Stump

Sparta Museum- Sparta

This stump is the base of statue that is no longer attached, but would have commemorated someone who died at the whipping post. In ancient Sparta young boys at age seven were taken from their families and forced into a boot camp, called the agoge, where they trained to become fierce warriors. Boys in this camp participated in whipping contests where they grabbed onto an alter and were whipped until they let go. The one to hold on the longest won the contest. Often times the boys would pass out from the pain, but would still be gripping the alter after passing out, and were whipped to death. In this case the boy would have a statue commemorating him on a base like this one. The fact that such a death is commemorated speaks to the cultural values discipline and strength had in Sparta.

I personally could not imagine living in a society that whipped boys for no reason except to reinforce discipline. If I were one of those kids I would just let go to avoid the unnecessary pain! But the fact that they didn't do just that goes to show you how conditioned the young men were by the militarized government. Sparta did have the best on land military in all of Hellenistic Greece, so they were doing something right (hopefully it wasn't the whipping)!