HELOTS

1
HELOTS

• like asses worn out by their mighty burdens
  under painful necessity to bring their masters
  full half the fruit their ploughed land produced
  
• Tyrtaeus fragment 6

2
Who were they?

• They were the serfs bound to the kleros and
  obliged to render a fixed amount of product to
  their master
• They farmed in Laconia and Messenia
• The helots could not move from the land
• They could neither be manumitted nor moved from
  the land they occupied except by government action

3
Life of a helot

• Sources are scant on helots
• Pollux refers to them as half-slave,
  half-free.
• So long as the helots paid their dues required
  for the upkeep of the Spartan, it is thought that
  they were free to make what profit he could out
  of the land and possibly amass some degree of
  wealth
• The helots tilled the soil for them, paying a
  return for them which was regularly settled in
  advance. There was a ban against letting for a
  higher price, so that the helots might make some
  profit and thus be glad to do the work for their
  masters, and so that their masters would not look
  for any larger return. Plutarchs Moralia

4
Origin

• Most agree that the helots of Laconia were the
  descendents of the original inhabitants of the
  land, non Dorians, who had been reduced to
  serfdom by their conqueror
• The word helot is thought to be derived from the
  Greek word meaning captive

5
Helot women

• Pommeroy states that serfs unlike their Greek
  counterparts, lived in family groups in houses
  designated for them. More than one helot family
  was assigned to each kleros
• Helots also supplied domestic labour for Spartan
  houses, engaged in chores such as weaving and
  child rearing. Plutarch tells us that Spartan
  nurses were highly praised for their ability to
  raise children to be happy, not discontented or
  finicky about their food or afraid of the dark

6
Community involvement

• Sons of helots who were 'adopted' as playmates
  for Spartan boys were called mothaces. These boys
  went through the agoge but never achieved
  citizenship.
• On the second day of the Hyakinthia, citizens
  offered dinner to everyone including helots
  according to Polycrates. Dining together was a
  rite of inclusion expressing the solidarity of
  the entire population
• In the Spartan ceremonies of mourning for a king,
  helots and their wives were obliged to mourn and
  the women to wear black.

7
Rights

• Helots were state owned serfs and as such they
  were protected by the state. The state relied
  heavily on their Helot population for survival,
  therefore to kill or injure a Helot without
  reason was a serious crime. The Helots were not
  the property of their Spartan 'master,' and the
  state would allow no unauthorized injustices to
  be dealt them.
• Politically and legally Helots had no rights at
  all. The state was free to send them or dispose
  of them wherever they saw fit. The Helots could
  not vote and could not hold property.

8
A TENUOUS RELATIONSHIP

• Can the Spartiate/helot relationship be described
  as a volatile one?
• What were the instruments of control?
• To what extent did the helot problem affect
  Spartan society and foreign policy

9
MYRON 3RD CENTURY BC

• "The Helots are made to perform the most
  ignominious and degrading tasks. They are forced
  to wear a dogskin cap and to dress in animal
  hides each year they receive a certain number of
  blows, without having committed any infraction,
  in order to remind them that they are slaves
  worse yet, if there are any who exceed in
  strength the measure appropriate to slaves, they
  are punished by death, and their masters receive
  a fine for not having impeded their development.

10
Helots at Mt Ithome

• Unknown to the Athenians, the Spartans promised
  to do so, but were prevented by the earthquake
  which occurred then, whereupon their helots and
  the Perioicoi of Thouria and Athaea revolted and
  occupied Ithome
• Plutarch states that the whole of Sparta with the
  exception of 5 houses was totally destroyed
• The Spartans defeated the helots in battle but
  failed to break the siege at Ithome. Cimon,
  leading Athenian general and a Spartan
  sympathizer came with four thousand hoplites but
  the Spartans rejected their help fearing their
  adventurous and revolutionary spirit
• The helot revolt was not resolved until 455BC

11
IMPACT

• I am of opinion that these outrages and
  cruelties began to be exercised in Sparta at a
  later time, especially after the great
  earthquake, when the Helots made a general
  insurrection, and, joining with the Messenians,
  laid the country waste, and brought the greatest
  danger upon the city.
• Plutarch
• Spartan foreign policy was always greatly
  affected either directly or indirectly by the
  helots. Since a helot revolt threatened the very
  existence of the Spartan state, its suppression
  dominated Spartan thinking almost to the virtual
  exclusion of all other issues.
• Terry Buckley Aspects of Greek History

12
A good vantage pointfrom the summit of Mt Ithome
13
Cinadon the conspirator

• A TALE TO REVEAL ALL
• READ THE HANDOUT AND SUGGEST THE DIFFERENT
  EVIDENCE IT GIVES US ABOUT SPARTAN SOCIETY

14
Thucydides 424 BC

• Athens at the time posed an immanent threat to
  the Peloponnesus and especially to the very land
  of the Lacedemonians. The latter nevertheless had
  a hope to deter the Athenians by sending an
  expeditionary force to one of their allies, which
  would trouble them the Athenians in turn. The
  allies were prepared to receive it and to defect
  as soon as it appeared. At the same time the
  Lacedemonians were looking for a pretext for
  expediting Helots to a foreign theatre lest they
  take advantage of the presence of the Athenians
  at Pylos to foment revolution. Fearing their
  youthful ardor and their number (for the
  Lacedemonians, the central issue in their
  relations with the Helots had always been to keep
  them under surveillance), they had, on a previous
  occasion, already resorted to the following
  measures. They had let it be known that all those
  among the Helots who felt that through their
  conduct in the face of the enemy they were so
  deserving should have their credentials for
  emancipation inspected. It was, from their
  perspective, a test those who demonstrated
  sufficient pride to believe they should be first
  to be freed were thus the prime candidates for a
  future rebellion. About two thousand of them were
  selected adorned with a crown, they ran the
  circuit of sanctuaries as free men. Shortly
  thereafter, they were made to disappear, and no
  one knew in what manner each of them had been
  eliminated

15
History through the film lens
16
Cases of rebellion

• A general rebellion of the lower classes almost
  erupted in 397 B.C.. According to Xenophon, an
  informer working for the Spartan rulers was able
  to say at the time
• "Each time the subject of the Spartans came up
  among these people the lower classes none of
  them could conceal that it would not displease
  him to devour them, and even raw.

17
Instruments of Control

• The Army
• Syssition
• Krypteia

18
The Army

• When the Spartiates went to war they were
  accompanied by helots who probably acted as aides
  or servants. Units of helots, such as light armed
  slingers, took part in skirmishes. On rare
  occasions helots could be awarded citizenship for
  deeds performed during military service
• The 700 helots taken in Chalcidice by Brasidas
  and given their freedom for gallantry in the
  field were called Brasideioi.Thucydides later
  tells us that they were subsequently settled at
  Lepreon on the borders of Laconia and Elis

19
Battle of Plataea
20
Syssition

• Plutarchs Moralia
• They used to make the helots drunk and exhibit
  them to the young as a deterrent from excessive
  drinking.

21
(No Transcript)
22
KRYPTEIA

• Plutarch says that as part of their training,
  specially chosen bands of young men were sent
  into the countryside to deal with the helots
• The magistrates from time to time sent out into
  the countryside at large the most discreet of the
  young men, equipped only with daggers and
  necessary supplies. During the day they scattered
  into obscure and out of the way places, where
  they hid themselves and lay quiet. But in the
  night, they came down to the roads and killed
  every Helot whom they caught. Often, too, they
  actually made their way across fields where the
  Helots were working and killed the sturdiest and
  best of them.
• Plato viewed it as part of their training
• Aristotle also makes mention that immediately on
  taking office the ephors would declare war on the
  helots, so that they could be killed without
  pollution.

23
Historians Views

• they were the most downtrodden people in the
  whole of Greece, nevertheless., their existence
  was a constant menace to the states security and
  the fear of them hung like a mill-stone around
  their Spartan masters neck.
• Cyril Robinson

24
Talbert The Role of Helots in the Class struggle
at Sparta

• Far from viewing helots as organized,
  politically aware dissidents, we should recall
  that they lived for generations in a closed
  country..we should expect helots to have been
  relatively ignorant, simple peoplewho knew their
  placethe widespread willingness to undertake
  loyal military service demonstrates that by the
  5th century the overwhelming majority had
  accommodated themselves to the demands of their
  masters

25
Cartledge

• It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the
  Spartans didgenuinely fear helot revolt-and with
  reason, in the light of the actual revolt of the
  mid 460s. Nor is it easy to avoid the
  expectation that this fear would have expressed
  itself nearer to home and in other ways than by
  stipulating allied foreign aid in case of helot
  revolt.
• In the treaty between Athens and Sparta after the
  Peace of Nikias in 421, there was a clause
  providing for Athenian help in the event of a
  helot revolt

26
Thebans invade Laconia

• After this Epameinondas entered Messenia, in
  order to liberate her from the Spartans. In the
  mean time defection among the Perioikoi and
  Helots had already started. Epameinondas re
  founded Messene and in the hills of mount Ithome
  built excellent fortifications stretched for four
  miles, which are still preserved today. All of
  these had a devastating effect in the economy of
  Sparta, which lost half of its territory for ever
  and had no more the people to provide for its
  military.

27
Perpetuating the Mirage