Reappraising Spartanhood, and Ruining My Chances of Becoming a Fox Sports Announcer


Me continue followup from hot book woman post and comment after. Bad buttery? Sparta have history:


Sparta had the best army in ancient Greece; and was the most powerful state before the rise of Athens, a naval power, after the Persian Wars (during these wars the Spartans would become legendary for their stand in the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC). Sparta and Athens were reluctant allies against the Persians, but became rivals thereafter. The greatest series of conflicts between the two states, which resulted in the dismantling of the Athenian Empire, is called the Peloponnesian War. Athenian attempts to control Greece and take over the Spartan role of 'guardian of Hellenism' ended in failure.


But feather that fly in air must come down to earth:


The first ever defeat of a Spartan hoplite army at full strength occurred at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. By the time of the rise of Alexander the Great in 336 BC, Sparta was a shadow of its former self, clinging to an isolated independence. During the Punic Wars Sparta was an ally of the Roman Republic. Spartan political indpendence was put to an end when it was eventually overpowered by its ancient rival Argos and forced into the Achaean League.


Later Sparta become tourist trap with cheap trinkets. Me no understand.


Spartans continued their way of life even after the Roman conquest of Greece. The city became a tourist exhibit for the Roman elite who came to observe the "unusual" Spartan customs.


Me no see why customs called unusual. Heap big warrior need special training.


Sparta was, above all, a military state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth. Shortly after birth, the mother of the child bathed it in wine to see whether the child was strong. If the child survived it was brought before the elders of the tribe, by the child's father, who decided whether it was to be reared or not. If found defective or weakly, the baby was left on the wild slopes of Mt Taygetos. In this way attempts were made to secure the maintenance of high physical standards in Sparta. From the earliest days of the Spartan citizen, the claim on his life by the state was absolute and strictly enforced.


This heap good. Make Superman.


The tireless emphasis on physical training gave Spartans the reputation for being "laconic," economical with words, a word derived from the name of their homeland of Laconia.


Much words stupid.


There were...contests to see who could take the most severe flogging, an ordeal known as diamastigosis.


Then Devo write hit song about practice.


At the age of thirteen, young men were arranged into groups, and were sent off into the countryside with nothing, and were expected to survive on wits and cunning. It was assumed that they would steal their food, yet anyone caught stealing was severely punished. This was called the Crypteia, secret (ritual). This was very probably, in origin, an old initiation rite, a preparation for their later career as elite soldiers.

Other sources claim that the Crypteia (or Krypteia) was an "adolescent death squad" made up of the most promising young Spartans. Their job was to roam the countryside killing Helots at night in order to instill fear in the slave population and prevent rebellion.



See other Devo song, "Through Being Cool."


Spartiates were absolutely debarred by law from trade or manufacture, which consequently rested in the hands of the perioikoi, and were forbidden (in theory) to possess either gold or silver. Spartan currency consisted of bars of iron, thus making thievery and foreign commerce very difficult and discouraging the accumulation of riches. Wealth was, in theory at least, derived entirely from landed property, and consisted in the annual return made by the Helots, who cultivated the plots of ground allotted to the Spartans. But this attempt to equalize property proved a failure: from the earliest times, there were marked differences of wealth within the state, and these became even more serious after the law of Epitadeus, passed at some time after the Peloponnesian War, removed the legal prohibition of the gift or bequest of land. Helots were ruthlessly controlled, primarily through the secret police or Krypteia.


People make classless society, but no work because they do not listen to call of wolf and coyote. Very hard to hear animal many moons away.

But now talk about bad stereotype voice me use to type. Cherokee child grow up and do same:


I can remember the first time we did a play at school. We invited all our parents in. I finally, after a lot of talking, got all of my kinfolks to come in.

It was quite a big occasion. We walked down to see the play that night. And even brought some of my older kinfolks in to see it and they couldn’t even understand English. But they came in and really enjoyed it.

We did a little play called "The First Thanksgiving." I guess I was in about the third grade. They choose up the parts and I remember, sure enough, the teacher chose me to be one of the Indians. I made a paper tomahawk and put a paper beaded thing around my head and came in and talked like, "Me heap big Indian, want to help out starving pilgrims." And I brought in a cardboard turkey. We practiced and rehearsed. The white kids played the pilgrims.

The thing that really embarrassed me so much--the teacher told me not to look out at the audience. You weren’t supposed to see the audience. I remember my grandfather came in and he would laugh at the wrong places and he would speak in Cherokee real loud. When he saw me come out with my tomahawk, he got so excited when I was gonna tomahawk the pilgrims, for the first time.

My grandfather wanted me to actually do it. He told me he wished I’d gone ahead. If we had killed the first pilgrims we wouldn’t have any troubles now.



But your tour heap big web to find Spartans and Native Americans on same page, unless you talk college mascots:


The NCAA recently sent out ''self-evaluations" to 30 schools that utilize Native American mascots with the goal of getting these institutions to examine their use of such imagery. But the NCAA committee administering the survey has stated previously that the use of Native American mascots should be ''retired," which suggests a stronger effort to eliminate all Native American mascots is in the offing. While the NCAA's analysis of the mascot issue is a positive development, as it may lead to the elimination of some of the more offensive nicknames still in use, a ban on all Native American mascots has the potential to do as much harm as good....

The use of Aztec or Seminole as a nickname by itself would not appear to be racist, as such names refer to a particular civilization rather than an entire race of people. In this way, they are no different from other school nicknames such as Trojans and Spartans (like Aztecs, ancient peoples) or Fighting Irish and Flying Dutchmen (like Seminoles, nationalities). Similarly, Warriors and Braves are no different from the fighting men of other cultures, like Vikings, Minutemen, or Musketeers (all current NCAA mascots) so it seems hard to argue that their use is uniquely demeaning in some way.

Recent events, however, suggest schools are arriving at a different conclusion.



And expert filter do heap big block of this post to protect youth from bad winds in sky.


Every registered member agrees, upon registration, not use these forums to post material or topics which are knowingly false, defamatory, deceptive, inaccurate, racist, insulting, abusive, inflammatory, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually graphic, physically threatening, invasive of another's privacy or otherwise in violation of any law....


So no racist words on forum. This quote from Redskins forum. Go figure.

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)

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