different training programs for young boys in ancient Sparta:

“Debate continues about details and stages, but Classical Sparta certainly made Spartan males undergo rigorous and protracted physical education in preparation for citizenship. Supervised by a state magistrate (paidonomos) who directed their education and discipline, from age seven on, boys were placed into ‘herds’ (agelai) or age groupings (paides 7-14, paidiskoi 14-20, and hebontes 20-30), and they remained subject to older boys and the watchful eye of any adult. Underfed and ill clad, boys learned survival skills by scrambling for food and by eluding punishments. They engaged in exercises, contests, and violent games in the nude to develop their discipline and toughness. Hebontes joined the army and, once accepted, took their suppers with a dinner group (syssition) of 15-20 Spartans. Adult citizens also were expected to exercise regularly both in the gymnasium and on campaign. In this boys' and men's club, the intensification of masculinity, male bonding, and a ‘macho’ mentality were pervasive, and the state encouraged homoerotic pederastic relationships.

“Sparta turned early initiatory rituals into a state system of regular competitions and processional displays, assessing young men's physical fitness by reviewing them nude. Aelian claims that Spartan youths had to present themselves nude for inspection by magistrates (the Ephors) every ten days; fit boys were praised, and out-of-shape boys were flogged. Festivals to Apollo involved public reviews of fitness: the Gymnopaidiai had some form of nude male dancing in choruses, the Hyakinthia included male choruses and perhaps athletic contests , and the Karneia had hippie and musical contests and footraces.

“Athens had team and tribal events, but Sparta escalated the violence of its team contests. In the sphairomachia or ‘ball battle,’ teams of young men, who were becoming hebontes, honored Herakles by competing against each other in a rough contact game--battling with each other to control and advance a ball. Another rough team sport, also honoring Herakles, took place at the Platanistas (the plane-tree grove). Two teams of youths (also becoming hebontes) entered an island by separate bridges, and each tried to drive the opposing team off the island by pushing, kicking, biting, and gouging.

A 19th-century artistic representation of Spartan boys exercising while young girls taunt them.

“A notorious contest honoring Artemis Orthia included the whipping of boys, but its most lurid features probably date to a later age. In the original ritual form, teams of boys (transitioning from paidiskoi to hebontes) tried to steal cheeses from the altar in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, and other youths with whips tried to prevent them, perhaps flogging those they caught. In the later form of the event in Roman times, nude boys competed to see who could stand being whipped the most, and the state honored victors with inscribed statues. Apparently, some boys died or came close to dying rather than fail during the ordeal. Lucian stresses the violence of the ball, island, and whipping contests, which Sparta staged as paramilitary exhibitions of their young men's teamwork, toughness, and courage.

“Spartan males were taught proper athletic fitness, martial virtues, and a desire for a ‘good death’ within a culture of honor and shame. Cowards were ostracized and ridiculed: they were not admitted to share a tent or to wrestle with another Spartan, they were excluded from ball games and had only the humblest roles in choral dancing, they and their sisters could not marry anyone, and they had to endure other forms of public humiliation. Cowardice thus excluded one from the normal family life and leisure pursuits (games, dances) of properly courageous Spartans.

“As well as physical training, hunting played an important role in Spartan male society and education, as it did in Athens and Macedon. Hunting supplied meat for the men's messes, and related rituals included sacrifices and even combats between boars. The night before the fight on the island, the teams sacrificed puppies to Enyalios and arranged fights between hand-reared boars; the team whose boar won usually won the combat the next day. Apparently, only those Spartans who had just hunted could participate in the banquet at the festival of Artemis. While hunting was not an athletic contest, hunting talents and success represented physical excellence and a noble lifestyle. Hunting also emphasized individual initiative and resourcefulness beyond the collective mentality of barracks, mess, and phalanx.”