A Boy of the Agoge

by Helena P. Schrader

  I have also assumed that the duration of the phouxir was long enough to represent a hardship for the boys, but not long enough for widespread theft to be disruptive in a very ordered society. It is simply not reasonable to imagine that every Spartan wife on her kleros and every craftsman and merchant vital to the survival of the city had to live in constant fear of theft by the hordes of youth in the agoge. This is why I do not accept the interpretation of other historians that suggest the youths of the agoge had to live outside society for an entire year. If that were the case, one age-cohort would always be in the phouxir, and society would be dealing constantly with thieving youth rather than getting on with making a living. Instead, I have chosen to limit the phouxir to 40 days and 40 nights, at that time of the year when the harvest would already be safely in and the slaughter taking place, thus minimizing the potential for desperate youth to disrupt society by their theft.

  The tradition for set classes with distinctive names dates from the Hellenistic agoge. However, schools all over the world are organised into “grades” by age. It is the exception—and almost always seen as a serious disadvantage—when children of different ages are mixed together. There can be no doubt that although children develop at different rates individually, on the whole the differences between children belonging to one age-cohort are less than the differences between age-cohorts. Furthermore, it is generally unfair to pit young children against older children at sport. Since there can be little doubt that the Spartans placed considerable emphasis on physical exercise, it is reasonable to suppose the Spartans always segregated the boys of the agoge by age-cohort—whether or not they gave them discrete designations.

  The unique status and role of eirenes is one of the few features of the agoge that can be found in Xenophon. Unfortunately he does not define the term, and so we cannot be sure what age his “eirenes” were. However, we do know that throughout the Greek world, youths on the brink of citizenship went through intense military training and performed key military functions such as guard and garrison duty. While in a sense the entire agoge was a form of military training, it is nevertheless reasonable to suppose that the eldest classes were gradually given greater and greater responsibility. Xenophon himself stresses that at the very age when “youths become very self-willed and are particularly liable to cockiness”, Lycurgus decreed that Spartan youth “be loaded with the greatest amount of work and contrived that they be occupied for the maximum time.” This description fits perfectly for 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds. I certainly cannot accept Kennel’s argument that all young men on active service (ages 21 to 30) were “eirenes”, because once Spartan men were on active service their duties—and the possibility of being called up on campaign and so away from the city for months on end—would have made it impossible for them to act as instructors and drill masters in the agoge. Lastly, there is no reason to believe that nothing in the agoge of the Hellenistic period came from an earlier tradition; and so I have projected the Hellenistic tradition, in which the eirenes were 20-year-olds and meleireines 19-year-olds, backwards to the period of this book.

  The evidence for elected leaders and “herds” of boys is also quite ancient. In addition to Plutarch’s description of the boys being organised into troops with elected leaders at age seven, many inscriptions at sacred sites in Sparta suggest the importance of various kinds of groups, possibly teams, and their leaders. The terms used mean nothing to us today, and it seems most probable that there were a variety of different teams or groups that might well have intersected in various ways. Given the confusion, I have chosen to keep it simple, in this case following Plutarch.

  Many readers may be surprised to see no description of institutionalized pederasty in this book. This is not an oversight, not ignorance of the fact that many noted historians stress its importance, nor coyness with a theme thought distasteful. Rather, it is my considered opinion that there is absolutely no evidence of pederasty in the agoge—or in Spartan society generally—at this period or in the centuries before. Like many other of the most offensive aspects of the agoge, I believe it is a later development. As noted above, Xenophon, the only historian with first-hand experience of the agoge, states explicitly: “...[Lycurgus] ...laid down that at Sparta lovers should refrain from molesting boys just as much as parents avoid having intercourse with their children or brothers with their sisters.” It is hard to find a more definitive statement than this, and from the most authoritative of sources. To dismiss this evidence simply because it does not suit preconceived ideas is arrogant. Xenophon even goes on to add: “It does not surprise me, however, that some people do not believe this, since in many cities the laws do not oppose lusting after boys.” And this is the crux of the matter. All of our written sources on Sparta come from these other cities, where pederasty was rampant, in short from men who could not imagine a world without it. But then, they could not imagine women who were educated, physically fit, and economically powerful who were not also licentious and lewd either.

  Modern readers ought to be more open-minded and admit that pederasty is not inherent in society—particularly not in a society where women are well integrated. My thesis is supported by another ancient authority, Aristotle, who blamed all of Sparta’s woes on the fact that the women were in control of things, a fact that he in turn attributed to the lack of homosexuality in Spartan society generally. Finally, I would like to call on the archaeological evidence. To date—in sharp contrast to other Greek cities—no Spartan homoerotic artwork has been found. Since the Spartan legacy of artefacts is somewhat less numerous than that of Athens, Corinth, or other cities, maybe something will still turn up; but until that happens, the evidence is very strongly against institutionalized pederasty in the agoge of the archaic and early classical periods.

  There has also been endless scholarly debate about what clothing the boys of the agoge were allowed. Xenophon stressed only that in contrast to the spoilt boys of other cities (who had vast wardrobes of himations), the Spartan boys were given only one per year. At no time did he imply they wore no undergarments, although this is the interpretation of many later scholars. Again, I follow closely the research of Nigel Kennel.

  Of greater significance is the fact that Spartan education did include literacy and music, the primary subjects of ancient education. Starting with the circumstantial evidence, Spartans could not have commanded the respect of the ancient world, engaged in complicated diplomatic manoeuvring, and attracted the sons of intellectuals like Xenophon to their agoge if they had been as illiterate and uneducated as some modern writers like to portray them. Clearly Spartans knew their laws very well, they could debate in international forums, and their sayings were considered so witty that they were collected by their contemporaries. Furthermore, Sparta is known to have entertained leading philosophers and to have had a high appreciation of poetry, as evidenced by the many contests and festivals for poetry, particularly in the form of lyrics. The abundance of inscriptions and dedications found in Sparta are clear testimony to a literate society; one does not brag about one’s achievements in stone if no one in your society can read! Likewise, Sparta sent written orders to its commanders, and anecdotal evidence suggests that mothers and sons exchanged letters.

  Certainly, ancient sources stress the Spartan emphasis on musical education and on dance. Most importantly, ancient sources not only concede that Spartan youth learned to read and write, but claim that “devotion to the intellect is more characteristic of Spartans than love of physical exercise.” (Plutarch, Lycurgus:20)

  Last but not least, while everyone agrees that Spartan education was designed to turn the graduates of the agoge into good soldiers, I have tried to point out that the skills needed by a good soldier included far more than skill with weapons, physical fitness, endurance, and obedience. A good soldier also had to be able to track, to read the weather from the clouds, to navigate by the stars, to recognise poisonous plants, to apply first aid, to build fortifications and trenches, and much, much more.
Far too little attention is paid by most commentators to this simple fact. I am confident that while the ages at which certain things were taught are fictional, the total picture provided here is closer to reality than the one-sided and unidimensional depiction of most modern writers.