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Agoge

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An artistic representation of Spartan exercise, part of the agoge for young Spartan males. Females, however, were encouraged to exercise with the males.

The agōgē (Template:Lang-grc-gre in Attic Greek, or ἀγωγά, agōgā in Doric Greek) was the rigorous education and training program mandated for all male Spartan citizens, with the exception of the firstborn son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad. The word agōgē had various meanings in Ancient Greek, and comes from the verb ἄγω (to lead).[1] There is no evidence that it was used to refer to the Spartan education system until the 3rd century BCE, but it was often used before then to mean training, guidance, or discipline.[2]

The education featured in the agōgē involved cultivating loyalty to Sparta through military training (e.g., pain tolerance), hunting, dancing, singing, and social (communicating) preparation.[3] The agōgē was divided into three age groups, roughly corresponding to young children, adolescents, and young adults. Spartan girls did not participate in the agōgē, although they may have received a similar state-sponsored education.[4][2]

Sources are unclear about the exact origins of the agōgē. According to Xenophon, it was introduced by the semi-mythical Spartan law-giver Lycurgus, and modern scholars have dated its inception to the 7th or 6th century BCE.[2][4][5][3] Regardless, the structure and content of the agōgē changed over time as the practice fell in and out of favour throughout the Hellenistic period.

Structure

When a boy was born, he was washed with wine in the belief that this would make him strong. Every infant was then examined by members of the Gerousia (a council of leading Spartan elders) from the child's tribe to see whether he was fit and healthy enough to be allowed to live. In the event that the baby did not pass the test, he was placed at the base of Mount Taygetus for several days in a test that ended with death by exposure, or survival. At the age of seven, the male child was enrolled in the agoge under the authority of the paidonómos (παιδονόμος), or "boy-herder", a magistrate charged with supervising education. This began the first of the three stages of the agoge: the paídes (about ages 7–17), the paidískoi (ages 17–19), and the hēbōntes (ages 20–29). Some classical sources indicate that there were further subdivisions by year within these classes.[6]

The boys lived in groups (agélai, "herds") under an older man. They were encouraged to give their loyalty to their communal mess hall known as the Syssitia, rather than to their families. Beginning at the age of 12, boys would be given only one item of clothing per year: a red cloak known as a Phoinikis (a toponym reflecting the Phoenician origin of the Tyrian purple dye used or imitated in the cloak). They also created beds out of reeds pulled by hand from the Eurotas River. Boys were intentionally underfed to encourage them to steal food for themselves. However, Plutarch states that "if they were caught they would be mercilessly whipped and reduced to their ordinary food allowance."[7] This was meant to produce well-built soldiers and allow the boys to become accustomed to hunger, preventing hunger from being a problem during battle. Only the heirs apparent of the two Spartan royal households (the Agiads and Eurypontids) were exempt from the process.

At around age 12, the boys would enter into an institutionalized relationship with a young adult male Spartan. Plutarch described this form of Spartan pederasty (erotic relationship) as one where older warriors would engage promising youths in a long-lasting relationship with an instructive motive.[8] However Xenophon, an Athenian friend of King Agesilaus II and whose sons were given the honour of training in the Agoge, comments that the laws of Lycurgus strictly prohibited sexual relationships with the boys.[9] According to Plutarch, the older Spartans were their Captains during combat and their master at home. The older boys were often instructed to collect wood, while the weaker and unfit boys gathered things such as salad and herbs.[7] The boys were expected to request the relationship, which was seen as a method to pass on knowledge and maintain loyalty on the battlefield. At the stage of paidiskoi, around the age of 18, the students became reserve members of the Spartan army. Some youths were allowed to become part of the Crypteia, a type of 'Secret Police', the members of which were instructed to spy on the Helot population. They would also kill Helot slaves who were out at night or spoke about rebelling against the Spartan government, in order to keep the population submissive. The state supported this by formally declaring war on the Helots every autumn. This meant killing a Helot was not regarded as a crime, but a valuable deed for the good of the state.[6]

At the stage of hēbōntes, roughly age 20, the students became fully part of the syssitia and Spartan army. Regardless, they continued to live in barracks and had to compete for a place among the Spartan hippeis, the royal guard of honor.[6] At the age of 20, students were voted into one of the public messes. The voting was done by Spartan peers who were members of the mess and had to be unanimous. Rejected candidates had a period of ten years within which they could apply for entry to a different mess. If a man failed to gain entry into a mess by age 30, he would not gain full Spartan citizenship. At the age of 30, men were permitted to marry and to become full citizens of Sparta who could vote and hold office.

Education in the agoge served as a great equalizer in Sparta.[citation needed] Men were meant to compete in athletics and in battle. Spartans who became kings, diplomats or generals would also improve the rhetoric, reading, and writing skills necessary for their positions. How the majority of the population of citizen male Spartans became literate, or whether they were literate at all, is not well known. However, in his "Sayings of Spartan Women", Plutarch references correspondence kept between mothers and sons at war, which suggests some degree of literacy.[10]

Education of girls

Girls also received a form of state-sponsored education involving dance, gymnastics and other sports, as well as subjects such as music, poetry, writing, and war education.[6] Girls were raised at home by their mothers while they were being educated.[11] Traits such as grace and culture were frowned upon in favor of high physical fitness and moral integrity. The girls were also encouraged to help the males by humiliating them in public and by criticizing their exercising. Just as Spartan males were raised to become warriors, the females of Sparta were trained for their primary task: giving birth to warriors; as the saying went, "only Spartan women could give birth to men."[12] Encouraged to be strong and healthy, girls participated in athletic competitions, running footraces in off-the-shoulder chitons.

Spartan women wore the old-fashioned peplos (πέπλος), open at the side, leading to banter at their expense among the other Greeks who dubbed them phainomērídes (φαινομηρίδες), the "thigh-showers." At religious ceremonies, on holidays and during physical exercise, girls and women were nude.[13]

Rise and fall

Any male who did not successfully pass through the agoge was denied Spartan citizenship. At various times this selection process was seen as detrimental to Spartan society, particularly when the number of free male Spartan citizens dwindled (oliganthropia). The practice waned in the 3rd century BC but was successfully reinvigorated some time in the 220s BC by Cleomenes III. It was abolished, however, less than forty years later by Philopoemen in 188 BC.[14] The agoge was reinstated in the year 146 BC after the Romans defeated the Achaeans in the Achaean War,[15] albeit in a lesser form than the original.

Roman agoge

The Roman agoge was limited to males between the ages of 14 to 19 and was essentially ephebic in nature. It was organized by phyles (citizen tribes). The instruction consisted of athletics, singing, dancing, military training, and possibly academic training. The students were supervised by officials called bideioi ("overseers") and a patronomos ("guardian of law").[6] During the Flavian dynasty, a team-based structure was introduced to the Roman agoge which put groups of students under the command of a team leader or boagos (βοαγός). Sponsorship was available to students who could not afford the training.[6]

See also

References and sources

References
  1. ^ ἀγωγή. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ^ a b c Ducat, Jean (2006). Spartan education : youth and society in the classical period. Emma Stafford, Pamela-Jane Shaw, Anton Powell. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 1-905125-07-0. OCLC 76892341.
  3. ^ a b Hodkinson, Stephen (1996). "Agoge". In Hornblower, Simon (ed.). Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ a b Cartledge, Paul (2001). Spartan reflections. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0-7156-2933-6. OCLC 45648270.
  5. ^ Scanlon, Thomas Francis (2002). Eros & Greek athletics. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534876-7. OCLC 316719681.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Hodkinson, Stephen (1996). "Agoge". In Hornblower, Simon (ed.). Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
  7. ^ a b "The Internet Classics Archive | Lycurgus by Plutarch". classics.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  8. ^ Plut. Lives. Lycurgus, 17-18.
  9. ^ Xen. Constitution of the Lacedaimonians, 2.13-14.
  10. ^ "Plutarch • Sayings of Spartan Women". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
  11. ^ Pomeroy, Sarah (2002), Spartan Women, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-195-13067-6
  12. ^ O'Pry, Kay (2012). "Social and Political Roles of Women in Athens and Sparta". Saber and Scroll. 1: 6–14. Archived from the original on 2017-05-13. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  13. ^ "The Women of Sparta: Athletic, Educated, and Outspoken Radicals". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  14. ^ Chrimes, K.M.T. (1999). Ancient Sparta: A Re-examination of the Evidence. Manchester University Press. pp. 46–48. ISBN 978-0719057410.
  15. ^ Cairns, Francis (2006). Sextus Propertius: The Augustan Elegist. Cambridge University Press. p. 379. ISBN 978-0521864572 – via Google Books.

Sources

  • Campbell, Duncan B.,Spartan Warrior. Osprey Publishing, 2012.
  • Cartledge, Paul, The Spartans. Pan Books, 2002.

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