Sparta (Σπάρτη)

The City on the Eurotas

Sparta sits in the southern Peloponnese, in the valley of the Eurotas river in Laconia, with Mount Taygetus to the west and Mount Parnon to the east. Unlike sea-facing Athens, Sparta is an inland city — it needs no harbor: the wheat fields and pastures of the valley feed a kingdom on their own. The Odyssey's first impression of it is abundance: walls of bronze, vessels of gold and silver, ivory and amber, and light falling from the ceiling like the sun or the moon (Od. 4.45-46, 71-75).

The Palace of the Double Wedding

Telemachus and Peisistratus drive into Sparta in the middle of the double wedding Menelaus is holding for his children — his daughter Hermione promised to Achilles' son, his son to a captain's daughter. The palace is full of guests, yet the host does not hesitate to welcome two strangers: "We two have eaten much hospitality from other men. Unharness their horses and bring them in to feast." (Od. 4.32-36)

This is the Odyssey's core definition of Sparta: a place that has already come home. Bronze, gold, a wedding, stories told in calm — everything about it shows what life looks like after the homecoming succeeds.

The Homeland of Helen

Sparta is also the homeland of Helen: her father Tyndareus was its earlier king, and Menelaus became king of Sparta through marrying her. The Trojan War began because of her, and in the end she comes back — in Book 4 she descends from her high chamber like Artemis before the guests, distaff and silver basket in hand, and takes turns with her husband telling the old stories of Troy.

The presence of this couple makes Sparta the poem's showcase of a marriage restored: the same woman cost one kingdom ten years of peace and gave another kingdom back its wholeness. Homer never presses the question of her guilt; he only shows her return — and the calm of this palace is his answer to it.

Two Spartas

Keep Homer's Sparta apart from the famous Sparta of later centuries. The Sparta of Thermopylae, the barracks-city celebrated for the saying that its walls were its men, belongs to the classical age, several centuries later. Homer's Sparta is the palace world of the Late Bronze Age: a king who feasts guests, chariots on the roads, fields and pastures. In archaeology, the site of Therapne near Sparta holds the Menelaion, a shrine where Helen and Menelaus were worshipped as gods — the distance between myth and foundation stone is shorter than it looks.