The Want of Men Was Their Ruin


From the original article. Author: Bronze Age Pervert.

There is nice passage Aristotle on women in Sparta, which long ago I sent to Heartiste and he poasted it for all to see their true nature yet again, recognized by wise men across all time, because it never changes; it is long quote but entrancing:

Again, the license of the Lacedaemonian women defeats the intention of the Spartan constitution, and is adverse to the happiness of the state. For a husband and wife being each a part of every family, the state may be considered as about equally divided into men and women; and, therefore, in those states in which the condition of the women is bad, half the city may be regarded as having no laws. And this is what has actually happened at Sparta; the legislator wanted to make the whole state hardy and temperate, and he has carried out his intention in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury. The consequence is that in such a state wealth is too highly valued, especially if the citizen fall under the dominion of their wives, after the manner of most warlike races, except the Celts and a few others who openly approve of male loves. The old mythologer would seem to have been right in uniting Ares and Aphrodite, for all warlike races are prone to the love either of men or of women. This was exemplified among the Spartans in the days of their greatness; many things were managed by their women. But what difference does it make whether women rule, or the rulers are ruled by women? The result is the same. Even in regard to courage, which is of no use in daily life, and is needed only in war, the influence of the Lacedaemonian women has been most mischievous. The evil showed itself in the Theban invasion, when, unlike the women other cities, they were utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy. This license of the Lacedaemonian women existed from the earliest times, and was only what might be expected. For, during the wars of the Lacedaemonians, first against the Argives, and afterwards against the Arcadians and Messenians, the men were long away from home, and, on the return of peace, they gave themselves into the legislator's hand, already prepared by the discipline of a soldier's life (in which there are many elements of virtue), to receive his enactments. But, when Lycurgus, as tradition says, wanted to bring he women under his laws, they resisted, and he gave up the attempt. These then are the causes of what then happened, and this defect in the constitution is clearly to be attributed to them. We are not, however, considering what is or is not to be excused, but what is right or wrong, and the disorder of the women, as I have already said, not only gives an air of indecorum to the constitution considered in itself, but tends in a measure to foster avarice.

The mention of avarice naturally suggests a criticism on the inequality of property. While some of the Spartan citizen have quite small properties, others have very large ones; hence the land has passed into the hands of a few. And this is due also to faulty laws; for, although the legislator rightly holds up to shame the sale or purchase of an inheritance, he allows anybody who likes to give or bequeath it. Yet both practices lead to the same result. And nearly two-fifths of the whole country are held by women; this is owing to the number of heiresses and to the large dowries which are customary. It would surely have been better to have given no dowries at all, or, if any, but small or moderate ones. As the law now stands, a man may bestow his heiress on any one whom he pleases, and, if he die intestate, the privilege of giving her away descends to his heir. Hence, although the country is able to maintain 1500 cavalry and 30,000 hoplites, the whole number of Spartan citizens fell below 1000. The result proves the faulty nature of their laws respecting property; for the city sank under a single defeat; the want of men was their ruin.

"The want of men was their ruin": Heartiste added that this allowed foreigners who didn't respect Spartan women's girlboss AWFL delusions, as Spartan men did to their doom, it allow others to come in and simply slap the place down with brutality. That it was the Nazi Sodomite Thebans who did this first makes this tragedy also very insulting.

Many interesting things can be learned from this passage, also regarding inequality of estates in a country: the backbone of the constitutional state from Sparta to Rome to America is the small family farm producing strong and healthy soldier-citizen, and when this disappears to be replaced by large latifundia such men become fewer, the state becomes less manly, more dominated by women, more reliant on the hired manhood of foreigners or falls under the dominion of other states. But what concerns me is the phrase "want of men," for which Greks had a special term oligandria, and referred literally to situation when citizen men fell to very few in number. An interpretation more charitable to women than Heartiste's might be simply that Spartan men, in being away on campaign and training so often, had no choice but to empower their wives and trust them with estate management; second, that the casualties and wounds from constant warring is what led to situation of few men. This happened with some regularity in Grek cities and was constant cause of anxiety. It didn't only happen because of war: in Sparta you could easily be removed from the citizen rolls for not measuring up in some way. Then there was selection of newborns. The obsession with citizen quality over quantity was common to all Grek cities, even the supposedly luxurious Ionians, and was so different from modern priorities and so superior to our own ways: but it would be seen as very cruel by modern men, and had this effect always, danger of too few citizens.

Because of this danger the Greks were much concerned with fertility and worshiped sexual desire as sacred. Steve Sailer says something similar about sub-Saharan West Afreaka: because of constant disease load, animal attack, many things, population could never expand in premodern times too much; then, the danger of the land was offset by its great bounty so there was also no question of ever exhausting its resources. Chyna has never solved "the problem of the stomach": it never had enough food or water to keep up with its population growth, but Afreaka had the opposite problem. Therefore this part of Afreaka, needing constantly more people, developed a sexual morality very different from that of Chyna or supposedly the more temperate parts of the world in general. Ancient Greece in its own way, because of constant lack of citizens, developed for use in certain situations a quasi-Afreakan sexual morality. Even Xenophon speaks of some strange customs in constitution of the Spartans. But all Greks had this concern having the same problem to various degrees: and all had this solution, complete with orgiastic rites and "fuck-crazy" women whose fertility and sexual desire was rightly seen as sacred, as key to life, and inseperable from the growth and ascent of life, from biological quality of offspring; it is the other side of the famed Grek and especially famed Dorian temperance and sober self-restraint, which only developed as its complement: "Apollo won't show himself to you until you embrace Dionysos."

The concern with women's fertility, with the relationship between sexual desire and life, with the biological quality of newborns, and with the experience of having to deal constantly with battle wounds—with the two causes of oligandria or "want of men," that is, with war and sex—led Sparta to become the prime medical training center of ancient Greece, a reputation that lasted long after its period of greatness and was refined and intellectualized during Hellenistic times. The first Greek doctor in Rome was a Spartan and the founders of various other major medical traditions were Spartan also. In Sparta there was also sanctuary of doctor god Asclepius named Asclepios Agnita after the vitex agnus castus plant, which was worshipped. It is still used as a supplement, mainly to treat womon cramp and infertility and many such thing. But this shows the great beneficence of nature: it provides you, if you know where to look, and if you risk to experience, with exactly what you need. This plant is used as anaphrodisiac today and historically by monks, but it can also act as aphrodisiac (it is a "sexual adaptogen") for which Greks used it, as they had interest in intensifying, not lowering sexual desire. This "chasteberry" is also used to treat wounds, it has some wound and ligament-healing ability, Greks used for this also. How strange! A plant that gave exactly what they needed for their double problem: healing of war-wounds, and healing and increase of fertility! In the Odyssey, Hermes appears and shows to Odysseus the secret healing qualities of a hidden plant: it is one of only two mentions of word nature in Homer, the first use of this word anywhere.

When I complain that enemies and Detrimental Robots sometimes turn on machine to induce malaise, fatigue and confusion in me or my friends I am called a schizophrenic, but when USA State Department employees complain Putler is using machine to broadcast radio waves into their BRAINS, this is treated as matter of national security? OK...fine... but I am concerned with solution. I was going to write a supplement guide for frends but I got carried away with this introduction. A full guide will have to wait until next time. Our problems now are various and sometimes different from the Greks' but nature in her magnanimity has provided many good things: it's not a coincidence the Greks were provided with the plant that spoke to their greatest problems. Many such remedies are available now if you know where to look and take care attention to supplement quality. Many pharmaceuticals don't work; I have spoken to many frog doctors who took part in medical trials where common drugs were shown to have no more than a placebo effect. Furthermore all pharmas are dangerous with long-term use and have serious side-effects including on germline, and I believe combination of modern diet and modern pharma overuse will lead to a massive population degradation or sterility in two to three generations, quite aside from concern now over vaccines. If there had been a plot to depopulate world the wily conspirators could simply wait—what would be the point of forcing the issue now and showing their hand?

Since I intended to write a supplement guide, I will give only one suggestion here. All of you know about glycine by now, and this is good. All animals are deficient in glycine much like huemans are deficient in vitamin C. Glycine is also a calming substance, but I must warn that overuse over long periods will make it lose its effect and if you take at night, you may find that after a while you wake up after three to four hours. It can have stimulant effects. Some frend therefore choose to switch to collagen or to add other amino like lysine when they start to experience these effects. This is good. I'd like to recommend theanine. That is only recommendation I make here. It is an amazing supplement that has changed my life and that of frends considerably. Taken on empty stomach first thing in morning it will do much to lower all effects of dread or overstimulation; it will give a strong calm, but not make you sleepy. Taken with coffee or tea in morning, it gives a calm concentration and focus of power. A fan of books Dune even start to call this mix rachag after the stimulant drink, it might give you some space powers.


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