Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevsh
I'm curious how much time is devoted to the training/lifestyle of the Spartans which I found the most intriguing.
Also looks like entire movie was shot on a green screen, similar to Sin City (okay, 95% was green screen...) which means essentially the director and cinematographer had a lot of freedom for graphics and effects.
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Basically those Spartans that where going to grow up to be peers "those that would fight in almost every military action" where hand picked when they where about 7 or 8 and began their training. They where taught wrestling, swimming, fighting and other things that would help them in battle. Singing was encouraged because it increased lung capacity and the same thinking was the reason for swimming, dancing was encouraged because it made a fighter quick on his feet if he had to fight one on one with the enemy although that almost never happened because of the strong cohesion of the Spartan phalanx.
Spartan society seemed very brutal to the outside world but because of geographics the Spartans had to be super tough to fend of enemies that wanted their fertile farmland. Sparta had some of the best soil and some of the most beautiful land in all of Greece. They where constantly fighting with their neighbors.
When children where born they where inspected by a group that was responsible for picking youths that would grow up to become warriors. It sounds cruel but those that had birth defects or where considered scrawny where thrown over a cliff. Today there have been found thousands of small skeletons under a mountainside. Some mother would hide their newborn children because of this.
Some Spartan children where picked to join a sort of death squad when they reached their early teens. These hormone driven teens where given free reign to roam the countryside killing escaped slaves or anyone who would wander through the hills and valleys of lakedaemon. They where feared by many and kept the populace indoors at night. This gave the youth skills that would allow them to fight just like modern day gorilla fighters.
In Sparta it was not illegal to steal but to get caught was a punishable crime. Being able to steal and not get caught taught the youth to survive on a long campaign or in an enemy city. When Spartans where punished for breaking a law they where often caned. The punishment stopped as soon as you cried out but some Spartans would die during their beatings because they where to proud to yell in pain or to give up.
Spartan women where said to be the most beautiful in the world because they where at the peak of physical fitness. Women where encouraged to wrestle with men during training and special festivals, sometimes they where nude and often they would beat their opponents. Women had to be strong to bear many children. Women that bore many children had higher status in Spartan society. Women didn't baby their sons. They taught them to be strong. Mothers told their sons to come home with their shields or on them. Dropping your shield in battle was the most dishonorable thing a Spartan could do because the shield protected you as well as the man to your left or right.
Spartan had to be as strong as an ox to hold up their large shields and their nine foot spears. At that time they where the heaviest weapons and shields in the world. I doubt if most warriors from other countries could have held them up for as long as the Spartans would have in battle. One of the training exercises the Spartans would do involved them forming a phalanx and running themselves into a huge tree. It was called fucking the tree. They would run into the tree with their shields held up while each line behind them pushed against the front. The men in the second row most have felt like jelly after being crushed like that for hours.
Sparta also had a strange form of government. They had 2 kings. The reason was that often a king would go into battle with the army and if he where killed there was still another king.