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Man or Myth?

“Generally speaking it is impossible to make any undisputed statement about Lycurgus the lawgiver, since conflicting accounts have been given of his ancestry, his travels, his death and above all his activity with respect to his laws and government; but there is at least agreement about the period in which the man lived.”
Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 1

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Tyrtaeus
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Plutarch
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Aristotle
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Herodotus
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Xenophon

“They heard the voice of Phoebus and brought home from Pytho oracles of the God and words of sure fulfilment; 15 for thus the Lord of the Silver Bow,
Far-Shooting Apollo of the Golden Hair, gave answer from out his rich sanctuary: The beginning of counsel shall belong to the God-honoured Kings whose care is the delightsome city of Sparta, and to the men of elder birth; after them shall the commons, answering them back with forthright ordinances, 16 both say things honourable and do all that is right, nor give the city any crooked counsel; so shall the common people have victory and might; for this hath Phoebus declared unto their city in these matters.”
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7 th century Spartan warrior and poet – patriotic war march poems
Eye witness to Second Messenian War
Does NOT mention Lycurgus – constitution came from 2 kings
“For 'tis a fair thing for a good man to fall and die fighting in the van for his native land, whereas to leave his city and his rich fields and go a-begging is of all things the most miserable, wandering with mother dear and aged father, with little children and wedded wife.
Abide then, O young men, shoulder to shoulder and fight; begin not foul flight nor yet be afraid, but make the heart in your breasts both great and stout, and never shrink when you fight the foe.”

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Main source on Lycurgus and the Great Rhetra
Sources – oral tradition and writings that are lost i.e. Aristotle’s Constitution of the Spartans, Theopompos and Timaeus( 4 th century BC ) Detailed account of the reforms attributed to the legendary lawgiver – positive view of Lycurgus
Aim - He wanted Greeks and Romans alike to recognize the tremendous legacy which they had inherited from the great men of the past -- and the great city-states of the past (didactic – ‘moral’)
“Among the many innovations which
Lycurgus made, the first and most important was his institution of a senate, or Council of
Elders, which, as Plato says, by being blended with the "feverish" government of the kings, and by having an equal vote with them in matters of the highest importance, brought safety and due moderation into counsels of state.”

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Athenian philosopher, in the 4 th century BCE
“Among these is Aristotle the philosopher, and he alleges as proof the discus at Olympia on which an inscription preserves the name of
Lycurgus.”
Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 1
View on Sparta:
 concerned with its failings as well as the operation of its political system
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 he is "critical of Spartan institutions and paints a vivid picture of the complete breakdown of
Spartan society in his own time - a dwindling citizen body, extreme inequality of property with two-fifths of the land owned by women,
and prevailing greed and luxury." Fitzhardinge.
Athenian and gender bias

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Deals with foreign policy
Critises constitution
Greatest importance – Persian wars and
Sparta’s role
Praises Spartans for Thermopylae and courage, partner with Athens
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“How the change to good government came about I will now relate. Lycurgus,
a distinguished Spartan, visited the
Delphic oracle, and no sooner had he entered the shrine than he was greeted with there words………….. Yet I incline
to believe, Lycrugus, that you are a god.”
Herodotus, The Histories, Book 1
“By these changes Spartan government was put upon a sound basis.”

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Lycurgus was a man “who established laws under which they flourished”
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“Adopted opposite institutions to the majority with outstanding results”
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Full of praise for Sparta – served in Spartan army
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Athenian exile who lived in the declining Sparta in the early 4th
C.
 his Constitution of the
Lacedaemonians gives an account of Spartan social, educational and military practices, all linked to
Lycurgus' direction.
“ Now once it had struck me that Sparta, despite having one of the lowest populations, had nonetheless clearly become the most powerful and most famous in Greece, I wondered how this had ever happened. But I stopped wondering once I had pondered the
Spartiate institutions, for they have achieved success by obeying the laws laid down for them by Lycurgus.”

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Sparta underwent a period of considerable stress and turmoil during the Messenian Wars – Probably lived
650 – 600 BCE
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Spartans then experienced a long period of stability and prosperity for 200 years
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Why did this Spartan revolution take place?
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Paranoid of Helot revolt
Economic changes –possibility for unequal distribution of wealth (Messenia)
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Read page 13 and take notes on the life of Lycurgus

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Gerousia – senate of 30 men (2 kings + 38 elders)– curbed the authority of the king and uninformed opinion of the multitude.
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Right to vote in assembly
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Redistribution of land equally among citizens – intent of eliminating wealth disparity.
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Forbids citizens from money making work – Helots to do all manual labour – Spartans to be full time warriors
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Eliminates all money – changed currency to iron
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Forbids any luxuries in house
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Syssitia - Common messes
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Established rules for relationships, marriage, drinking, behaviour in public
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Spartan education system and military training system

constitutional changes also relevant to the Spartan military organization; state control of all phases in the development of the
Spartan citizen (agoge); austerity i.e. severely simple and harsh lifestyle of the Spartans (food, clothing, architecture and lack of luxuries)
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“Ordinances such as these, then, Lycurgus called rhetras, because they were considered to come from the god and to be oracles.”
Plutarch, Life of
Lycurgus, 13)
“When thou has built a temple to Zeus Syllanius and Athena Syllania, divided the people into phylai, and divided them into 'obai', and established a Gerousia of thirty including the Archagetai, then from time to time 'appellazein' between Babyka and Knakion, and there introduce and repeal measures; but the Demos must have the decision and the power.” Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 6

THE RIDER:
It is thought that the Rider was a later document introduced possibly by
Theopompus allowing the Gerousia to withdraw legislation if the people spoke crookedly
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Foundation document of the Spartan constitution. Limit the powers of the two kings and establishment of the Gerousia.
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Reforms encompassed all aspects of Spartan life: economic, political and social.
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Ideal underpinning all of these reforms - eunomia (good order and good government – emphasised by duty and obedience to the laws).
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This good order gave Sparta its relative stability and earned the admiration of many Greek writers.

“One-against-one, they [ the Spartans] are as good as anyone in the world. But when they fight in a body, they are the best of all. For though they are free men, they are not entirely free. They accept Law as their master. And they respect this master more than your subjects respect you.
Whatever he commands, they do. And his command never changes: It forbids them to flee in battle, whatever the number of their foes. He requires them to stand firm -- to conquer or die”
Herodotus