Sparta Flash Card #1

Sparta Flash Card #46: Everyday Life: Marriage Customs

Historian Evidence Relationship to other Syllabus dot points

Xenophon Lycurgus ...

 " ... thought that female slaves were competent to furnish clothes; and, considering that the PRODUCTION OF CHILDREN WAS THE NOBLEST DUTY OF THE FREE, he enacted ...that the female should practice bodily exercise no less than the male sex..." ".....He ordained that a man should think it shame to be seen going in to his wife, or coming out from her. When married people meet in this way, they must feel stronger desire for the company of one another...and produce more robust offspring....

 ."....He took from the men the liberty of marrying when each of them pleased, and appointed that they should contract marriages only when they were in full bodily vigor, deeming this injunction also conducive to producing excellent offspring..."

 "An old man should introduce to his wife whatever man in the prime of life he admired for his bodily and mental qualities, so that she might have children by him... "

 "He also assigned some of the grown-up boys as ‘whip-bearers’ so that they might inflict whatever punishment was necessary (on younger boys), so that the great dread of DISGRACE, and great willingness to obey, prevailed among them. Lycurgus, though he did not give the boys permisson to take what they wanted without trouble, DID GIVE them the liberty to steal certain things to relieve the cravings of nature; and he made it honorable to steal as many cheeses as possible... "  "He taught the children from a desire to render them more dexterous in securing provisions, and better qualified for warfare."

 "...I must also say something of the boys as objects of affection, for this likewise has some reference to education.... Lycurgus thought proper, if any man (being himself such as he ought to be) admired the disposition of a youth, and made it his purpose to render him a faultless friend, and to enjoy his company, to bestow praise on the boy; and he regarded this as the most excellent kind of education..."

 "Lycurgus prohibited free citizens from having anything to do with business.... they should not desire wealth with a view to sensual gratification. At Sparta the citizens pay strictest obedience to the magistrates and the laws. Lycurgus did not attempt to establish such an ‘Excellent Order of Things’ (EUNOMIA) until he had brought the most powerful men in the state to be of the same opinion as he was with regard to the constitution... OBEDIENCE is of the greatest benefit, as well in a State as in an army anda family..."

 "An honorable death is preferable to a dishonorable life.... At Lacedaemon everyone would be ashamed to allow a coward into the same tent as himself,or allow him to be his opponent in a match at wrestling...."

 "Lycurgus also imposed on his countrymen an obligation, from which there is no exception, of practising every kind of political virtue; for he made the privileges of citizenship EQUALLY available to all those who observed what was commanded by the Laws, without taking any account either of bodily weakness or limited financial means; but if anyone was too lazy to do what the Laws demanded, Lycurgus commanded that he should no longer be counted among the number of ‘equally privileged citizens’ (the HOMOIOI)." 1. Marriage BOS 1  A Spartan equal was not allowed to marry until age of 30, when he could leave the barracks. The women could be younger.  After wedding – for historians know nothing of the ceremony – the bride had her hair cut short like a boys and she dressed in a man’s cloak and sandals.  The point of these customs not clear – seems possible that the man’s clothes were supposed to show that the women had submitted to control of husband.  It was vital to the Spartans that marriages should produce children – thus adopting the custom that if a couple had no children, it was considered quite proper for a man to invite a younger man to sleep with his wife in hope that the union would produce a child.  So important were children to the state that various penalties were attached to bachelorhood.  Child had to also be healthy – as soon as a baby was born, it was washed in wine because Spartans believed (quite wrongly) that a weak or sick child would simply die if washed in wine, whereas a strong child would be strengthened still more.  A child who survived the wine test had to be then accepted by the city. – The father had to take his child before certain elders whose job it was to decide whether the baby was likely to grow up strong or weak, as someone who was crippled would be unable to help the Equals maintain their warrior way of life.  If elders decided that the baby looked strong enough, they declared that it could be brought up as a citizen. - It was at this point that an estate was thus granted to the future warrior.  If they felt the baby was too weak or saw that it was deformed, they ordered that it should be left to die in a chasm by near-by mountains.

Sources on marriage - Both Plutarch and Xenophon suggest that the nature of marriage practices and households was designed to make young Spartans of either gender look forward to marriage and the production of children rather than to recoil from it or see it as a burden

- Plutarch tells us of the marriage ceremony - Women get married by being abducted, not when they are small and under-age but when they are in their prime and ripe - When the bride has been abducted the bridesmaid, takes hold of her and shaves her hair off…dresses her in a man’s cloak and sandals and puts her to be on a pallet alone and in the dark - Then the bridegroom slips quietly into the room… unloosens her girdle and raising her up, carries her over to the bed - After spending a short amount of time with her, he departs discreetly to wherever he was previously accustomed to spend the night in order to bed down with the rest of him comrades

 marriage customs no evidence for Perioikoi or helot marriage marriage was often arranged women married around 18, men late twenties girls had dowries before marriage a women only feast took place For Spartan women a marriage was a non-ceremonial event. She was abducted in the middle of the night by her husband to be, her head was shaved, and she was made to wear men’s clothing. From here on she would only meet with her husband for the sole purpose of conceiving children. This manner in which marriage occurred led to many wives to husband or many husbands to a wife Spartans believed that a women should not be married until she is of “full bloom and ripe”. At this age she could enjoy the sexual intimacy, other wise it was considered an act of violence married to a man around 4-5 years older as opposed to many years older which other Greek women were forced into man had to sneak out of the barracks in order to see his wife Wife sharing occurred. Husbands would lend their wives to single men to produce children no such thing as adultery marriage was kept secret until wife was pregnant, if not permission to remarry