THIS IS SPARTAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 20:25:48 02/10/08 Sun
Author: JPJ II
Subject: THIS IS SPARTAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was reading Plutarch's 'Lives' today, and I noticed something that seemed to be extremely anti-mimetic. Plutarch is recounting the fabled life of Lycurgus and describing the type of institutions believed to have made Sparta a Hellenic powerhouse for 500 years. Among these institutions is the conscious breaking down of distinctions amongst the Spartiate class of society. All outward signs of difference in wealth were strongly discouraged or made illegal because, as Plutarch and John Edwards are both so kind to point out, differences in wealth (societal distinctions) tended to breed hostility between different groups. To this end all property in Sparta was supposedly redistributed between the Spartiate class so that no man would appear to be different from another.

Concerning the youth, "he made young girls no less than young men grow used to walking nude in processions." The gender distinctions are broken down from birth among the Spartiates along with any distinctions of material wealth. Also, the entire Spartan education and civil structures were directed at forming a unitary, conformed individual, and the Spartans did this with great success for 500 years. (note: success here defined as achieving their goal of entirely indistinct citizens rather than economic and material progress.) Plutarch writes that "he accustomed citizens to have no desire for private life...but rather to be like bees..."

Even more shocking is the lack of interpersonal rivalry resulting from such destructions of distinctions. "Yet there was no rivalry; instead, if individual males found that their affections had the same object, they made this the foundation for mutual friendship, and eagerly pursued joint efforts to perfect their loved one's character." Plutarch also stresses the openness of sexual partners between marriages and the lack of resentment caused by this.

The question before the house is this: how could such a society have developed and, living in a state of no societal distinctions (within the spartiate class) maintain "Good Order" for nearly 500 years?

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Re: THIS IS SPARTAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Cara, 13:13:59 02/17/08 Sun
- Re: THIS IS SPARTAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Jonathan Dunn, 17:25:32 02/17/08 Sun
- Re: THIS IS SPARTAAAA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- JPJ II, 20:48:20 02/17/08 Sun