Ancient Sparta (Part 2)

The Archaic Stoa (L) and the ‘2-niched building’   

The sanctuary of Athena    

Above the theatre, the ruins of the sanctuary of Athena, the Archaic Stoa and the ‘2-niched building’ have been unearthed. The later was built after the theatre was abandoned in the 4^th century BC and was probably associated with the adjacent St Nikon’s Basilica built during the Byzantine period.

The Agora   

Museum garden    

The final ruined building that we saw was the Agora dating from the 4^th or 3^rd century AD and inside which was found a large bronze statue of Juila Aquilia Severa (3^rd Century AD). Quite who she was is not clear from the on-site notices; it was time to move down to look at the modern city and to try and find the museum.

On the way, we negotiated for some very overpriced artichokes and suspect that we were charged the ‘tourist price’. But we the did successfully find the museum sat in a rather tranquil garden full of ancient statues.

Inside the museum, we saw the expected collection of carved marble and sherds of pottery. Notably, though, there were also lots of clay masks found in the temple of Artemis. These are believed to have been used for ritual performances and dances which took place in the sanctuary in honour of the goddess.

We also learned that Sparta had some more brutal practices. An early historic practice of human sacrifice morphed into ritual flogging of the city’s young men at the Temple of Artemis. Those who survived these public beatings without flinching were honoured, anything less was frowned upon as a sign of weakness. But then every male Spartan citizen had but one choice of employment, that of being a soldier; a career which started at age 20 and continued until killed or aged 60. The Helots [slaves] fulfilled all the other, more menial tasks.

Mosaics at the Sparta Museum    

Statue of the hopolite knows as
Leonidas (480-470BC) found in the
Sanctuary of Athena at the Acropolis    

We never did see the bronze statue of the empress Juila Aquilia Severa; it sits in the National Archaeological museum. However, the ‘star’ statue in the museum appeared to be one of Leonidas (480-470BC) found in the Sanctuary of Athena at the Acropolis. Leonidas was a legendary king of Sparta who epitomised their warrior ethos and glorification of battle. In 480BC he unflinchingly led a small force of men (300 Spartan hopolites, 900 Helots [Slaves] and 700 Thespians) to defend against an invading Persian army of 70,000-300,000 men. They refused to surrender and instead successfully held back the invaders at the Thermopylae Pass until a Malian Greek traitor called Ephialtes, led the Persians through a mountain track to attack the rear of the Spartans. Attacked on both sides, the small Greek force was wiped out and Leonidas posthumously achieved heroic cult status.

Bronze statue of Leonidas and his tomb   

Today an even larger bronze statue of Leonidas, cast in 1968, which we saw close to where our car was parked, has become the town’s monument to his memory. There is also a stone structure in the town which is believed to be his tomb.

With artichokes in hand we returned to our car and headed out of Sparta back towards Kalamáta. Our next stop would be the impressive mediaeval town of Mystras.

Ancient Sparta, Greece