Sparta

Sparta: The Legend

Caleb Boch

Jana Owen

SSM 201-109

5 May 2010

Sparta: A Different Shade of Discipline

Sparta was one of several city-states in Greece during the Classical Era. Since, the release of the movie “300” not many people took notice or new much about Spartan life. But Sparta was more than a story about the Battle of Thermopylae. Sparta was about a nation that would never settle for less than perfect. Life was simple, work was hard, everyday was about discipline, and Spartans were to be feared and respected.

Sparta was often referred to as Lakedaimon in ancient Greece. “In Greek mythology, Lakedamion was the son of Zeus by the nymph Taygete. He married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas…the country which he named after himself, naming the capital after his wife.” (Jones) Well that is how the myth is told. A more realist approach to the foundations of Sparta was that it was indeed a normal Greek city-state, nothing special about them. It was by most account a man named Lycurgus who reformed Sparta into a militaristic society. The events of this vary tremendously through out the different accounts of history, but end in the same result. Some say that Lycurgus was the brother of a Spartan king and took his nephew to the island of Crete during a political dispute in Sparta, for safety. While in Crete, he observed the way they conducted a military based government and returned to Sparta with that knowledge. Other researchers believe that he was sent to speak to the Oracle of Delphi to ask how they could defeat their enemies. At this point in time, Sparta was not a notable fighting force and often lost the battles they were involved in. The Oracle sent Lycurgus back to Sparta with a constitution that detailed how they could become a militaristic society and would in turn create a great army.

Despite which legend is true, historians seem to agree that Lycurgus “the Lawgiver” was the single hand in the reformation process that made Sparta into the city-state...