Krypteia
The Krypteia ( Greek κρυπτεία, often translated as "secret service") was an institution in ancient Sparta , in which adolescent young men were involved. There are two different views of the crypt , each based on different sources.
The crypt at Plato
Plato (Plat.leg.633b-c) reports that the Krypteia is a military hardening training, which includes exertions like walking barefoot in winter, sleeping on bare ground, enduring pain, etc. In addition, the participants known as kryptoi would have to steal their food in order to survive.
The Krypteia at Plutarch / Aristotle
In its Lykurg -Biographie describes Plutarch (Plut.Lyk.28,1-7) a completely different phenomenon. With reference to Aristotle 's lost work "The Constitution of the Spartans", he states that the Krypteia was a terrorist instrument which the Spartans used against the Helots in order to keep this outnumbered but subjugated population under control. This tradition, which is also documented by an excerpt from Herakleides Lembos (frg. 9 Willis), describes how the “most skilful young people” are sent to the countryside, hide during the day and then walk across the fields at night and use the strongest and most capable helots to slain. Aristotle / Plutarch also associate this practice with the annual declaration of war by the ephors on the helots, which is accordingly to be understood as a legitimation "so that their murder does not violate divine law".
Research situation
There have been repeated attempts in research to unite these two versions. B. by Cartledge, who is based on an original military hardship training, which was subsequently institutionalized by the annual declaration of war on the helots . The communis opinio sees the origin of the Krypteia in archaic initiation rites (cf. the ethnological approaches of the French historians Jeanmaire , Ducat and Vidal-Naquet ). Newer treatises again increasingly assume that one of the two versions is correct. Karl-Wilhelm Welwei, for example, denies the Krypteia its function as a terrorist instrument and its origin as an initiation rite. In contrast, Stefan Link takes the assumption of two different phases in time and gives the Battle of Leuktra lost by Sparta for the time of change , but basically separates the two versions from each other.
literature
- Paul Cartledge: Agesilaos and the Crisis of Sparta. London 1987, ISBN 0-7156-2082-7 (English).
- Paul Cartledge: Crypt. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Sp. 872.
- Henri Jeanmaire : La cryptie lacédémonienne . In: Revue de ètudes grecques , Volume 26, 1913, pp. 121-150.
- Stefan Link: On the history of the origins of the Spartan Krypteia . In: Klio , Volume 88, 2006, pp. 34-43.
- Mischa Meier : Aristocrats and Damods. Investigations into the inner development of Sparta in the 7th century BC And on the political function of the poetry of Tyrtaios. Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07430-9 .
- Pierre Vidal-Naquet: The black hunter. Forms of thought and societies in ancient Greece. Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-593-33965-X .
- Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Was the Krypteia a cruel terrorist instrument? In: Laverna , Volume 15, 2004, pp. 33-46.
