Is it true that the Spartans dropped weak children into the abyss?

The belief is widespread that in the ancient state of infants who cannot grow up healthy, soon after birth they dropped from the cliff. We checked whether there are confirmations of this legend.

The story of getting rid of unhealthy babies is mentioned not only in a few artistic works of different genres, but also in a number of textbooks: for example, by Theories of state and law Edited by Popova and by pedagogy Edited by Krivshenko and Yurkina. At the same time, popular science portals Arzamas And "Russian seed" They say that archaeological excavations have denied a widespread belief. In 2020, about the strange by the current standards of Spartan custom during one of the meetings I remembered Russian President Vladimir Putin: “They say that in the ancient Sparta sick, mutilated children were thrown off the Tyigt cliff. True, today historians, archaeologists believe that this is only a legend, a myth. ”

Ancient authors wrote about shocking for modern man. For example, Plutarch in "Comparative Biographies" told On the unenviable fate of weak babies in a book dedicated to the semi -legal legislator Lycurgus (VIII century BC). According to Plutarch, the newborn was attributed to the elders who examined him and “if the child was a puny and ugly, he was sent to the apotheists (the so -called cliff in the taiga), believing that neither he himself nor the state needs his life, since he was refused health and strength from the very beginning.”

Moreover, in the biographies of other famous ancient figures written by Plutarch, there are allegations of this. For example, in the story of the Spartan king Agnesilay (V - IV century BC) author reportsthat he has been lame since childhood (although "his beauty in her young years made an inconspicuous bodily vice"). How Writes The British specialist in ancient history, Paul Cartlay, the king was lame from birth, and grew by Spartan standards very low, so that health problems were clearly not a result of injury. Nevertheless, Agnesilai He lived More than 80 years and led the Spartan army in several wars and campaigns.

Note that Plutarch lived In the I - II centuries n. e., that is, several centuries later than many heroes of his "biographies". How Noticed Some historians, other ancient authors do not report such a custom in Sparta, and Plutarch himself is more interested in creating the image of his hero than in his exact biography.

In 2007, several publications (including Russian Lenta.ru And "New Izvestia"as well as Australian ABC) with reference to AFP, they reported that the Greek scientists "refuted the legend of Spartan detublines." These publications reported on the work of Theodoros of Pionos from the University of Athenian, which analyzed the human remains discovered in the Apofett gorge, and came to the conclusion that the people who died there were from 18 to 35 years old. In total, anthropologists studied the remains of 46 men who lived in the VI - V centuries and were probably prisoners of war, criminals or traitors.

Although we were not able to discover the publication of the AFP, which was referred to by the media around the world, the study of Pizifici really exists. Is it true, Dedicated It is to the excavations that took place in the cadet cave. Piiones initially checked the hypothesis that adults were dropped in the gorge. Moreover, the anthropologist directly calls the rumors that the children were thrown precisely in the Kaedas gorge, "unlikely, unconfirmed fiction, nevertheless widespread in our time." A similar point of view adheres to Including the Greek Ministry of Culture. The identification of the Kaedas gorge with apothees is really common (so I thought, for example, literary critic Mikhail Gasparov), however, accurate confidence in this No.

Thus, about the Spartan custom, we know from the essays relatively late ancient author, the reliability of which is in question from the works of a relative. Moreover, there are evidence of how natives of Sparta with congenital ailments not only avoided early death, but also achieved very significant successes. The information that anthropologists and archaeologists investigated a few years ago studied the gorge mentioned by Plutarch and refuted the detublines, is not fully true - we do not know for sure where the apofies were located, and cannot with confidence to identify them with the Kaedas gorge. How Writes In his doctoral dissertation about disability in ancient Greece, archaeologist Deborah SPED, "until we find a reliable evidence of such a practice, for example, children's remains in the vicinity of Taiget, we cannot even make preliminary statements."

This is not for sure

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Arzamas. 7 myths about antiquity
2. Plutarch. Comparative biographies
3. T. Pitsios. Ancient Sparta - Research Program of Keadas Cavern
4. D. Sneed. The Life Cycle of Disability in Ancient Greece