Crypteia

Much of the debate surrounding the Crypteia comes from the differing accounts provided by the few surviving Classical texts that mention the Crypteia, and the fact that Xenophon's Constitution of the Lacedaemonians makes no mention of it. Plutarch and Heraclides Lembus (both of whom may be using a lost work by Aristotle as a source), and some scholars, (such as Henri-Alexandre Wallon (1812–1904)), saw the Crypteia as a kind of secret police – a state security force organised by the ruling class of Sparta to patrol the Laconian countryside and terrorise the helots, by carrying out secret killings. Others, including Hermann Köchly (1815–1876) and Wilhelm Wachsmuth (1784–1866), saw it as a form of military training similar to the Athenian ephebia. The ranks of the Crypteia comprised young upper-class Spartan men, probably between the ages of 21 and 30, According to Plato, the kryptai did not use footwear during the winter and slept without shelter. Plato describes them as being unsupervised and as depending on themselves alone for survival. Plato's description might seem to imply that the kryptai were forced to be independent, but some scholars think that they may have had attendants at certain times to watch over them. based on a scholion of Plato's Laws (see below). ==History and function==

According to Aristotle, the Crypteia were established by the legendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus. There is no known date associated with its establishment, however. Every autumn, Spartan ephors would declare war on the helot population which would allow them to headhunt helots without fear of punishment. The chosen kryptai were then sent out into the countryside armed with daggers with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered travelling the roads and tending to fields they deemed too plentiful. They were specifically told to kill the strongest and to take any food they needed. However, it is most commonly thought to have been adopted to prevent the threat of a helot rebellion and to keep their population in check. According to some sources, kryptai would stalk the helot villages and surrounding countryside, spying on the servile population. Their mission was to prevent and to suppress unrest and rebellion. Another point of contestation is the time of day at which the Crypteia operated. Plato described their movement as travelling in both day and night. On the contrary, Plutarch states that they would hide during the day and would travel by night, then aiming to kill any helots who they came across. Troublesome helots could be summarily executed. Such brutal repression of the helots permitted the Spartan elite to successfully control the servile agrarian population. It may also have contributed to the Spartans' reputation for stealth since a kryptēs (κρύπτης) who got caught was punished by whipping. In events preceding the ten-year conflict between the Spartans and the Messenians that resulted from the helot revolt, the Spartan leadership covertly killed two thousand helots who had participated in the war. It is thought that the Crypteia were the primary perpetrators of the massacre or were at least somehow involved in carrying it out. The Crypteia did not act in a similar fashion to hoplite soldiers, however. Hoplite soldiers were armored and acted as a part of a phalanx while members of the Crypteia acted on their own, often rested during the day, and were most likely unarmored and armed with only a dagger. Various scholars have speculated on the function of the Crypteia as a part of the army because Plutarch's account provides a completely different understanding of their role when compared to the accounts provided by Aristotle and Plato. Plutarch's account has led to the Cryptiea being described as a reconnaissance, special operations or even military police force. Plutarch's account of the Crypteia describes the organisation as a military unit that has a commander, which differs from Aristotle and Plato's interpretation since the Crypteia is described as being independent and without overseers. Ducat also takes up query with the task of observation that the Crypteia are given in Plutarch's account. With the Spartan revolution in jeopardy, Cleomenes III began to emancipate helots in exchange for money and then military service. With the emancipation of many helots and Spartan's subsequent defeat at Sellasia, helotage ceased to exist, and without a helot population, by mandate, the Crypteia should have ceased to exist as well. The Crypteia's disbanding after that battle, however, is only speculation. Ritualistic activity The French historian Henri Jeanmaire points out that the unstructured and covert activities of the Crypteia are unlike the disciplined and well-ordered communal life of the Spartan hoplites (see Homonoia). Jeanmaire suggests that the Crypteia was a rite of passage, possibly predating the classical military organization, and may have been preserved through Sparta's legendary religious conservatism. He draws comparison with the initiation rituals of some African secret societies (wolf-men and leopard men). Members of the Crypteia may have not shared the commonality with Spartan hoplites that Jeanmaire describes during their service as a part of the institution, but they eventually returned to their communities and were integrated back into the complex Spartan social system. ==Classical sources==

Several surviving classical sources, from several different centuries, describe, or mention, or at least are thought by some Classicists to reference the Crypteia. 5th century BC Herodotus is thought by some to have been referring to the Crypteia when he writes "Now the Lacedemonians put to death by night all those whom they put to death, but no man by day." Thucydides is also thought by some to be referring to the Crypteia when he writes, in his account of the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War, Centuries later, Plutarch mentions Thucydides's account, immediately after speaking explicitly of the Crypteia (see below). 4th century BC There is a single-sentence passing reference to the Crypteia, made by an imaginary Spartan in a fictional dialogue, in Plato's Laws There is another possible reference to the Crypteia, or at least to a man who was commander of it at the time of the Battle of Sellasia, in Plutarch's Lives: == Modern reception ==

has the protagonist, as a rite of passage, hunt and kill this animatronic wolf, instead of an unarmed slave. In popular culture The Crypteia (as The Krypteia) are key to the indie horror film Pledge, which brings the Greek secret society to the modern world fronting as a fraternity preying on new freshman pledges. The Crypteia are briefly mentioned in the comic book series Three by Kieron Gillen. They make their first appearance in issue one of Three and are depicted naked, armed with only daggers, attacking a group of unsuspecting helots as they tend to their crops. Gillien used the Crypteia to highlight the harshness of the Spartan system and describes their function as "a rite of passage to life where all vocations are barred, bar one. Once a year, the masters declare war on the helots. If they bloody their hands, they are not polluted. So they are free to do whatever is required to keep the helots on their knees. And so they do." One of Sparta's leading historians, Stephen Hodkinson, is noted as being the historical consultant employed by Gillen throughout the series. Hodkinson describes Gillien's depiction of the Crypteia as a "perfect amalgam" of the information available in the two source traditions; those being Plato's Laws and Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus. Golden Dawn Maniot leaders of the far-right Greek political party, Golden Dawn, reinstituted the Crypteia as a part of their adoption of Spartan ideologies. == See also ==