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Lycurgus

von Plutarch

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The culture of ancient Sparta has fascinated not only historians and philosophers but the general reading public for generations. Part myth, part history, the life of Lycurgus, the great founder and lawgiver of Sparta, written by Plutarch (AD 46- AD 120) is every bit as alive and compelling today as it was for people living in the time of the Roman Empire. To provide a taste of Plutarch's essay, here are several quotes from the text along with my comments.

"For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to consent to a new division of the land, and that they should live all together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure of difference between man and man." ---------- Plutarch marvels at Lycurgus's ability to persuade the rich to give up their property and wealth and live a common life with the rest of the population, living in a common barracks and eating in a common mess hall. And, equally important, men and women would distinguish themselves by worthy, virtuous acts. In a way, such a Spartan way of life was the dream of all the ancient Stoic philosophers.

"Lycurgus ordered maidens to exercise themselves with wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the end that the fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth, and withal that they, with this greater vigor, might be the more able to undergo the pains of childbirth . . . and he ordered that the young women should go naked in the processions, as well as the young men, and dance." --------- Ah, the strong, athletic, wild, sexually-free naked women of Sparta fired the imagination of the ancient world for centuries. As they fire the imagination in our modern world, with our taboos on public nakedness and frenzied dancing.

Plutarch peppers his essay with many of the terse, sharp retorts for which the Spartans were famous. Two examples: "When an orator of Athens said the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) had no learning, a Spartan told him, "You say true, Sir; we alone of all the Greeks have learned none of your bad qualities." A foreigner once asked Archidamidas the Spartan what number there might be of the Spartans; he answered, "Enough, Sir, to keep our wicked men." --------- These two pithy replies exemplify the xenophobia of the typical mindset in an ultra-conservative, militarist, closed society: foreigners are bad, wicked people. Yet, the Spartan's discipline, obedience, physical hardness and exceptional skill as courageous soldiers held a certain appeal for leaders and philosophers interested in creating an ideal state. Sidebar: the word `laconic' comes from the Spartan tendency for brevity and abrupt speech.

"The magistrates dispatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country, armed only with daggers . . . the young men hid themselves in out-of-the-way places and there lay close, but , in the night, issued out into the highways, and killed all the Helots they could light upon; sometimes they set upon them by day, as they were at work in the fields." ---------- Another famous aspect of Spartan training to toughen up their youth to become fighting-machines for the state: sending swarms of 12 year old kids out to plunder and terrorize and murder the slave-farmers.

Anybody reading this has access to a computer and also has either direct or indirect exposure to an open cosmopolitan society and multinational culture. We should never take what we have for granted. We are well to know there have been countries and societies, like ancient Sparta, and such possibilities still loom.

Plutarch’s Lives are available on-line: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0045-0125,_Plutarch,_Parallel_Lives_Of... ( )
  Glenn_Russell | Nov 13, 2018 |

The culture of ancient Sparta has fascinated not only historians and philosophers but the general reading public for generations. Part myth, part history, the life of Lycurgus, the great founder and lawgiver of Sparta, written by Plutarch (AD 46- AD 120) is every bit as alive and compelling today as it was for people living in the time of the Roman Empire. To provide a taste of Plutarch's essay, here are several quotes from the text along with my comments.

"For there was an extreme inequality amongst them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to consent to a new division of the land, and that they should live all together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence, and the disgrace of evil, and credit of worthy acts, their one measure of difference between man and man." ---------- Plutarch marvels at Lycurgus's ability to persuade the rich to give up their property and wealth and live a common life with the rest of the population, living in a common barracks and eating in a common mess hall. And, equally important, men and women would distinguish themselves by worthy, virtuous acts. In a way, such a Spartan way of life was the dream of all the ancient Stoic philosophers.

"Lycurgus ordered maidens to exercise themselves with wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the end that the fruit they conceived might, in strong and healthy bodies, take firmer root and find better growth, and withal that they, with this greater vigor, might be the more able to undergo the pains of childbirth . . . and he ordered that the young women should go naked in the processions, as well as the young men, and dance." --------- Ah, the strong, athletic, wild, sexually-free naked women of Sparta fired the imagination of the ancient world for centuries. As they fire the imagination in our modern world, with our taboos on public nakedness and frenzied dancing.

Plutarch peppers his essay with many of the terse, sharp retorts for which the Spartans were famous. Two examples: "When an orator of Athens said the Lacedaemonians (Spartans) had no learning, a Spartan told him, "You say true, Sir; we alone of all the Greeks have learned none of your bad qualities." A foreigner once asked Archidamidas the Spartan what number there might be of the Spartans; he answered, "Enough, Sir, to keep our wicked men." --------- These two pithy replies exemplify the xenophobia of the typical mindset in an ultra-conservative, militarist, closed society: foreigners are bad, wicked people. Yet, the Spartan's discipline, obedience, physical hardness and exceptional skill as courageous soldiers held a certain appeal for leaders and philosophers interested in creating an ideal state. Sidebar: the word `laconic' comes from the Spartan tendency for brevity and abrupt speech.

"The magistrates dispatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country, armed only with daggers . . . the young men hid themselves in out-of-the-way places and there lay close, but , in the night, issued out into the highways, and killed all the Helots they could light upon; sometimes they set upon them by day, as they were at work in the fields." ---------- Another famous aspect of Spartan training to toughen up their youth to become fighting-machines for the state: sending swarms of 12 year old kids out to plunder and terrorize and murder the slave-farmers.

Anybody reading this has access to a computer and also has either direct or indirect exposure to an open cosmopolitan society and multinational culture. We should never take what we have for granted. We are well to know there have been countries and societies, like ancient Sparta, and such possibilities still loom.

Plutarch’s Lives are available on-line: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0045-0125,_Plutarch,_Parallel_Lives_Of...

( )
  GlennRussell | Feb 16, 2017 |
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