Living Spartan: An introduction
Living Spartan
To understand this text, you need to have the mentality of a warrior.
Before you read this document you should have gone through a basic ritual of fighting. You should have experienced physical pain, blood leaking from your body from a wound made by another warrior. You should tasted that salty flavor of blood in your mouth. You should have been humbled but also realize that you are capable of taking blows. Realize you are a physical being that can be touched, hurt and killed. Understand that your mind has the power to get you back up, and endure. Let me say with more simplicity.
You need to have been punched in the face.
This will unlock pathways of your mind, to begin to understand the warrior's mindset. If you have not done that, then you won't understand it. More importantly you are also not worthy of it.
The Spartan Coda
- Own You
- Prize the Internal
- Seek Resistance
- Disdain Luxury
- Wear Red
- Come back with your Shield or on it
- Brevity
- Strength through Simplicity
- Fight For Others
- Do it
Living Spartan
You are here. GOOD. Lets get bloody.
Sparta was a prominent Greek city state that arose as a military and political power between 900 and 200 BC. While the legendary actions of the Spartans have inspired generations of warriors very few hard facts are known about their philosophy. There are only handful of sentences that were written by Spartans that have survived to this day. They were secretive about what they knew, possibly because they deemed others unworthy of it. Luckily, the actions and culture of the Spartans was recorded by others, who generally held a mixture of both awe and horror of them. They are the legends, the epoch of warriordom to which all warriors aspire to. I have worked to gather and study what accounts do exist. From this I have distilled the elements of their view on life. To the Spartans the life worth living was one that led to them to being a whole Spartan. A wholeness to personhood that included self understanding, and a balance within itself and the world around it.
Living Spartan is my work to blend together aspects of modern life with the warrior philosophy of the ancient Spartans. It is not intended to be a religion or an economic theory. It is a philosophy of life, a set of directions on how to think, and act to find contentment. These are thoughts that fill me with fire, and make me eager to engage with life. They have led me to my own place of contentment. If you disagree with it, GOOD. Take these ideas out onto battlefields of your mind and have at them. If they fall there so be it, let the best ideas win and let that which was slain, rot.
In no way do I claim to own the Truth. I came to this philosophy because I saw problems in myself. You may not have these problems and if the problems I am discussing seem alien... GOOD. You are not wrong, you are right, move forward and toss this into the fire.
I will also give you this warning, and I will only write this once. This is a philosophy for those who have a warrior's mentality. It is based on the greatest warriors to have ever walked the Earth. I am not worthy of writing it, you are not worthy of reading it. So with every word we must attempt to grow as best we are able, to rise, to meet it. Truths will be said as they are meant to be said. Words and critiques will NOT have softened edges, they will be sharpened, let afire, poisoned and plunged into your mind without any mercy The blows will rain on you like a deluge. I do not care how much the thoughts and revelations hurt you, there is no safety here. You are sailing your puny philosophical ship into the hard rocks of truth. This is where weak ideas die. What ever is left will be made stronger. If you don't like it, Leave. This is written for myself and other warriors. If it is too tough for you then... GOOD.
Take your lunchbox, soap operas and inhaler and get out of here. Go eat a cup cake.
To those who want to study the philosophy of the Spartans prepare yourself, because you really are not ready.
There are problems in our world, and the time to correct them is now.
Talking too much about problems can quickly turn into whining and whining is useless. I do not want to spend too much time on the next subject. This subject is about the weakling ethos that permeates our modern life. However, if you do not understand the problem then you will never comprehend the solution.
The world is moving fast, and humans have become very abstract thinkers in order to adapt to it. However, in our attempts to adapt we have also become untethered to the basic, the simple, the earthbound, the fundamental aspects of life. The core components of what we are, those aspect that used to be known are now mysterious. In other words we have become technological wunderkinds in some areas, but have become ignoramus children in others. We don't know who we are at our cores or what actually makes us happy. Signs of this contrast are everywhere.
By any measure, humans have done some extraordinary things. Our current economic knowledge and systems are amazing. Our technology and what it is capable of doing is phenomenal. These advancements have led people to have access to more resources, more travel, and more time. Modern medicine has cured diseases and our life spans have lengthened People are more educated than ever before and despite what many alarmists will say people are better abstract thinkers on the whole, than in previous generations.
However, for all of our advancement there are contrasting signs of philosophical decay. In the developed world there are growing signs that people are not content, people are depressed. People are fat. People all over the world are eating themselves to death and unhealthy. We are consuming too much for our world to bear. Our present systems can not be sustained in their present course. The environment of the world in many places is beginning to fail. Personal debts are higher, people are working more despite all the added productivity gains. Personal connections seem rarer even though they are heavily desired and modern technology should makes them easier. People seem less connected to their friends, communities and even to their own families. Psychotics everywhere mistake infamy for honor. People are having less sex, even though they watch ever increasing quantities of people faking it on the internet. People are turning toward extremist political parties even though their systems are generally working well. People are not content, they are angry, small minded, bitter and unhappy.
Why for all of our advancement, and are phenomenal wealth are we still not content and fulfilled?
I see many engage in a form of ludditism at this question. They attempt to throw rocks at the Free Market economy, or advanced technology that has given us great economic gains. I do not find those answers satisfying. I don't see how destroying technology or the free market that has given us production gains will make us more happy. I think the real question is this, How are we allocating resources? Technology has given rise to an abundance of resources but if we spend those resources without direction they will never mean anything. We will forever be attempting to fill a void with nothingness. How do we use these tools, instead of letting these tools use us.
The key to contentment is not an external one, it is an internal one. As uncomfortable as it may make you, you are the key to your own contentment. There is no thing that can be given you, no person outside you, no machine, no medicine, no place, no event, no externality that can make you happy, only you can do it. THE PROBLEM IS YOU. Why is the world out of balance? Because you are out of balance.
Why is this?
The reason is simple. We have become WEAK. In particular we have lost a meaningful philosophy to guide us in life. That weakness can not be overcome by food, by security, by shelter, by stuff, by hedonism, by drugs, or by technology. Having a philosophy is a core part of living life in a meaningful way, if you don't have one, nothing else will matter. Without one you will be too WEAK. You will be stressed, you will be fat, and you will be unhappy. With out a philosophy you will encounter the POWERFUL forces of life and they will knock you on your ass. They will do this because your philosophy, the core of your being is WEAK. Spartans recognized this, they focused on building a STRONG philosophy in all of their people and could thus fight against anything and everything.
How did we get to this pathetic place?
People have left religious philosophy and tried to back fill it with economic theory, politics and science and a whole slew of Isms. These things are not adequate for the loss of a personal philosophy and ethical structure that religious beliefs previousily provided. The modern world has become enamored with its own power to do things and have developed a kind of chronocentrism. Chronocentrism is a putrid mental illness that many are infected by in today's world, it is the assumption that today's ideas are better that past ideas only because they occurred later. People who follow this do not learn from previous generations, they do not study history because they see it as valueless. Those that do not study history are left lost without the real weapons to understand the world and themselves. People become a mystery to themselves. This is the epoch of ignorance and misery. Eliminate chronocentrism from your mind and let ideas old and new have an equal footing on your philosophical battlefield. This act opens you up to more ideas and will make your personal philosophy battle tested and powerful.
The rise the fake philosophy of the Isms.
Secular culture has lost a great deal of the philosophical underpinnings that used to be reinforced by religion. In the place of the ancient religious moral systems have been crudely stuffed various modern ISMs. While I don't see any of them as totally wrong, none are totally right either. With each it is easy to see how they lead to an unbalanced life. While they don't have high priests or a church, we all know people who subscribe to one of these Isms. If you are honest to yourself you have subscribed to a degree to them as well.
Consumerism - Get as much crap as you can. There are items that do add value to your life but this has limits. The problem becomes the more you add the less happiness you will receive from the next thing. This is basically the economic idea of marginal utility. Eventually, creating happiness through things does not work you will begin to become bored with stuff nearly as fast you open it up from the package. Materials also must be managed, organized and maintained leading to ever increasing allocations of your resources the more you purchase.
Travel-ISM - Travel to exciting places and see how other people live may seem like a great way to open up the mind. Travel may enlighten you that you are lacking a verbose philosophy but it won't provide you with what you need to fill it. It is also completely unnecessary. People who travel a lot are either A) Running from something, or be B) Searching for something. That thing is normally a grounded personal philosophy that they could have found at home. If you travel, travel for a purpose not for the sake of travel.
Hedoni-ISM
-Indulge in sexual activities to live out as much physical pleasure as you can. Like consumerism you may get temporary pleasurable experiences but marginal utility will kick in and leave you with less and less. In the end you will feel empty, alone and eventually bored.
Glutton-ISM
- Eating, drinking your way to happiness. Like the others it will result in temporary forms of pleasure. Gluttonism will not lead to happiness in the end it will make you unhealthy, weak and miserable.
Vicariously-ISM - Living through others. Watching sports on TV. Reading novel or comic books about heroes. Going to concerts or buying CDs. These things are fine in balance, they can inspire us to be better ourselves. However, you should never be a hardcore fan of anyone or anything. A fan is someone who is living through someone else. In the modern world people think by buying someone's CD they take the essence of that person into themselves. That does not happen. You are what you make yourself and you can not attach other essences onto you. Their achievements, skills, knowledge and wisdom are theirs, and yours are yours. Own your shit.
You should listen to others, learn from them, and be inspired by them. However, that should not stop you from your own journey. Don't be afraid to be your own musician, your own writer, your own philosopher, and your own athlete. In terms of what I am writing. Take my experience and let it make you better but NEVER TELL ME YOU ARE MY FAN. Do the things that you admire in others. Go out and live yourself.
Political and Economic ISMs
-These are great things to debate about when running countries but individuals are different. You can debate and argue these things but they do not illuminate a person's personal actions or morality.
Achievement-ISM - Both Ayn Rand and Friedrich Nietzsche have made a point of making Achievement the virtue that leads men to happyness. I disagree. Successful people are happy at times, miserable and borderline suicidal at others. People who live in straw huts with few notable achievements are quite often content and happy.
Minimal-ISM
-Minimalism is an interesting Ism to consider. On its face it is a counter reaction to Consumerism where you attempt to get rid of as much stuff as possible to achieve happiness. There are parallels between Minimalism and Spartan philosophy but there is a problem with calling this an ethos. By focusing on the lack of stuff, you are still focusing on stuff. Minimalism is right in that stuff is not the source of happiness but the lack of stuff can not lead you to happiness anymore than an abundance of stuff. There does seem to be a correlation between minimalism and warrior philosophy though. The Japan / Samurai culture, Sweden Viking culture both have enduring flavors of minimalism to them. The correlation between warrior cultures and minimalism is likely meaningful but as statistical professor will tell you, correlations does not equal causation. Minimalism is likely the result of the warrior ethos and not the source itself. Minimalism and its bretheren like Lagom in Sweden are worthy of study. However, for its merits I see minimalism as a kind of 2nd hand philosophy that is not the source. Chose if you want to drink from the bucket or the well.
I also think that warrior cultures have a counterpoint to minimalism in being prepared. While the warrior cultures may have indeed thought a great deal about traveling light, they also were careful to have stores of weapons, tools and food as needed. The Spartan mindset is more balanced and complex than minimalism.
All these Isms exist. Some are even worth study. However, none should be mistaken as an full fledged ethos. Even those that have cogency like Minimalism tend to be reactive or superficially tied to something else. They are all half thought out philosophies. While derided the religious philosophies that preceded the modern Isms were more complete moral systems (and I will not deride them). I believe that a warrior's philosophy can be combined with any religious belief successfully. If you are after contentment always seek the deepest source.
Happiness does not come from stuff
Happiness does not come from eating, or traveling
Happiness does not come from experiences
Happiness does not come from your family
Happiness does not come from achievements
Happiness does not come from God or spirits
It can not be given to you, it can not come from someone else.
Its does not flow from the external
Happiness comes from wholeness and balance within yourself
It flows from the internal
Why Sparta?
Of all the warrior cultures why the focus on Sparta? There are many warrior cultures in the world. and hey each have their own claims to greatness. I could have blended many of their philosophies here but there is something extremely special about Spartans. Even among other warrior cultures Spartans were freaks. They represent a hard extreme in terms of a value set that was not shared by any at the time and would certainly be an extreme in today's world. If you are going to study warrior cultures and pull out things to learn then why not learn from the best, the most extreme. Those were the Spartans.
I chose the Spartan simply due to the fact that they were the most mentally and philosophically strong group of warriors to have ever existed. Their brutal voice also seems needed today.
Their philosophical strength is best evidenced by the legendary stand of the 300 Spartans against overwhelming numbers of Persians at the battle of Thermopylae. Most people know this story, even Hollywood has covered it with the film the 300.
King Xerxes the leader of the Persian Empire was leader of one of the largest and greatest empire and he wanted to subdue Greece. His father Darius had previously attempted to invade Greece but that force failed at Marathon. Seeking to avoid the failure of his father, Xerxes assembled the largest army he could with soldiers coming together from all parts of his empire. The resources put toward the invasion were extreme. After years of preparation the force was collected and sent toward Greece in the Summer of 480 BC. A bridge was created over the sea by stacking the Persian armada side by side and laying planks over them. It took 7 days for massive the army to cross the bridge.
As the massive Persian army came upon Thermopylae and the small group of Greek defenders there, the Persian scouts began to report that the force consisted of a small group of men who were combing their hair. The Persian scouts found this to be funny. The small force assembled by the Greeks to the Persians seemed rational. This though is when King Xerxes began his education of what a Spartan was in earnest. One of his Greek advisers was brought forth and told him that the men assembled were preparing themselves to battle to the death, that they were Spartans and they would were the noblest kingdom and the best men.
In the words of Herodotus this speech went:
"O king. Hear then now also: these men have come to fight with us for the passage, and this is it that they are preparing to do; for they have a custom which is as follows: whenever they are about to put their lives in peril, they attend to the arrangement of their hair. Be assured however, that if thou shalt subdue these and the rest of them which remain behind in Sparta, there is no other race of men which will await thy onset, O king, or will raise hands against thee: for now thou art about to fight against the noblest kingdom and city of those which are among the Greeks, and the best men." --Herodotus 7:209Xerxes was stunned at the bravery of Spartans. He could only explain their behavior as insanity. He waited for days thinking the sheer size of his force would intimidate the Spartans away. But the Spartan's never fell back. This is one of those moments in life when extremely different cultures meet and they are like aliens trying to understand each other. To Xerxes the Spartans were indignant, and insane. To the Spartans, Xerxes and his Persians were meat.
If all the Spartans did was stand there and be slaughtered its doubtful they would have been remembered but it still would have been brave and a testament to who they were. Of course they didn't. They somehow fought back despite the odds. That is what has attracted people to the story and the Spartans and why I am researching them 2,500 years later. However, as amazing as they were at Thermopylae they were Spartans before this. They showed up prepared, ready, they showed up STRONG. When the challenge arose these Spartans were already Spartans. This is the real interesting thing to me. If studying Spartans is a meal then understanding their philosophy is the real main course the meat and potatoes. While aspects of their battles included strategy and technology, their true STRENGTH was in there mental view of the world. How did they get this way/. What did they think, how did they train, and how did they live? These are the questions I wanted to drill into and figure out to apply to my own life.
Getting to the root of these question is more difficult than you think in large part because the Spartans did not leave a great deal of writing. A very small amount of material survives about the Spartans. In fact such a sparse amount of art, architecture and literature exists from Sparta we would barely know they existed at all without the accounts of other historians and scribes. The fact that historians from other cultures respected them enough to put down their stories and customs in writing owe to their inspirational quality. Even among people whom they shared cultural and blood ties, they were outliers, and uncommon. Their culture was a freakish anomaly that was viewed with both awe, horror and mocked by those outside of it. They were men that were so unlike men, that they were viewed as alien.
In Steven Pressfield's seminal novel on the Battle of Thermopylae, Gates of Fire. Leonidas the warrior King of the Spartans addresses the troops and makes note of the facts that Spartans lack recordings or buildings and that their contribution would be what they did in practical terms on the battlefield.
“two thousand, three thousand years hence, men a hundred generations yet unborn may, for their private purposes, make journey to our country. They will come, scholars perhaps, or travelers from beyond the sea, prompted by curiosity regarding the past, or appetite for knowledge of the ancients. They will peer out across our plain and probe among the stone and rubble of our nation. What will they learn about us? Their shovels will unearth neither brilliant palaces nor temples. Their picks will prize forth no everlasting architecture or art. What will remain of the Spartans? Not monuments of marble or bronze, but this......what we do here, today."― Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
I have heard some arguments that the Spartans were mere brutes and this is why we have so little of their culture. The fact that they wrote so little, built so little has given rise to the impression that they were culturally inferior. Obviously, I see this as erroneous otherwise I would not be writing this book. Let me take a moment to address it. The Spartans were not big on external things. They did not pursue wealth, food, buildings, art, or writing books but they were not stupid. Instead of turning the human on the external, they focused very hard on the internal. Their focus was on crystallizing the human mind to maximize its potential toward discipline and strength. This was their technology, and indeed the entire focus of their culture. This is how they were overcome their of death and operate under extreme circumstances.
Another reason to consider the Spartan philosophy for study is how it was admired by other ancient philosophers:
In Plato’s dialogue of Protagoras Socrates wrote:
“They conceal their wisdom, and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because of their prowess in battle … This is how you may know that I am speaking the truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking: if you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only a child.”6
Socrates had this to say in the Protagoras: “The most ancient and fertile homes of philosophy among the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where are to be found more sophists than anywhere on earth.”
There are also a variety of philosophers who come out with positive opinions of Lycurgus. Lycurgus was the philosophical, law giving champion of the Spartans. In many ways Lycurgus could be seen as a Spartan Moses. The laws, institutions and culture of Sparta were all associated with the persona of Lyrcurgus. Historians debate whether a person named Lycurgus ever existed or whether he may have been multiple men whose deeds had been wrapped together until a single wrapper. Those arguments are superfluous to our purposes here. What needs to be known is that when philosophers are referring to Lycurgus they are referring directly to the laws, cultures and lives of the Spartans.
This is what Polybius said of Lycurgus: “…for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman” (Polibius 1959: 493).
It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer. ---- Xenophon
You can not be a Spartan
Know Thyself - Wholeness
No one can give you goals in life but you.
Strength through Restraint
You get stronger through resistance. You keep your house well ordered, your body in good condition by seeking and savoring resistance.
Much of this book I have written with the attention of adding resistance to you the reader. I want my words to challenge you. A great deal of thought was put into not sugar coating and also to not give you a cheerleader. There will be no raw raw you made it to this page, or accomplished this task. Life does not give you a cheering section, it gives you resistance. A key to living life well, is to learn savor resistance. Notice I did not say like resistance. There is a difference here that I want to highlight. It is not enough to simply enjoy resistance. When life really throws down on you, you should smile and take a moment to appreciate it.
Athletes often talk about resistance in the form of a physical challenge. A mountain to be climbed, a race to be run, an opponent to be defeated. These are good resistances and can be sought out and enjoyed. Life will also force resistance on you in ways that you should not seek out but inevitably will happen. It can take on other forms, a leaky roof, a broken pipe, a stolen car, being robbed, being raped, being beaten, facing starvation, illness, having a heart attack. These are the types of things all people at some point will endure. While these things should not be sought out, you should also not live in fear of them. They should not change you, they should not make you less, in every case they should make you stronger. These restraints are externalizations that attack the external, you are the internal and you are invisible. The internal though grows stronger from overcoming external restraints.
Xenophon on education and training. Chapter 2 verse 3. (here)
[3] Instead of softening the boys' feet with sandals he required them to harden their feet by going without shoes. He believed that if this habit were cultivated it would enable them to climb hills more easily and descend steep inclines with less danger, and that a youth who had accustomed himself to go barefoot would leap and jump and run more nimbly than a boy in sandals.
[4] And instead of letting them be pampered in the matter of clothing, he introduced the custom of wearing one garment throughout the year, believing that they would thus be better prepared to face changes of heat and cold.
Walking home in Darkness
Plutarch - Customs of the Spartans
3 The Spartans, after drinking in moderation at their public meals, go away without a torch. In fact, they are not permitted to walk with a light either on this route or on any other, so that they may become p429 accustomed to travelling in darkness at night confidently and fearlessly.4
Balance
Chilon of Sparta was also given the position of one of the 7 Sages of Greece. He wrote:
Live Beneath your means on Purpose
Spartans knew that vices would grow from comforts. Vices would make them weaker. In so doing they sought out harder things, rough things. They were skeptical of things that created too much comfort.
[3] Indeed, how should wealth be a serious object there, when he insisted on equal contributions to the food supply and on the same standard of living for all, and thus cut off the attraction of money for indulgence' sake? Why, there is not even any need of money to spend on cloaks: for their adornment is due not to the price of their clothes, but to the excellent condition of their bodies.
Eating
The first thing you need to know about eating is that diets, counting calories, counting steps, eating low fat, or diet drinks are for fat people. These are artificial measures for the true goal of being mentally strong, and disciplined with what you eat. When you are disciplined with what you eat, you will be healthy. A strong body flows from a strong mind.
The first step to eating write is to stop making eating the center of your universe. You need some food, but likely a whole hell of a lot less than what you are consuming. Let eating be seen purely as fuel for you to do what you need to do. Eating should not make you happy. If you are using food to make you happy then you have a foe in yourself. Its now been identified, you have no excuse. Be a warrior, drop it, to the ground and strangle the crap out of it.
If you are anorexic of have another eating disorder also realize that you are letting food or your body image control you. This too is a foe that is preventing you from being your whole self. Kill it now.
Xenophon on Spartan children being trained to eat with moderation.
[5] As to the food, he required the prefect to bring with him1such a moderate amount of it that the boys would never suffer from repletion, and would know what it was to go with their hunger unsatisfied; for he believed that those who underwent this training would be better able to continue working on an empty stomach, if necessary, and would be capable of carrying on longer without extra food, if the word of command were given to do so: they would want fewer delicacies and would accommodate themselves more readily to anything put before them, and at the same time would enjoy better health.
[6] He also thought that a diet which made their bodies slim would do more to increase their height than one that consisted of flesh-forming food.
The adult male Spartans would eat in clubs or messes. A Spartan would be assigned a mess hall to eat Dinner in and pay dues to it. There he would eat with a group o of other Spartan men. The food there would not be extravagant.
[3] The amount of food he allowed was just enough to prevent them from getting either too much or too little to eat. But many extras are supplied from the spoils of the chase; and for these rich men sometimes substitute wheaten bread. Consequently the board is never bare until the company breaks up, and never extravagantly furnished. --Xenophon
Stop making it about food. Fasting. Feeling Hunger and liking it.
Eat vegetables and fruit.
To explain the gut-brain axis (GBA), this is the communication between the gut and the brain. This communication goes both ways and links the lower gut with the emotional and cognitive centers of the brain through messages sent chemically.
Eat only the meat you can kill.
Eat food that tastes like crap.
[17]
Heroductus wrote the following story after the battle of Plataea:It is said that Xerxes on his retreat from Greece left his tent with Mardonius. When Pausanias saw it … he summoned Mardonius’ bakers and cooks and told them to prepare a meal of the same sort as they were accustomed to prepare for their former master. The order was obeyed; and when Pausanias saw … everything prepared for the feast with great magnificence, he could hardly believe his eyes … and just for a joke ordered his own servants to get ready an ordinary Spartan dinner. The difference between the two meals was indeed remarkable … Pausanias laughed … saying ‘[behold] the folly of the Persians who, living in this style, came to Greece to rob us of our poverty.’
Diet Eat Less than You Need
Black Soup -
The Spartans diet was similar to the Greeks; they ate meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables,bread , and olive oil. They drank water and wine. They also ate melas zomos “Black Soup”, also known as Blood Soup. Black Soup was a staple soup entirely unique to the Spartan culture. The soup was made of salt, vinegar, pig legs, and blood. 1
One minimalist eating habit set them far apart from the cultures surrounding them. Much like the ancient and modern Japanese culture, Spartans ate only what they needed, and sometimes less. They practiced the zealous discipline of frugality, eating a meager calorie diet despite strenuous training and exercise. 2
This is Xenophon’s (Greek mercenary and historian) account of the Agoge diet:
“[the boys were fed] just the right amount for them never to become sluggish through being too full, while also giving them a taste of what it is not to have enough.” 3
This excerpt from Manfred Clauss’s Sparta. Eine Einführung in seine Geschichte und Zivilisation highlights the counter culture aspects of the Spartan’s diet:
According to legend, a man from Sybaris, a city in southern Italy infamous for its luxury and gluttony (which gave rise to the word sybarite), after tasting the Spartans’ black soup remarked with disgust, “Now I know why the Spartans do not fear death”. In another story, it is said that Dionysus, the despot of Sicily, for the sake of this bought a slave who had been a Spartan cook, and ordered him to prepare the broth for him, sparing no expense; but when the king tasted it he spat it out in disgust; whereupon the cook said, “Your Majesty, it is necessary to have exercised in the Spartan manner, and to have bathed in the Eurotas, in order to relish this broth.”
I love the second account – it reminds me of how great food tastes when my body needs it! Sometimes fasting and strenuous exercise is worth it for the simple enjoyment of relishing every distinct nutrient your body craves. 4
Plutarch--Customs of the Spartans
2 A thing that met with especial approval among them was their so‑called black broth, so much so that the older men did not require a bit of meat, but gave up all of it to the young men. It is said that Dionysus, the despot of Sicily,2 for the sake of this bought a slave who had been a Spartan cook, and ordered him to prepared the broth for him, sparing no expense; but when the king tasted it he spat it out in disgust; whereupon the cook said, "Your Majesty, it is necessary to have exercised 237in the Spartan manner, and to have bathed in the Eurotas, in order to relish this broth."3
Never Neglect Yourself
Rite of Passage
Silence
Letting actions speak.
Calmness, thoughtfulness of the Veteran.
Shove your Xiphos down the Throat of your Enemies
Charge and defeat your resistance
Study your resistance, Meet your resistance, Kill your Resistance
On Truth and Measure:
Myson of Sparta was given the high honor of being counted as one of the 7 Sages of Greece. This is one of his famous sayings:
Managing the Material
The Doric Column
Implements of War, Implements of Production, Implements of art and inspiration
Thucydides (Greek historian and Athenian General) wrote of the minimalist architecture of the Spartans:
The equality reforms of Lycurgus
Use of Pelanors large bulky currency.
There is another interesting work from works of the philosopher Xenophon. In this work he records a dialogue between the Tyrant ruler of Syracus and greek poet Simonides. The two debate the happyness of a general citizen against that of a Tyrant ruler.
[3] “Well, Simonides, that the multitude should be deceived by despotic power surprises me not at all, since the mob seems to guess wholly by appearances that one man is happy, another miserable.
[4] Despotism flaunts its seeming precious treasures outspread before the gaze of the world: but its troubles it keeps concealed in the heart of the despot, in the place where human happiness and unhappiness are stored away.
[5] That this escapes the observation of the multitude I say, I am not surprised. But what does seem surprising to me is that men like you, whose intelligence is supposed to give you a clearer view of most things than your eyes, should be equally blind to it.
[6] But I know well enough by experience, Simonides, and I tell you that despots get the smallest share of the greatest blessings, and have most of the greatest evils.
[7] Thus, for instance, if peace is held to be a greatest blessing to mankind, very little of it falls to the share of despots: if war is a great evil, of that despots receive the largest share.
Xenophon Hiero Ch 5
Courage -
Pacifists are not the problem, but they also are not the answer.
Prepare yourself for the fire
Make your training harder than your war
Walk toward the fire
Fearless breeds a kind of tolerance
Fuck It
On Travel
19 It was not allowed them to go abroad, so that they should have nothing to do with foreign ways Eand undisciplined modes of living.20 Plutarch Customs of the Spartans.
Relationships through Selflessness
Brotherhood is a term reserved for the closest of relationships.
Competition
[2] He saw that where the spirit of rivalry1 is strongest among the people, there the choruses are most worth hearing and the athletic contests afford the finest spectacle. He believed, therefore, that if he could match the young men together in a strife of valour, they too would reach a high level of manly excellence.2 I will proceed to explain, therefore, how he instituted matches between the young men. ---Xenophon --Constitution of the Lacedaimonians
Be Great, Never Give Up, Never Drop Your Shield
Perseverence
Plutarch of the Customs of the Spartans
Wearing Red
Hide your injuries from view, ignore them, don't give them power of your thoughts or actions.
24 In wars they used red garments for two reasons: first, the colour they thought was a manly colour, and second, the blood-red hue causes more terror in the minds of theº inexperienced. Also, if anyone of them receive a wound, it is advantageous that it be not easily discovered by the enemy, but be unperceived by reason of the identity of colour.25 Plutarch -- Customs of the Spartans
Cherish your critics
Be Wise, Sensible and Patient
Calm - Avoid Over Action But Prepare
“You Spartans are the only people in Hellas who wait calmly on events, relying for your defense not on action but on making people think that you will act. You alone do nothing in the early stages to prevent an enemy’s expansion; you wait until your enemy has doubled his strength” (1.69)
In Listening over Speaking and Simplicity
Laconic speech is to use few words; terse or succinct speech. The description came into existence to explain the speech of the Spartans, which was 100% minimalist – brief, to the point, curt, and blunt. They were not simply black and white in their speech however.
Their poets and writers were highly renowned wielders of overwhelming confidence and dry wit. One of the better examples is the response to Philip of Macedon when he challenged the Spartan magistrates. He wrote:
This is what Polybius said of Lycurgus: “…for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman” (Polibius 1959: 493).
Socrates had this to say in the Protagoras: “The most ancient and fertile homes of philosophy among the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where are to be found more sophists than anywhere on earth.”
Plutarch, in his biography of Lycurgus, writes that Lycurgus formed a “complete philosophic state”.
In the Protagoras (§347e-§348a), Plato writes “The best people avoid such discussions and entertain each other with their own resources…These are the people, in my opinion, whom you and I should follow”. These “best people” are the Spartans that he is alluding to.
Xenophon puts this speech in Socrates’ mouth:
“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian now—have you realized that he would not have made Sparta to differ from other cities in any respect, had he not established obedience to the laws most securely in her? Among rulers in cities, are you not aware that those who do most to make the citizens obey the laws are the best….For those cities whose citizens abide by them prove strongest and enjoy [the] most happiness” (Mem., IV, iv, 15-16; Loeb 317 ª; Laced., viii, 1.)
Be a Professional
Don't enter battlefields as hobbyist enter them as the professional with the intention of conquest.
Accepting mediocrity and being average is not acceptable.
Straight Spears and Pride in Work
Family
Love, Passion, respect and responsibility,
Children respect true strength and the example of the warrior.
Teach and Love Strength-
In Plutarch’s Moralia, he writes about the high status of Spartan women, and records many of their sayings. This is one of the sayings (attributed to Gorgo) he recorded:
Avoiding Overthinking
Herodotus records that Anacharsis the Scythian had visited the different states of Greece, and lived among them all, quipped that ‘all wanted leisure and tranquility for wisdom, except the Lacedæmonians, for these were the only persons with whom it was possible to hold a rational conversation’.”
This is what Polybius said of Lycurgus: “…for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman” (Polibius 1959: 493).
Xenophon puts this speech praising of Lycurgus in Socrates’ mouth:
“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian now—have you realized that he would not have made Sparta to differ from other cities in any respect, had he not established obedience to the laws most securely in her? Among rulers in cities, are you not aware that those who do most to make the citizens obey the laws are the best….For those cities whose citizens abide by them prove strongest and enjoy [the] most happiness” (Mem., IV, iv, 15-16; Loeb 317 ª; Laced., viii, 1.)
Plutarch, in his biography of Lycurgus, writes that Lycurgus formed a “complete philosophic state”.
In the Protagoras (§347e-§348a), Plato writes “The best people avoid such discussions and entertain each other with their own resources…These are the people, in my opinion, whom you and I should follow”. These “best people” are the Spartans that he is alluding to.
“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian now—have you realized that he would not have made Sparta to differ from other cities in any respect, had he not established obedience to the laws most securely in her? Among rulers in cities, are you not aware that those who do most to make the citizens obey the laws are the best….For those cities whose citizens abide by them prove strongest and enjoy [the] most happiness” (Mem., IV, iv, 15-16; Loeb 317 ª; Laced., viii, 1.)
Plutarch, in his biography of Lycurgus, writes that Lycurgus formed a “complete philosophic state”.
In the Protagoras (§347e-§348a), Plato writes “The best people avoid such discussions and entertain each other with their own resources…These are the people, in my opinion, whom you and I should follow”. These “best people” are the Spartans that he is alluding to.
It occurred to me one day that Sparta, though among the most thinly populated of states, was evidently the most powerful and most celebrated city in Greece; and I fell to wondering how this could have happened. But when I considered the institutions of the Spartans, I wondered no longer. ---- Xenophon
You can not be a Spartan
Know Thyself - Wholeness
No one can give you goals in life but you.
Strength through Restraint
You get stronger through resistance. You keep your house well ordered, your body in good condition by seeking and savoring resistance.
Much of this book I have written with the attention of adding resistance to you the reader. I want my words to challenge you. A great deal of thought was put into not sugar coating and also to not give you a cheerleader. There will be no raw raw you made it to this page, or accomplished this task. Life does not give you a cheering section, it gives you resistance. A key to living life well, is to learn savor resistance. Notice I did not say like resistance. There is a difference here that I want to highlight. It is not enough to simply enjoy resistance. When life really throws down on you, you should smile and take a moment to appreciate it.
Athletes often talk about resistance in the form of a physical challenge. A mountain to be climbed, a race to be run, an opponent to be defeated. These are good resistances and can be sought out and enjoyed. Life will also force resistance on you in ways that you should not seek out but inevitably will happen. It can take on other forms, a leaky roof, a broken pipe, a stolen car, being robbed, being raped, being beaten, facing starvation, illness, having a heart attack. These are the types of things all people at some point will endure. While these things should not be sought out, you should also not live in fear of them. They should not change you, they should not make you less, in every case they should make you stronger. These restraints are externalizations that attack the external, you are the internal and you are invisible. The internal though grows stronger from overcoming external restraints.
Xenophon on education and training. Chapter 2 verse 3. (here)
[3] Instead of softening the boys' feet with sandals he required them to harden their feet by going without shoes. He believed that if this habit were cultivated it would enable them to climb hills more easily and descend steep inclines with less danger, and that a youth who had accustomed himself to go barefoot would leap and jump and run more nimbly than a boy in sandals.
[4] And instead of letting them be pampered in the matter of clothing, he introduced the custom of wearing one garment throughout the year, believing that they would thus be better prepared to face changes of heat and cold.
Walking home in Darkness
Plutarch - Customs of the Spartans
3 The Spartans, after drinking in moderation at their public meals, go away without a torch. In fact, they are not permitted to walk with a light either on this route or on any other, so that they may become p429 accustomed to travelling in darkness at night confidently and fearlessly.4
Balance
Chilon of Sparta was also given the position of one of the 7 Sages of Greece. He wrote:
“If one is strong be also merciful, so that one’s neighbors may respect one rather than fear one.”
“Restrain anger.”
“Do not let one’s tongue outrun one’s sense.”
These Spartan philosophers taught and practiced minimalist beliefs that lead to the conquering of Sicyon, their antagonistic neighbors, the development of the Peloponnesian League, and a number of political, social, and military victories.Live Beneath your means on Purpose
Spartans knew that vices would grow from comforts. Vices would make them weaker. In so doing they sought out harder things, rough things. They were skeptical of things that created too much comfort.
[3] Indeed, how should wealth be a serious object there, when he insisted on equal contributions to the food supply and on the same standard of living for all, and thus cut off the attraction of money for indulgence' sake? Why, there is not even any need of money to spend on cloaks: for their adornment is due not to the price of their clothes, but to the excellent condition of their bodies.
Eating
The first thing you need to know about eating is that diets, counting calories, counting steps, eating low fat, or diet drinks are for fat people. These are artificial measures for the true goal of being mentally strong, and disciplined with what you eat. When you are disciplined with what you eat, you will be healthy. A strong body flows from a strong mind.
The first step to eating write is to stop making eating the center of your universe. You need some food, but likely a whole hell of a lot less than what you are consuming. Let eating be seen purely as fuel for you to do what you need to do. Eating should not make you happy. If you are using food to make you happy then you have a foe in yourself. Its now been identified, you have no excuse. Be a warrior, drop it, to the ground and strangle the crap out of it.
If you are anorexic of have another eating disorder also realize that you are letting food or your body image control you. This too is a foe that is preventing you from being your whole self. Kill it now.
Xenophon on Spartan children being trained to eat with moderation.
[5] As to the food, he required the prefect to bring with him1such a moderate amount of it that the boys would never suffer from repletion, and would know what it was to go with their hunger unsatisfied; for he believed that those who underwent this training would be better able to continue working on an empty stomach, if necessary, and would be capable of carrying on longer without extra food, if the word of command were given to do so: they would want fewer delicacies and would accommodate themselves more readily to anything put before them, and at the same time would enjoy better health.
[6] He also thought that a diet which made their bodies slim would do more to increase their height than one that consisted of flesh-forming food.
On the other hand, lest they should feel too much the pinch of hunger,1 while not giving them the opportunity of taking what they wanted without trouble he allowed them to alleviate their hunger by stealing something.
Plutarch on Spartans diet in youth.
13 This was the object of the starvation diet. It was meagre both for the reasons given and purposely that the youth should never become accustomed to being sated, but to being able to go without food; Ffor in this way, the Spartans thought, the youth would be more serviceable in war if they were able to carry on without food, and they would be more self-controlled and more frugal if they lived a very considerable time at small expense. And to put up with the plainest diet, so as to be able to consume anything that came to hand, they thought made the youths' bodies more healthy owing to the scanty food, and they believed that this practice caused the bodies, repressed in any impulse towards thickness and breadth, to grow tall, and also to make them handsome; for a spare and lean condition they felt served to produce suppleness, while an overfed condition, because of too much weight, was against it.
The adult male Spartans would eat in clubs or messes. A Spartan would be assigned a mess hall to eat Dinner in and pay dues to it. There he would eat with a group o of other Spartan men. The food there would not be extravagant.
[3] The amount of food he allowed was just enough to prevent them from getting either too much or too little to eat. But many extras are supplied from the spoils of the chase; and for these rich men sometimes substitute wheaten bread. Consequently the board is never bare until the company breaks up, and never extravagantly furnished. --Xenophon
Stop making it about food. Fasting. Feeling Hunger and liking it.
Eat vegetables and fruit.
To explain the gut-brain axis (GBA), this is the communication between the gut and the brain. This communication goes both ways and links the lower gut with the emotional and cognitive centers of the brain through messages sent chemically.
Eat only the meat you can kill.
Eat food that tastes like crap.
[17]
“Yes, Simonides, and I know that the reason why most men judge that we have more enjoyment in eating and drinking than private citizens is this; they think that they themselves would find the dinner served at our table better eating than what they get. Anything, in fact, that is better than what they are accustomed to gives them pleasure.
[18] This is why all men look forward to the festivals, except the despots. For their table is always laden with plenty, and admits of no extras on feast days. Here then is one pleasure in respect of which they are worse off than the private citizen, the pleasure of anticipation.
[19] But further, your own experience tells you, I am sure, that the greater the number of superfluous dishes set before a man, the sooner a feeling of repletion comes over him; and so, as regards the duration of his pleasure too, the man who has many courses put before him is worse off than the moderate liver.”
Xenophon Hiero Chapter 1
Heroductus wrote the following story after the battle of Plataea:It is said that Xerxes on his retreat from Greece left his tent with Mardonius. When Pausanias saw it … he summoned Mardonius’ bakers and cooks and told them to prepare a meal of the same sort as they were accustomed to prepare for their former master. The order was obeyed; and when Pausanias saw … everything prepared for the feast with great magnificence, he could hardly believe his eyes … and just for a joke ordered his own servants to get ready an ordinary Spartan dinner. The difference between the two meals was indeed remarkable … Pausanias laughed … saying ‘[behold] the folly of the Persians who, living in this style, came to Greece to rob us of our poverty.’
Diet Eat Less than You Need
Black Soup -
The Spartans diet was similar to the Greeks; they ate meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables,bread , and olive oil. They drank water and wine. They also ate melas zomos “Black Soup”, also known as Blood Soup. Black Soup was a staple soup entirely unique to the Spartan culture. The soup was made of salt, vinegar, pig legs, and blood. 1
One minimalist eating habit set them far apart from the cultures surrounding them. Much like the ancient and modern Japanese culture, Spartans ate only what they needed, and sometimes less. They practiced the zealous discipline of frugality, eating a meager calorie diet despite strenuous training and exercise. 2
This is Xenophon’s (Greek mercenary and historian) account of the Agoge diet:
“[the boys were fed] just the right amount for them never to become sluggish through being too full, while also giving them a taste of what it is not to have enough.” 3
This excerpt from Manfred Clauss’s Sparta. Eine Einführung in seine Geschichte und Zivilisation highlights the counter culture aspects of the Spartan’s diet:
According to legend, a man from Sybaris, a city in southern Italy infamous for its luxury and gluttony (which gave rise to the word sybarite), after tasting the Spartans’ black soup remarked with disgust, “Now I know why the Spartans do not fear death”. In another story, it is said that Dionysus, the despot of Sicily, for the sake of this bought a slave who had been a Spartan cook, and ordered him to prepare the broth for him, sparing no expense; but when the king tasted it he spat it out in disgust; whereupon the cook said, “Your Majesty, it is necessary to have exercised in the Spartan manner, and to have bathed in the Eurotas, in order to relish this broth.”
I love the second account – it reminds me of how great food tastes when my body needs it! Sometimes fasting and strenuous exercise is worth it for the simple enjoyment of relishing every distinct nutrient your body craves. 4
Plutarch--Customs of the Spartans
2 A thing that met with especial approval among them was their so‑called black broth, so much so that the older men did not require a bit of meat, but gave up all of it to the young men. It is said that Dionysus, the despot of Sicily,2 for the sake of this bought a slave who had been a Spartan cook, and ordered him to prepared the broth for him, sparing no expense; but when the king tasted it he spat it out in disgust; whereupon the cook said, "Your Majesty, it is necessary to have exercised 237in the Spartan manner, and to have bathed in the Eurotas, in order to relish this broth."3
Never Neglect Yourself
Rite of Passage
Silence
Letting actions speak.
Calmness, thoughtfulness of the Veteran.
Shove your Xiphos down the Throat of your Enemies
Charge and defeat your resistance
Study your resistance, Meet your resistance, Kill your Resistance
On Truth and Measure:
Myson of Sparta was given the high honor of being counted as one of the 7 Sages of Greece. This is one of his famous sayings:
“We should not investigate facts by the light of arguments, but arguments by the light of facts”
The Oracle of Delphi proclaimed Myson the wisest of all men when Anacharsis consulted it:- “Myson of Chen in Oeta; this is he
- Who for wiseheartedness surpasses thee. 7
Managing the Material
The Doric Column
Implements of War, Implements of Production, Implements of art and inspiration
Thucydides (Greek historian and Athenian General) wrote of the minimalist architecture of the Spartans:
Suppose the city of Sparta to be deserted, and nothing left but the temples and the ground-plan, distant ages would be very unwilling to believe that the power of the Lacedaemonians was at all equal to their fame. Their city is not built continuously, and has no splendid temples or other edifices; it rather resembles a group of villages, like the ancient towns of Hellas, and would therefore make a poor show. (Thucydides, i. 10)
They used simplicity of lifestyle as a tool of leverage in their control of the world around them.
when money was amassed for the Spartans, those who amassed it were condemned p447 to death; Ffor to Alcamenes and Theopompus, their kings, an oracle35 had been given:
Eager desire for money will bring the ruin of Sparta.
|
The equality reforms of Lycurgus
For there was an extreme inequality among them, and their state was overloaded with a multitude of indigent and necessitous persons, while its whole wealth had centered upon a very few. To the end, therefore, that he might expel from the state arrogance and envy, luxury and crime, and those yet more inveterate diseases of want and superfluity, he obtained of them to renounce their properties, and to consent to a new division of the land, and that they should all live together on an equal footing; merit to be their only road to eminence...
— Plutarch, Lycurgus
Use of Pelanors large bulky currency.
There is another interesting work from works of the philosopher Xenophon. In this work he records a dialogue between the Tyrant ruler of Syracus and greek poet Simonides. The two debate the happyness of a general citizen against that of a Tyrant ruler.
[3] “Well, Simonides, that the multitude should be deceived by despotic power surprises me not at all, since the mob seems to guess wholly by appearances that one man is happy, another miserable.
[4] Despotism flaunts its seeming precious treasures outspread before the gaze of the world: but its troubles it keeps concealed in the heart of the despot, in the place where human happiness and unhappiness are stored away.
[5] That this escapes the observation of the multitude I say, I am not surprised. But what does seem surprising to me is that men like you, whose intelligence is supposed to give you a clearer view of most things than your eyes, should be equally blind to it.
[6] But I know well enough by experience, Simonides, and I tell you that despots get the smallest share of the greatest blessings, and have most of the greatest evils.
[7] Thus, for instance, if peace is held to be a greatest blessing to mankind, very little of it falls to the share of despots: if war is a great evil, of that despots receive the largest share.
Xenophon Hiero Ch 5
Courage -
Pacifists are not the problem, but they also are not the answer.
Prepare yourself for the fire
Make your training harder than your war
Walk toward the fire
Fearless breeds a kind of tolerance
Fuck It
On Travel
19 It was not allowed them to go abroad, so that they should have nothing to do with foreign ways Eand undisciplined modes of living.20 Plutarch Customs of the Spartans.
Relationships through Selflessness
Brotherhood is a term reserved for the closest of relationships.
Competition
[2] He saw that where the spirit of rivalry1 is strongest among the people, there the choruses are most worth hearing and the athletic contests afford the finest spectacle. He believed, therefore, that if he could match the young men together in a strife of valour, they too would reach a high level of manly excellence.2 I will proceed to explain, therefore, how he instituted matches between the young men. ---Xenophon --Constitution of the Lacedaimonians
Be Great, Never Give Up, Never Drop Your Shield
Perseverence
34 Archilochus the poet, when he arrived in Sparta, they ordered to depart that very instant because they learned that he had written in his verses that it is better to throw away one's arms than to be killed:30
Shield that was mine, fair armour, now gladdens the heart of some Saian;
Sorry I left it behind tangled in brush in my path;
But for myself I escaped from the clutches of Death. Let perdition
CTake the old shield, for no worse surely I'll get the next time.
|
Wearing Red
Hide your injuries from view, ignore them, don't give them power of your thoughts or actions.
24 In wars they used red garments for two reasons: first, the colour they thought was a manly colour, and second, the blood-red hue causes more terror in the minds of theº inexperienced. Also, if anyone of them receive a wound, it is advantageous that it be not easily discovered by the enemy, but be unperceived by reason of the identity of colour.25 Plutarch -- Customs of the Spartans
Cherish your critics
Be Wise, Sensible and Patient
Calm - Avoid Over Action But Prepare
“You Spartans are the only people in Hellas who wait calmly on events, relying for your defense not on action but on making people think that you will act. You alone do nothing in the early stages to prevent an enemy’s expansion; you wait until your enemy has doubled his strength” (1.69)
According to Thucydides in speeches attributed to Archidamus at the famous Debate at Sparta in 432 BC.[2]
"If we begin the war in haste, we'll have many delays before we end it, owing to our lack of preparation."
Peace through StrengthIn Listening over Speaking and Simplicity
Laconic speech is to use few words; terse or succinct speech. The description came into existence to explain the speech of the Spartans, which was 100% minimalist – brief, to the point, curt, and blunt. They were not simply black and white in their speech however.
Their poets and writers were highly renowned wielders of overwhelming confidence and dry wit. One of the better examples is the response to Philip of Macedon when he challenged the Spartan magistrates. He wrote:
“If I enter Laconia, I will level Lacedaemon to the ground “. The Spartans’ reply was ” If “(αἴκα). Subsequently both Philip and Alexander the Great avoided Sparta entirely.
In Plato’s dialogue of Protagoras Socrates wrote:
“They conceal their wisdom, and pretend to be blockheads, so that they may seem to be superior only because of their prowess in battle … This is how you may know that I am speaking the truth and that the Spartans are the best educated in philosophy and speaking: if you talk to any ordinary Spartan, he seems to be stupid, but eventually, like an expert marksman, he shoots in some brief remark that proves you to be only a child.”6
This is what Polybius said of Lycurgus: “…for securing unity among the citizens, for safeguarding the Laconian territory and preserving the liberty of Sparta inviolate, the legislation and provisions of Lycurgus were so excellent that I am forced to regard his wisdom as something superhuman” (Polibius 1959: 493).
Socrates had this to say in the Protagoras: “The most ancient and fertile homes of philosophy among the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where are to be found more sophists than anywhere on earth.”
Plutarch, in his biography of Lycurgus, writes that Lycurgus formed a “complete philosophic state”.
In the Protagoras (§347e-§348a), Plato writes “The best people avoid such discussions and entertain each other with their own resources…These are the people, in my opinion, whom you and I should follow”. These “best people” are the Spartans that he is alluding to.
Xenophon puts this speech in Socrates’ mouth:
“Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian now—have you realized that he would not have made Sparta to differ from other cities in any respect, had he not established obedience to the laws most securely in her? Among rulers in cities, are you not aware that those who do most to make the citizens obey the laws are the best….For those cities whose citizens abide by them prove strongest and enjoy [the] most happiness” (Mem., IV, iv, 15-16; Loeb 317 ª; Laced., viii, 1.)
Be a Professional
Don't enter battlefields as hobbyist enter them as the professional with the intention of conquest.
Accepting mediocrity and being average is not acceptable.
Straight Spears and Pride in Work
Family
Love, Passion, respect and responsibility,
Children respect true strength and the example of the warrior.
Teach and Love Strength-
In Plutarch’s Moralia, he writes about the high status of Spartan women, and records many of their sayings. This is one of the sayings (attributed to Gorgo) he recorded:
When an Attican woman asked why Spartan women were the only women in the world who could rule men, she replied “Because we are the only women who are mothers of men”. 5
Avoiding Overthinking
Herodotus records that Anacharsis the Scythian had visited the different states of Greece, and lived among them all, quipped that ‘all wanted leisure and tranquility for wisdom, except the Lacedæmonians, for these were the only persons with whom it was possible to hold a rational conversation’.”
Socrates said: “…namely that to be Spartan implies a taste for intellectual rather than physical exercise, for they realize that to frame such utterances is of the highest culture”. In other words,Socrates, who the Delphic Oracle said was “the wisest man in Greece,” notices that the Spartans had “the highest culture”.
The Spartans, too, place value in not being too highly educated so as to not question the foundations of Spartan society. This prevents dissention and chaos from prevailing.--Thucydides
Knowing what you need to know
Existential crisis.
The problem of choice
Just Do it
Fix yourself, Fix the World
Leadership and Alexander and Leonides
Most of the world's problems are the results of crappy people, doing crappy things, because their philosophy is crappy. Spartans said little, but led through example. When you fix yourself, your actions will speak, you will inspire others and what begins as a snowball will turn into an avalanche of positive change.
Do not worry so much about the actions of others. Worry a lot about your own actions. About your own example. Fix yourself. Then be the example that inspires others.
But at Sparta the most important men show the utmost deference to the magistrates: they pride themselves on their humility, on running instead of walking to answer any call, in the belief that, if they lead, the rest will follow along the path of eager obedience. And so it has proved. --Xenophon
obviously glory adheres to the side of valour, for all men want to ally themselves somehow with the brave. --Xenophon
Many want to blame corporations or secret cabals for the worlds problems. Consider this. Corporations get money from consumers, we are the consumers. We control them through our values. If we demand better things, they will supply better things. If they don't then we can make our own companies and businesses to do what we want. We have the power to alter them, and if necessary lay waste to them. That all begins with you.
9 If anyone was detected in wrongdoing he had to go round and round a certain altar in the city, chanting lines composed as a reprehension of himself, Dand this was nothing else than his own self rebuking himself.10 Plutarch Custom's of Spartans
The historian Plutarch notes that, paradoxically, war for Spartans was seen almost as a holiday: “Their bodily exercises, too, were less rigorous during their campaigns, and [they] were allowed a regimen less rigid. They were the only men in the world for whom war brought a respite in the training for war.”
Despite their frightening reputation, the Spartan army was very restrained when it defeated a foe. According to Thucydides, the Spartans “fought long and stubbornly until the rout of their enemy, but that achieved, pursuing them only for a short time, and not far.”
Be Better than the Spartans?
Sources:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta
https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2011:thucydides-book-1-debate-at-sparta
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4435752?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.livingapex.com/minimalism-in-ancient-spartan-lifestyle-and-philosophy/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-problem-with-minimalism/
Herodotus- Persian War with Xerxes
http://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/herodotus-on-thermopylae/?
Thucydides
Plutarch
Customs of the Spartans
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Instituta_Laconica*.html
Xenophon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9qjLeB8ytw
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.+Lac.%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D3
Hiero - Not on Spartans but interesting in the context.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DHiero%3Achapter%3D7%3Asection%3D1
dialogue between Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, and the lyric poet Simonides about 474 BC.
Chilon The Elder
Know thyself
Lycurgus of Sparta
Laws of Lycurgus
three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity
The Great Rhetra
Modern Sources:
Steven Pressfield
Gates of Fire: Steven Pressfield
Helena P. Schrader
The Spartans, too, place value in not being too highly educated so as to not question the foundations of Spartan society. This prevents dissention and chaos from prevailing.--Thucydides
Knowing what you need to know
Existential crisis.
The problem of choice
Just Do it
Fix yourself, Fix the World
Leadership and Alexander and Leonides
Most of the world's problems are the results of crappy people, doing crappy things, because their philosophy is crappy. Spartans said little, but led through example. When you fix yourself, your actions will speak, you will inspire others and what begins as a snowball will turn into an avalanche of positive change.
Do not worry so much about the actions of others. Worry a lot about your own actions. About your own example. Fix yourself. Then be the example that inspires others.
But at Sparta the most important men show the utmost deference to the magistrates: they pride themselves on their humility, on running instead of walking to answer any call, in the belief that, if they lead, the rest will follow along the path of eager obedience. And so it has proved. --Xenophon
obviously glory adheres to the side of valour, for all men want to ally themselves somehow with the brave. --Xenophon
Many want to blame corporations or secret cabals for the worlds problems. Consider this. Corporations get money from consumers, we are the consumers. We control them through our values. If we demand better things, they will supply better things. If they don't then we can make our own companies and businesses to do what we want. We have the power to alter them, and if necessary lay waste to them. That all begins with you.
9 If anyone was detected in wrongdoing he had to go round and round a certain altar in the city, chanting lines composed as a reprehension of himself, Dand this was nothing else than his own self rebuking himself.10 Plutarch Custom's of Spartans
Inward-looking and self-sufficient, the Spartans were the most feared hoplites (infantrymen) in all Greece. They lived an austere life, despising any sort of luxury, in a city that contained neither walls, nor grand buildings.
Famous quotes and anecdotes associated with the Spartans:
Herodotus reports that just before the Battle of Thermoplyae, a Spartan warrior named Dienekes was told that the Persian archers could blank out the sun with their arrows. He replied "Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade."
A Sybarite, who ate at a public mess, once remarked: "Now I know why the Spartans do not fear death."
Asked what was the greatest benefit Lycurgus conferred on his countryman, King Agesilaus replied "Contempt of pleasure."
"Come back with your shield - or on it" (Plutarch, Mor.241) was supposed to be the parting cry of mothers to their sons. Mothers whose sons died in battle openly rejoiced, mothers whose sons survived hung their heads in shame.
Asked why it was dishonorable to return without a shield and not without a helmet, the Spartan king, Demaratos (510 - 491) is said to have replied: "Because the latter they put on for their own protection, but the shield for the common good of all." (Plutarch, Mor.220)
An old man wandering around the Olympic Games looking for a seat was jeered at by the crowd until he reached the seats of the Spartans, whereupon every Spartan younger than him, and some that were older, stood up and offered him their seat. The crowd applauded and the old man turned to them with a sigh, saying "All Greeks know what is right, but only the Spartans do it."
Plutarch details the regime to which young Spartans were subjected:
[T]heir training was calculated to make them obey commands well, endure hardships, and conquer in battle ... When they were 12 years old, they no longer had tunics to wear, received one cloak a year, had hard flesh, and knew little of baths. They slept together ... on pallet-beds which they collected for themselves, breaking off with their hands—no knives allowed—the tops of the rushes which grew along the river Eurotas.
Despite their frightening reputation, the Spartan army was very restrained when it defeated a foe. According to Thucydides, the Spartans “fought long and stubbornly until the rout of their enemy, but that achieved, pursuing them only for a short time, and not far.”
Be Better than the Spartans?
Primary people to learn about Spartans from:
Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–425 BC). Widely referred to as "The Father of History" (first conferred by Cicero), he was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically and critically, and then to arrange them into a historiographic narrative. The Histories — the only work he is known to have produced — is a record of his "inquiry" (or historía, a word that passed into Latin and acquired its modern meaning of "history"), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate, he states he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus' historical significance, little is known of his personal history.
Today, The Histories is generally regarded as a masterpiece of non-fiction.
For more information on Herodotus please check Wikipedia, Herodotus
Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at both universities and advanced military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory while Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history, and classical studies.
More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.
For more information on Thucidydes please check Wikipedia, Thucidydes
Xenophon (c. 430 – 354 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and student of Socrates. While not referred to as a philosopher by his contemporaries, his status as such is now a topic of debate. He is known for writing about the history of his own times, the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, especially for his account of the final years of the Peloponnesian War. His Hellenica, which recounts these times, is considered to be the continuation of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. His youthful participation in the failed campaign of Cyrus the Younger to claim the Persian throne inspired him to write his most famous work, Anabasis.
Despite his birth-association with Athens, Xenophon affiliated himself with Sparta for most of his life. His pro-oligarchic views, service under Spartan generals in the Persian campaign and beyond, as well as his friendship with King Agesilaus II endeared Xenophon to the Spartans, and them to him. A number of his writings display his pro-Spartan bias and admiration, especially Agesilaus and Constitution of Sparta. Other than Plato, Xenophon is the foremost authority on Socrates, having learned under the great philosopher while a young man. He greatly admired his teacher, and well after Socrates’ death in 399 Xenophon wrote several Socratic dialogues, including an Apology concerning the events of his trial and death. Xenophon’s works cover a wide range of genres and are written in very uncomplicated Attic Greek. Xenophon’s works are among the first that many students of Ancient Greek translate on account of the straightforward and succinct nature of his prose. This sentiment was apparent even in ancient times, as Diogenes Laertius states in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers that Xenophon was sometimes known as the "Attic Muse" for the sweetness of his diction.
For more information on Xenophon please check Wikipedia, Xenophon
Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern-day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–425 BC). Widely referred to as "The Father of History" (first conferred by Cicero), he was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically and critically, and then to arrange them into a historiographic narrative. The Histories — the only work he is known to have produced — is a record of his "inquiry" (or historía, a word that passed into Latin and acquired its modern meaning of "history"), being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful and others inaccurate, he states he was reporting only what was told to him and was often correct in his information. Despite Herodotus' historical significance, little is known of his personal history.
Today, The Histories is generally regarded as a masterpiece of non-fiction.
For more information on Herodotus please check Wikipedia, Herodotus
Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at both universities and advanced military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory while Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history, and classical studies.
More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.
For more information on Thucidydes please check Wikipedia, Thucidydes
Xenophon (c. 430 – 354 BC), son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, and student of Socrates. While not referred to as a philosopher by his contemporaries, his status as such is now a topic of debate. He is known for writing about the history of his own times, the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, especially for his account of the final years of the Peloponnesian War. His Hellenica, which recounts these times, is considered to be the continuation of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. His youthful participation in the failed campaign of Cyrus the Younger to claim the Persian throne inspired him to write his most famous work, Anabasis.
Despite his birth-association with Athens, Xenophon affiliated himself with Sparta for most of his life. His pro-oligarchic views, service under Spartan generals in the Persian campaign and beyond, as well as his friendship with King Agesilaus II endeared Xenophon to the Spartans, and them to him. A number of his writings display his pro-Spartan bias and admiration, especially Agesilaus and Constitution of Sparta. Other than Plato, Xenophon is the foremost authority on Socrates, having learned under the great philosopher while a young man. He greatly admired his teacher, and well after Socrates’ death in 399 Xenophon wrote several Socratic dialogues, including an Apology concerning the events of his trial and death. Xenophon’s works cover a wide range of genres and are written in very uncomplicated Attic Greek. Xenophon’s works are among the first that many students of Ancient Greek translate on account of the straightforward and succinct nature of his prose. This sentiment was apparent even in ancient times, as Diogenes Laertius states in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers that Xenophon was sometimes known as the "Attic Muse" for the sweetness of his diction.
For more information on Xenophon please check Wikipedia, Xenophon
Sources:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta
https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2011:thucydides-book-1-debate-at-sparta
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4435752?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.livingapex.com/minimalism-in-ancient-spartan-lifestyle-and-philosophy/
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-problem-with-minimalism/
Herodotus- Persian War with Xerxes
http://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/herodotus-on-thermopylae/?
Thucydides
Plutarch
Customs of the Spartans
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Instituta_Laconica*.html
Xenophon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9qjLeB8ytw
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DConst.+Lac.%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D3
Hiero - Not on Spartans but interesting in the context.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0210%3Atext%3DHiero%3Achapter%3D7%3Asection%3D1
dialogue between Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, and the lyric poet Simonides about 474 BC.
Chilon The Elder
Know thyself
- "Speak nothing of the dead but truth."
- "Honor old age."
- "Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole life."
- "Do not laugh at a person in misfortune."
- "If one is strong be also merciful, so that one's neighbors may respect one rather than fear one."
- "Learn how to regulate one's own house well."
- "Do not let one's tongue outrun one's sense."
- "Restrain anger."
- "Do not dislike divination."
- "Do not desire what is impossible."
- "Do not make too much haste on one's road."
- "Obey the laws."
Lycurgus of Sparta
Laws of Lycurgus
three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity
The Great Rhetra
Modern Sources:
Steven Pressfield
Gates of Fire: Steven Pressfield
Helena P. Schrader
Comments
Post a Comment