The winding ways of eros in plutarch’s sparta

Abstract

The role of Sparta’s women was already a hotly debated subject in ancient times, when it was not uncommon to believe, as Aristotle did for example, that the Spartan men lived under the sway of their licentious wives. More recently, interest in the subject has revived from a more sympathetic angle, sometimes going so far as to depict the Spartan women as early prototypes for female liberation — a view that has in turn provoked sceptical rebuttals to the effect that any notion of female equality at Sparta, how-ever qualified, should be seen as little more than just another pseudo-historical mirage. This essay aims to steer between these extremes by giving credence to the ancient reports in general, Plutarch’s first and foremost, but also questioning them where appropriate. It will reaffirm that Spartan women really do seem to have been unusual, especially in terms of their education, their relative maturity and independence as wives, and their probable economic responsibilities. It will then take the argument a step further into the speculative territory of what the distinctive dynamics between the sexes at Sparta may have meant for their familial, their conjugal and their erotic relations.