SPARTA RELIGION DEATH AND BURIAL GODS GODDESSES Sparta

SPARTA RELIGION, DEATH AND BURIAL

GODS & GODDESSES • Sparta worshipped the 12 Olympian gods & goddesses, such as: - Zeus, Hera, Ares, Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Artemis, Eros & Hestia. • Zeus was worshipped as the divine founder. • Spartans believed that the gods ruled their lives.

GODS & GODDESSES • ARTEMIS ORTHIA was important because of her association with childbirth. • Sanctuary on the banks of Eurotas River. • Hundreds of tiny lead figures found here – given as offerings.

GODS & GODDESSES (cont. ) • A strange, grotesque type of mask also found – possibly copies of masks worn during ritual dances to the goddess. • Religious festival to honour Artemis Orthia – boys would run between the Temple of Artemis Orthia & the altar to snatch cheese. • They would be whipped along the way!

GODS & GODDESSES (cont. ) • A statue of APOLLO was found at the sanctuary of Amyclae. • He was armed with both a bow and spear, indicating a war-like nature. • The festival Hyakinthia was associated with Apollo.

GODS & GODDESSES (cont. )

GODS & GODDESSES (cont. ) • POSEIDON, the god of the sea, also had a temple dedicated to him. • This was near Cape Taenaron, supposedly the spot where Heracles entered the Underworld for the last of his 12 labours (capture of Cerberus).

MYTHS & LEGENDS: LYCURGUS • Much of the information on Sparta comes from Greek writers who did not live there. • Consequently, the truth about Sparta may have been exaggerated. • One myth surrounds a single great law-giver, LYCURGUS, who produced the Spartan system.

MYTHS & LEGENDS: TROJAN WAR • The Spartans adopted many heroes of the Trojan War – among them were Menelaus and his wife Helen; Castor and Polydeuces, Helen’s brothers; and Agamemnon.

MYTHS & LEGENDS: THE DIOSCURI • The DIOSCURI were the twin Spartan princes, CASTOR and POLYDEUCES. • Believed to have been transformed by Zeus into the constellation of Gemini. • Associated with young men & their pursuits of horsemanship, athletics & warfare.

FESTIVALS: HYAKINTHIA • The Spartans had 9 major festivals for the gods each year. They would take precedence over other matters, including war. • HYAKINTHIA was held at Amyclae in early summer & lasted for 3 days.

FESTIVALS: HYAKINTHIA (cont. ) • Dedicated to a vegetarian god, Hyakinthos, who was Apollo’s lover and died when accidentally hit with Apollo’s discus. • Apollo so upset that an annual festival was ordered in his honour. • Basic features: mourning Hyakinthos & praising Apollo, choirs of boys, processions, dancers, chariot races, sacrifices & feasts. • Spartiates even entertained the helots!

FESTIVALS: GYMNOPAEDIA • Athletic competitions & musical events held in July. • Endurance competition where dancing & running in the heat proved the strength & stamina of competitors. • May have been a rite of passage to initiate young soldiers into a life of physical excellence. • Associated with offering of thanks to Apollo for military success.

FESTIVALS: APOLLO KARNEIA • Probably in August. • Perhaps a harvest festival or to celebrate return of Heracles’ sons & founding of Sparta. • A group of young men, STRAPHYLODROMOI, chased after a man wearing a garland. • This man had to pray to the gods for his city-state & then run away.

FESTIVALS: APOLLO KARNEIA (cont. ) • If caught, the omens for the city were good. • Feast held under tent-like shelters. • Athletic contests & games run on military lines & organised according to the agoge’s divisions. • Festival of military success & prosperity.

RELIGIOUS ROLE OF THE KINGS • Kings were chief priests of Sparta. • Believed to be descended from Heracles & with divine ancestry. • They could make sacrifices and offerings to the gods on Sparta’s behalf. • Offered solemn sacrifices for the city to Apollo every month.

RELIGIOUS ROLE OF THE KINGS (cont. ) • Prepared necessary sacrifices at Sparta’s borders when going to war. • Could be forgiven for losing a battle or not fighting if he had a reasonable religious excuse. • Appointed pythioi to consult the Delphic Oracle.

RELIGION AND KINGS • Xenophon cited in Plutarch says “. . . a king, by virtue of his divine descent, should perform all the public sacrifices on the city’s behalf and should lead the army wherever the city despatches it. ” • Kings were high priests and performed sacrifices at major festivals. As well on the way to war sacrifice would be made 3 times. When? • They were also responsible for divination which could be particularly useful if disinclined to engage in battle.

RELIGION; ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF • “The power of prophecy, the sanctity of sanctuaries and festivals, the threat of divine punishment are all distinctive features of the Spartan religion. Mary Douglas has argued that the forms of social discipline in a society and its conceptions of divine power are related phenomena. The more an individual feels subject to a set of rules that he must obey without question, the more he is to understand religion too as a matter of fixed and formal observance. • The gods were at the top of the chain of command that ran down through Spartan society. Thus there was a constant need to seek instruction through divination supervised by the humans just below them in the chain of command. • Spartan religion was Spartan more on its insistence on orderliness and obedience than in any particular military emphasis it may have had. ” Robert Parker

Role & Importance • Ensures fertility, both human and agricultural • Ensures victory in war • Reinforces social stratification • Reinforces military values • Provides a sense of control over their lives Characteristics of • Competition • Obedience • Periods of mourning and celebration • Blood Sacrifice • Ritual offerings • Processional • Oracular predictions • Divination • Hero Worship

FUNERARY CUSTOMS & RITUALS • • Only people who had marked graves were: men who died in battle; women who died in childbirth. All others buried in unmarked graves within the city area rather than outside it.

Funeral Rites • Ordinary Spartans had simple funerals. The only groups allowed inscribed graves were men who died in battle and women, in childbirth. According to Plutarch Lycurgus allowed mortuary temples within the city walls so that people would not fear death. Main features of funerary customs: -death was accepted (helped in battle) -grave goods/offerings were not placed in a grave -soldiers were buried wrapped in their red cloaks with olive leaves placed around -burials appeared to be in simple pit or tile graves -Warriors could be buried on the battlefield with grave markers ‘in war’ placed to identify the body. Women received names on their grave markers ‘in childbirth’ if they died during childbirth or held religious office -funerary rituals were conducted by female relatives and included: -laying out the body -a funeral procession -a burial

FUNERARY CUSTOMS AND RITUALS • HERODOTUS‘…and after they are dead horsemen go round announce that which has happened throughout the whole of the Spartan land, and in the city women go about and strike upon a copper kettle. Whenever this happens so, two free persons of each household must go into mourning, a man and a woman, and for those who fail to do this great penalties are prescribed. . a certain number of the perioiki are compelled to go to the funeral ceremony: and when there have been gathered together of these and of the helots and of the Spartans themselves many thousands in the same place, with their women intermingled, they beat their foreheads with a good will and make lamentation without stint, saying that this one who had died last of their kings has been killed in war, they prepare an image to represent him, laid upon a couch with fair coverings, and carry it out to be buried. Then after they have buried him, no assembly is held among them for ten days, nor is there any meeting for choice of magistrates, but they have mourning during these days. ”

HISTORIOGRAPHY • Pheidippides, the Athenian runner, was sent to Sparta requesting help for the Battle of Marathon. • “The Spartans, though moved by the appeal, and willing to send help to Athens, were unable to send it promptly because they did not wish to break their law. It was the ninth day of the month, and they said they could not take the field until the moon was full. ” Herodotus

HISTORIOGRAPHY • “Leonidas and his three hundred were sent by Sparta in advance of the main army. . . [T]he intention was, when the Carneia was over (for it was that festival which prevented the Spartans from taking the field in the ordinary way), to leave a garrison in the city and march with all the troops at their disposal. ” Herodotus

HISTORIOGRAPHY • “. . . and men and women together strike their foreheads with every sign of grief, wailing as if they could never stop and continually declaring that the king who has just died was the best they ever had. ” Herodotus

HISTORIOGRAPHY • “Touching burials, Lycurgus made very wise regulations; for, first of all, to cut off all superstition, he allowed them to bury their dead within the city, and even around their temples, to the end that their youth might be accustomed to such spectacles, and not be afraid to see a dead body. . . ” Plutarch

HISTORIOGRAPHY • “And after making it a matter of honour for them to snatch just as many cheeses as possible from Orthia, [Lykourgos] commanded others to whip them, wishing to demonstrate thereby the point that a short period of pain may be compensated by the enjoyment of longlasting prestige. ” Talbert (trans. ) Plutarch on Sparta, 1988.