The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the triad of the tribes
noted for this spirit of conservatism. Old Spartan coins of iron remained in use
until the time of Alexander the Great and the constitution was not changed
in any way.
After the sixth century when the poets Tyrtaeus and Terpander, Alcman
and Cimaethon lived at the courts of the Spartan kings, and Chilon was
counted as one of the seven sages, the discipline of life in Sparta became not
only more rigid but appeared to be the only purpose in life. unhealthy babies
were exposed to die on Mount Taygetus; boys at the age of seven came under
the care of officers; divided into herds (buai), they lived in collective camps
until the age of twenty, ruled by young men between twenty and thirty who
were not allowed to marry before reaching the age of thirty. But even then they
dined in tents, exercised in camps and trained continuously for war. Discipline
and collectivism began from birth and ended only with death. Control and
discipline were supervised by the organization of a secret police, the Krypteia.
The constitution of the Spartans provided for two kings who, with twenty-
eight members of the council known as the gerousia, formed the supreme
criminal court. Besides the assembly (apella) of citizens who were over thirty,
there were five ephors (the supreme civil court) who entered their office at
the beginning of the Spartan year which fell on the first new moon after the
autumnal equinox. The Greeks observed three phases of the moon, waxing, full
and waning; and the year was divided into three seasons, winter, summer and
autumn. It seems most likely that Lycurgus determined the calendar of the
moon year. The gerousia, the council with the four times seven (28) members
over sixty years of age who elected the two kings and who made solemn
offerings to Apollo every month, was wont to be in session in accordance with
the phases of the moon, while the Pythia in Delphi faced the disk of the full
moon when revealing the oracle-word of Apollo. The constitution of Sparta
preserved this connection. The kingship was hereditary; the two dynasties, the
Agidae and the Euripontydae, claimed descent from Heracles and survived all
changes of the state.
The Aeolians were people of reason and memory. Like the Dorians of
Sparta, they were conservative, but they consisted of simple farmers rather than
of restless warriors. The Boeotians, one of these peoples, were noted for their