Léonidas aux Thermopyles - Jacques-Louis David
August is the month when I always write about Greece, where I find myself at present enjoying the Attic climate. This time Sparta is on my mind, perhaps because I’ve been thinking about the man in the white suit of late, and the Spartans were the ones who made him redundant. Death to a Spartan was like the proverbial cold, to be endured but not to be feared nor taken too seriously.
All my mother’s antecedents were Spartans. Her mother’s brother, whose name is honored by streets and squares in central Sparta, was president of the Greek Academy, president of the Archaeological Society, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and even Prime Minister of Greece, Panagiotis Poulitsas. He taught me how to read ancient Greek when I was very, very young and was bitterly disappointed when I returned from America speaking Greek with an accent. Modern Sparta, needless to say, always votes for the right. Another uncle of mine used to win elections to the Greek Senate with 99 percent of the vote, and due to his 6-foot-2 height and Spartan toughness was never, ever challenged over the Stalin-like electoral result. When war broke out in 1940, my mother had four brothers and a husband up in the front the next day.
“The Spartans remain famous throughout history for their doomed stand at Thermopylae and are immortalized as the epitome of martial prowess.”
Sparta’s demise came from lack of men. Spartans were warriors, and warriors die in battle. The city-state simply ran out of fighters. Machiavelli and Montesquieu were big admirers of Sparta, as was the American Samuel Adams. Sparta conquered all surrounding states like Messenia and Laconia, and by 750 B.C. was the mistress of all Doric-speaking people. Helots, or slaves, of conquered territories did the heavy lifting. Unlike modern Caribbean and African dictators, no one has ever demanded reparations from modern Spartans for past helot services.
A true Spartan was one whose father and mother were Spartans, and they were called peers. A male peer devoted himself exclusively to military training. His dedication to the state was reciprocated by a grant of state-owned land in Laconia or Messenia, which was worked on by helots. The first six years of a Spartan boy’s life were spent at home, where he would be looked after by his mother and a nurse. He was taught not to be afraid of the dark, or of being left alone, and not to cry or throw temper tantrums. Then at the age of 7 he went to the barracks with other boys his age. Their hair was cropped and they trained naked. Food was in short supply in order to harden them for eventual warlike conditions. From age 18 Spartan young men were called up for military service. At age 20 they were permitted to marry.
At age 24 the Spartan male became a frontline combatant and at 30 a full citizen with the right to participate in the Assembly. Girls did not have it much easier. They trained intensively and ran, wrestled, and threw the discus. They were taught to sing and dance and were allowed to make fun of men and criticize their failings but also sing their praises. Doesn’t their education remind you of American high schools today?
The two most famous Spartan sayings are “Molon Lave” and “I Tan I Epi Tas.” “Molon Lave” was the answer by King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans when King Xerxes of Persia and his 200,000 troops offered the Spartans freedom if they laid down their arms. “Come and get them,” was the answer. They died to a man but killed thousands and won time for the rest of the Greeks to unite and defeat the invading Persians.
“I Tan I Epi Tas” was what every Spartan mother told her son as he departed for war: With it or on it, come back victorious or dead. Ancient Sparta was a mixture of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy, something that made it difficult for ancient writers to classify. Plato himself could not decide whether Sparta was a democracy or a tyranny. Sparta’s council of 28 elders, who had to be over 60 years of age, sat along with the two kings. Leave it to the Spartans to have two of the latter.
Sparta’s eventual demise came at the hands of the Thebans, whose military strategy outfoxed the set Spartan plans (a weak center but two strong flanks). But the Spartans remain famous throughout history for their doomed stand at Thermopylae and are immortalized as the epitome of martial prowess. All my maternal relatives were proud Spartans, and they never forgot to remind me that I was half Spartan, hence to act like a man. Just like the #MeToo movement in America.