1. We now proceed to describe the different relations in the domestic life of the Dorians; and first, that between man and wife. Here it will be necessary to contradict the idea, that the duties of private life were but little esteemed by the Doric race, particularly at Sparta, and were sacrificed to the duty owed to the community. The Lacedæmonian maxim was in direct opposition to this doctrine; viz., that the door of his court1341 was the boundary of every [pg 291] man's freedom:1342 without, all owned the authority of the state; within, the master of the house ruled as lord on his own ground;1343 and the rights of domestic life, notwithstanding their frequent collision with the public institutions, were more respected than at Athens. At the same time, however, a peculiar national custom, which pervaded the whole system of legislation, prevailed throughout these relations with a force and energy, which we, taking the accounts of the ancients as our guide, will endeavour now to examine. It has been above remarked how, in accordance with the manners of the east, but in direct opposition to the later habits of the Greeks,1344 a free intercourse in public was permitted by the Dorians to the youth of both sexes, who were brought into contact particularly at festivals and choruses.1345 Hence Homer represents the Cretan chorus as composed of young men and women, who dance hand in hand.1346 At Sparta in particular the young men lived in the presence of the unmarried women, and as their derision was an object of dread, so to be the theme of their praise was the highest reward for noble actions.1347 Hence it was very possible [pg 292] at Sparta, that affection and love, although not of a romantic nature, should take possession of the heart: but at Athens, as far as my recollection goes, we have not a single instance of a man having loved a free-born woman, and marrying her from any strong affection, whilst a single narrative of Herodotus1348 contains two love stories at Sparta. How many opportunities may have been given by the festivals, as for instance the Hyacinthia, at which the Spartan damsels were seen going about in κάναθρα (ornamented cars peculiar to the country, which were also used in the procession to the temple of Helen at Therapne), and racing in chariots in the midst of assembled multitudes.1349 Accordingly, the beauty of her women, the most beautiful in all Greece,1350 was at Sparta more than any other town, an object of general admiration, in a nation where beauty of form was particularly felt and esteemed.1351
2. Two things were, however, requisite as an introduction and preparation to marriage at Sparta, first, betrothing on the part of the father;1352 secondly, the seizure of the bride. The latter was clearly an ancient [pg 293] national custom, founded on the idea that the young woman could not surrender her freedom and virgin purity unless compelled by the violence of the stronger sex. They married, says Plutarch, by ravishing. The bridegroom brought the young virgin, having carried her off from the chorus of maidens or elsewhere, to the bride's maid, who cut short her hair, and left her lying in a man's dress and shoes, without a light, on a bed of rushes, until the bridegroom returned from the public banquet, carried the bride to the nuptial couch, and loosened her girdle.1353 And this intercourse was for some time carried on clandestinely, till the man brought his wife, and frequently her mother, into his house. That this usage was retained to the last days of Sparta may be inferred from the fact, that the young wife of Panteus was still in the house of her parents, and remained there, when he went with Cleomenes to Egypt.1354 A similar custom must have prevailed in Crete, where we find, that the young persons who were dismissed at the same time from the agele, were immediately married, but did not till some time after introduce their wives into their own house.1355 The children born before this took place [pg 294] were probably called παρθενίαι;1356 they were in general considered in all respects equal to those born at home; but in the first Messenian war particular circumstances seem to have made it impossible to provide them with lots of land;1357 and hence they became the founders of Tarentum.1358
3. The age of marriage was fixed by the ancient Greeks and western nations much later than at a subsequent period by those of the east. Following the former, the laws of Sparta did not allow women of too tender an age to be disposed of in marriage. The women were generally those at the highest pitch of youthful vigour1359 (called in Rhodes ἀνθεστηριάδες),1360 and for the men, about the age of thirty was esteemed the most proper, as we find in Hesiod,1361 Plato,1362 and even Aristotle. Public actions might however be brought against those who married too late (γραφὴ ὀψιγαμίου), to which those also were liable who had entered into unsuitable marriages (γραφὴ κακογαμίου), [pg 295] and those who remained unmarried (γραφὴ ἀγαμίου).1363 It is well known that these laws have been blamed as a violation of the rights of individuals, and even a profanation of the rite of marriage: but these censors should have remembered that they were judging those institutions by principles which the founders of them would not have recognised. For the Spartans considered marriage, not as a private relation, about which the state had little or no interest, but as a public institution, in order to rear up a strong and healthy progeny to the nation. In Solon's legislation, marriage was also placed under the inspection of the state, and an action for not marrying (γραφὴ ἀγαμίου1364), though merely as a relic of antiquity, existed at Athens. It is nevertheless true that marriage, especially in Sparta, was, to a certain degree, viewed with a primitive simplicity, which shocks the feelings of more refined ages, as the peculiar object of matrimony was never kept out of sight. Leonidas, when despatched to Thermopylæ, is said to have left as a legacy to his wife Gorgo the maxim, Marry nobly, and produce a noble offspring;1365 and when Acrotatus had fought bravely in the war against Pyrrhus, the women followed him through the town, and some of the older ones shouted after him, “Go, Acrotatus, enjoy yourself with Chelidonis, and beget valiant sons for [pg 296] Sparta.”1366 Hence we may perceive the reason why in various cases1367 (such as are known to us have been mentioned above1368) Lycurgus not only allowed, but enjoined the marriage duties to be transferred to another; always, however, providing that the sanctity of the marriage union should be for a certain time sacrificed to that which the Doric race considered as of higher importance, viz., the maintenance of the family. That these cases were so defined by custom, as to leave but little room for the effects of caprice or passion, is evident from the infrequency of adultery at Sparta:1369 but the above aim justified even king Anaxandridas, when, contrary to all national customs, he cohabited with two wives,1370 who lived without doubt in separate houses. To marry foreign women was certainly forbidden to all Spartans, and to the Heraclidæ by a separate rhetra;1371 contrary to the custom in other Grecian towns, especially Athens, whose princes in early times, as Megacles, Miltiades, &c., frequently contracted marriages with foreigners.
4. The domestic relation of the wife to her husband [pg 297] among the Dorians was in general the same as that of the ancient western nations, described by Homer as universal among the Greeks, and which existed at Rome till a late period; the only difference being, that the peculiarities of the custom were preserved by the Dorians more strictly than elsewhere. It formed a striking contrast with the habits of the Ionic Athenians, with whom the ancient custom of Greece was almost entirely supplanted by that of the east.1372 Amongst the Ionians of Asia, the wife (as we are informed by Herodotus1373) shared indeed the bed, but not the table of her husband; she dared not call him by his name, but addressed him with the title of lord, and lived secluded in the interior of the house: on this model the most important relations between man and wife were regulated at Athens. But amongst the Dorians of Sparta, the wife1374 was honoured by her husband with the title of mistress (δέσποινα),1375 (a gallantry belonging to the north of Greece, and also practised by the Thessalians1376), which was used neither ironically nor unmeaningly. Nay, so strange did the importance [pg 298] which the Lacedæmonian women enjoyed, and the influence which they exercised as the managers of their household, and mothers of families, appear to the Greeks, at a time when the prevalence of Athenian manners prevented a due consideration for national customs, that Aristotle1377 supposed Lycurgus to have attempted, but without success, to regulate the life of women as he had that of the men; and the Spartans were frequently censured for submitting to the yoke of their wives.1378 Nevertheless Alcman, generally a great admirer of the beauty of Lacedæmonian women, could say, “It becomes a man to say much, and a woman to rejoice at all she hears.”1379 In accusing the women of Sparta, however, for not essentially assisting their country in times of necessity, Aristotle has in the first place required of them a duty which even in Sparta lay out of their sphere, and in the second place, his assertion has been sufficiently contradicted by the events of a subsequent period, in the last days of Sparta, which acquired a surprising lustre from female valour.1380 On the whole, however, little as the Athenians esteemed their own women, they involuntarily [pg 299] revered the heroines of Sparta, such as Gorgo the wife of Leonidas, Lampito the daughter of Leotychidas, the wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis;1381 and this feeling is sometimes apparent even in the coarse jests of Aristophanes.
5. How this indulgent treatment of the women among the Dorians produced a state of opinion entirely different from that prevalent at Athens, has been intimated above, and will be further explained hereafter. In general it may be remarked, that while among the Ionians women were merely considered in an inferior and sensual light, and though the Æolians allowed their feelings a more exalted tone, as is proved by the amatory poetesses of Lesbos;1382 the Dorians, as well at Sparta as in the south of Italy, were almost the only nation who esteemed the higher attributes of the female mind as capable of cultivation.
It is hardly necessary to remark, that in considering the rights and duties of the wife, as represented in the above pages, to apply to the whole Doric race, allowance must be made for the alterations introduced into different towns, particularly by foreign intercourse and luxury. At Corinth, for instance, the institution of the sacred slaves (ἱερόδουλοι) in the temple of Aphrodite, probably introduced from Asia Minor, produced a most prejudicial effect on the morals of that city, [pg 300] and made it the ancient and great resort of courtesans.1383
6. Having now considered the personal relations between the sexes, we next come to those depending on difference of age; which from the Doric principle of the elders instructing the younger, are intimately connected with education.1384 But before we enter on that subject, it will be necessary to speak of a connexion (termed by the Greeks παιδεραστία), which, so long as it was regulated by the ancient Doric principles, to be recognised both in the Cretan laws and those of Lycurgus, had great influence on the instruction of youth. We will first state the exact circumstances of this relation, and then make some general remarks on it; but without examining it in a moral point of view, which does not fall within the scope of this work.
At Sparta the party loving was called εἰσπνήλας,1385 [pg 301] and his affection was termed a breathing in, or inspiring (εἰσπνεῖν1386); which expresses the pure and mental connexion between the two persons, and corresponds with the name of the other, viz., ἀΐτας,1387 i.e., listener or hearer. Now it appears to have been the practice for every youth of good character to have his lover;1388 and, on the other hand, every well-educated man was bound by custom to be the lover of some youth.1389 Instances of this connexion are furnished by several of the royal family of Sparta; thus Agesilaus, while he still belonged to the herd of youths, was the hearer of Lysander,1390 and himself had in his turn also a hearer;1391 his son Archidamus was the lover of the son of Sphodrias, the noble Cleonymus;1392 Cleomenes the Third was, when a young man, the hearer of Xenares,1393 and later in life the lover of the brave Panteus.1394 The connexion usually originated from the proposal of the lover; yet it was necessary that the listener should accept him from real affection, as a regard to the riches of the proposer was considered very disgraceful:1395 [pg 302] sometimes however it happened that the proposal originated from the other party.1396 The connexion appears to have been very intimate and faithful, and was recognised by the state. If his kinsmen were absent, the youth might be represented in the public assembly by his lover:1397 in battle too they stood near one another, where their fidelity and affection were often shown till death;1398 while at home the youth was constantly under the eyes of his lover, who was to him as it were a model and pattern of life;1399 which explains why, for many faults, particularly for want of ambition, the lover could be punished instead of the listener.1400
7. This ancient national custom prevailed with still greater force in Crete; which island was hence by many persons considered as the original seat of the connexion in question.1401 Here too it was disgraceful for a well-educated youth to be without a lover;1402 and hence the party loved was termed κλεινὸς,1403 the praised; the lover being simply called φιλήτωρ. It appears that the youth was always carried away by force,1404 the intention of the ravisher being previously communicated to the relations, who however took no measures of precaution, and only made a feigned resistance; except when the ravisher appeared, either in family or talent, unworthy of the youth. The lover then led [pg 303] him away to his apartment (ἀνδρεῖον), and afterwards, with any chance companions, either to the mountains or to his estate. Here they remained two months (the period prescribed by custom), which were passed chiefly in hunting together. After this time had expired, the lover dismissed the youth, and at his departure gave him, according to custom, an ox, a military dress, and brazen cup, with other things; and frequently these gifts were increased by the friends of the ravisher.1405 The youth then sacrificed the ox to Zeus, with which he gave a feast to his companions: at this he stated how he had been pleased with his lover; and he had complete liberty by law to punish any insult or disgraceful treatment. It depended now on the choice of the youth whether the connexion should be broken off or not. If it was kept up, the companion in arms (παραστάτης), as the youth was then called, wore the military dress which had been given him; and fought in battle next his lover, inspired with double valour by the gods of war and love, according to the notion of the Cretans;1406 and even in man's age he was distinguished by the first place and rank in the course, and certain insignia worn about the body.
Institutions, so systematic and regular as these, did not indeed exist in any Doric state except Crete and Sparta; but the feelings on which they were founded seem to have been common to all the Dorians. The love of Philolaus, a Corinthian of the family of the [pg 304] Bacchiadæ, and the lawgiver of Thebes, and of Diocles the Olympic conqueror, lasted until death; and even their graves were turned towards one another, in token of their affection:1407 and another person of the same name was honoured in Megara, as a noble instance of self-devotion for the object of his love.1408
8. It is indeed clear that a custom of such general prevalence cannot have originated from any accidental impression or train of reasoning; but must have been founded on feelings natural to the whole Doric race. Now that the affection of the lover was not entirely mental, and that a pleasure in beholding the beauty and vigour, the manly activity and exercises1409 of the youth was also present, is certain. But it is a very different question, whether this custom, universally prevalent both in Crete and Sparta, followed by the noblest men, by the legislators encouraged with all care, and having so powerful an influence on education, was identical with the vice to which in its name and outward form it is so nearly allied.
The subject should be carefully considered, before, with Aristotle, we answer this question in the affirmative, who not only takes the fact as certain, but even accounts for it by supposing that the custom was instituted by the legislator of Crete as a check to population.1410 Is it, I ask, likely that so disgraceful a vice, not practised in secret, but publicly acknowledged and [pg 305] countenanced by the state, not confined to a few individuals, but common for centuries to the whole people, should really have existed, and this in the race of all the Greeks, the most distinguished for its healthy, temperate, and even ascetic habits? These difficulties must be solved before the testimony of Aristotle can be received.
I will now offer what appears to me the most probable view of this question. The Dorians seem in early times to have considered an intimate friendship and connexion between males as necessary for their proper education. But the objection which would have presented itself in a later age, viz. the liability to abuse of such a habit, had then no existence, as has been already remarked by a learned writer.1411 And hence they saw no disadvantage to counterbalance the advantages which they promised themselves in the unrestrained intercourse which would be the natural consequence of the new institution. It is also true that the manners of simple and primitive nations generally have and need less restraint than those whom a more general intercourse and the greater facility of concealment have forced to enact prohibitory laws. This view is in fact confirmed by the declaration of Cicero, that the Lacedæmonians brought the lover into the closest relation with the object of his love, and that every sign of affection was permitted præter stuprum;1412 [pg 306] for although in the times of the corruption of manners this proximity would have been attended with the most dangerous consequences, in early times it never would have been permitted, if any pollution had been apprehended from it. And we know from another source that this stuprum was punished by the Lacedæmonians most severely, viz. with banishment or death.1413 It may be moreover added, that this pure connexion was encouraged by the Doric principle of taking the education from the hands of parents, and introducing boys in early youth to a wider society than their home could afford.1414
1. The education of the youth (νεολαία)1415 in the ancient Doric states of Sparta and Crete, was conducted, as might be supposed, on a very artificial system: indeed, the great number of classes into which the boys and youths were distributed, would itself lead us to this conclusion. For since this separation could not have been made without some aim, each class, we may conjecture, was treated in some way different from the rest, the whole forming a complete scale of mental or bodily acquirements.
Whether a new-born infant should be preserved or not, was decided in Lacedæmon by the state, i.e. a council composed of the elders of the house.1416 This custom was not by any means more barbarous than that of the ancient world in general, which, in earlier times at least, gave the father full power over the lives of his children. Here we may perceive the great [pg 308] influence of the community over the education of its members, which should not, however, lead us to suppose that all connexion between parents and children was dissolved, or the dearest ties of nature torn asunder. Even Spartan mothers preserved a power over their sons when arrived at manhood, of which we find no trace in the rest of Greece. Agesilaus riding before his children on a stick1417 presents a true picture of the education,1418 which was entrusted entirely to the parents1419 till the age of seven; at which period the public and regular education (ἀγωγὴ)1420 commenced. This was in strictness enjoyed only by the sons of Spartans (πολιτικοὶ παῖδες),1421 and the mothaces (slaves brought up in the family) selected to share their education: sometimes also Spartans of half-blood were admitted.1422 This education was one chief requisite for a free citizen;1423 whoever refused to submit to it,1424 suffered a partial [pg 309] loss of his rights; the immediate heir to the throne was the only person excepted,1425 whilst the younger sons of the kings were brought up in the herd (ἀγέλη). Leonidas and Agesilaus, two of the noblest princes of Sparta, submitted when boys to the correction of their masters.
2. From the twelfth year1426 upwards, the education of boys was much more strict. About the age of sixteen or seventeen they were called σιδεῦναι.1427 At the expiration of his eighteenth year, the youth emerged from childhood, the first years of this new rank being distinguished by separate terms.1428 During the progress from the condition of an ephebus to manhood, the young Spartans were called Sphæreis,1429 probably because their chief exercise was foot-ball, which game [pg 310] was carried on with great emulation, and indeed resembled a battle rather than a diversion.1430 In their nineteenth year they were sent out on the crypteia,1431 at twenty they served in the ranks, their duties resembling those of the περίπολοι at Athens. Still the youths, although they were now admitted to the public banquets,1432 remained in the divisions, which were called ἀγέλαι, or in the Spartan dialect βοῦαι,1433 and distributed into smaller troops (called ἴλαι).1434 The last name was also applied to a troop of horse,1435 and is one amongst several other proofs,1436 that, in early times at least, the exercise of riding was one of the principal occupations of the youths of Sparta. In these divisions all distinction of age was lost, the leaders of them were taken from among the Irenes,1437 and exercised great powers over the younger members; for the use of which they were in their turn responsible to every citizen of a more advanced age,1438 and particularly to the paidonomus, a magistrate of very extensive authority.1439 His assistants were the floggers, or mastigophori, who were selected from the young men,1440 the buagi or managers of the buæ;1441 besides which, there were certain [pg 311] officers appointed to manage the boys, called ampaides.1442 A similar arrangement was adopted in the societies of the girls and young women.1443 Theocritus, in his Epithalamium of Helen, represents 240 young women of the same age, as joining in the daily exercises and games.1444 And whilst Doric customs prevailed at Croton, the daughter of Pythagoras (according to Timæus)1445 was several times appointed leader of the young women and matrons.
3. In Crete the boys, as long as they remained in the house of their father, were said to dwell in darkness.1446 At this period they were admitted into the syssitia of their respective fathers, where they sat together on the ground; after the syssitia they formed themselves into societies under separate paidonomi.1447 It was not till their seventeenth year that they were enrolled in the agelæ,1448 so that the education was here entrusted to the family for a longer period than at Sparta. They remained in the agelæ till married, and consequently even after they had attained the age of manhood; hence in the extant treaty between the Latians and Olontians, it is required that the agelæ also should take the oath.1449 From the circumstance, [pg 312] however, that these troops of young men were brought together by one of the most wealthy and illustrious in their body, whose father held the office of commander (ἀγελάτης), led them to the chase and the games, and exercised the right of punishment over them;1450 we perceive that a far greater influence, as well over the government1451 as the education, was permitted to particular families in Crete than at Sparta, whilst the system itself was less strict and impartial. The age of manhood was in Crete dated from the time of admittance into the male gymnasia (there called δρόμοι;)1452 hence a person who had exercised ten years among the men was called δεκάδρομος;1453 the youth who had not as yet wrestled or run in them ἀπόδρομος.1454 We have no account respecting other Doric towns, and merely know that the classes of the ephebi at Cyrene were called from the number of each, the “three hundred.”1455
4. Thus far respecting the arrangements for training the youths. The education itself was partly bodily, partly mental; although the division must not be drawn too strictly, since each exercise of the body includes at the same time that of the mind, at least of its hardihood, patience, and vigour. The Greeks, however, used the general terms of gymnastic for the [pg 313] former, and music for the latter of these branches. It is well known that the Dorians paid more attention than any other Greeks to gymnastic exercises;1456 and it has been above remarked, that these exercises in their proper sense first originated among the Cretans and Spartans; the latter in particular have often been censured for practising them in an immoderate degree.1457 This want of moderation, however, though it occurred in later times, is never perceivable in the maxims and ideas of the Dorians, who in this, as in several other cases, knew how to set bounds to youthful ardour, and check its pernicious effects. Aristotle himself1458 remarks concerning the Spartan education, that it did not tend to form athletes, who considered gymnastic exercises as the chief business of life; and that the exercises tending to the beauty and elasticity of the frame were accurately separated from those of an opposite character, is shown by the absolute prohibition of the rougher exercises of boxing and the pancration;1459 the latter being a mixture of wrestling [pg 314] and boxing, in which the fall of either party did not decide the victory, but the most violent contest often took place when the combatants were struggling on the ground. The reason of this is said to be, that in these alone an express confession of the defeated party by the raising of the hand, served to put an end to the contest; and that Lycurgus would not permit such an avowal to his Spartans. But the real reason is probably that stated above. On the other hand, gladiators (ὁπλόμαχοι) who publicly exhibited their skill in the use of arms, were not tolerated in Laconia,1460 probably because the use of arms was thought too serious for mere sport and display. Nevertheless the colony of Cyrene adopted this custom from Mantinea in Arcadia,1461 under their legislator Demonax.1462
5. The Doric race, to whom the elevation of gymnastic contests into great national festivals was principally owing, were probably likewise the first who introduced crowns in lieu of other prizes of victory. The gymnastic combatants in Homer are excited by real rewards; but from the advanced state of civilization on which the Dorians stood in other respects, it is probable that they also purified the exhibition of bodily activity from all other motives than the love of honour. The first crown was bestowed at Olympia, and was gained in the seventh Olympiad by Daicles a Dorian of Messenia.1463 How much gymnastic exercises [pg 315] were practised in the different Doric states, may be collected from the extant catalogues of the conquerors at the Olympian, and Pythian games: some conclusions may even be drawn from an examination of Corsini's Catalogue. This shows that the Spartans never practised either boxing or the pancration,1464 and their principles were so generally recognized at the Olympian games, over which they possessed great influence, that boys were not till a very late period permitted to contend in the pancration.1465 On the other hand, many conquerors in the race came from Sparta, particularly between the 20th and 50th Olympiads: besides numerous pentathli and wrestlers: amongst the former Philombrotus (Olymp. 26-28.), amongst the latter Hipposthenes (Olymp. 37-43.) and his son Hetœmocles are distinguished by the number of crowns gained at Olympia; the first victors in both contests were also Lacedæmonians. Before the 9th Olympiad, the Elean catalogues mention Messenians in particular as victors in the race: from the 49th Olympiad, the natives of Croton are conspicuous as victors in the stadium; of these, Tisicrates and Astylus occupy the whole period between the 71st and 75th Olympiads. At the same time the swift-footed Phallys was thrice victorious at the Pythian games: this champion was likewise the wonder of his age in the pentathlon (a contest requiring extraordinary activity), but particularly in the exercise of leaping,1466 [pg 316] being also a warrior and athlete. The gymnastic training of the young Crotoniats at that time attained the height of the development of the body in equal beauty and strength; Croton was celebrated for its beautiful boys and youths.1467
During this period there existed at Croton a school of wrestlers, the chief of whom was Milo, who from the 62nd Olympiad was victorious in almost every one of the four principal games, more frequently than any other Greek. It was however whilst the philosophy of Pythagoras directed the public institutions of Croton, and influenced its manners, that this city outshone the rest of Greece by its warriors and athletes.1468 Milo himself, the fabulous champion of posterity, was at the same time a sage and hero. But the conquest of Sybaris, the destruction of the Pythagorean league, and the adoption of the Achæan constitution, soon put an end to this system, and Croton, without suffering any external change, lost at the end of the 75th Olympiad the whole of her internal vigour. As the athletes of this town followed in their choice of exercises the fundamental principles of Spartan discipline, the case was reversed amongst the Rhodians, particularly whilst the family of Diagoras flourished, [pg 317] which produced more than six boxers, the first of their day, and men of gigantic bodily strength.1469 The Æginetans were famed for their dexterity in the contests, and from the 45th Olympiad till the dissolution of their state, bore off numerous victories in the race, wrestling, and pancration, and were particularly distinguished as boys.1470 The distant colonies in Sicily and Libya took little interest in gymnastic contests: the latter expected more glory from their renowned horses and chariots,1471 the former from their breed of mules.1472 The Cretans, although particularly distinguished in running, fought (according to Pindar, whose statement is confirmed by these catalogues) “like gamecocks in the arena of their own court.”1473 It is not possible to detail the peculiarities of the Doric states in their management of the various exercises, till the customs observed at their contests, particularly in wrestling, have been more accurately examined.1474
6. But all the exercises in the gymnasium of Sparta were esteemed of perhaps less importance to the education of the body, than another class, the object of which was to harden the frame by labour [pg 318] and fatigue. The body was obliged to undergo heat and cold (the extremes of which were felt in an immoderate degree throughout the narrow valley of Sparta),1475 likewise hunger, thirst and privations of every description. To this they were trained by frequent hunting on the mountains, in which manner the youths of Crete were also exercised,1476 as also in the agelæ, under the agelates.1477 Next came the laborious service in the most distant parts of the Laconian territory, amidst which the young men of Sparta grew up from youth to manhood, obliged to administer to their own wants without the assistance of a servant.1478 The boys were also inured to hardships, by being forced to obtain their daily nourishment by stealing; for this custom was also limited to a particular period in the education of the sons of the Equals.1479 We should certainly afford at the best but a very partial representation of these peculiar customs, if we were to single out some striking peculiarity from a connected system, and attempt to examine in detail a subject which should be criticised generally, or not at all. According to the scattered fragments of our information, the state of the case was as follows:1480 the boys at a certain period were generally banished from the town, and all communion with men, and were obliged to lead a wandering life in the fields and forests. When thus excluded, they were forced to obtain, by force or cunning [pg 319] the means of subsistence from the houses and court-yards, all access to which was at this time forbidden them; frequently obliged to keep watch for whole nights, and always exposed to the danger of being beaten, if detected. To judge this custom with fairness, it should only be regarded in the connexion which we have explained above. The possession of property was made to furnish a means of sharpening the intellect, and strengthening the courage of the citizens, by forcing the one party to hold and the other to obtain it by a sort of war. The loss of property which was thus occasioned, appeared of little importance to a state where personal rights were so little regarded; and the mischievous consequences were in some measure avoided by an exact definition of the goods permitted to be stolen,1481 which were in fact those, that any Spartan who required them for the chase, might take from the stock of another. Such was the idea upon which this usage was kept up; it might possibly however have originated in the ancient mountain-life of the Dorians, when they inhabited mounts Œta and Olympus, cooped up within narrow boundaries, and engaged in perpetual contests with the more fortunate inhabitants of the plains: as a relic and memorial of those habits, it remained, contrasted with the independent and secure mode of life of the Spartans at a later period. Respecting the triumph of Spartan hardihood, viz. the scourging at the altar of Artemis Orthia, it has been above remarked in what manner, by a change made in the genuine Grecian [pg 320] spirit, the gloomy rites of a sanguinary religion had been turned to a different and useful purpose.1482
7. The gymnastic war-games, which were peculiar to the Cretans and Spartans, still remained to be noticed as a characteristic feature of the Doric education. At the celebration of these, the ephebi, after a sacrifice to Ares in a temple at Therapne, went through a regular battle unarmed, in an island formed by ditches, near the garden called Platanistas, and exerted every means in their power to obtain the victory.1483 In Crete the boys belonging to one syssition frequently engaged in battle against those of another, the youths of one agele against those of another, and these contests bore a still nearer resemblance to a real engagement. They marched to the sound of flutes and lyres, and besides fists, weapons of wood and iron were employed.1484 Yet although at Sparta gymnastic exercises were certainly brought to a nearer resemblance with war than in the rest of Greece, it would be erroneous [pg 321] on that account to conclude, that the aim of all bodily education among the Dorians was to obtain superiority in war. Enough has been alleged to prove satisfactorily to any unprejudiced reader, that the chief object of Spartan discipline was to invigorate the bodies of the youth, without rendering their minds at the same time either brutal or ferocious. And that this endeavour to attain, as it were, an ideal beauty and strength of limb, was not altogether unsuccessful, may be seen from the fact, that the Spartans, as well as the Crotoniats, were about the 60th Olympiad (540 B.C.) the most healthy of the Greeks,1485 and that the most beautiful men as well as women were found amongst them.1486
8. The female sex underwent in this respect the same education as the male, though (as has been above remarked) only the virgins. They had their own gymnasia,1487 and exercised themselves, either naked or lightly clad, in running, wrestling, or throwing the quoit and spear.1488 It is highly improbable that youths or men were allowed to look on, since in the gymnasia of Lacedæmon no idle bystanders were permitted; every person was obliged either to join the rest, or withdraw.1489 Like the Elean girls in the temples of [pg 322] Here, so at Sparta the eleven Bacchanalian virgins exhibited their skill in the race at a contest in honour of their god.
The whole system of gymnastic exercise was placed at Sparta under the superintendence of magistrates of the highest dignity, the bidiæi; and the ephors every ten days inspected the condition of the boys, to ascertain whether they were of a good habit of body, if so general a meaning can be attached to the testimony of Agatharchides.1490
The whole of this book from the first chapter has been employed in considering the manners and physical existence of the Dorians (the δίαιτα Δωρικὴ). We now come to the second great division of education, viz. music; in which term the whole mental education of the Doric race was included, if we except writing, which was never generally taught at Sparta.1491 Nor indeed was it essential in a nation, where, as in Crete, laws, hymns, and the praises of illustrious men, that is the jurisprudence and history of such a people, were taught in the schools of music.1492