became dependent and were bound not to harbour Messenians within their borders.
Sparta had a long rivalry with Argos, whom she also defeated in the sixth century. As
the most powerful state in the Peloponnese, she now put herself at the head of the
Peloponnesian League, a loose federation of states south of the isthmus (excluding
Argos) in a largely defensive alliance who agreed to supply troops in common cause
under Spartan leadership. Spartan policy thereafter was predominantly defensive; she
was reluctant to dispatch significant numbers of her Spartiates north of the isthmus,
for fear of revolt at home.
The defensive attitude on the part of her ruling elite, together with the lack of
any strong artistic element in her educational system, doubtless accounts for her more
general cultural conservatism. In the seventh century Sparta had produced two of the
most famous of early Greek poets. Tyrtaeus wrote war songs, and these expressed
and encouraged Spartan martial virtues, as suggested in the following extract which
vividly represents the shame of flight and the hoplites’ duty to stand firm in hand to
hand fighting:
You are of the lineage of the invincible Heracles; so rejoice; Fear not a multitude
of men, nor flinch, but let every man hold his shield straight towards the front,
making Life his enemy and the black Spirits of Death dear as the rays of the sun.... For pleasant it is in dreadful warfare to pierce the midriff of a flying man, and
disgraced is the dead that lieth in the dust with a spear-point in his back. So let
each man bite his lip and abide firm-set astride upon the ground, covering with
the belly of his broad buckler thighs and legs below and breast and shoulders
above; let him brandish the massy spear in his right hand, let him wave the dire
crest upon his head; let him learn how to fight by doing doughty deeds, and not
stand shield in hand beyond the missiles. Nay, let each man close the foe, and with
his own long spear, or else with his sword, wound and take an enemy, and setting
foot beside foot, resting shield against shield, crest beside crest, helm beside
helm, fight his man breast to breast with sword or long spear in hand.
(Tyrtaeus, quoted by Stobaeus, Anthology)
This is an intense expression of the Spartan military ethos; little wonder that we hear
that Spartan mothers bade their sons return from battle with their shield or on it.
Alcman (c. 630) composed gentler choral lyrics to be sung by Spartan maidens at
festivals. A fragment from a parthenaion (maiden song) suggests a delicacy not
normally associated with the Spartans:
With loose-limbing desire
she looks at me more tenderly than sleep or death,
nor in vain is she sweet.HISTORY 55