The Agoge

The Spartan training system of the Agoge represented an attempt to eradicate from their society the destructive urges to acquire power and wealth. For a time they were a shining example to the world of what a society could achieve, unparalleled in their age or any since. This site celebrates the example set by the Spartans of classical Hellas while mourning the loss of their society to the elements of time and the zealot forces within.

Without doubt, the ancient Spartans are among the most vilified cultures of all time. Their cultural treatment of the helots and their unashamed warrior-society provides fertile ground for pampered academic to vent their disdain, even though the average citizen of Hellas during classical times admired the Spartans and looked to them for leadership in times of trouble. Oddly enough the same academics who so love Sparta's main competition seem to forget how thin was the "democracy" of Athens or how ambitious the Athenian lust for empire became.

With a political system more like a constitutional monarchy than an oligarchy, the Spartans were more of a democracy than the Athenians. While their elected Ephors kept the King's powers in check, their women enjoyed an unparalleled freedom that was never available to the women of democratic Athens or other states in classical Hellas. While it is the complete domination of the helots that seems most difficult for modern man to get past, the many slaves that perished in the Athenian silver mines never seems to come up, nor does the Athenian willingness to destroy other Hellene states to maintain their empire.

This site hopes to inspire the Spartan ideal that pursuing self-perfection and service to a greater good is among the greatest achievements man can undertake. To truly understand their thinking one must be willing to sacrifice, do without, and endure. In our pampered western society this is uncommon thinking, but then, even in ancient times this was uncommon thinking.

"Go, stranger passing by, and tell the Spartans that here, faithful to their laws, we lie.";