Assignment: Plutarch,
Coursepack, "Lycurgus," pp. 45-58, & "Solon," pp.
59-70.
Topics Addressed:
The Spartan Way as Outlined in the Life
of Lycurgus by Plutarch
- Lycurgus: history of legend?
- Lycurgus' main institutions
- Council of Elders
- Redistribution of Land &
Possessions
- Common messes
- Laws unwritten: why?
- Education
- Spontaneous commitment
- Public opinion
- Competition and Emulation
- The ability to take a
joke...
- Marriage by Abduction. Initial visitation
only in secret. Why?
- Inspection of newborns.
- Centerpiece of Spartan way:
Education.
- Exercise for both men and
women.
- Nakedness.
- Limited reading and writing.
- Boys attached to young men as lovers.
Why?
- Boys taught to steal (e.g. story of
fox).
- No one allowed to live as he
pleased.
- Life in a military camp.
- Laconic mode of speech: what is
it?
- Long hair for warriors: why?
- Spartan military practices
- Do not fight often against the same
enemy: why?
- Do not slaughter an enemy that has
surrendered: why?
- Who supported the militarized leisure of
Spartan men?
- Travel restrictions
- Funeral arrangements
A Look at Athens as Reflected in the Life
of Solon by Plutarch
- Solon: poet, philosopher,
historical.
- Military career: Salamis and
Aegina.
- Solon presents an alternative solution to
the problem of rich vs. poor: cancels debt (or eliminates
debt-bondage), but does not redistribute land (as in Sparta).
Result? Angers both rich and poor.
- Compare Athenian love of euphemism with
Laconic mode of speech. What do Athenians call taxes, prostitutes,
prisons, etc.?
- Revision of Draco's legal code. Elimination
of death penalty for minor offenses.
- Other legislation
- Classification of citizens by
wealth
- Laws on Marriage
- Husbands must have sex three times
per month with wives
- Tried to remove dowry as a
consideration in marriage
- No slander of dead
- Freedom of bequests in
wildl-making
- Neatness & orderliness for
women
- No self-laceration at
funerals
- No more than three sets of clothes for
corpses
- Laws on rape: how did they
vary?
- Laws on planting, wells, and figs (cf.
sycophancy)
- Athenians swore to uphold his laws for 100
years.
- Travel to Egypt, Cypress,
Sardis
- Visit to Croesus.
- Wisdom: No one may be considered happy till
he is dead. Why? Stories of Telus, Cleobis &
Biton.
- End of life spent under tyranny of
Pisistratus.