Student Activity - Festivals

Three major festivals:

- Karneia
- Gymnopaedia
- Hyakinthia
Create a table to summarise the information on Spartan festivals. Use the following headings:
- Name of festival
- God honoured
- Description
- Evidence
Use Antiquity 2 (4.10), Webb, the video and independent research

132
 Theft of cheeses

Where? Ritual took place in the Temple of Artemis Orthia

Why? an initiation rite requiring physical endurance → supported military ethos of Spartans
What? Young boys stole cheese

According to Xenophon, boys had to run a gauntlet (run between a two rows of people who strike with weapons) to
steal cheeses from the temple altar and endure a whipping both on their way to the altar and on the way back.
In Pausanias’ version, the boys were whipped at the altar with a priestess holding the statue of Artemis Orthia. The
priestess (speaking for the goddess) would complain if the boys were not being beaten hard enough, so that the
whipping would increase often to the point of drawing blood.

133
 iv. religious role of the kings

▰ Chief priest →two priesthoods, Zeus of Sparta and Zeus Uranios

▰ Made first ceremonial libation, kept hides of all animals after sacrifice
▰ King was associated with public divination
▰ The ephors observed the heavens every 9 years (on a clear night) to determine whether or not a king should
be deposed.
▰ A mantis (seer) accompanied the king on campaigns and interpreted omens for him
▰ Sacrifices were made before crossing borders and before battle. Brennan suggests that there may have been
manipulation of the sacrifices to avoid battle when their prospects looked poor.
▰ King made sacrifices to seek divine favour → Xenophon describes King Agesipolis, while leading Spartan
army interpreted an earthquake as sign of encouragement from Poseidon (good omen), offered sacrifice.

▰ Safe-keeping of Pythia
▰ Pithioi (consulted Pythia) were appointed by the King, shared King’s tent and reported back

134
135
 Religious Sites

Sparta possessed no town centre, and the major religious sites were situated
on the outskirts of town:
▰ Temple of Artemis Orthia was out of sight near the Eurotas River
▰ Temple of Athena of the Bronze House stood in the north-eastern part of
the acropolis, which was only a small raised incline
▰ Menelaion was situated in the Parnon ranges looking across the Eurotas
valley
▰ Shrine of Apollo at Amyclae was approximately 6 kilometres from Sparta
136
 v. funerary customs and rituals

▰ Information on the funerary customs of ordinary Spartans is sparse, followed simple

burial practices, burying the dead in pit graves
▰ Warriors buried on the battlefield with grave markers
▰ Women who died in childbirth were also permitted to have inscribed monuments
▰ Deceased’s female relatives conducted funerary rituals; laying out the body, the
funeral procession and the burial itself. 11 days was set for mourning. 12th day was
marked by sacrifice to Demeter, which also marked the end of the formal grieving
period

137
 v. funerary customs and rituals

▰ Plutarch informs us that Lycurgus → “removed all superstition by not placing any ban on
the burial of the dead within the city or on siting tombs close to temples”.
▰ Spartans were encouraged to view death as ‘familiar and normal’ and were not afraid to
touch a corpse or walk between gravestones.
▰ Under the laws of Lycurgus, they did not put grave goods in with the dead and Spartan
soldiers were simply wrapped in their red cloaks with olive leaves placed around them
▰ When King died thousands of Spartans and people of Lakonia were forced to attend →
“men and women together strike their foreheads with every sign of grief,
wailing...declaring that the king who had just died was the best they ever hard”

138
Question

To what extent is Sparta’s military ethos reflected

in religious practices? (6 Marks)

139