Sparta Live! Angry, angry Spartans
Join us and Andrew Bayliss for a discussion about the Angry, angry Spartans.
When we think of Spartan behaviour we often think of the usual stereotypes. They might be positive, like Spartans bravely fighting to the death in obedience to Spartan law, Spartan boys resolutely enduring the lash during the upbringing, or Pausanias piously sacrificing to the gods before the Battle of Plataea. The stereotypes might also be negative, like the Spartans’ alien acts, or the seemingly countless Spartan sayings rudely dismissing foreigners as wordy windbags, or even Thucydides’ famous characterisation of the Spartans as slow to act. But one Spartan quality that appears very frequently in our sources – anger – is often overlooked. This paper will go beyond the stereotypes and explore the portrayals of Spartan anger in context.
Discussants:
Dr Andrew Bayliss (University of Birmingham)
Dr Petros Doukas (Mayor of Sparti)
Dr Chrysanthi Gallou (University of Nottingham)
SPARTA LIVE Series is a programme of online live presentations and discussion workshops on the history, archaeology and legacy of ancient Sparta. The programme is run by The Centre for Spartan & Peloponnesian Studies (CSPS) at the University of Nottingham, in partnership with the City of Sparti in Laconia, Greece – the site of ancient Sparta.
