Questions

What Was the Spartan Agoge?

The agōgē was Sparta's compulsory state upbringing. Boys left home at seven and lived in barracks under state instructors until twenty, and no Spartan who did not complete it could hold citizenship.

Xenophon sets out the design: boys barefoot in all weather, one cloak a year, reed beds they cut themselves, and deliberately short rations (Lac. 2). The stated aim was not cruelty for its own sake but obedience and endurance, produced by removing every comfort a child would otherwise have.

Discipline was not restricted to the instructors. Any citizen could correct any boy, and a boy who complained to his father could expect a second beating at home.

Plutarch adds the ritual material, including the whipping contest at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (Lyc. 18). He is late and fond of a story, so the earlier and plainer Xenophon is the safer guide.

Girls did not enter the agōgē but trained publicly in running, wrestling and throwing, which no other Greek city permitted.