Information about Agoge
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Gymnopaedias were religious festivities and endurance exercises for young Spartans.
The agoge was a rigorous education and training regime undergone by all Spartan citizens (except the eldest son in each of the ruling houses). It involved separation from the family, cultivation of loyalty to one's group, loving mentorship, military training, hunting, dance and social preparation.
The term agoge (Άγωγή) literally translates as 'raising'. According to lore, this development was introduced by the semi-mythical Spartan law-giver Lycurgus but it is thought to have had its beginnings between the seventh and the sixth centuries BC,[1][2] it trained boys from the age of seven to twenty.
The aim of the system was to produce physically and morally steeled males to serve in the Spartan army. These men would be the "walls of Sparta", since Sparta was the only Greek city with no defensive walls – they had been taken down at the order of Lycurgus. Discipline was strict and the boys were encouraged to fight amongst themselves in order to determine who was the strongest in the group.
Structure
When a boy completed his seventh year (on his seventh birthday) he was placed under the authority of the paidonómos (παιδονόμος), a magistrate charged with the supervision of education.| from 8 to 11 years, little boy | Ρωβίδας / rōbídas (meaning unknown) |
| προμικκιζόμενος / promikkizómenos (pre young boy) | |
| μικκι(χι)ζόμενος / mikki(khi)zómenos (young boy) | |
| πρόπαις / própais (pre-boy) | |
| from 12 to 15 years, boy | πρατοπάμπαις / pratopámpaïs (1st year boy) |
| άτροπάμπαις / atropámpaïs (2nd year boy) | |
| μελλείρην / melleírên (future irén) | |
| μελλείρην}} / melleírên (idem, 2nd year) | |
| from 16 to 20 years, irén | εíρήν / eirên 1st year, or σιδεύνας sideúnas (unknown) |
| 2nd year εíρήν | |
| 3rd year εíρή? | |
| 4th year εíρή? | |
| πρωτείρας / prōteĩras chief-irén |
Boys were sent from the family home and from then on lived in groups (agelae, herds) under an older boy leader. They were encouraged to give their loyalty to their communal mess hall rather than their families, even when married they would not eat an evening meal with their wives until at least 25. The boys however were not well fed and it was expected that they would steal their food. If caught stealing however, they would be severely punished (not for stealing, but instead for getting caught). All Spartan males with the exception of the 'Crown prince' of each of the Spartan royal households (Agiad and Eurypontid) were required to go through this process (they were permitted not to attend as it was believed they were part god).
A form of institutionalised pederasty, claimed by some ancient historians to have been of a chaste nature, was practiced whereby older warriors would engage a youth in a long-lasting love relationship with a pedagogic purpose. The boy was expected to request the relationship, which was considered important in passing on knowledge and in maintaining loyalty on the battlefield. When sacrificing to a god before battle, the Spartans sacrificed to the god of love, Eros.
At the age of 18 after the agoge the most promising young Spartans were taken into the Crypteia, an organization that tested their skills and enforced the obedience of the Helot slave population by encouraging the Spartans to seek and murder Messenian slaves who were about at nighttime.
Any male who did not successfully pass through the Agoge would be denied Spartan citizenship. Eventually the selection process became detrimental to Spartan society and the population declined to just a few hundred adult male citizens by 4 AD .
Education of girls
Girls also had a form of state education involving dance, gymnastics and other sport, together with other subjects. The aim here was similar to that of the agoge in that it aimed to make Spartan women the most physically attractive in the whole of Greece , and to enable them to bear healthy and vigorous children. Traits such as grace and culture were frowned upon, in favor of physical tempering and moral rectitude. Like the boys, a girl's education has been conjectured to include a sexual relationship with an older woman .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 phainomerides, (φαινομηρίδες), "thigh-showers." At religious ceremonies, on holidays and during physical exercise girls and women were nude, even with the boys and men.
Modern influence
The agoge was the inspiration behind the Nazi 'Hitler Youth movement' which was very popular in 1930's Germany and taught similar values of duty to the state and not the individual, and the superiority of the home nation.See also
- History of Sparta
- Paideia
- Spartan pederasty
Notes
References
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans; Pan Books, (2002) Sparta (Doric: Σπάρτᾱ Spártā, Attic: Σπάρτη Spártē
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Lycurgus (Greek: Λυκοῦργος, Lukoûrgos; 700 BC?–630 BC) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society in accordance with
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Henri-Irénée Marrou (1904-1977) was a leading French historian of the mid- twentieth century. A Christian humanist in outlook, his work was primarily in the spheres of Late Antiquity and the history of education.
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Sparta was an important Greek city-state in the Peloponnesus. It was unusual among Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, coming from two separate lines.
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Sparta was an important Greek city-state in the Peloponnesus. It was unusual among Greek city-states in that it maintained its kingship past the Archaic age. It was even more unusual in that it had two kings simultaneously, coming from two separate lines.
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Personified concepts
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- Muses
- Nemesis
- Moirae
- Cratos
- Zelus
- Nike
- Metis
- Charites
- Oneiroi
- Adrasteia
- Horae
- Bia
- Eros
- Apate
- Themis
- Eris
- Thanatos
- Hypnos
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Krypteia or Crypteia (Gr. κρυπτεία / krupteía, from κρυπτός / kruptós, “hidden, secret things”) was a tradition involving young Spartans, part of the agoge (Classical
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The Helots (in Classical Greek Εἵλωτες / Heílôtes) were the serfs of Sparta. They should not be confused with the chattel slaves, who were much less common (or nonexistent) in Sparta.
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Messenia or Messinia (Μεσσηνία) is a prefecture in the Peloponnese, a region of Greece. Messenia is bounded on the east by Mount Taygetus, on the north by the river Neda and the Arcadian Mountains, and on the west and south by the
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1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century
20s BC 10s BC 0s BC - 0s - 10s 20s 30s
1 2 3 - 4 - 5 6 7
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20s BC 10s BC 0s BC - 0s - 10s 20s 30s
1 2 3 - 4 - 5 6 7
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worldwide view of the subject.
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Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to movement used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a
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peplos (Greek: πέπλος) is a body-length Greek garment worn by women in the years before 500 BC.
The peplos is essentially a tubular cloth, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the
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The peplos is essentially a tubular cloth, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the
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For the SS division with the nickname Hitlerjugend see; 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
The Hitler Youth (German: Hitler-Jugend
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The Hitler Youth (German: Hitler-Jugend
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This article covers the history of Sparta from its founding to the present, concentrating primarily on the Spartan state during the height of its power from the 6th to the 4th century BCE.
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To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was "the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature." (1) It also means culture. It is the ideal in which the Hellenes formed the world around them and their youth.
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