Esparta
Esparta era uma cidade-estado proeminente na Lacônia na Grécia antiga. Na antiguidade, a cidade-estado era conhecida como Lacedemônia, enquanto o nome Esparta se referia ao seu principal assentamento nas margens do Rio Evrotas no Vale Evrotas, Lacônia, no sudeste do Peloponeso. Por volta de 650 a.C., ela se tornou a potência terrestre militar dominante na Grécia antiga.
- Diz-se que suas mulheres [lacademonianas] eram ousadas e masculinas, autoritárias com seus maridos em primeiro lugar, amantes absolutas em suas casas, dando suas opiniões sobre assuntos públicos livremente e falando abertamente até mesmo sobre os assuntos mais importantes.
- - Their [Lacadaemonian] women, it is said, were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands in the first place, absolute mistresses in their houses, giving their opinions about public matters freely, and speaking openly even on the most important subjects.
- - Plutarco, Vidas de Plutarco: Volume I
- - Their [Lacadaemonian] women, it is said, were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands in the first place, absolute mistresses in their houses, giving their opinions about public matters freely, and speaking openly even on the most important subjects.
- Quatrocentos mil escravos devem ser devotados a quarenta mil cidadãos; crianças fracas e deformadas devem ser expostas; moralidade e humanidade, assim como todos os confortos, elegâncias e prazeres da vida, devem ser sacrificados a esse fantasma gritante de vaidade, superstição e ambição. Separados do resto da humanidade, eles viveram juntos, destituídos de todos os negócios, prazeres e diversões, exceto guerra e política, orgulho e ambição; e suas ocupações e paixões eles transmitiram de geração em geração, por setecentos anos; como se lutar e intrigar, e não vida e felicidade, fossem o fim do homem e da sociedade; como se o amor ao país e à glória fossem paixões amáveis, quando não limitadas pela justiça e benevolência geral; e como se as nações fossem acorrentadas para sempre, apenas para que uma família pudesse reinar entre elas... A natureza humana pereceu sob esse sistema frígido de orgulho nacional e familiar.
- - Four hundred thousand slaves must be devoted to forty thousand citizens; weak and deformed children must be exposed; morality and humanity, as well as all the comforts, elegancies, and pleasures of life, must be sacrificed to this glaring phantom of vanity, superstition, and ambition. Separated from the rest of mankind, they lived together, destitute of all business, pleasure, and amusement, but war and politics, pride and ambition; and there occupations and passions they transmitted from generation to generation, for seven hundred years; as if fighting and intriguing, and not life and happiness, were the end of man, and society; as as if the love of one's country, and of glory, were amiable passions, when not limited by justice and general benevolence; and as if nations were to be chained together for ever, merely that one family might reign among them… Human nature perished under this frigid system of national and family pride.
- - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government (1794)
- - Four hundred thousand slaves must be devoted to forty thousand citizens; weak and deformed children must be exposed; morality and humanity, as well as all the comforts, elegancies, and pleasures of life, must be sacrificed to this glaring phantom of vanity, superstition, and ambition. Separated from the rest of mankind, they lived together, destitute of all business, pleasure, and amusement, but war and politics, pride and ambition; and there occupations and passions they transmitted from generation to generation, for seven hundred years; as if fighting and intriguing, and not life and happiness, were the end of man, and society; as as if the love of one's country, and of glory, were amiable passions, when not limited by justice and general benevolence; and as if nations were to be chained together for ever, merely that one family might reign among them… Human nature perished under this frigid system of national and family pride.
- A instituição de Licurgo foi bem calculada para preservar a independência de seu país, mas não teve consideração por sua felicidade, e muito pouco por sua liberdade. Como o consentimento do povo era necessário para toda lei, tinha até então a aparência de liberdade política: mas a liberdade civil dela era pouco melhor do que a de um homem acorrentado em uma masmorra; uma liberdade para descansar onde ele está. A influência dessa legislação ostentada sobre o caráter humano era produzir guerreiros e políticos, e nada mais. Dizer que esse povo era feliz é contradizer todas as qualidades da natureza humana, exceto a ambição. Eles não tinham outra gratificação: a ciência e as letras foram sacrificadas, assim como o comércio, à paixão dominante.
- - The institution of Lycurgus was well calculated to preserve the independence of his country, but had no regard to its happiness, and very little to its liberty. As the people's consent was necessary to every law, it had so far the appearance of political liberty: but the civil liberty of it was little better than that of a man chained in a dungeon; a liberty to rest as he is. The influence of this boasted legislation on the human character was to produce warriors and politicians, and nothing else. To say that this people were happy, is to contradict every quality in human nature, except ambition. They had no other gratification: science and letters were sacrificed, as well as commerce, to the ruling passion.
- - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government (1794)
- - The institution of Lycurgus was well calculated to preserve the independence of his country, but had no regard to its happiness, and very little to its liberty. As the people's consent was necessary to every law, it had so far the appearance of political liberty: but the civil liberty of it was little better than that of a man chained in a dungeon; a liberty to rest as he is. The influence of this boasted legislation on the human character was to produce warriors and politicians, and nothing else. To say that this people were happy, is to contradict every quality in human nature, except ambition. They had no other gratification: science and letters were sacrificed, as well as commerce, to the ruling passion.
- Por meio de sua doutrina da similaridade entre Esparta e o estado perfeito, Platão se tornou um dos propagadores mais bem-sucedidos do que eu gostaria de chamar de "o Grande Mito de Esparta" — o mito perene e influente da supremacia da constituição e do modo de vida espartanos.
- - Through his doctrine of the similarity between Sparta and the perfect state, Plato became one of the most successful propagators of what I should like to call ‘the Great Myth of Sparta’—the perennial and influential myth of the supremacy of the Spartan constitution and way of life.
- - Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)
- - Through his doctrine of the similarity between Sparta and the perfect state, Plato became one of the most successful propagators of what I should like to call ‘the Great Myth of Sparta’—the perennial and influential myth of the supremacy of the Spartan constitution and way of life.
- Para entender Platão, e de fato muitos filósofos posteriores, é necessário saber algo sobre Esparta. Esparta teve um efeito duplo no pensamento grego: através da realidade e através do mito. Cada um é importante. A realidade permitiu que os espartanos derrotassem Atenas na guerra; o mito influenciou a teoria política de Platão e a de inúmeros escritores subsequentes. O mito, totalmente desenvolvido, pode ser encontrado na Vida de Licurgo de Plutarco; os ideais que ele favorece tiveram um grande papel na estruturação das doutrinas de Rousseau, Nietzsche e do Nacional-Socialismo. O mito é ainda mais importante, historicamente, do que a realidade.
- - To understand Plato, and indeed many later philosophers, it is necessary to know something of Sparta. Sparta had a double effect on Greek thought: through the reality, and through the myth. Each is important. The reality enabled the Spartans to defeat Athens in war; the myth influenced Plato's political theory, and that of countless subsequent writers. The myth, fully developed, is to be found in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus; the ideals that it favours have had a great part in framing the doctrines of Rousseau, Nietzsche, and National Socialism. The myth is of even more importance, historically, than the reality.
- - Bertrand Russell, Uma História da Filosofia Ocidental (1946)
- - To understand Plato, and indeed many later philosophers, it is necessary to know something of Sparta. Sparta had a double effect on Greek thought: through the reality, and through the myth. Each is important. The reality enabled the Spartans to defeat Athens in war; the myth influenced Plato's political theory, and that of countless subsequent writers. The myth, fully developed, is to be found in Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus; the ideals that it favours have had a great part in framing the doctrines of Rousseau, Nietzsche, and National Socialism. The myth is of even more importance, historically, than the reality.