Spartan Women defending themselves against the Messenians, by Jean Francois Jacques Le Barbier (1787)
Women in ancient Greece were purely domestic beings.
Cloistered and confined to the Oikos (home), each woman was trapped in her Odyssean hellscape. Each a Penelope wasting her life away weaving while her husband, a swashbuckling adventurer, fully participates in public life. Spartan women were the exception.
John Stanhope painting depicting Penelope and a muse waiting for Odysseus (1864)
Unlike Athenians, Spartan women wielded a large degree of autonomy and power. Take Queen Gorgo, the bold wife of Leonidas I. As a child Gorgo warned against the corrupt Meletian tyrant Aristagoras. In Herodotus’ story, Gorgo questions her father (Kleomenes I) and actively participates in politics and the highest affairs of the state as a young Spartan princess. Kleomenes appreciates her perspective and “was pleased with the child’s counsel”.¹ The positive reaction to Gorgo’s input suggests that Spartans encouraged women to voice their opinions. This opinion was not shared by other poleis (city-states).
“A wife should only speak to her husband or through her husband” – Plutarch, Roman historian²
Non-Royal Spartan women also exerted agency and control. Sparta was the only polis to have a state-enforced program for female education covering both physical education and mousike (music, dancing, and poetry). Furthermore, Spartan women wore Doric peploi fastened with fibulae. These brooches were outlawed in Athens because Athenian women killed the sole survivor of a battle after he told them their husbands had died. Hence, Spartan women were never unarmed.³ Marriages in Sparta had more equitable power dynamics than those in Athens due to the smaller age gaps (10 years compared to 20 years). Plutarch claims that married women were relatively sexually free and often took younger female lovers.⁴ Since Spartan soldiers served until their 60s, women raised the children and managed property on their own. Although not an official matriarchy, Sparta was only a few steps away from becoming one!
Sparta was an optimal, sexually egalitarian state. Except that it wasn’t. I’ve just manipulated the evidence. None of the ‘progressive’ elements of Spartan society was aimed at equality between the sexes. Their main concern was with women as breeders, reproducing to create strong boys to replenish the army. Spartans believed that stronger women would produce robust and brawny soldiers. Furthermore, women only married later in Sparta (16 -18) because they were more likely to survive childbirth.
Wilfully ignoring evidence results in a view of the ancient world that can also be manipulated to promote bigoted and discriminatory ideals.
Sculpture of a girl wearing a short chiton that may represent what Spartan women wore.
Just like V. D. Hanson selects evidence to argue that the western approach to war is fundamentally superior, Sparta has been used to perpetuate fascist, alt-right ideals. Hitler praised Sparta’s exposure of “sick, weak, and deformed” children as a form of ancient eugenics.⁵ Pro-gun protesters use Molon Labe (come and take them), Leonidas’ fictitious response to Xerxes asking for Sparta’s weapons, as resistance against perceived governmental breaches of rights.⁶ Last year, anti-Brexit and pro-Johnson campaigners took the moniker Spartans for their “determination to hold out”.⁷ There is no right way to tell history. However, manipulating evidence to suit a certain perspective is both harmful and flawed.
References:
¹ Herodotus. The Histories. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
² Pomeroy, S. Spartan Women, p 135. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
³ Pomeroy, S. Spartan Women, p 134. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
⁴ Germain, J. “Where women ruled men: The power and plight of women in ancient Sparta”, p 179. Master’s Thesis, South Methodist University, 2013
⁵ Cole, M. “The Sparta fetish is a cultural cancer”. The Soapbox. Published August 1, 2019. https://newrepublic.com
⁶ Cole, M. “The Sparta fetish is a cultural cancer”. The Soapbox. Published August 1, 2019. https://newrepublic.com
⁷ Cole, M. “The Sparta fetish is a cultural cancer”. The Soapbox. Published August 1, 2019. https://newrepublic.com
Hi everyone!!
I really hope you enjoyed reading my post because I loved writing it! If you want more information on Spartan women I would really recommend checking out James Germain’s thesis ‘Where women ruled men: The power and plight of women in ancient Sparta’ and Sarah Pomeroy’s book ‘Spartan Women’. Both can be accessed through the library website.
Please let me know if you have any other examples of alt-right groups taking stuff from ancient history out of context and using it to promote their ideals. I’d really love to know what you think 🙂
This was such a clever way to show how easy it is to manipulate facts! You demonstrated how may people can easily accept facts at face value and not look into things further. Your blog post reminded me of the fact that people are more likely to get killed by a vending machine than a shark – however, no one takes into account that people go around shaking vending machines and not trying to shake sharks.
This post, this post here. (the one I am commenting on that is)
You really got me, I thought I would have to go and find sources to quote in a comment but have, instead, been given an excellent set of things to throw at those who have failed to do the research (or been taken in by those maliciously editing the truth).
Furthermore the closing sentence – “There is no right way to tell history. However, manipulating evidence to suit a certain perspective is both harmful and flawed.” – hits the nail of so many of the specious arguments around these things on the head. While the correct answer to something may be subjective, it can still be possible to be wrong.
Great post Brooke!
It’s possible to manipulate facts and history to serve almost any purpose. A sort of historical confirmation bias.
I found this post incredibly informative, both on Spartan women, but more importantly on the manipulation of history to justify or support a perspective and a testament to the importance of critical thinking. The way you demonstrated the manipulation of evidence before explaining it is incredibly effective in demonstrating your point. It feels so relevant to such a variety of arguments and frankly reminds me of too many people I’ve met and their argumentative styles.
I firmly believe you can prove anything with enough circumstantial evidence and manipulation and this post proves how important research and critical thinking is in gaining a more comprehensive understand of history and its lessons.