Sparta: Everyday Life

Question 1

What are the leisure activities Spartans participate in their spare time?

Answer 1

Hunting, horse-racing, chariot-racing, athletics, religious festivals, dancing, rituals, feasting and drinking.

Question 2

What is the value of wealth in Spartan society?

Answer 2

Victories in chariot racing at Olympia and the ownage of larger grazing land for the horses.

Question 3

What are the evidence for banquets occurring in Spartan society?

Answer 3

Plutarch mentioning attendance at a banquet
6th Century bronze figurine of a banqueter made in Sparta
35 drinking cups that depict a banquet

Question 4

What do girls do in their leisure times?

Answer 4

Girls regularly participate in athletic competitions.

Question 5

What is the evidence for Spartan girls to be participating in athletics?

Answer 5

Pausanias mentions these competitions
Pausanias describes the dress of one of the Spartan girls which is accurate to a bronze stature of a Spartan girl.
Foot races were mentioned to be in honour of Helen and Hera.

Question 6

What was the Spartan attitude towards food?

Answer 6

Keeping enough to prevent starvation

Shares equal portions around in the Syssitia

Question 7

What kind of food does the Spartans eat?

Answer 7

Wild boar, Venison and Hare.
Fits, Olive, olive oil, Cheese from goats milk.
Barely staple grain made into porridge and type of bred.
Bread from wheat a treat.
Block broth which consists of pork, vinegar and blood.

Question 8

Who wrote down the information about how Spartans approach food?

Answer 8

Plutarch

Question 9

How was clothing used in Spartan society?

Answer 9

Clothing was used as a way for people to identify themselves to a social class.

Question 10

What does a Spartitate solider dress like?

Answer 10

Spartiate soilders simply wear a red cloak as a way to identify themselves.

Question 11

What kind of clothing does citizens wear?

Answer 11

Common and simple clothes as a means to mask socio-economical difficulties but to also to mix up within a social group together.

Question 12

What hairstyles do Spartan males wear?

Answer 12

Spartan boys keep their hair short but men let their hair grow long and groom their beards.

Question 13

What clothing do Spartan outcasts wear?

Answer 13

Clothing worn by outcasts shows an aura of exclusion and to be ritualy humiliated.

Question 14

What does a coward look like in Spartan society?

Answer 14

Cowards wear a cloak with distinctive patches and shaved half their bread.

Question 15

What clothing does Helots wear?

Answer 15

Helots wear clothing that is meant to dehumanise them, such as dogskin cap and animal skin clothes.

Question 16

What clothing do females wear?

Answer 16

Females wear Chitons everyday and a formal dress for religious ceremonies, wearing a formal garment Peplos.

Jewellery is not allowed to be worn

Question 17

Which people describes the rules of uniforms in Spartan society?

Answer 17

Plutarch and Xenophon gave the credit to Lycurgus, saying he was the one who came up with the kind of clothing each class would wear.

Question 18

Which person went into detail about the kind of uniforms social classes would wear?

Answer 18

Plutarch

Question 19

What people commented on the dresses of Spartan women?

Answer 19

Aristotle and other non-Spartan writers were quite shocked at how Spartan women dress themselves.