Spartan Society

In 2002 the Fourth International Sparta Seminar was held at Glasgow University; sixteen of the papers from that seminar are published here in this well-presented and authoritative study. Their emphasis is on the institutions of Sparta, the role of cult in other areas of life, the women of Sparta, Spartan politics and the construction of the Spartan image or `mirage'. Specific subjects include the motif of snatching in Spartan culture, suicide, the Hyakinthia festivals, female property ownership, the death of women, Thucydides' descripton of the massacre of 2,000 helots, Xenophon and modern perceptions of Sparta.