254
PAR.TISAN REVIEW
into masculinity, in contrast to other extramarital indulgences.
It must be noted, however, that homosexuality at Sparta, where it is
thought
to
have been considerably more prevalent than at Athens, rested
on a very different social system, and perhaps an even more limited and
unsympathetic association between men and women. The highest priority
of the state was the production of warriors, since Sparta was constantly at
war. There, the biological role of the mother was seen as at least as im–
portant as that of the father, resulting in a physical regime for girls which
insured that they were as well-nourished as boys, participated like them in
gymnastics on a regular basis, and were freed from housework and the
fabrication of clothing, which were left to women of inferior classes.
They married later than Athenian girls, at eighteen, to young men of the
same age, instituting a highly ritualized and attenuated marital relationship
in which the husband continued to live with his army group until the age
of thirty and visited his wife only by stealth. The marriage customs of the
Spartans can never fail to titillate with their eccentricity, but they pos–
sessed both practical and psychological utility for a military society.
As Plutarch recounted in his life of Lycurgus:
Marriage at Sparta was a process of abduction.
The bride, once
carried off, was handcd over to a special female attendant, who cut hcr
hair short, drcsscd her up in a man's tunic :lIld shoes and laid hcr on a
straw mattrcss where shc was left alone in the dark. The bridegroom
dined in the usual way with his fricnds. Then he visited the bride, rc–
movcd her belt, and carried her to a bed. After a short time with hcr,
hc rcjoincd his companions in the dormitory for men of his own agc.
Hc continued always to act in this
vny,
spending both day and night
in malc company and going only in secret, with every precaution,
to
visit his wife.... Thesc habits were kept up for such a long time that
sometimcs a husband had children without ever having seen his wife
by daylight.
In
effect, Spartan marriage was a kind of trial marriage, as Pomeroy
has noted, the purpose being to determine whether the woman was ca–
pable of conceiving. Since the union was carried on in almost complete
secrecy, it could be nullified without public dishonor if the bride did not
become pregnant. But the secrecy and the failure of men to make a home
away from their barracks were obviously more important as a defense
against any turning away from military discipline and associations.
However, these marriages, arranged almost entirely for procreation,
rarely resulted in a large family. The poverty of Sparta, which was only a
collection of villages - not a large city like Athens - did not encourage
parents to produce many children, and, in fact, the population began to
