1. Geography
Ancient Sparta was built on the banks of the Evrotas River
the main river of Laconia which provided it with a source of
fresh water
The valley of the Evrotas is a natural fortress, bounded to the
west by Mt. To the north, Laconia is separated from Arcadia by
hilly uplands reaching 1000 m in altitude.
These natural defenses worked to Sparta's advantage and
contributed to Sparta never having been sacked.
Sparta had a harbor, Gytheio, on the Laconian Gulf.
3. Sparta Religion
•Regular worships of Gods surviving to unify the people
•common goal to please the Gods
•was ritual based, practicing a flexible set of beliefs
•worshiped many god which made them polytheistic
•believed that these gods and goddesses controlled everything
•Each god or goddess controlled one or two major aspects of life
•Temples were large and “beautiful” buildings to pray or sacrifice animals
FESTIVALS:
•Eleusinia – festival of games held at Eleusis’s
•Panathenaea
•Anthesteria – festival of Dionysus and the new wine
•Thesmophoria – festival o Demeter celebrated by women, and many
others In these festivals everyone, whether reach or poor, could participate
– though usually there have been limitations for women.
4. Gods
1. Aphrodite ,the goddess of love
2. Apollo , the god of the sun and of music
3. Ares , the god of war
4. Artemis , the goddess of the hunt
5. Demeter , the goddess of the harvest
6. Athena ,the goddess of wisdom
7. Dionysus , the god of high spirits and of wine
8. Hephaestus , the god of fire and of the forge
9. Hera ,the queen of gods
10. Hermes ,the god of travel and the messenger of the gods
11. Poseidon ,the god of the sea
12. Zeus ,the lord of the gods, most powerful and ruler of Mount
Olympus and the sky
5. Art
Sculpted the ideal human, men and woman only sculpted skinny women and muscled men.
Only used Marble and Limestone because that’s all they had.
They were all white and were ideal beauty
Had lots and lots of poets and poetry
Two Poets:
Anacreon
Nonnus
Ah tell me why you turn and fly,
My little Thracian filly shy?
Why turn askance
That cruel glance,
And think that such a dunce am I?
O I am blest with ample wit
To fix the bridle and the bit,
And make thee bend
Each turning-end
In harness all the course of it.
But now 'tis yet the meadow free
And frisking it with merry glee;
The master yet
Has not been met
To mount the car and manage thee.
6. More Art
Pottery: Everything from wheat to wine was stored in pottery. Pottery
was made by shaping clay on a wheel, decorating the pot, and then
heating the clay in a kiln
Clay was a very important of their culture. Back then they did not
have glass or plastic to make containers out of. Luckily clay was
easy to find around the area. Once clay is fired it is almost
indestructible (unless broken) and also fairly waterproof. These
features made clay a perfect material to make containers out of. It
was used for big storage containers, buckets, cups, perfume
bottles, wine bottles, jewelry boxes, and any other type of container
for storing things in. All of these uses made the potters in ancient
Greece very busy. Their skills became so refined that they were just
as important as the clay itself, although they were often poor people
or even slaves.
7.
8. Government
The Great Rhetra was the orally established constitution of Ancient Sparta, as set by the
lawmaker. Lycurgus It was one of the two greatest bodies of classical Greek direct
democracy
an oligarchy, which is a government controlled by a small group of people.
In this case power was in the hands of a few aristocrats.
Often times at meetings the group that was able to shout the loudest would be the ones who
won a vote or had their policy accepted.
headed by two kings who ruled jointly.
They served as high priests and as leaders in war.
Each king acted as a check on the other
There was a sort of cabinet composed of five ephors, or overseers, who exercised a general
guardianship over law and custom and in later times came to have greater power.
The legislative power was vested in the assembly of Spartan citizens and in a senate, or
council, of 30 elders consisting of the two kings and 28 other men chosen from the citizens
who had passed the age of 60.
9. Society was mainly broken up between Free people and Slaves, who were owned by the
free people. Slaves were used as servants and laborers, without any legal rights.
Sometimes the slaves were prisoners of war or bought from foreign slave traders.
Although many slaves lived closely with their owners, few were skilled craftsmen and even
fewer were paid.
The state determined whether children, both male and female, were strong when they
were born; weakling infants were left in the hills to die of exposure.
At the age of seven, every male Spartan was sent to military and athletic school, after
thirteen years of training they soldiers go off into the war.
athletic school these schools taught toughness, discipline, endurance of pain and survival
skills
10. Ancient Writing
Roman Alphabet, was the result of nearly 4000 years of transformation.
They were the first Europeans to learn to write with an alphabet, and from them writing
was brought to the rest of Europe, eventually leading down to all modern European
alphabets.
The ancient writings were based on music and harmony
The Greek alphabet has been in continuous use for the past 2,750 years or so since
about 750 BC.
The original Canaanite meanings of the letter names was lost when the alphabet was
adapted for Greek
Canaanites was the creator of the alphabet
