Tyrtaeus Poetry

Spartan society holds its genesis in the migration of Dorian tribespeople to the fertile land of the Peloponnese. Following the end of the 9th century BCE, these tribes expanded their territorial claims by force, conquering the adjacent region of Messenia. Following the second Messenian War in 668 BCE, lawgiver Lycurgus proclaimed the Great Rhetra upon consultation with the Delphic Oracle; Tyrtaeus accounts for this in his 7th century BCE poetry ’Eunomia’. However, the romantic nature of Tyrtaeus’ poetry decreases its reliability as a factual source. Modern and ancient historians, including Andrews and Plutarch, argue that inconsistencies in Lycurgus’ recorded triumphs are questionable; with suggestions that the Great Rhetra was the result

Prior, Plutarch accounts for the unequal social framework within Sparta, where tribal leaders owned vast domains of land, in great contrast to the average Spartiate. Furthermore, Hodgkinson suggests the success of social reform in Sparta stems from the redistribution of Messenian land and the Agoge; reinforcing the belief that dissent from this social order would threaten the established hierarchical status of the Spartiates.
The social structure of Sparta consisted of the Helots, Perioikoi and Spartiates. Enslaved in the wars of Messenia were the Helots, considered as the property of the state, and released on rare occasion as Neodamodeis ’new citizens’. Tyrtaeus’ compares the enslaved Helots to ’donkeys worn down by heavy loads’, a downtrodden minority group with no great power. However, Thucydides accounts for their de-facto influence in Spartan administration, with ’most of their decisions with a view to precautions against the Helots. Finley supports this assessment, identifying certain advantages Helots held over other slave groups in this era. The basic rights of the Helots included the right to their own possessions; the ability to retain a percentage of their crop; and ’in general, all the normal human institutions except their freedom’. Rights afforded may have been in response to fears of a Helot uprising, as their obedience was paramount to a functional Spartan society, and vastly outnumbered the Spartan