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The Bronze Lie

Author: Myke Cole

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-09-02

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 1472843746

Covering Sparta's full classical history, The Bronze Lie examines the myth of Spartan warrior supremacy. The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their toughness, stoicism and martial prowess – but was this reputation earned? This book paints a very different picture of Spartan warfare – punctuated by frequent and heavy losses. We also discover a society dedicated to militarism not in service to Greek unity or to the Spartan state itself, but as a desperate measure intended to keep its massive population of helots (a near-slave underclass) in line. What successes there were, such as in the Peloponnesian Wars, gave Sparta only a brief period of hegemony over Greece. Today, there is no greater testament to this than the relative position of modern Sparta and its famous rival Athens. The Bronze Lie explores the Spartans' arms and armor, tactics and strategy, the personalities of commanders and the common soldiery alike. It looks at the major battles, with a special focus on previously under-publicized Spartan reverses that have been left largely unexamined. The result is a refreshingly honest and accurate account of Spartan warfare.

The Myth of Sparta

Author: John Malcolm Burton

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2013-02-03

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9781482330632

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Many have heard of the heroic stand of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae but what happened to the Spartans after that battle? The Myth of Sparta begins with the death of Leonidas, the Lion of Sparta, and the famous three hundred Spartans, at the battle of Thermopylae and culminates in a dramatic retelling of the battle of Sphacteria, a battle which dramatically deals with the question of Spartan invincibility. It tells the story of the relations between the Spartans and the Athenians who turned from being the closest of allies into implacable enemies. It follows the lives of many of the Spartans during this period, meeting its Kings and Regents, as well as lesser known characters such as Styphon, a young Spartan, whose life we follow through the mysteries of the brutal training at the Agoge, the Spartan school for warriors. The novel describes the machinations of the Athenian politicians such as Pericles and Cleon who seek to control Athens as near dictators, forcing their will upon the people, acting through the power and guise of a Democratic society. The author follows the lives of lesser known Athenians, such as Demosthenes, who becomes a General and changes forever the strategy that the Athenians follow in their confrontations with Sparta. The book explores the life of the Helots, Greek citizens who were long ago subjugated by the Spartans and turned into slaves. In particular, we meet Kallistos, who waits until a great Earthquake brings Sparta to her knees before he strikes violently to challenge the serfdom he detests so much. The Myth of Sparta covers all of this and more, breathing life into historical characters and describing in dramatic detail, a period of history long forgotten.

Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean

Author: Irad Malkin

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-06-30

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1009466089

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Examines the use of mythology to justify conquest and colonization across the Spartan Mediterranean in the archaic and Classical periods.

Daughter of Sparta

Author: Claire Andrews

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2021-06-08

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0316540102

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In this thrilling reimagining of ancient Greek mythology, a headstrong girl becomes the most powerful fighter her people have ever seen. Seventeen-year-old Daphne has spent her entire life honing her body and mind into that of a warrior, hoping to be accepted by the unyielding people of ancient Sparta. But an unexpected encounter with the goddess Artemis—who holds Daphne's brother's fate in her hands—upends the life she's worked so hard to build. Nine mysterious items have been stolen from Mount Olympus and if Daphne cannot find them, the gods' waning powers will fade away, the mortal world will descend into chaos, and her brother's life will be forfeit. Guided by Artemis's twin—the handsome and entirely-too-self-assured god Apollo—Daphne's journey will take her from the labyrinth of the Minotaur to the riddle-spinning Sphinx of Thebes, team her up with mythological legends such as Theseus and Hippolyta of the Amazons, and pit her against the gods themselves. A reinterpretation of the classic Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, Daughter of Sparta by debut author Claire Andrews turns the traditionally male-dominated mythology we know into a heart-pounding and empowering female-led adventure.

The Spartans

Author: Paul Cartledge

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2003-05-26

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1590208374

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“Remarkable . . . [The author’s] crystalline prose, his vivacious storytelling and his lucid historical insights combine here to provide a first-rate history.” —Publishers Weekly Sparta has often been described as the original Utopia—a remarkably evolved society whose warrior heroes were forbidden any other trade, profession, or business. As a people, the Spartans were the living exemplars of such core values as duty, discipline, the nobility of arms in a cause worth dying for, sacrificing the individual for the greater good of the community (illustrated by their role in the battle of Thermopylae), and the triumph over seemingly insuperable obstacles—qualities often believed today to signify the ultimate heroism. In this book, distinguished scholar and historian Paul Cartledge, long considered the leading international authority on ancient Sparta, traces the evolution of Spartan society—the culture and the people as well as the tremendous influence they had on their world and even ours. He details the lives of such illustrious and myth-making figures as Lycurgus, King Leonidas, Helen of Troy (and Sparta), and Lysander, and explains how the Spartans, while placing a high value on masculine ideals, nevertheless allowed women an unusually dominant and powerful role—unlike Athenian culture, with which the Spartans are so often compared. In resurrecting this culture and society, Cartledge delves into ancient texts and archeological sources and includes illustrations depicting original Spartan artifacts and drawings, as well as examples of representational paintings from the Renaissance onward—including J.L. David’s famously brooding Leonidas. “A pleasure for anyone interested in the ancient world.” —Kirkus Reviews “[An] engaging narrative . . . In his panorama of the real Sparta, Cartledge cloaks his erudition with an ease and enthusiasm that will excite readers from page one.” —Booklist “Our greatest living expert on Sparta.” —Tom Holland, prize-winning author of Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

Daughters of Sparta

Author: Claire Heywood

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 059318436X

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For millennia, men have told the legend of the woman whose face launched a thousand ships—but now it's time to hear her side of the story. Daughters of Sparta is a tale of secrets, love, and tragedy from the women behind mythology's most devastating war, the infamous Helen and her sister Klytemnestra. As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivaled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece. But such privilege comes at a cost. While still only girls, the sisters are separated and married to foreign kings of their father's choosing— Helen remains in Sparta to be betrothed to Menelaos, and Klytemnestra is sent alone to an unfamiliar land to become the wife of the powerful Agamemnon. Yet even as Queens, each is only expected to do two things: birth an heir and embody the meek, demure nature that is expected of women. But when the weight of their husbands' neglect, cruelty, and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, Helen and Klytemnestra must push against the constraints of their society to carve new lives for themselves, and in doing so, make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years. Daughters of Sparta is a vivid and illuminating reimagining of the Siege of Troy, told through the perspectives of two women whose voices have been ignored for far too long.

Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean

Author: Irad Malkin

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-07-17

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780521520249

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This book discusses Greek attitudes to settlement and territory as articulated through myths and cults. It covers the spectrum from explicit charter myths legitimating conquest, displacement, and settlement, to the 'precedent-setting' and even aetiological myths, rendering new landscapes 'Greek'.

Myth, Text, and History at Sparta

Author: Thomas Figueira

Publisher:

Published: 2016-07-31

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781463205959

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"Myth, Text, and History at Sparta unites three studies that offer close readings concerning the interaction of the source material on Spartan history with the unfolding of actual historical events. These contributions take the position that not only political, but also social, policies at Sparta, as well as the historical actors giving them shape, were intensely--and to an unusual degree--influenced by myth, tradition, and popular memory about the Laconian past. Sparta drew strength from its professed adherence to the legacy of the Dorian conquest and to the legislative program of Lykourgos. And, objectively, Sparta represented the most tightly articulated instance of an archaic Greek sociopolitical order. However, past and present at Sparta co-evolved. The reader will find in the studies brought together in this volume that ideology, recollection, and wish-fulfillment stood in dynamic tension not only with practical decision-making, but also with the enthralling, centuries-long quest by individual Spartans for authority, legitimacy, and authenticity"--Provided by publisher.

The Spartans

Author: Andrew J. Bayliss

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-07-10

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0192594516

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The image of Sparta, and the Spartans, is one dyed indelibly into the public consciousness: musclebound soldiers with long hair and red cloaks, bearing shiny bronze shields emblazoned with the Greek letter lambda. 'This is Sparta!', bellows Leonidas on the silver screen, as he decides to lead his 300 warriors to their deaths at Thermopylae. But what was Sparta? The myths surrounding Sparta are as old as the city itself. Even in antiquity, Sparta was a unique society, considered an enigma. The Spartans who fought for freedom against the Persians called themselves 'equals' or peers, but their equality was reliant on the ruthless exploitation of the indigenous population known as helots. The Spartans' often bizarre rules and practices have the capacity to horrify as much they do to fascinate us today. Athenian writers were intrigued and appalled in equal measure by a society where weak or disabled babies were said to have been examined carefully by state officials before being dumped off the edge of a cliff. Even today their lurid stories have shaped our image of Sparta; a society in which cowards were forced to shave off half their beards, to dress differently from their peers, and who were ultimately shunned to the extent that suicide seemed preferable. Equally appalling to us today is the brutal krypteia, a Spartan rite of passage where teenagers were sent into the countryside armed with a knife and ordered to eliminate the biggest and most dangerous helots. But the truth behind these stories of the exotic other can be hard to discover, lost amongst the legend of Sparta which was even perpetuated by later Spartans, who ran a thriving tourist industry that exaggerated the famed brutality of their ancestors. As Andrew Bayliss explores in this book, there was also much to admire in ancient Sparta, such as the Spartans' state-run education system which catered even to girls, or the fact that Sparta was almost unparalleled in the pre-modern world in allowing women a clear voice, with no fewer than forty sayings by Spartan women preserved in our sources. This book reveals the best and the worst of the Spartans, separating myth from reality.

Spartan Women

Author: Sarah B. Pomeroy

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-07-11

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0199880999

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This is the first book-length examination of Spartan women, covering over a thousand years in the history of women from both the elite and lower classes. Classicist Sarah B. Pomeroy comprehensively analyzes ancient texts and archaeological evidence to construct the world of these elusive though much noticed females. Sparta has always posed a challenge to ancient historians because information about the society is relatively scarce. Most existing scholarship on Sparta concerns the military history of the city and its heavily male-dominated social structure--almost as if there were no women in Sparta. Yet perhaps the most famous of mythic Greek women, Menelaus' wife Helen, the cause of the Trojan War, was herself a Spartan. Written by one of the leading authorities on women in antiquity, Spartan Women reconstructs the lives and the world of Sparta's women, including how their status changed over time and how they held on to their surprising autonomy. Proceeding through the archaic, classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, Spartan Women includes discussions of education, family life, reproduction, religion, and athletics.