Spartan Cultural Life

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Spartan Cultural Life
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• 5 Cultural life
• art sculpture, painted vases, bone and ivory
  carving
• architecture Amyklaion, Menelaion, the Sanctuary
  of Artemis Orthia

Clay amphora, 7th century BC.
                                                  
                                                  
                      Spartan cup, around 525 BC.
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Early Art
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Painted pottery

• Laconian pottery was exported throughout the
  Mediterranean and was probably produced by the
  perioeci.
• The design of this pottery reached its peak
  during the second quarter of the 6th century BC.
  Decorations included the themes of hunting,
  horseriding, religious rituals, banqueting,
  plants and animals.

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Pottery
www.sikyon.com/Sparta/Art/sparta_peg06a.html
Arkesilaos, king of Kyrene in North Africa,
supervises the weighting of merchandise. Spartan
cup of mid sixth century BC.
Bellerophon and Pegasos killing the Chimaera.
Laconian cup, 570 - 565 BC.
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Warrior is killing a serpent, Laconian cup, 550 BC.
Hunters killing a boar, Laconian cup, 555 BC.
Odysseus and his companions are forcing a pole
from an olive tree into the eye of Cyclop
Polyphemos, who is still eating one of their
companions. Laconian kylix 550 BC, National
Library of Paris.
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SPARTAN CULTURAL LIFE

• ART Sculpture Many examples of sculpture can
  be found at the shrines of the Spartans, such as
  the Amyklaion and the sanctuary of Athena
  Chalkioikos
• (Lady of the Bronze House).

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Bronze Work
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A bronze statuette of a soldier.Spartan work,
around 500 BC.
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A bronze statuette of a Spartan running girl. The
maiden is running the foot-race of
Heraea, leaving the hairs hanging down, while her
tunic reaches a little above the knee and her
right shoulder is bare, as far as the breast.
Spartan work, around 520 BC. British Museum
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Bone and ivory carving
                                                           

• Laconian craftsmen in bone and ivory carving
  could compare with the best in Greece.
• Ivory was imported into Sparta and was used in a
  variety of objects.
• Three Carving plaques on ivory bones from the
  sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, 600 BC.
  Two Spartan warriors and a woman in mourning.

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ARCHITECTURE

• Physical remains of architecture in Sparta are
  limited.
• However, there are descriptions of individual
  buildings from the writings of the ancient
  historian Pausanias.
• See the Spartan Geography Ppt.

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The Amyklaion

• A shrine dedicated to Apollo and Hyakinthos.
• Not a temple, but a throne to Apollo
  excavations reveal the base of a throne and
  retaining wall.
• Designed by Bathykles in the Ionic style.
• Carvings show lotus flowers and other sculptures.
• Sparta spent many resources and expense on
  building the throne, indicating the piety in
  which they held this god.

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The Menelaion

• A shrine to Helen and Menelaus.
• Overlooks Mount Taygetus and the Eurotas Valley.
• It had a square step-pyramidal structure in the
  style of a hero shrine.
• Little remains of the shrine.

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Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia

• Situated close to the Eurotas River.
• Had a temple close to an altar 14 metres away.
• Was the site of a festival held in Artemis
  Orthias honour.