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Doric Crete and Sparta, the home of Greek Philosophy

Wheeler, Lindsay W.
parta Vol. 3 no. 2 (2007), pp. 13 - 22

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Doric
Crete and
Sparta, the
home of
Greek Philosophy
by W. Lindsay Wheeler

Abstract
Believe it or not, there is such a thing as Doric Philosophy. The Doric Greeks of Crete and Laconia did
practice philosophy and may be the founders of Greek
philosophy. First, this article is about doing forensics; rediscovering Doric philosophy. It is about restoring some
things that have been lost or obscured. Second, this is
a general overview article. This article doesnt go into
detail but covers rapidly many points and ties them together into a coherent whole. This article is about generating interest and further research and speculation.
This article shows that the Dorians were real philosophers and that their societies had the prerequisites for
philosophy. Their ethnic character and their warrior culture formed the basis of philosophy. And it sets out
some of their effects upon other philosophers such as
Xenophon, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras and its
impact on Western Culture.
It should be noted that for the Doric Greeks, the divine,
and hence divine truth, can not be separated from the
physical, from secular materialist truth. Greeks thought
holistically and philosophy touches on the Divine. The
Doric Greeks believed in gods, in divine providence, to a
Mind. One cannot write on the Doric Greeks nor understand them without the big picture, both metaphorically
and in essence; in other words one can not separate God
from philosophy nor from Sparta. This paper is not constructed in a secularized manner nor abides in thinking
that the Divine must have no presence in the pursuit of
knowledge. Western culture and civilization were built
on the fundamental truths of a natural theology that
segues into Christianity and this article continues this
tradition.

Doric Crete and Sparta, the home of

Greek Philosophy
1

What the opinion of the day is and what reality is, are
worlds apart. Pick up any modern book on the Spartans
or talk to anybody about them and you get comments
like this:

Or

[...]deliberately turning its back on the intellec2

tual and artistic life of the rest of Greece.

Yeah, that bunch of non-productive, war-mongering, mindless conformists who contributed

volume 3 issue 2 2007 | SPARTA

13

zippo to Greek art, mathematics, science, and philosophy were the best
3
citizens.

seems that there is a lot of deconstructing of

the history of the Doric Greeks in order to fit
the modern modes and orders of democracy,
humanism and socialism; rather Socrates is
Comments like this can be produced ad infini- pointing to a sublime truth missed by many or
tum. The truth of the matter is quite a different a want to obscure.
story: Plutarch, a priest that served many years
at the Doric temple at Delphi, says this about Maritain points out that philosophy is a scithem, [...] devotion to the intellect is more ence of essences, it is the core of the meaning
characteristic of Sparta than love of physical to define on which the basis of the scientific
exercise. 4 Sparta was very much a land of spirit, rests. 12 It was Socrates who required
Philosophers as it was a land of soldiers!
that the essential should in all cases be distinguished from the accidental. The seeking
In the Protagoras, Socrates says, The most an- of essentials, the deep inquiry into life is the
cient and fertile homes of philosophy among study of only a warrior culture and a race that
the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where are has death as a constant companion and an ethto be found more sophists than anywhere on nic character of severe gravitas that disregards
earth. 5 In this section, Socrates lays out the the incidentals, the shadows, of the material
history of philosophy and notes that early phi- world. 13 For instance, Prof. Mller points to
losophy was formulated in laconic brevity. 6 Doric art as exhibiting this attention to sinWhat he is pointing to here is that the peo- gleness of effect, [that] everything discordant
ple that spoke in pithy short phrases were the or useless was pruned off with an unsparing
Doric Greeks of Crete and Sparta and that ear- hand. They endeavored always to condense
ly philosophy was constructed in their ethnic and concentrate their thoughts, which was the
manner. 7 Again, Socrates speaks that [...] to cause of the great brevity and obscurity of their
be Spartan implies a taste for intellectual rather language. 14 As words are the conveyance of
than physical exercise, [...] for to frame such the thoughts of the mind, the style of language
utterances is of the highest culture. 8
is also a type of metaphor of the thinking processes of the particular mind. The Doric mind
Socrates goes on to say that when they consult exhibited in their type of speech shows an intheir wise men, they expel all foreigners, even telligence bent to philosophic endeavor; the
sympathetic ones, in order to meet with them seeking of essentials. It was to their accomopenly in order to disguise the fact that they plishment that philosophy, the seeking of the
rely on wisdom for the conduct of their affairs. essentials of life, be found in their presence.
Quoting this passage, I. F. Stone, a communist
fellow-traveller and an extreme democraphile, The nearness of death, quickens the mind 15
lampoons this statement by quoting A. E. Tay- This quickening of the mind forms the mental
lor:
conditioning of warriors. In turn, these men
of war seek the concrete, the essential. On the
It ought not to have to be said that this
battlefield, on the floor of death, there is no
whole representation of Sparta and
room for skepticism, for dilly-dallying, for obCrete, the least intellectual commufuscation. Either the enemy is there or he is
9
nities of Hellas [...] is furious fun
not. Either the enemy is moving to the left or
to the right. Warriors deal in certainty because
A. E. Taylor, then, really doesnt know his they must. The presence of death procures
man. Why would the man who reformed profundity in a very hasty and concrete manphilosophic reasoning and direct[ing] it to the ner. Games and shadows are not the purview
truth, 10 be lying? Why would a man, who of the warrior, his environment prevents that.
in Maritains words is the founder of ethics, He must be tied to reality, to the facts of reality
be himself misleading? 11 Are we supposed to and not be deceived in order to live. As a solthink that Socrates is stepping out of charac- dier must aim his weapon at the enemys vital,
ter here? Instead of assuming good faith, it the mind in turn is directed to the essential.

14

SPARTA | volume 3 issue 2 2007

What was important is what mattered and as

the Dorian ethnic character was fiercely serious, their thought, mirroring their character,
dwelt on only the serious. True philosophy is
about what are the consequential things of life.
Mller effectively states that, that The Doric
character, in short, created Doric architecture
16
and as their ethnic proclivity was towards
seriousness, it was then natural that philosophy was born among them. It is this serious
attitude, (mixed with wonder) that produces
wisdom, that attains to philosophy; that which
seeks essences and disdains the circumstantial.
Furthermore, it is not fooled by the shadows
of this world. Maritain points out that Philosophy is the science which by the natural
light of reason studies the first causes or highest principles of all thingsis, in other words,
the science of things in their first causes, in so
far as these belong to the natural order. 17 The
Doric Greeks had true philosophy for theirs
is the study of first causes that belong in the
natural order.

ophy is the act of contemplation, of the mind

chewing its cud. Contemplation requires time
which agrarian or business interests would inhibit. Doric society was planned upon the citizens being afforded leisure, and freedom from
the mundane. 22 Second, silence is very important; it is a prerequisite for philosophy. When
the mind is freed from constant use like in conversation, the mind begins to reflect, has time
to meditate. In the Spartan upbringing (and
probably the Cretan as well) silence was purposely imposed upon their youth in the agoge.
They only spoke when spoken to. Silence being intended that their thoughts should gain
force and intensity by compression. 23 Not
only was their speech refined, but also through
praise or ridicule, the young were habitualized
into expressing thought into its most important and salient points, the grabbing of the essence, the essential of the substance at hand.
What was the really real. Laconic speech was
short, concise and to the point, like their spear
points.

The one thing that Doric society was about

was making men; only this had importance.
Plato, being a philodorian, writes that he that
possesses wisdom has attained the full stature
of a man. 18 In a society geared toward Man,
to his excellence, wisdom is necessary and philosophy is a necessary component in becoming a man. In realizing the fullness of man,
philosophical training was an integral part of
the agoge and the syssitia. Doric society was
consumed with producing men and true men
are the ones that have a grasp and use of philosophy. As man is a natural leader and in
self-government, all the citizens then are in a
sense leaders of the politeia, with the natural
instinct of natural leaders who are ones who
are able to foresee with their minds. 19 This is
only possible with training in wisdom. In a
classical republic when several castes are in a
sense rulers, all the participants need to have
training in wisdom.

Doric philosophy is not human reasoning in

thin air, but reasoning built on observation of
the natural order, learning from the divine logos that built the natural order. It is a deductive reasoning, it is in no way ideological at
all. Maritain writes, Philosophy appeals to the
facts, the data of experience. 24 One part of
this data of experience is commonsense. Philosophy is not complete without the assistance
of commonsense; commonsense being the immediate apprehension of self-evident first principles. 25 Commonsense only comes from one
place, when one lives in nature. Commonsense
is derived from a connection to nature. It is no
wonder then that the Cretan and the Spartan
agoges were conducted in the mountains surrounding their homes, hunting was impressed,
and all of the citizens in their older age were
plantation owners, agrarianists. It was their
duty to spend as much time in Nature, experiencing her and living under her laws. There is
no true philosophy without commonsense and
an experience of nature.

This requires three things; leisure, silence, and

a connection to nature. These three factors, leisure, silence and a connection to nature, were
prominent in Sparta. Leisure is the mother of
philosophy 20 and it was serfdom in Crete and
Sparta that afforded that opportunity. 21 Philos-

That the metaphysical, which philosophy concerns itself with, was an important part of their
culture can be seen by the Spartans being the
only state in Greece to worship laughter. Provolume 3 issue 2 2007 | SPARTA

15

fessor Mller continues, It is worthy of remark, that the worship of abstract ideas, as of
Death, of Fear, of Fortune existed among the
Spartans as among the Romans. 26 Moreover,
the cult of Apollo was foremost and spectacularly peculiar to only the Doric Greeks {in the
beginning of Greek history}. 27 Xenophanes of
Colophon said, that people imagine their gods
in their own likeness 28 and if this is the case,
then the god Apollo gives a very good indication of who the Dorians were as a people.
Apollo was the god of science and philosophy;
he was the god of healing and forgiveness; but
most of all he was the god of light, not only
physical light but also the spiritual and moral
light that dispels the darkness of ignorance
from mens minds and evil from their hearts.
29
This cult of their god shows Doric character
and the focus of the Doric Greeks.
Another vein in Socratic thought is the
concept of telos; the aim of life. 30 Professor Jaeger traces this to an influence of Xenophon. 31 Xenophon taught that the parts
of the human body have an end in and of
themselves; they all have a purpose and as
each part in the microcosm has a purpose,
so the state, in the macrocosm, also has its
telos . This deduction from nature is not a
free construction of Xenophon. The Ionian
Xenophon who served under the Spartan
King Agesilaos, who lived for a long time
in Sparta, his sons undergoing the agoge ,
must have been taught Doric philosophy
and it is he who taught Socrates this. The
Doric states were all constructed around the
Telos. This aim of life was already exhibited in the practice of those states: the care
of souls, that their citizens were protected
from evil influence, i.e. the xenelasia; since
Life is War, that each of their citizens were
trained to be highly proficient and skilled
warriors, so that they were to be a cause of
victory; third, the life of the mind, a life
of philosophy, was trained and promoted;
fourth, each Spartiate was trained into being
a Kaloskagathos, in mind, body and spirit,
the creation of the perfect man. Their societies were directed to achieving the purpose
of life for man; to know and love God, serve
him and their society and to survive in a
hostile world.

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SPARTA | volume 3 issue 2 2007

Socratic philosophy is really Doric philosophy. Socrates recounts in the Protagoras that
the Seven Sages of Greece were all emulators,
admirers, and disciples of Spartan culture. 32
Socrates is continuing in this line of tradition,
this way of life, this profession; a profession of
wisdom. In order to be wise, Socrates himself
becomes an emulator, admirer and disciple of
Spartan culture. Furthermore to become wise,
he followed their ways like the Seven before
him. This connection is not some fantasy, some
myth of Plato, for even Aristophanes, in his
comedy, The Birds, puns Socrates as elakonomanoun, Sparta-mad. 33 What Socrates was
really doing was continuing in a mighty historical procession to which Minos, Lycurgus,
and Solon belong. 34 (Let it be noted that two
of these personages, Minos and Lycurgus, are
Dorians preceding Solon by many centuries.)
The Doric mode was that there was to be harmony of words and deeds. 35 To do philosophy, one must also live the philosophic life.
In order to do truth which is the good, one
must live the good; i.e. the moral and ethical life. Like produces like and in this regard,
Socrates shows true to basic Doric philosophy
by being an emulator, admirer and disciple of
Spartan culture himself; living a frugal and
hard life, practicing high morals, service to his
state and piety. Plato continues this line. Not
only is he the student of Socrates, not only is
he a philodorian like his teacher, but in his
magnum opus, in the last work of his life, he
honors his teacher by making his interlocutors
each a Cretan and a Spartan only; no nonDoric personalities are present. Plato is giving
pride of place to the Doric Greeks. It is his salute and his acknowledgement of their place in
the history of philosophy. It is his recognition
of his debt to them. Plato here is giving recognition to the basis and launching pad of his
work, the Cretans and the Spartans. Furthermore, notice how Plato gives the lead to the
Cretan and not to the Spartan. Werner Jaeger
points out that it was Platos lifelong endeavor,
to join the Dorian and Athenian natures in a
higher unity. 36
One can trace Doric influence in Aristotelian
philosophy as well; Aristotle who was a stu-

dent of Plato for some twenty years. The influence of the Golden Mean is in much of his
thought especially on his teaching on virtue.
His separation of the powers of the soul in living beings into a tripartite form can only be
a reversal of the macrocosm/microcosm principle. By reversing the Doric state of the classical republic, Aristotle could conceptualize the
division of the soul into four spheres as well as
its corresponding functions. As the macro was
divided, so was the micro.

knowledge of God; and his laws derive their

authority from God. 43 The prototype of this
lawgiver who is the intermediary between gods
and men is Minos, who talked with God. The
wisdom of the Greek lawgiver comes closest
to revelation. 44
The soul must obey this logos and what many
see as totalitarianism amongst the Doric Greeks
is really this sentiment captured by Plutarch:
We are not in the world in order to
give laws, but [...] in order to obey the
commands of the gods. 45

In book X of the Laws, against the malady of

atheism, 37 Plato begins a defense of the existence of gods against their mockeries and
scorn and challenges his companions to come Real wisdom is the property of God 46 and it
to a defense. It is Clinias the Cretan that offers is this Wisdom that put the order in the costhe basis:
mos. As everything in the cosmos, i.e. stars,
sun, moon, water, plants and animals, is obediWhy to begin with, think of the earth,
ent to the logos, it only makes sense then that
and the sun, and planets, and evMan also must be obedient to the logos. In this
erything! And the wonderful and
regard, the human lawgiver is not wise but
beautiful order of the seasons with
is an emulator, admirer and disciple of that
its distinctions of years and months!
Wisdom. This idea was formalized by a man
Besides, there is the fact that all mannamed Pythagoras.
kind, Greeks and non-Greeks alike,
38
believe in the existence of Gods
Pythagorass family originally came from the
Doric city of Phlius. 47 Though born and raised
Laconisized thusly, Why look on creation! on the island of Samos, he was well acquaintSee Order! Know God!; this statement by Cli- ed with the Doric Greeks of Crete and Sparta
nias shows the beginning of a natural theology for he visited them personally. 48 Moreover,
which in turn becomes the basis for perceiving he had a personal devotion to the god Apollo
and understanding being, unity, goodness, which was peculiar to only the Doric Greeks.
wisdom, love, etc. 39 The knowledge of the He moved to Croton, a Doric city, to set up his
Good begins on this basis, on the transcendent, school. 49 The Pythagorean ethic and school
on the knowledge of God. Second, intelligent which he started mimicked much of the Doric
design of the universe was readily perceived mentality; silence, 50 the universal education of
by the Doric Greeks. This observation of the females, the worship of Apollo, 51 public tables,
cosmos leads to the insight that Reason, the the perpetual living in public, and a number of
logos, is nature steering all things from within laws for the maintenance of public morality. 52
for order is the product of reason and that
system pervades all things. 40 This natural Pythagoras was the first to give the universe
theology and its natural law is the basis of the name cosmos, which like the Latin mundus
Doric philosophy that must have started on conveys the idea of beauty and harmony. 53
Crete with King Minos, a Doric Greek. 41
But more importantly, It was Pythagoras
This natural order, in turn, is derived from the who first invented the term philosophy
Idea of the Good, which has a dominating (filia tis sofias, love of wisdom), observing
position in the centre of the cosmos 42 Plato that wisdom belongs in the strict sense to
renumerates the basis of legislation in the old God alone, and for that reason not wishcity-state: God himself is the ultimate law- ing to be called a wise man, but simply
giver. The human lawgiver speaks out of his a friend or lover of wisdom. 54 This ex-

volume 3 issue 2 2007 | SPARTA

17

emplifies the men and teachings that Pythagoras found on Crete and Sparta.

oligarchy and kingly government that

rules by law; for the former gives an
equal share to every one according to
number, but the other gives according
to the proportion of the deserts.
It doth not huddle all things together,
but in it there is a fair discretion of
good and bad, every one having what
is fit for him, not by lot or weight,
but according as he is virtuous or vi56
cious

If anything summarizes and condenses the

whole of Doric philosophy in a laconic way,
it must be St. Paul in I Cor. 11.14. St. Paul,
the son of the city of Tarsus a seat of a Stoic
school, who lived for a while in the Doric city
of Corinth, between Delphi and Sparta, begins
an instruction this way: Does not nature itself
teach [...] (Nestle-Aland) This phrase is the
heart of Doric philosophy and its focus. This
is probably what King Minos on the island of
Crete elaborated on many centuries agoWhat
does nature teach? This is the premise that begins Doric philosophy.

Geometry was being used well before Thales

and Pythagoras by the Doric Greeks. It was
part and parcel of their educational system
and a pillar of their classical republican form
of government. And as Socrates and Plato were
Classical scholars divide ancient Greek philoso- philodorians, geometry plays a role in their
phy into two schools, the Italian school which philosophy as well. It was Plato who inscribed
was started by Pythagoras, and the Milesian this motto above the door to his school:
(or Ionian) school which was started by Thales. There is a basic unity between the so-called
Let no one ignorant of geometry enItalian and Milesian schools. What is most
ter
missed by most is that Thales, like Pythagoras,
studied in Crete as well. 55 Doric Crete is the And it is Plato that comments that God is a
nexus between the Milesian and Italian school. geometer. 57 In the Republic, Socrates insists
Thales, like Solon, is a member of the Seven on training of geometry as a precondition to
Sages of Greece and the basic characteristic doing philosophy. Geometry and philosophy
of this group was their imitation of the Doric went together, and to see geometry in the menGreeks of Crete and Laconia. More proof of the tion of Lycurgus and in the early philodorians
Doric influence can be gotten from Diogenes is evidence of philosophy amongst the Doric
Laertius who records an incident amongst the Greeks.
Seven Sages of the passing of a tripod amongst
them. The tripod was a religious totem pe- Doric philosophy is a love of wisdom, being
culiar to only the Doric Greeks and their god the knowledge of divine and human things
Apollo. This totem not only had religious sig- and of their causes accompanied by a life of
nificance but must also have had a philosophi- rectitude. 58 It is a philosophy of order, of the
cal and geometric import as well.
cosmos. 59 Its principles are cohesion, symmetry, righteousness, the Golden Mean, macThere is also another similarity among the rocosm/microcosm, the parts make up the
Doric Greeks, Pythagoras and Thales, not to whole, Life is War, Good comes through
mention Plato himselfand that is Geometry. the Hard, and that all things are directed to
Pythagoras and Thales were both great geom- an end. And to that end, boys must be trained
eters. What is not known is that Lycurgus, well into men; physically, mentally and spiritually.
before Pythagoras and Thales, commanded the It teaches obedience to the laws and to the
teaching of geometry in the Spartan Republic: gods and respect towards elders. It is about
following the way embedded in nature.
For Lycurgus, I suppose you know,
banished out of Sparta all arithmetical
Doric philosophy also concerns itself with parproportion, as being democratical and
adigms, patterns inherent in nature. It is ability
favoring the crowd; but introduced
to see patterns. They copied the paradigm of
the geometrical, as agreeable to an
the family into their form of the state, creating

18

SPARTA | volume 3 issue 2 2007

the classical republican form of mixed govern- classical republican form of mixed government
ment. Their form of government is a physical in Athens. 66 This faulty perception of Sparta
manifestation of their philosophic endeavors.
is due to the fact that Platos work, The Laws,
is constantly overlooked because of its more
Contrary to the modern belief that the Spartans famous predecessors in the Platonic dialogues.
contributed nothing, Milesian, Pythagorean, Second, as has been pointed out by Plato in his
Socratic, Platonic, and Aristotelian philosophy allegory of the cave, most people are engrossed
can be said at their heart to be based on Doric in the shadows of life. All eyes are turned to
philosophy. Paul A. Rahe notices that there the Athenians who produced all sorts of fluff;
is an intimate connection between the emer- plays, comedies, tragedies, sculptures, architecgence of classical republicanism and the birth ture, other incidentals and of course democraof philosophy. 60 The people that created clas- cy which is all the rage. These people are a bit
sical republics were the Doric Greeks and they misguided in their conclusions that the masmaintained this form of government through sive production of material stuff is what culmany centuries. Professor Arnaldo Momiglia- ture is all about. On the other hand, the Doric
no presents that the earliest confirmed date of Greeks cultivated a culture of philosophy, a
an upper bodythe Gerousia Senate)having culture of the mind, the highest culture. They
legislative powers was the Spartan republic stripped their societies down to what was the
in the eighth or seventh century B. C. 61 The essentials, what was the really good; i.e. to be
establishment of an upper body in a mixed a man, to follow wisdom. Far from the Neansociety, is the signature characteristic of a clas- derthal desert that most people want to place
sical republic. 62 Furthermore, since the ancient the Spartans in, Kitto writes that art, poetry,
authorities agree that Spartan government was is creation, and Sparta created not things in
influenced by the Cretan, it can be safely said words or stone, but men. 67 Sparta created livthat the Cretan republics predated even earlier. ing art, not material art.
The evidence of the classical republican form
of government, then, is a testimony and proof As the Hebrews were to the logos of Divine
to the exercise of philosophy. Ancient Greek Revelation, it was the mission of the Doric
philosophys home, as stated by Socrates, were Greeks to be the missionaries of the logos of
the Doric Greeks.
the Sophia behind the Natural Order. They
werent sophists of human reasoning, the foFar from the opinion of these modern times cus of the scorn of Socrates and Platos rethat the Spartans were mindless, or in I.F. bukes but were exactly what philosophy says
Stones portrayal as the anti-intellectualism it is, not wise in themselves but lovers of Soof the uncouth Spartans, 63 Professor Mller phia, lovers of the wisdom that ordered the
writes that all mental excellence, so far from cosmos. Their teacher was nature and from it
being banished from Sparta, flourished there they ordered their lives according to the maxin the utmost perfection. 64 In the time of ims and principles garnered from therein. Two
Mller, he writes that many of his contempo- streams created Western thought; that of the
raries considered the system of Pythagoras as divine revelation of Christianity and that of the
Doric philosophy. 65 Of the triumvirate base of natural law of the Graeco-Roman civilizations.
Socratic philosophy, Xenophon, Socrates and In Western Culture, under the Roman Catholic
Plato, all these Ionians were philodorians; Church, these two streams combined creating
much of what they advocated and taught was Western civilization. The Church taught that
nowhere realized in the Ionian state or culture. God reveals himself in two ways: through diWhere did they get their ideas if not found vine revelation and through His creation. And
in Ionian culture itself? All their teaching was to the latter, the Doric Greeks of Crete and
immanent already in the Doric states of Crete Sparta were the prophets. It was Platonic phiand Laconia; virtue, ethics, education, mea- losophy, through St. Augustine, that formed
sured government. Many sophists visited Crete much of Christian thought and created Chrisand Sparta. Epimenides, a Cretan seer, assisted tian philosophy which is the support of ChrisSolon in his attempt in implementing the Doric tian theology. 68
volume 3 issue 2 2007 | SPARTA

19

The sign of immense greatness and significance

of the most prominent figures of Western history is marked by the fact they never wrote
anything themselves; they were never writers.
There are only two figures in history that match
this profile; Socrates and Jesus Christ. Their
calling was so powerful that it was left to others to witness it and write it down. But there
is another candidate to add to this illustrious,
exclusive and elite group, the Doric Greeks
of Crete and Sparta. The Doric Greeks wrote
nothing down but it was left to their admirers,
to outsiders, to witness to their fruits and their
patrimony. As humility befits the truly great,
they never tooted their own horn as the saying goes. And this is why their contribution
to philosophy and their accomplishments in
the intellectual field and their contribution to
Western Culture are overlooked, outright denied and contradicted. As was stated above by
Plutarch, the Doric Greeks of Crete and Sparta
were great intellectuals. Their society did include the three requisite items necessary for
the conduct of philosophy, leisure, silence and
a connection to nature (which creates commonsense). They actively cultivated the mind in their
young and their witty and famous apophthegms
were the products of this great intellectualism.
Their boys and men lived constantly in Nature.
The formation of their city-states patterned upon
the paradigms and principles found in the natural order are the fruits of their cerebral endeavors. The search and cultivation of wisdom was
an integral part of their society because wisdom
led to be a cause of victory. It was by following the dictates of wisdom that they were able to
survive and create healthy (eunomia) communities
that were the envy of the Graeco-Roman world.
When Aristotle writes of the contemplative life
and that it is

As they were lovers of the Beautiful, these two

Doric states were also lovers of Sophia; they
were emulators, admirers and disciples of the
Logos in more ways than one. Doric Crete and
Sparta were the land of the warrior philosophers.

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Boring, M. Eugene, et al., (1995), Hellenistic
Commentary to the New Testament, (Abingdon Press: Nashville, TN)
Ehrlich, Jerry Dell, (2001), Platos Gift to Christianity: The Gentile Preparation for and the
Making of the Christian Faith, (Academic
Christian Pr,: San Diego, CA)
Jaeger, Werner [1939] (1945), Paideia, The Ideals of Greek Culture, I-III Vol. (Oxford University Press: New York)
Jaeger, Werner, (1947) The Theology of the Early
Greek Philosophers, (Clarendon Press: Oxford)
Kitto, H. D. F., [1951] (1970), The Greeks, (Penguin Books: Baltimore, Maryland)
Maritain, Jacques, [1930] (1991), Introduction to
Philosophy, (Christian Classics, Inc.: Westminister, MD)
Mller, Karl Otfried, (1839), The History and
Antiquities of the Doric Race, I-II Vol. (John
Murray: London, 2nd ed.rev.)
Nestle-Aland, [1898] (1993), Greek-English New
Testament,
[...] the activity of the intellect that
Jowett,
B., M., A., (trans.) (n.d.) Platos Repubconstitutes complete happiness [...] 69
lic, (Vintage Books: New York)
Hamilton E., and Huntington C., (eds) (1961)
and
The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Bollingen
Series LXXI, (Princeton University Press:
[...] the life of the intellect is the best
Princeton, NJ)
70
and the pleasantest life
Hamm, J., (trans) [n.d.] (2002) Plutarchs Complete Works Volume 3: Essays and MiscellaHe is speaking about the Doric Greeks of Crete
nies (Moralia), (Project Gutenberg)
and Laconia; they led this life of the intellect.
Powell, A., and Hodkinson, S., (eds.) (1994),

20

SPARTA | volume 3 issue 2 2007

The Shadow of Sparta, (Routledge: New York) Notes

at Questia in 7 Sept. 2007 http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103855242.
1 Most quotes are from the Platonic dialogues
Rahe, P., A., (1992) Republics Ancient and Modand are taken from Edith Hamilton and
ern, I-III Vol. (University of North Carolina
Huntington Cairns Collected Dialogues of
Press: Chapel Hill)
Plato. Quotes from the Republic are taken
Rawson, E., [1969] (1991), The Spartan Tradifrom Jowetts translation.
tion in European Thought, (Clarendon Press, 2 Rawson, p. 1
Oxford)
3
An e-mail
Stone, I., F., (1988), The Trial of Socrates, (Little, 4 See Plutarchs Vitae Parallelae
Brown and Company: Boston)
5
Plato, Protagoras, 342a, 335
Wheeler, W. Lindsay, (2007), The Spartan 6 Ibid., 343b, 366
Republic, Sparta at http://www.sparta. 7 Mller, II p. 387
markoulakispublications.org.uk/index. 8 Plato, Protagoras, 342e, 346
php?id=105 (May 05, 02.75 PM)
9
Stone, p. 127
Wiener, P., P., (ed.) (1973) Freedom of Speech 10 Maritain, p. 34
in Antiquity, in Dictionary of the History of 11 q.v. Xenophon, 32
Ideas, (Charles Scribners Sons: New York) 12 Maritain, p. 37, 127f
Watson, J., S., and McKay, D., (trans) (1899), 13 cf. Platos allegory of the cave
The Memorabilia of Socrates: Literally Trans- 14 Mller, II, p. 400
lated from the Greek of Xenophon, (Philadel- 15 Plato, Laws, 830-831
phia)
16
Mller, II 270
17
Maritain, pp. 64-65
18
Plato Laws 653, 1250
Further Resources
19
Aristotle, 1252a, 5
20
Aristotle, 1334a 20; LXX, Sir. 38.24;
http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/index.
Hobbes
php/Seven_Sages_of_Greece Seven Sages of
21
Aristotle, 1255 35, pg 31
Greece
22
cf. the Spartan that searched out the Athenian who was punished because he did no
http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/index.
work.
php/Philodorian Philodorian
23
Mller, II p. 387; LXX, Pro., 17. 27
24
Maritain, p. 72
25
Ibid., p. 86
26
Ibid., II, p. 39
27
Ibid., I, p. 54, 219f
28
Rahe, I, p. 196
29
see Classical Handbook
30
Jaeger, p. 164
31
Jeager, Theology, p. 168
32
Plato, Protagoras 343 b; ibid pg 336
33
Stone, p. 121
34
Jaeger, III, p. 217
35
Plato, Laches, 193e, pg 137; Rep. 443 d-e
36
Jaeger, III, p. 218
37
Laws, 908c, pg 1463
38
Ibid., 886, pg 1441
39
Maritain, p. 181
40
Plato, Dialogues, xiii, xv
41
see Mller
42
Jaeger, III, p. 225
43
Jaeger, Paideia, III, p. 340, n.77
volume 3 issue 2 2007 | SPARTA

21

Ibid., p. 226
45
Cited in Boring, 57
46
Plato, Apology, 23a, pg 9
47
Mller, II, p. 393 n. z.
48
Justin, Iamblichus, Val. Max., cited in Powell
and Hodkinson, p. 282
49
Mller, II, p. 184
50
Ibid., II, p. 387)
51
Ibid, II p. 184; p. 394)
52
Ibid, II, p. 193
53
Maritain, p. 27 (italics in original)
54
Ibid., p. 21
55
Diogenes L., I. 43-44
56
Plutarch, Moralia, Bk VIII, question ii
44

See Plutarch, Moralia

LXX, IV Mcc. 1.15-16
59
Mller, II, p. 186
60
Rahe, I, p. 194
61
Wiener, II, p. 257
62
(Wheeler)
63
Stone, p. 126
64
Mller, II, p. 395
65
Ibid., II, p. 393
66
Plutarch, Vitae Parallelae
67
Kitto, 95
68
See Erlich
69
Aristotle, N. Ethics, x.vii, 7; 1177b, 25; pg 617
70
Ibid., x.vii, 9; 1178a, 5; pg 619
57

58

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