Thepathe ̄mata
In speaking of his compatriots, Demaratus, the former king of Sparta, had
said to Xerxes in 480 BC, ‘‘For, if they are free, they are not completely free:
they have a master in the law [despote ̄s nomos]’’ (Herodotus 7.104). And Simonides,
a contemporary of Demaratus cited by Plutarch, had characterized Sparta as being
a ‘‘mortal-taming’’ city (Agesilaos 1.3:damasimbrotos; for this term see Powell
1994:277, and for the same idea see also Isocrates,Archidamus59). The Spartans’
submission to their law constituted a general principle that in practice informed
their conduct at all times. The Spartans were in effect induced to master themselves,
to master their own bodies, in the service of the city. They had to suppress their
fear, allow themselves to be guided by restraint, tame their sex drive, be familiar
with death, and control their needs for sleep and food. Hence, thepathe ̄mata(as
they are termed in Plutarch,Cleomenes9.1), that is to say the bodily passions, were
sacralized at Sparta. Thesepathe ̄matawerePhobos, Fear (Plutarch,Cleomenes 9.1),
Aido ̄s, Shame or Restraint (Xenophon,Symposium8.35; Pausanias 3.20.10–11),
Hypnos, Sleep (Pausanias 3.18.1),Thanatos, Death (Plutarch,Cleomenes9.1 and
Pausanias 3.18.1),Gelo ̄s, Laughter (Plutarch, Cleomenes9.1 andLycurgus 25.4,
including SosibiusFGrH595 fr. 19),Ero ̄s, Love (SosicratesFGrH461 fr. 7 at
Athenaeus 561e–f; cf. Pausanias 3.26.5 for Leuctra in Laconia),Limos, Hunger or
Famine (CallisthenesFGrH124 fr. 13 at Athenaeus 452b; Polyaenus 2.15). The
Spartans’ sacralization of bodily passions seems to have constituted a very effective
mechanism of ethical control. The role ofPhobos, in particular, was not so much
to inspire fear in the enemy as to instill respect for the law and its representatives in
the Spartans. (On the pathe ̄mata see Richer 1998a:217–33, especially 219–24
onPhobosand 224–6 onEro ̄sand the ephors, 1998b, 1999a, 2001a:52–5, 2001b:
31–3, and 2005a.)
The philosopher Plato was probably inspired by the Spartan model when he
recommended the establishment of a law that ensured that everyone should declare
‘‘victory over pleasures’’ and displayenkrateia, self-control. Writing in the fourth
century, Plato thought (Laws840c) that this law, rendered sacred, should be sup-
ported by social pressures: ‘‘As soon as one has succeeded in sacralizing it, this law
will subjugate all souls and fill them with fear and obedience towards the prohibitions
it enacts’’ (839c). And, speaking through the mouth of one of his characters, the
Athenian, Plato also declares: ‘‘If the legislator wishes to subjugate one of these
passions that enslave men most surely, the end will be easily achieved. All he need
do is sacralize this public sentiment in the spirit of all alike, slaves, free men, children,
women, the city as a whole, and, in this way he will have created a more secure
stability for this law’’ (Laws838d–e). In Xenophon’s own view the Spartan model
was genuinely effective. He believed that, by comparison with practices widespread in
Greece, Laconian education produced ‘‘men who are the most disciplined and the
most restrained, men who have the greatest control [enkratesteroi] of the desires
one must suppress’’ (Constitution of the Lacedaemonians2.15).
Such a state of mind has led some modern scholars to suggest that divine authority
may have answered an important psychological need for men accustomed to obey.
This is the view of Hodkinson (1983:276) and Parker (1989:162), who observes,
‘‘Fear of the gods,deisidaimonia, was a particular form of the ‘fear’ which in Greek
248 Nicolas Richer