Apophthegmata Laconica

When some persons expressed disapproval of the nudity of the maidens in the processions, and sought to know the reason for it, he said, So that they, by following the same practices as the men, may not be inferior to them either in bodily strength and health or in mental aspirations and qualities, and that they may despise the opinion of the crowd. Wherefore is recorded also in regard to Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, a saying to this effect: when some woman, a foreigner presumably, remarked to her, You Spartan women are the only women that lord it over your’men, she replied, Yes, for we are the only women that are mothers of men! [*](Cf.Moralia, 240 E (5) infra, and Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiv. (47 E-48 B).)

By excluding the unmarried from looking on at the festival of the naked youth, and by laying upon them other additional disgrace, he created much concern about having children. He also deprived them of the honour and attention which the young bestowed on their elders. And nobody said a word against the remark which was made to Dercylidas, although he was a general and in high repute; for one of the younger men, as Dercylidas approached, did not rise to offer his seat, saying, No, for you are not the father of any son who will rise and offer his seat to me. [*](Ibid. chap. xv. (48 C); and Moralia, 223 A, supra. )