plik

Historian Helena P. Schrader discusses ancient Spar tan society and culture, seeking to rectify a
number of common misconceptions. She also provides excerpts from her biographical novels
about Leonidas and reviews of books on ancient Spar ta.

Sparta Reconsidered

Sunday, July 31, 2016

The Myth of Spartan Pederasty

No myth about Sparta is as persistent or controversial as the claim that pederasty and homosexuality dominated Spartan
society. Even highly reputable historians such as Paul Cartledge subscribe to this theory. However, the evidence against
it is far more more compelling than for it.

Xenophon, the only historian with ﬁrsthand experience of the agoge (his sons attended it!), states explicitly: "… [Lycurgus]
… laid down that in Sparta lovers should refrain from molesting boys, just as much as parents avoid having intercourse with
their children or brothers with their sisters." It is hard to ﬁnd a more deﬁnitive statement than this, and from the most
credible source. To dismiss this evidence simply because it does not suit preconceived ideas is arrogant.

Xenophon adds: "It does not surprise me, however, that some people do not believe this, since in many cities the laws do
not oppose lusting after boys."  This is the crux of the matter.  All of our written sources on Sparta come from these other
cities, where pederasty was rampant.  In short, the bulk of the written record on Sparta stems from men who could not
imagine  a  world  without  homosexual  love  and  pederasty.  But  then,  they  also  could  not  imagine  women  who  were
educated,  physically  ﬁt,  and  economically  powerful,  who  were  not  also  licentious  and  lewd.    Modern  readers  ought  to
recognize that pederasty is not inherent in society – particularly not in a society where women are well integrated.

Achilles and P atrokles - Ancient Lo vers

My position is supported by another ancient authority, Aristotle, who blamed all of Sparta's ills on the fact that the women
were  in  control  of  things  –  a  fact  that  he  attributed  to  the  lack  of  homosexuality  in  Spartan  society  generally.  In  this
Aristotle exhibits an astonishing appreciation of psychology.  Modern research conclusively shows that male victims of
child abuse generally grow into misogynous men.  The status of women in Athens ﬁts this pattern perfectly, while the
status of women in Sparta completely contradicts – indeed, refutes – the thesis that Spartan men were systematically
subjected to sexual abuse by their elders as children. (An excellent discussion of child abuse in ancient Greece can be
found in Enid Bloch's "Sex Between Men and Boys in Classical Greece: Was it Education for Citizenship or Child Abuse?,"
in Journal of Men's Studies, January 2001.)

Finally, Herodotus, who was always happy to provide some juicy little story about a man who covets a close friend's wife,
or one who steals a rival's bride just before the wedding, has not a single tale in which there is mention of a Spartan with
a male lover – either boy or man. This omission is signiﬁcant and should not be ignored.

The archaeological evidence from Sparta likewise demonstrates an almost complete absence of pornographic images on
artifacts. This is in sharp contrast to the plethora of explicitly pornographic art from both Athens and Corinth. While
pederasty is as frequently depicted in Athenian and Corinthian art as heterosexual sex, no homoerotic art originating in
Sparta has -- to my knowledge -- been found or identiﬁed. (Please correct me, if I am wrong!)

This image shows the peplos, still worn by Spartan women but considered lewd by Athenians; Spartan women allegedly

also learned to use the bow.

On the other hand, some of the most important and lovely pieces of Spartan sculpture depict couples sitting side by side.
Regardless of whom the ﬁgures were intended to depict (Helen and Menelaos, Chilon and his wife, a Spartan king and
his queen), what is signiﬁcant is the greater importance given to depictions of a man and wife sitting side by side – that
is, in partnership – compared to depictions of sexual intercourse.  This is because marriage in Sparta was a partnership,
not  a  tyranny  as  in  the  rest  of  Greece.  Nor  was  a  Spartan  marriage  merely  for  reproduction,  it  was  also  consciously
intended to bring sexual satisfaction to both partners. Xenophon explains that Spartan laws required men and women to
marry  in  their  physical  prime  and  not  when  too  young  (for  girls)  or  too  old  (for  men),  and  that  they  should  be  initially
restricted  in  their  sexual  contact  so  as  to  not  to  become  satiated,  but  rather  to  enjoy  sex  together.    Note  that  there  is
explicit emphasis on the desirability of the female partner enjoying sex as much as the male.

Thus, rather than being something frightful and dangerous that male relatives needed to vigilantly guard (as in the rest of
Greece),  female  sexuality  was  perceived  in  Sparta  as  a  positive  factor  that  contributed  to  a  good  marriage,  to  healthy
children, and so to the well-being of the state.

This  acceptance  of  women's  sexuality  is  further  underlined  by  the  fact  that  while  Athenian  plays  demean  and  insult
women  (see  any  of  Euripides'  plays),  the  poems  of  Alkman,  considered  the  most  Spartan  of  all  poets  by  the  ancient
Greeks,  openly  admire  women.    His  poems,  written  in  the  second  half  of  the  7th  century  BC,  were  the  lyrics  of  songs
performed at public festivals by girls' choruses. Alkman also wrote poetry expressing his own adoration of the Spartan
girls he worked with.  He was considered by ancient scholars to be the ﬁrst love poet – a notable distinction for the poet
whom  the  ancients  viewed  as  "the  most  Spartan"!    None  of  Alkman's  texts  can  be  classed  as  pornographic,  but  many
modern commentators assert – because the texts of the lyrics, designed to be sung by girls' choruses, praise the girls'
beauty – that the songs were lesbian in nature.  This is nonsense.  Boys' and men's choruses sang about bravery and girls
about beauty because those were the virtues admired in each respective group.  What the texts (and the fact that Alkman
was so revered in Sparta) tell us is that the Spartans enjoyed light-hearted music and tributes to female beauty in a public
context -- not merely in the back alleys of the red-light district.

Furthermore,  while  female  sexuality  was  recognized  and  respected,  Spartan  males  were  expected  to  ﬁnd  sexual
satisfaction  within  marriage.    Thus  Sparta  was  reputed  to  have  no  brothels  at  all  within  the  city  limits,  and  Spartans
claimed to know neither whores nor adultery. To date, the archaeological evidence supports the assertion that there were
no brothels in Sparta, and the absence of heterosexual (as with homosexual) pornographic artwork further supports the
thesis that in contrast to other cities, sex in Sparta was a private – rather than a public – affair.

Given  the  fact  that  Spartan  sexuality  was  so  different  from  that  of  the  other  Greeks,  it  is  not  surprising  that  foreign
observers of Sparta in the archaic and classical periods have a great deal to say about Spartan sexual relations.  The fact
that the most famous adulteress of ancient myth, Helen of Troy, was Spartan contributed to the general view of Spartan
women as licentious, a view explicitly underlined by Aristotle in his diatribe against Spartan women.  The legal right to
"wife sharing" further influenced the view of women as sexually uncontrolled – even though the law was clearly designed
to  serve  the  state's  need  for  new  generations  of  citizens,  not  women's  lust,  and  could  only  occur  with  the  husband's
consent.    Likewise,  the  fact  that  Spartan  women  were  educated,  outspoken,  and  seen  in  public  elicited  universal
condemnation from  other  Greeks.    Thus  Euripides  says  in  Andromache: "Spartan  girls  could  not  be  chaste  even  if  they
wanted  to.  They  leave  home,  and  with  naked  thighs  and  their  dresses  loosened,  they  share  the  running  tracks  and
gymnasiums with the young men."  It was inconceivable to an Athenian that a woman could go to school with boys and
engage in sports in front of boys without becoming sexually degraded as well.  Modern readers, however, should not lose
sight  of  the  fact  that  Athenian  playwrights  were  attacking  their  enemy  when  they  described  Spartans.    Describing  the
wives of an enemy as whores and the men as "faggots" was (and still is) a common – if juvenile – means of belittling a
foe.

Helena P. Schrader

at 21:51

In conclusion, contemporary sources suggest that Sparta was not a particularly homoerotic society, and certainly there
was  no  institutionalized  pederasty  or  homosexual  behavior  prior  to  the  mid-5th  century  BC.  On  the  contrary,  in  Sparta
women's sexuality was not only recognized, but respected and to a degree encouraged.  Spartan artifacts furthermore
suggest that Sparta was indeed more prudish than other Greek societies.  The evidence suggests that sex in Sparta was
a private matter, sought inside marriage, rather than public entertainment pursued at symposia and on the streets as in
Athens. The Spartan ideal of sex was an activity between equals, not an act of domination by an adult male upon a child,
a slave, or an illiterate and powerless wife.

My depiction of Spartan society in the Leonidas trilogy is based on the above analysis. Pederasty plays no role in the agoge.

Buy Now!

7 comments:

Mystic Scholar July 31, 2016 at 10:11 PM

Nooo! Every novel I've read about Sparta says . . . wait a minute. Did I say "novel?" Doh!

Replies

Ray Devlin

August 10, 2016 at 10:04 PM

Paul Cartledge writes about about "institutionalised pederasty" at Sparta. He seems to discount these
primary sources that refute such a claim. Which is why I've always discounted Paul Cartledge's claims.

The so-called "Spartan Mirage" seems to be a very selective tool in the hands of historians. It is the same
with the repeated claims about throwing disabled infants off a certain cliff -- never-mind that one of
Sparta's most famous kings was lame; and no infant-remains were ever found during investigations at
the alleged site.

The investigators did ﬁnd the remains of adults, presumably criminals. Yet you still see the same old
nonsense about killing babies. Many ancient societies practiced exposure of unwanted infants, but it is a
stretch to link this to state sponsored eugenics.

Thus historians seem to pick and choose what the "Spartan Mirage" actually conceals. Baby-killing and
child molestation are accepted as fact and not anti-Spartan distortions; yet the notion of the self-
controlled warrior philosopher is dismissed as an idealised concept cr

eated by Socrates (see Lipka).

Who would dare suggest the more reasonable notion that Socrates was inspired by a realised Sparta ;)

Helena P. Schrader

August 10, 2016 at 10:20 PM

Ray,
Thank you  for  your  comment. I  share  your  bafflement with the  academic establishment. There  is  so
much written by  allegedly "noted" historians  that  is  illogical and  unfounded. I'll  post an  entry  on  the
alleged "infanticide" of the Spartans later which reminds people that the slaughter of female infants was
normal in Athens. I hate the hypocracy! Its alright to "expose" females infants just because they're female
but a crime against humanity to kill deformed males!
Again, thanks for stopping by.
Helena

Johan Granlund August 17, 2016 at 3:15 PM

Hi  Helena,  I  wanted  to  thank  you  for  bringing this  to  my  attention several  years  ago.  Before  I  just
accepted the  "Spartans  were  gay"  thing.  Checking it  out  it's  astounding how  just  about  all  sources
explains, often in great detail, why Sparta didn't care for homosexual or pederastic relations.
Would you know what exactly Cartledge bases his claims on?
I  read  a  google  excerpt  out  of  his  book,  where  he  dismisses  Aristotle  with  that.  -  Sure  adult
homosexuality wasn't acceptable but that doesn't mean they didn't have sex with boys.
Yet he doesn't even try to reconcile this with Aristotle's explanation. That the unusual empowerment of
Spartan women is due to the men having to turn to them for sex. If boys are an acceptable sexual outlet
as Cartledge suggest how does Aristotle make any sense?

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Helena P. Schrader

August 18, 2016 at 2:03 PM

I haven't read Cartledge recently, so I can't say for sure. What I remember is exactly what you
say: he dismissed any suggestion that the Spartans were pedophiles with a contemptuous "of
course they were and you'd be an idiot to think otherwise" but no serious argument that greatly
infuriated me. He seemed to be saying: "This is what I think and I'm the expert so no one has
the right to question, much less disagree with. me. I AM THE EXPERT. PERIOD." It did not make
me respect hm.

American Notice October 14, 2016 at 6:13 PM

"… [Lycurgus] … laid down that in Sparta lovers should refrain from molesting boys, just as much as
parents avoid having intercourse with their children or brothers with their sisters."

Maybe that needed to be said because there was too much pederasty happening.
Why would anyone condemn something if it was not a problem?

Helena P. Schrader

October 19, 2016 at 6:44 AM

Possibly -- in 850 AD or whenever Lycurgus lived. The point is, when pederasty was rampant
and normal in the rest of the Greek world, Sparta had already moved far beyond -- for three
hundred years or more. It was, quite simply, three to four hundred years more advanced than
the rest of the Greek cities. It was more civilized and less perverse.

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