No Greek city made the education of the young as total a system as Sparta did. The course called the agoge, "leading" or "rearing", accompanied the boy from childhood to adulthood through rigid stages, ordeals and separations. The main sources are Xenophon, who knew Sparta at close quarters, and Plutarch, who gathered its traditions in his Life of Lycurgus.
A note on the sources
Much of what we know about the agoge comes from authors who admired Sparta, and part of the information concerns different periods, including the Roman age, when some practices were revived and turned into spectacle. It is therefore necessary to distinguish what is well attested from what belongs to the idealised image of the city.
Birth and early childhood
According to Plutarch, the newborn did not belong to the father alone. He was brought before the elders of the tribe, who examined him: if they judged him healthy and sturdy, they authorised his rearing. Until the age of seven the child remained with his family.
From age seven: the "herds"
At seven the boy was separated from home and placed in a group of peers, called by a word meaning "pack" or "herd". The groups were under the authority of a magistrate, the paidonomos, and of older youths who acted as leaders.
Living conditions were deliberately harsh:
- a single cloak for the whole year, with no tunic;
- bare feet, to get used to the ground;
- beds of reeds gathered by hand along the river Eurotas;
- scanty food, to accustom them to hunger.
Plutarch adds that the boys were encouraged to obtain food by stealing, and were punished if caught: not for the theft, but for the lack of skill. To this context belongs the famous story of the boy who hid a stolen fox under his cloak and let himself be torn rather than give himself away.
The trials of Artemis Orthia
At the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, by the Eurotas, a ritual ordeal took place. Xenophon describes an early form: the boys had to snatch as many as possible of the cheeses placed on the altar, while others drove them back with whips.
In the Roman period this trial became the diamastigosis, a flogging that tested the endurance of the young and attracted spectators from abroad. In the third century AD a theatre was even built beside the altar to watch it. British excavations of the sanctuary in the early twentieth century also yielded a great many terracotta votive masks and inscriptions recording the winners of youth contests.
The krypteia
The most enigmatic practice is the krypteia, from the verb meaning "to hide". Plutarch, citing Aristotle, reports that certain young men were sent into the countryside with a dagger and few provisions. By day they hid; by night they could kill any helots, the enslaved population, whom they met. Aristotle reportedly also stated that every year the ephors formally declared war on the helots.
Scholars debate the exact nature of the krypteia: a police institution, a survival test, or both. Many recognise in it a liminal phase: the young man lives outside the city, isolated, hidden, under rules opposite to those of civic life, before returning to it as an adult.
Entry into the community of adults
Around twenty the young man became an eiren and could lead groups of boys. Full entry into adult life was tied to admission to a common mess, the syssition. Plutarch describes the vote: each member dropped a ball of bread into a vessel; a single flattened ball was enough to exclude the candidate. Being accepted meant belonging fully to the body of citizens.
A structure in stages
| Approximate age | Stage | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | Examination before the elders | Acceptance into the community |
| 7 years | Entry into peer groups | Separation from family |
| Adolescence | Ordeals, ritual theft, Orthia | Margin, endurance |
| Youth | Krypteia, for some | Life on the margins |
| Around 20 and beyond | Admission to the syssition | Aggregation |
In short
- The agoge was the total educational course that led the young Spartan towards adulthood.
- At seven the boy left his family to live in peer groups under harsh conditions.
- At the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia ritual ordeals took place, which became spectacle in Roman times.
- The krypteia isolated some young men in the countryside, in a violent liminal phase.
- Admission to the common mess sealed entry among adult citizens.
