The selection of the infant Spartans by Giuseppe Diotti 1840

May 04, 2022

The selection of the infant Spartans by Giuseppe Diotti 1840

In Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, he discusses some of the rules Lycurgus is supposed to have set in Spartan society 800 years prior to Plutarch's day. This post is concerning the rumor of infanticide. Plutarch speaks in the past tense, showing that these were not behaviors practiced during his days, and he begins the story by saying all of this was under dispute and therefore unsubstantiated. Archaeological finds turned up no infant remains at the site believed discussed by Plutarch. Below are quotes from Plutarch and the archaeological finds:

"Concerning Lycurgus the lawgiver, in general, nothing can be said which is not disputed, since indeed there are different accounts of his birth, his travels, his death, and above all, of his work as lawmaker and statesman...

For in the first place, Lycurgus did not regard sons as the peculiar property of their fathers, but rather as the common property of the state.

Offspring was not reared at the will of the father, but was taken and carried by him to a place called Lesche, where the elders of the tribes officially examined the infant, and if it was well-built and sturdy, they ordered the father to rear it, and assigned it one of the nine thousand lots of land; but if it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so‑called Apothetae, a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taÿgetus, in the conviction that the life of that which nature had not well equipped at the very beginning for health and strength, was of no advantage either to itself or the state."

-Plutarch, The Life of Lycurgus

...

"There were still bones in the area, but none from newborns, according to the samples we took from the bottom of the pit" of the foothills of Mount Taygete near present-day Sparta.

"It is probably a myth, the ancient sources of this so-called practice were rare, late and imprecise," he added.

Meant to attest to the militaristic character of the ancient Spartan people, moralistic historian Plutarch in particular spread the legend during first century AD.

According to Pitsios, the bones studied to date came from the fifth and sixth centuries BC and come from 46 men, confirming the assertion from ancient sources that the Spartans threw prisoners, traitors or criminals into the pit.

The discoveries shine light on an episode during the second war between Sparta and Messene, a fortified city state independent of Sparta, when Spartans defeated the Messenian hero Aristomenes and his 50 warriors, who were all thrown into the pit, he added."

The majority of human findings in the cave belong to male skeletons of biological age between 18 and 35 years. Only two adult skulls exhibit indications of biological age above 50 years, whereas few skeletal findings from two subadult skeletons indicate biological age between 14 and 17 years. Finally, parts of the frontal bone which must belong to another young person aged approximately 12 years was found. But this case could not be considered proof for the killing of infants in Keadas, since the involvement of older children and adolescents in violent confrontations and warfare is a fact accounted for in modern historical periods as well. Therefore, the improbable scenario of infant killing in Keadas as an application of eugenics seems to be unsubstantiated."

-taken from Theodoros K. Pitsios' Research Program of Keadas Cavern and ABC News