Those Wacky Spartans: The Platypus Reads Part CCXIII

-
While my academic interests have run (since college) towards the Ancient Greeks, I have to confess to not being terribly interested in Sparta.  I'm always a sucker for literature and the Spartans didn't really produce much (Tyrtaeus and Alkman).  However, Sparta is the second most attested Greek polis in the ancient sources.  That means that if you want to study "Ancient Greece" and have it mean anything more than just "Ancient Athens," you have to deal with Sparta.  So, helping me come to grip with those laconic Lakonians are Paul Cartledge's The Spartans and Spartan Reflections.

The Spartans is an introduction for a popular audience to the world of the ancient Spartans.  It's well laid-out, covering in an efficient and pleasant manner the relevant political history, key figures, and key questions in Spartan studies.  Spartan Reflections is a collection of Cartledge's essays on Sparta running up to the early oughts.  That makes it a little dated, but a wonderful way to go deeper and get into the scholarly controversies surrounding Greece's famed warriors.  Both books have been enjoyable reads and Cartledge's interest in his subject is infectious.

So, do I plan on sticking with Spartan studies?  No.  I think it will be back to Homer after I wrap up Spartan Reflections.  Still, the time has been well spent and I feel like I've shored up a few points that were getting dangerously shaky after all those years away from college.  So how about you?  Ready to try a little "Lakonizing"?  If so, then Paul Cartledge may have just the book you're looking for.     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

-
Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo
Read more

SNES as Money Well Spent: Platypus Nostalgia

-
I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old.  That's a couple years after it first came out.  The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer.  I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit.  It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows.  With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play.  What was that first game?  It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past .  Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge.  It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing?  There were stretches when I didn't.  Many times, I've just been too busy.  There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games.  Aren't they just for kids, and boys wh
Read more