People regularly think that the society we live in is brand new and exists as a different society than previous societies but this is not true. Our modern society is the same as every society that has come before it because our society has just mixed around and taken certain aspects from other societies to form it. Sparta which was a society in the early classical age of Greece was far different than any other known society at the time it arose because it was ahead of its time(Cartwright, 2020). I am going to be comparing aspects of the Canadianan(specifically north american societies) society and the Spartan outlining a parallel that our modern world and the ancient greek world share.
The first aspect of inspection is religion and beliefs every society have there beliefs, for example, Toronto has citizens who believe in various religions such as hinduism, islam, and cathlisim. Similar to Toronto sparta believed in the greeks Gods it wasn't necessarily a labeled religion but they way they treated the Gods were just the same, and just like how people from toronto have different religions people believed or committed themselves to a particular god, some spartans were loyal to Ares the god of war and some were loyal to Apollo and some both.(Spartan Religion,2020) Unlike most of ancient greece they did not believe in any of the major philosophies of the many philosophical schools they believed in various human traits and the ability of a warrior.(Robertson The Spartan Philosophy of Life)The Spartans also believed that they were a superior people(Cartwright Sparta, 2020) so outsiders were not treated as fairly, this is a lot like modern day immigrants who in most cases were treated poorly by the settled citizens of Canada, although the citizens of canada do not necessarily think they are superior. Both parties of immigrants and outsider faced some sort of discrimination. This parallel helped me understand the development of discrmination as it has been happening for a long time and is probably never going to change, and it also helped me realize that the mixing of religions has not always been smooth, but it has always been there.
The Second aspect that I am going to focus on is art and culture. The spartan culture was so unique for their time, both males and females were raised to become a part of their society from birth, as males were if viable, were pushed to join the military and females were educated and were given more rights than women from other states, and because of the absence of men(they were in the military) women had to run business and had the freedom to fill in for the roles that were usually supposed to be a males job.(Pomeroy A brief history of Ancient Greece: politics, society, and culture) this is a lot like modern society as women and men have around the same amount of rights and have the same freedom as the spartan women, although most men are not in the military. Spartan art consisted of many things, statues, dance, poetry, music and various designs on shields and pottery.(Sipper Spartan Art & Architecture: History & Style) some of their most known statuettes is of a woman running and some of the pottery that has been recovered has various designs of animals, warriors and the gods.(Sipper Spartan Art & Architecture: History & Style) Modern art is a lot different in the sense of how we create are but what we create is not that different from spartans as what they made were the origins of what we make for, example, glass art is the future of pottery, music is music, dance is dance, and the army still have designs on there weapons like gun camos and jet colors. This parallel of art and culture helped me understand the evolution of the human race, what we do never changes only how we can do it.
The third aspect is Government and military. The spartan government was an odd one or was it. At the top of the hierarchy were the two kings, yes two, and both were from different families. Both kings share the same power and are in control of military, judicial and religious exercises, the judicial system was assisted by the Gerousia which are a council of 28 men over the age of 60 and the Ephors who were around 30 and were the overseers of the Gerousia.(Pomeroy A brief history of Ancient Greece: politics, society, and culture) This government is not odd at all because most governments have two leaders like the USA which have a president and vice-president and Canada which have a prime minister but are under the queen of britain, the Genrousia can be connected to the ministers in canada and the senators in the US. War and the military are almost never changing as the soldiers are alway trained and prepared to defend and attack for there country the only difference from both the spartan army and the modern armies are the weapons they use, and the scale of the armies, but the tactics, system and fundamentals of a army will never change, the determinism, the purpose, the system of the army it's always the same the armies nowaday are not fighting any huge wars but that is because the world has moved on from that.This parallel between the two societies is very clear and the spartan government could have been a bigger influence on modern politics then we may have thought and this helped me connect Athens and Sparta as the two halves of modern democracy and the armies and war battle fundamentals were passed on from battle to battle and will always be a part of the world.
Government, military, culture, art, beliefs, and religion all have maintained their presence in many societies all over the world and for as long as time and will continue until the end of time. The Spartan society were ahead of its time and was the origin or influence of many of these presences and they have show parallels to our own society and have helped me realize the concepts of evolution, politics, the military and the development of discrimination. Even with all this the spartan society is consistently undermined by the athenian society and for the amount of power and the advanced system of their society it is hard to believe they in the ultimate end failed.
References Cited
Cartwright, Mark. Sparta. 19 Nov. 2020, www.ancient.eu/sparta/.
History.com Editors, . “Sparta.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/sparta.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Sipper, Joshua. “Spartan Art & Architecture: History & Style.” Study.com, 25 Apr. 2017, study.com/academy/lesson/spartan-art-architecture-history-style.html.
“Spartan Religion.” Go to Legends and Chronicles., Legends and Chronicles , 2007, www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/ancient-sparta/spartan-religion/.
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