ARETE AND POETRY

EDUCATION IN SPARTA

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the educational carried out by Lycurgus in Sparta. The main issue is weakening of the arete, against wich Lycurgus created his constitution, known as the Great Rhetra, that restored the old doric values, mitigatin growing individualism and linking each spartan to the country. Among the laws he created, the most important were the educational, because they changed habits and customs and, thereby, made the arete remain within the Spartan people for centuries. Lastly, we considered that the proposal of the guardian education in the Republic of Plato, take inspiration from Rhetra of Lycurgus, but is not limited to it, introducing also another virtue, the temperance, wich differentiates and gives superior status of guardians over warriors.