Polity Athenians and Lacedaemonians Part 4

(based upon Plut. "Lycurg." 17 and Ps. Plut. "Moral." 237), {kai eis mekos d' an auxanesthai oeto kai eueidesterous} vel {kallious gignesthai, pros amphotera ton radina ta somata poiousan trophen mallon sullambanein egesamenos e ten diaplatunousan}. Otherwise I would suggest to read {kai eis mekos an auxanesthai ten (gar) radina... egesato k.t.l.}, which is closer to the vulgate, and gives nearly the same sense.

On the other hand, in order to guard against a too great pinch of starvation, though he did not actually allow the boys to help themselves without further trouble to what they needed more, he did give them permission to steal (15) this thing or that in the effort to alleviate their hunger. It was not of course from any real difficulty how else to supply them with nutriment that he left it to them to provide themselves by this crafty method. Nor can I conceive that any one will so misinterpret the custom. Clearly its explanation lies in the fact that he who would live the life of a robber must forgo sleep by night, and in the daytime he must employ shifts and lie in ambuscade; he must prepare and make ready his scouts, and so forth, if he is to succeed in capturing the quarry. (16)

(15) See "Anab." IV. vi. 14.

(16) For the inst.i.tution named the {krupteia}, see Plut. "Lycurg." 28 (Clough, i. 120); Plato, "Laws," i. 633 B; for the {klopeia}, ib.

vii. 823 E; Isocr. "Panathen." 277 B.

It is obvious, I say, that the whole of this education tended, and was intended, to make the boys craftier and more inventive in getting in supplies, whilst at the same time it cultivated their warlike instincts.

An objector may retort: "But if he thought it so fine a feat to steal, why did he inflict all those blows on the unfortunate who was caught?"

My answer is: for the self-same reason which induces people, in other matters which are taught, to punish the mal-performance of a service.

So they, the Lacedaemonians, visit penalties on the boy who is detected thieving as being but a sorry bungler in the art. So to steal as many cheeses as possible (off the shrine of Orthia (17)) was a feat to be encouraged; but, at the same moment, others were enjoined to scourge the thief, which would point a moral not obscurely, that by pain endured for a brief season a man may earn the joyous reward of lasting glory. (18) Herein, too, it is plainly shown that where speed is requisite the sluggard will win for himself much trouble and scant good.

(17) I.e. "Artemis of the Steep"--a t.i.tle connecting the G.o.ddess with Mount Orthion or Orthosion. See Pausan. VIII. xxiii. 1; and for the custom, see Themistius, "Or." 21, p. 250 A. The words have perhaps got out of their right place. See Schneider's Index, s.v.

(18) See Plut. "Lycurg." 18; "Morals," 239 C; "Aristid." 17; Cic.

"Tusc." ii. 14.

Furthermore, and in order that the boys should not want a ruler, even in case the pastor (19) himself were absent, he gave to any citizen who chanced to be present authority to lay upon them injunctions for their good, and to chastise them for any trespa.s.s committed. By so doing he created in the boys of Sparta a most rare modesty and reverence. And indeed there is nothing which, whether as boys or men, they respect more highly than the ruler. Lastly, and with the same intention, that the boys must never be reft of a ruler, even if by chance there were no grown man present, he laid down the rule that in such a case the most active of the Leaders or Prefects (20) was to become ruler for the nonce, each of his own division. The conclusion being that under no circ.u.mstances whatever are the boys of Sparta dest.i.tute of one to rule them.

(19) Lit. "Paidonomos."

(20) Lit. "Eirens."

I ought, as it seems to me, not to omit some remark on the subject of boy attachments, (21) it being a topic in close connection with that of boyhood and the training of boys.

(21) See Plut. "Lycurg." 17 (Clough, i. 109).

We know that the rest of the h.e.l.lenes deal with this relationship in different ways, either after the manner of the Boeotians, (22) where man and boy are intimately united by a bond like that of wedlock, or after the manner of the Eleians, where the fruition of beauty is an act of grace; whilst there are others who would absolutely debar the lover from all conversation (23) and discourse with the beloved.

(22) See Xen. "Symp." viii. 34; Plato, "Symp." 182 B (Jowett, II. p.

33).

(23) {dialegesthai} came to mean philosophic discussion and debate. Is the author thinking of Socrates? See "Mem." I. ii. 35; IV. v. 12.

Lycurgus adopted a system opposed to all of these alike. Given that some one, himself being all that a man ought to be, should in admiration of a boy's soul (24) endeavour to discover in him a true friend without reproach, and to consort with him--this was a relationship which Lycurgus commended, and indeed regarded as the n.o.blest type of bringing up. But if, as was evident, it was not an attachment to the soul, but a yearning merely towards the body, he stamped this thing as foul and horrible; and with this result, to the credit of Lycurgus be it said, that in Lacedaemon the relationship of lover and beloved is like that of parent and child or brother and brother where carnal appet.i.te is in abeyance.

(24) See Xen. "Symp." viii. 35; Plut. "Lycurg." 18.

That this, however, which is the fact, should be scarcely credited in some quarters does not surprise me, seeing that in many states the laws (25) do not oppose the desires in question.

(25) I.e. "law and custom."

I have now described the two chief methods of education in vogue; that is to say, the Lacedaemonian as contrasted with that of the rest of h.e.l.las, and I leave it to the judgment of him whom it may concern, which of the two has produced the finer type of men. And by finer I mean the better disciplined, the more modest and reverential, and, in matters where self-restraint is a virtue, the more continent.

III

Coming to the critical period at which a boy ceases to be a boy and becomes a youth, (1) we find that it is just then that the rest of the world proceed to emanc.i.p.ate their children from the private tutor and the schoolmaster, and, without subst.i.tuting any further ruler, are content to launch them into absolute independence.

(1) {eis to meirakiousthai}, "with reference to hobbledehoy-hood."

Cobet erases the phrase as post-Xenophontine.

Here, again, Lycurgus took an entirely opposite view of the matter.

This, if observation might be trusted, was the season when the tide of animal spirits flows fast, and the froth of insolence rises to the surface; when, too, the most violent appet.i.tes for divers pleasures, in serried ranks, invade (2) the mind. This, then, was the right moment at which to impose tenfold labours upon the growing youth, and to devise for him a subtle system of absorbing occupation. And by a crowning enactment, which said that "he who shrank from the duties imposed on him would forfeit henceforth all claim to the glorious honours of the state," he caused, not only the public authorities, but those personally interested (3) in the several companies of youths to take serious pains so that no single individual of them should by an act of craven cowardice find himself utterly rejected and reprobate within the body politic.

(2) Lit. "range themselves." For the idea, see "Mem." I. ii. 23; Swinburne, "Songs before Sunrise": Prelude, "Past youth where sh.o.r.eward shallows are."

(3) Or, "the friends and connections."

Furthermore, in his desire to implant in their youthful souls a root of modesty he imposed upon these bigger boys a special rule. In the very streets they were to keep their two hands (4) within the folds of the cloak; they were to walk in silence and without turning their heads to gaze, now here, now there, but rather to keep their eyes fixed upon the ground before them. And hereby it would seem to be proved conclusively that, even in the matter of quiet bearing and sobriety, (5) the masculine type may claim greater strength than that which we attribute to the nature of women. At any rate, you might sooner expect a stone image to find voice than one of those Spartan youths; to divert the eyes of some bronze stature were less difficult. And as to quiet bearing, no bride ever stepped in bridal bower (6) with more natural modesty. Note them when they have reached the public table. (7) The plainest answer to the question asked--that is all you need expect to hear from their lips.

(4) See Cic. "pro Coelio," 5.

(5) See Plat. "Charmid." 159 B; Jowett, "Plato," I. 15.

(6) Longinus, {peri ups}, iv. 4, reading {ophthalmois} for {thalamois}, says: "Yet why speak of Timaeus, when even men like Xenophon and Plato, the very demiG.o.ds of literature, though they had sat at the feet of Socrates, sometimes forget themselves in the pursuit of such pretty conceits? The former in his account of the Spartan Polity has these words: 'Their voice you would no more hear, than if they were of marble, their gaze is as immovable as if they were cast in bronze. You would deem them more modest than the very maidens in their eyes.' To speak of the pupils of the eyes as modest maidens was a piece of absurdity becoming Amphicrates rather than Xenophon; and then what a strange notion to suppose that modesty is always without exception, expressed in the eye!"--H. L. Howell, "Longinus," p. 8. See "Spectator," No.

354.

(7) See Paus. VII. i. 8, the {phidition} or {philition}; "h.e.l.l." V.

iv. 28.

IV

But if he was thus careful in the education of the stripling, (1) the Spartan lawgiver showed a still greater anxiety in dealing with those who had reached the prime of opening manhood; considering their immense importance to the city in the scale of good, if only they proved themselves the men they should be. He had only to look around to see what wherever the spirit of emulation (2) is most deeply seated, there, too, their choruses and gymnastic contests will present alike a far higher charm to eye and ear. And on the same principle he persuaded himself that he needed only to confront (3) his youthful warriors in the strife of valour, and with like result. They also, in their degree, might be expected to attain to some unknown height of manly virtue.

(1) See "h.e.l.l." V. iv. 32.

(2) Cf. "Cyrop." II. i. 22.

(3) Or, "pit face to face."

What method he adopted to engage these combatants I will now explain. It is on this wise. Their ephors select three men out of the whole body of the citizens in the prime of life. These three are named Hippagretai, or masters of the horse. Each of these selects one hundred others, being bound to explain for what reason he prefers in honour these and disapproves of those. The result is that those who fail to obtain the distinction are now at open war, not only with those who rejected them, but with those who were chosen in their stead; and they keep ever a jealous eye on one another to detect some slip of conduct contrary to the high code of honour there held customary. And so is set on foot that strife, in truest sense acceptable to heaven, and for the purposes of state most politic. It is a strife in which not only is the pattern of a brave man's conduct fully set forth, but where, too, each against other and in separate camps, the rival parties train for victory. One day the superiority shall be theirs; or, in the day of need, one and all to the last man, they will be ready to aid the fatherland with all their strength.

Necessity, moreover, is laid upon them to study a good habit of the body, coming as they do to blows with their fists for very strife's sake whenever they meet. Albeit, any one present has a right to separate the combatants, and, if obedience is not shown to the peacemaker, the Pastor of youth (4) hales the delinquent before the ephors, and the ephors inflict heavy damages, since they will have it plainly understood that rage must never override obedience to law.

(4) Lit. "the Paidonomos."

With regard to those who have already pa.s.sed (5) the vigour of early manhood, and on whom the highest magistracies henceforth devolve, there is a like contrast. In h.e.l.las generally we find that at this age the need of further attention to physical strength is removed, although the imposition of military service continues. But Lycurgus made it customary for that section of his citizens to regard hunting as the highest honour suited to their age; albeit, not to the exclusion of any public duty.

(6) And his aim was that they might be equally able to undergo the fatigues of war with those in the prime of early manhood.

(5) Probably the {agath.o.e.rgoi}, technically so called. See Herod. i.

67; Schneider, ap. Dindorf.

(6) Lit. "save only if some public duty intervened." See "Cyrop." I.

ii.