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Ancient History: Greece > Spartan Education > Flashcards

Spartan Education Flashcards

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1
Q

What’s the Agoge?

A

The Spartan military school that boys began attending at the age of seven

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2
Q

What is the Artemis Orthia?

A

Archaic altar and temple for Artemis used by the Spartans as a coming-of-age ceremony involving cheese theft and whipping

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3
Q

What’s an Eiren?

A

An adolescent boy who supervised younger boys

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4
Q

What are Ephebes?

A

young men in military training

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5
Q

What does Homoioi mean?

A

“Equals” - A citizen of Sparta (adult male whose parents were from citizen families)

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6
Q

What is Eunomia?

A

‘good order’ - the Spartan name for their way of life (constitution)

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7
Q

What was the Gymnopaedia?

A

A Spartan festival during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of war dancing. It was dedicated to Apollo

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8
Q

What was the Krypteia?

A

Secret police made up of youths to keep helot population in check

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9
Q

What was a Paidonomos?

A

Guardian who supervised education of young Spartan boys

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10
Q

What was the Hippeis?

A

The 300 elite of the Spartan army

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11
Q

What was the Syssitia?

A

Spartan communal meal between men and youths. It is the core civic institution of Sparta

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12
Q

What is a Kleros?

A

Allotment of land given to Spartiates and farmed by helots

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13
Q

Who was Gorgo?

A

Leonidas’ wife and proud Queen of Sparta

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14
Q

What is Lysistrata and who is it by?

A
  • A comedy that tells of a heroic woman (Lampito) who rallies the women of Greece to withhold sex in an effort to end the Peloponnesian War
  • Written by Aristophanes
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15
Q

What is Mount Taygetus?

A

Largest mountain in the Peloponnese, classroom of the Spartan boys

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16
Q

What is the Apothetai?

A

“Place of exposure” where Spartan babies were allegedly left to die if deemed unsuitable

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17
Q

Who was Tyrtaeus?

A

Spartan elegaic poet. Wrote war songs to encourage troops to battle. Listed all things brave or noble men valued

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18
Q

Who was Alkman?

A

Lyric poet from Sparta, wrote odes to the beauty of the Spartan women

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19
Q

What is Oliganthropia?

A

Shortage of Spartan males

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20
Q

What is Kalas Thanatos?

A

The Beautiful Death

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21
Q

What are the seven functions of Spartan Education?

A
  • Military Fitness
  • Equality
  • To encourage civic duty and selflessness
  • To embed Spartan values and principles
  • To promote Eunomia, comradery and brotherhood
  • To teach Spartan principles and government in action - in microcosm through the education system
  • Indoctrination
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22
Q

What two things did Plutarch say about Spartan Education in terms of embedding Spartan values and principles?

A
  • “Lycurgus’ whole legislative endeavour depended upon education”
  • “Easier to embed principles this way than through the compulsion of law”
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23
Q

What are the nine main Spartan values?

A
  • Equality
  • Discipline
  • Loyalty - to the state and to each other
  • Austerity
  • Respect for each other and the law
  • Piety and honour
  • Altruism and Civic Duty
  • Conformity and obedience
  • Competition (friendly) but also quite harsh punishments for abandoning the principles
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24
Q

According to Plutarch, what would happen when a Spartan baby was born?

A
  • They were ‘tested’ and those who had any deformities or weaknesses were thrown into the Apothetai - the “deposits”
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25
Q

According to Plutarch, who inspected the newly born boys?

A
  • The Gerousia (Elders)
26
Q

How does Plutarch refer to the babies who were thrown away? What is frustrating about this?

A
  • “puny and deformed”

- It is very vague and so we do not know what the exact standard was for Spartan babies

27
Q

Is the existence of the Apothetai supported by Archaelogical evidence? What does this demonstrate?

A
  • It is not supported by archaeological evidence

- Demonstrates how people viewed Sparta’s education process as a system to “weed out” the weak from the strong

28
Q

Who educated Spartan boys between the ages of 0 and 7?

A
  • Their mothers and nurses
29
Q

Spartan women would constantly test the young children. What does Plutarch tell us?

A
  • That mothers would toughen the children by leaving them alone to get used to the dark/crying
30
Q

What strange thing did Spartan mothers do with their newborn children?

  • Why did they do this (quote)?
  • Who tells us this?
A
  • They bathed the newborn children in wine
  • “weak children would lose their senses and their limbs would stiffen”
  • Plutarch
31
Q

At what age did Spartan boys enter the Agoge?

A
  • 7
32
Q

How were Spartan boys organised from the ages 7-12? How was their leader chosen?

A
  • They were organised into “herds”

- They elected their own leaders from among the older boys

33
Q

Where did Spartan boys aged 7-12 live? Describe their beds. What item of clothing were they given? Why?

A
  • They lived in makeshift barracks
  • They had to build beds out of reeds that they scavenged
  • They were given a single cloak to last them the year - to prepare them for the hardships of army life
34
Q

Where were Spartan boys aged 7-12 sent? Why?

A
  • Into the wilderness of Mount Taygetus

- to survive

35
Q

What does Xenophon tell us of the food rations that the boys (7-12) were given? What were they encouraged to do? What did this teach the boys?

A
  • They were given the minimum of food rations
  • If they were still hungry they were encouraged to steal and forage to survive (stealing is considered god what’s wrong is getting caught)
  • This taught the boys how to be stealthy and cunning, increased their endurance and helped them to be resourceful, relying on the bare minimum to survive
36
Q

What does Xenophon tell us about the Paidonomos? Who worked with them? What did they do?

A
  • State appointed guardians who supervised the boys’ education
  • They would employ some of the elder boys (eirens) to act as his assistants
  • They were given whips and would help to discipline the boys
37
Q

What happened when the Spartan boys (7-12) were unsupervised? What does Xenophon say about this?

A
  • Any citizen in Sparta could give them instructions and discipline them
  • Xenophon says “they always had someone in charge”
38
Q

What does Plutarch tell us of Spartan honorifics? What does this show?

A
  • Young boys would refer to their elders as “father”

- Shows respect, shows how every citizen took a active duty in the education of their younger citizens

39
Q

What does Xenophon tell us that young Spartan boys used to do to help them run?

A
  • They went without shoes to teach them endurance and how to run swiftly with bare feet
40
Q

What does Xenophon tell us would happen if two young Spartan boys were caught fighting? Why?

A
  • They would be punished for allowing passions to overtake duty, and if disciplined by another Spartan they would be disciplined by their parents too
  • To teach them obedience
41
Q

Who regularly inspected the boys according to Xenophon? What would happen if they weren’t up to scratch?

A
  • The Paidonomos

- They would be flogged

42
Q

What do Xenophon and Plutarch both tell us of the training of Spartan boys between the ages 12-21?

A
  • It intensified
43
Q

What was the Ritual at Artemis Orthia?

A
  • The younger boys would be tasked with retrieving as many cheeses as possible from the Altar. The elder boys would try to stop them and strike them with whips. The contest was who could endure the longest and retrieve the most cheese
44
Q

What does Plutarch tell us about the Ritual at Artemis Orthia? What does he claim? What are the limitations of his account?

A
  • He tells us the specifics
  • He claims he personally saw children die under the lash
  • As he is not a contemporary source, Plutarch is going off of the mock version show for Roman tourists, so he cannot tell us what it was really like, just re-enactments
45
Q

What happened when the Spartan boys (7-12) were unsupervised? What does Xenophon say about this?

A
  • Any citizen in Sparta could give them instructions and discipline them
  • Xenophon says “they always had someone in charge”
46
Q

What does Plutarch tell us of Spartan honorifics? What does this show?

A
  • Young boys would refer to their elders as “father”

- Shows respect, shows how every citizen took a active duty in the education of their younger citizens

47
Q

What does Xenophon tell us that young Spartan boys used to do to help them run?

A
  • They went without shoes to teach them endurance and how to run swiftly with bare feet
48
Q

What does Plutarch tell us of the nature of mentorship between the older and younger boys? What do Plutarch and Xenophon say about the intention of these relations? What does Plutarch add?

A
  • It could develop into a physical relationship
  • Plutarch and Xenophon say these relations were intended to help the boys develop
  • Plutarch says that rivalries for the affections of potential lovers were taken in a friendly spirit
49
Q

Who regularly inspected the boys according to Xenophon? What would happen if they weren’t up to scratch?

A
  • The Paidonomos

- They would be flogged

50
Q

What do Xenophon and Plutarch both tell us of the training of Spartan boys between the ages 12-21?

A
  • It intensified
51
Q

What was the Ritual at Artemis Orthia?

A
  • The younger boys would be tasked with retrieving as many cheeses as possible from the Altar. The elder boys would try to stop them and strike them with whips. The contest was who could endure the longest and retrieve the most cheese
52
Q

What does Plutarch tell us about the Ritual at Artemis Orthia? What does he claim? What are the limitations of his account?

A
  • He tells us the specifics
  • He claims he personally saw children die under the lash
  • A he is not a contemporary source Plutarch
53
Q

What does Plato tell us about competitions for the Eirens?

A
  • at the gymnopaedia they would “show endurance by competing in the full summer” - referencing the “festival of naked youths” and war-dancing
54
Q

According to Pausanias, what did the Spartan Eirens do at one of their contests? Why?

A
  • The Spartan boys would use “fists, kick with their feet, bite and gouge and charge each other violently in a group and push each other into the water”
  • They learned skills that were directly applicable in hoplite warfare
55
Q

According to Xenophon, how were the mess halls arranged in terms of age? What did this do? What did it teach?

A
  • The age groups were mixed
  • Helped to build social cohesion between different age groups and classes
  • Teaches inclusivity and individual value
56
Q

What does Aristotle say about the mess halls? What is his reasoning for this?

A
  • The mess halls caused more issues than they fixed
  • because he notes that by the end of the fifth century BC property and land in Sparta had fallen into so few hands that most could not meet the requirement for the mess halls, and as a result many were excluded from this system and excluded from the entire civic process
57
Q

What does Plutarch tell us of the Krypteia?

A
  • Ephors selected promising adolescents, who lay low in the daytime and at night would kill any Helots they came across - more of a deterrent than a “killing exercise”
58
Q

According to Xenophon, what did the older boys who supervised and punished the younger boys have to do? What did this teach the older boys?

A
  • They had to justify whether their punishments were fair or too lenient/harsh
  • Teaches the boys that their actions have consequences as well as teaching justice, honour and personal responsibility
59
Q

What does Plutarch tell us of acceptance into Spartan mess halls? How was an Ephebe granted acceptance? How was this done? What did the mess hall system teach? What does it signify?

A
  • Tells us about the enrolment process
  • Through a unanimous vote
  • The mess mates voted anonymously with balls of bread
  • Teaches that relations in Sparta are built on trust and acceptance
  • In order to be accepted one has to conform to Spartan customs and way-of-life - in some senses the mess halls act as a metaphor for the functioning of Spartan society
60
Q

According to Xenophon and Plutarch, where did the food for the mess halls come from? What did the system teach?

A
  • Every member of the mess halls provided produce from their kleros
  • Promotes and teaches equality and civic duty
61
Q

According to Xenophon, the mess halls were a check on/a lesson in what?

A
  • A check on luxury and a lesson in obedience
62
Q

According to Xenophon, the most successful of the Spartan cadets would be considered for what? How was this done? How were the cadets monitored? What did this promote?

A
  • Selection to the Hippeis (the elite 300 bodyguard of the king)
    3 men were selected by the ephors called the “Hippegretai” - these three men would select 100 cadets each who they felt showed particular courage, skill etc
  • Other Spartans would closely monitor their actions and behaviour to find any lapses in honour - still promotes competition and rewards individual merit

Ancient History: Greece (17 decks)

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