Education in Classical Sparta

A 'Shame' Culture

In 1951 Professor E.R. Dodds published a book called The Greeks and The Irrational¹, based on a series of lectures he gave at the University of California, Berkeley. Every now and then someone comes up with a new way of looking at the ancient world and this was an eye-opener. Instead of considering the ancient Greeks as progressing to an increasingly rationalistic view of the world, he showed that even in the Classical period there was a lot that was deeply irrational and disturbing.

In one of his lectures, he talks about the distinction between a ‘shame’ culture and a ‘guilt’ culture. In a ‘shame’ culture, in its simplest terms, it is the action that counts against you, not your motivation. In a ‘guilt’ culture, fault is more internalised and our private choices for action are much more important. In other words, in a shame culture it is all about how you are seen; in a guilt culture it is more about how you feel. Although Dodds was focussing on Athens and Greek Tragedy in his lecture, I think it helps a great deal in understanding how the Spartan mind worked to consider their society as, profoundly, a ‘shame’ culture.

Thermopylae and its losers

A good example of this is recounted by Herodotus who describes how one of the famous three hundred sent out to defend the pass at Thermopylae was unable to fight due to a serious eye infection. No fault in that, you might think, but on his return he was disgraced and could only redeem himself by fighting heroically to his death at the later Battle of Plataea. Another soldier who had been sent to deliver a message in Thessaly and thus also survived the Battle of Thermopylae was so humiliated when he came back to Sparta that he committed suicide (Herodotus Book VII, 229-232).

Election to an adult Mess

Consider now the purpose of Spartan education for the individual concerned. There are no exams to pass, no definitive mark of merit. The purpose is to be accepted as an adult into a common mess, an elite club of around fifteen fellow Spartans. One vote against you and you are rejected. Everything depends on how you are viewed by other Spartans, not necessarily for any particular skill or attribute, but for your ability to fit in. Reputation is, of course, important in any society, but in Sparta it is everything. (Family connections must also have been a major factor in selection, but even that was a matter of the family’s reputation.)

The need to fit in

A Spartan child, therefore, set out to achieve success by matching or excelling his peers in any given activity, as in any school, but also by conforming to the norm and being accepted into the group. Above all, he needed to avoid humiliation and ostracism. I was brought up in a boys’ boarding school, a relatively civilised one as it happened, that encouraged individuality and tolerated idiosyncrasies. Even so, on arrival at the age of twelve, the pressure to conform to the expectations of the other boys was profound. Instinctively I lost my midlands accent, learnt to swear 'like a trooper', and generally did my best to fit in. Not everyone had the knack. Some were isolated and unhappy; some even ran away. But, whatever the scars the experience of school may have caused, even these people could get their qualifications and move on, potentially to a happy and successful life. Not in Sparta!

The relationship between older and younger boys

Apart from having good relations with his peers, it helped for a younger boy to be taken under the wing of older one and this, apparently, was common practice, at least in the later period from which much of our information about Spartan education comes. How far the relationship between older and young boy had a sexual element is debatable. Paul Cartledge in his book The Spartans² describes it as ritualised pederasty but he goes on to point out that ‘sex was by no means the only or even the main object’. The older boy is the sponsor of the young one. Once he has chosen him, he will do his best to make sure he succeeds. His own reputation is on the line too. He will himself be humiliated if the younger boy fails in some way.

Lykos is a chosen one. In my story I have underplayed any sexual element, simply because it would cause an un-necessary tangle of responses in our modern world that would frankly have baffled the ancient Greeks. In any case, it isn’t important. It is the relationship that is set up that counts - a mutual dependence. In this scenario, the younger boys loyalty towards their ‘prefects’, as I have called them, makes perfect sense, but sets up an interesting dynamic when Lykos is faced with a conflicting loyalty to the state, to his Sparta. Of course, at his age, it is difficult for him to have any concept of the wider political picture. All he has ever known since the age of seven is school and those around him and it is not surprising that he chooses to stay loyal to the older boys until events finally bring a different perspective.

The price of failure

As for Aratos, he is ‘cursed’. (I chose the name because it has a double-edged meaning: both ‘prayed-for’ and ‘accursed’). He has no family connections in Sparta (or so it would seem) and he shows none of the physical prowess or stamina required to be a warrior. It isn’t his fault, of course, but that’s not the point.  He is an object of shame to all those around him and is himself ashamed to the point of despair.

It is easy to be shocked at the callous attitude of the children of Sparta’s barracks, but it seems to me that the instincts of school children in 21st Century Britain are not so very different. Certainly, our sense of shame is very strong when we are young and an inability to fit in or a failure in a public forum can still result in a stinging sense of shame that lasts a lifetime, even if it wasn’t ‘our fault’. The difference is that in our society we are educated in tolerance and encouraged to accept difference as a part of the human condition. Spartan society was much less forgiving. Why this should be, takes us to the heart of the political story of Sparta and will be the subject of a future blog.

        ¹ Dodds, Eric R. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press 1951

      ² Cartledge Paul, The Spartans - An Epic History Macmillan 2002 p.64