Helots

“ Intermediate between Helots and Spartiates were the two classes of Neodamodes and Mothones. The former were emancipated helots, or possibly their descendants, and were much used in war from the end of the 5th century; they served especially on foreign campaigns, as those of Thibron (400–399 B.C.) and Agesilaus (396–394 B.C.) in Asia Minor. The mothones or mothakes were usually the sons of Spartiates and helot mothers; they were free men sharing the Spartan training, but were not full citizens, though they might become such in recognition of special merit. ”

“ In time of war the Helots fought as light-armed troops. If they showed themselves brave and loyal in the service of the State, they were sometimes rewarded by being made free.
Once during the great Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens, of which you will read in this story, the Spartans believed that the Helots had plotted to rise against them. They determined that the rising should never take place,87 and to prevent it they did a cruel deed. For they chose two thousand of the bravest Helots, set them free, and gave them a great feast to celebrate the event. ”

“ The facts are thus stated by Grote (History of Greece, vol. ii, pp. 376-7) : "It was in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War, after the Helots had been called upon for signal military efforts in various ways, ... that the ephors felt especially apprehensive of an outbreak. Anxious to single out the most forward and daring Helots, as men from whom they had most to dread, they issued proclamation that every member of that class who had rendered distinguished services should make his claim known at Sparta, promising liberty to the most deserving. ”

“ If we take now what at Plataea was the actual ratio of the helots as compared with the Spartans, i. e, seven to one, we shall add two thousand one hundred helots, which make two thousand nine hundred and ninety; to which must be added such of the Greeks as fell in the attacks prior to the slaughter of Thermopylae; so that, in order to make out the total of the slain given by Herodotus, more than eleven hundred must have perished before the last action, in which Leonidas fell. ”

“ Every year, on taking office, the Ephori, formally, in their good city of Sparta, declared war against their unarmed and unhappy vassals, “that they might be massacred under pretence of law.” [206] Mr. Müller 52overwhelmed with the weight of these testimonies, does not yet yield up the point: “Were not these Helots, who in many districts lived entirely alone, united by despair for the sake of common protection; and did they not every year kindle a most bloody and determined war throughout the whole of Laconia?” The historian is pleasant upon the Helots. Kindle a war! ”

“ The learned historian Herodotus remarks upon this, "as the quantity had been definitively settled at a very early period, to raise the amount being forbidden under very heavy imprecations, the Helots were the persons who profited by a good, and lost by a bad harvest, which must have been to them an encouragement to industry and good husbandry ”

“ Such precautions were now more than ever requisite; for the changes in the practical working of Spartan politics tended to multiply the number of malcontents, and to throw the Inferiors as well as the Periœki and the Neodamodes (manumitted Helots) , into one common antipathy with the Helots, against the exclusive partnership of the Peers. Informers were thus sure of encouragement and reward, and the man who now came to the ephors either [p. 250] was really an intimate friend of Kinadon, or had professed himself such in order to elicit the secret. ”

“ It is well known that the Helots were a constant terror to their masters—that whenever occasion offered, they revolted—whenever any enemy to the state presented himself, they joined him—that they fled whenever flight was possible—and were, it is confessed, so numerous and so bold, that Sparta was compelled, in treaties with foreign states, to stipulate “for aid against her own subjects.” [215] What more probable, therefore, under the circumstances, 55than the institution of the Crypteia? What more in harmony with the genius of the people? ”

“ The helm bar is a roll of cloud that forms in front of it, to leeward.
See “Report on the Helm Wind Inquiry,” by W. Marriott, Quart. Journ. Roy. Met. Soc. xv. 103.
HELOTS (Gr. εἴλωτες or εἱλῶται) , the serfs of the ancient Spartans. The word was derived in antiquity from the town of Helos in Laconia, but is more probably connected with ἕλος, a fen, or with the root of ἑλεῖν, to capture. Some scholars suppose them to have been of Achaean race, but they were more probably the aborigines of Laconia who had been enslaved by the Achaeans before the Dorian conquest. ”

“ The office was retained after the treasury was transferred to Athens on the proposal of the Samians, but was of course abolished on the conquest of Athens by the Lacedaemonians.
HĒLŌTES (εἴλωτες) , a class of bondsmen peculiar to Sparta. They were Achaeans, who had resisted the Dorian invaders to the last, and had been reduced to slavery as the punishment of their obstinacy. The Helots were regarded as the property of the state, which, while it gave their services to individuals, reserved to itself the power of emancipating them. ”

“ After this the Hellenes were ranged as follows, both those of them who came in continually afterwards 29 and those who had come at the first. The right wing was held by ten thousand Lacedemonians; and of these the five thousand who were Spartans were attended by thirty-five thousand Helots serving as light-armed troops, seven of them appointed for each man. 30 To stand next to themselves the Spartans chose the Tegeans, both to do them honour and also because of their valour; and of these there were one thousand five hundred hoplites. ”

“ Sometimes the Spartans would give the slaves strong drink till they were drunken, and then lead them out before the young men so as to show how wretched and unmanly a drunkard appeared. Yet the Spartans would have fared ill without the help of their slaves, for the Helots were cooks, ploughmen, carriers, and general servants. ”

“ According to this account, the families of the Helots (of which many resided on one lot) would have retained only eighty-two medimni on an average, and the whole amount would have been one hundred and sixty-four. But this cannot be the institution of which Plutarch speaks; and Tyrtæus doubtless describes some oppression much aggravated by particular circumstances. ”

“ Polyb. XII. 6. 7. frag. 17. p. 224. ed. Goetter. Theopompus ap. Athen. VI. p. 265. compare Orchomenos, p. 242.135.The wives and children of Helots are often mentioned, e.g. in Thucyd. I. 103. At Athens the marriage of slaves was an uncommon event, and is usually found among the χωρὶς οἰκοῦντες. It was cheaper to purchase than to bring up slaves. (See Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations, Works, vol. III. p. 431-440. See p. 438, on the marriages of the Helots.) 136.See Heraclides Ponticus.137.Welcker Alcman, Fragm. ”

“ Their tomb is to this day called Sismatias. 6Archidamus, by the present danger made apprehensive of what might follow, and seeing the citizens intent upon removing the most valuable of their goods out of their houses, commanded an alarm to be sounded, as if an enemy were coming upon them, in order that they should collect about him in a body, with arms. It was this alone that saved Sparta at that time, for the Helots were got together from the country about, with design to surprise the Spartans, and overpower those whom the earthquake had spared. ”

“ XII. The origin of the Helot race is not clearly ascertained: the popular notion that they were the descendants of the inhabitants of Helos, a maritime town subdued by the Spartans, and that they were degraded to servitude after a revolt, is by no means a conclusive account. Whether, as Mueller suggests, they were the original slave population of the Achaeans, or whether, as the ancient authorities held, they were such of the Achaeans themselves as had most obstinately resisted the Spartan sword, and had at last surrendered without conditions, is a matter it is now impossible to determine. ”

“ Heliet looked up with her bright smile.
“Very like maidens’ fancies,” she said. “For me, I am never like to wed, so I can look on from the outside.”
“But what manner of man shouldst thou fancy, Heliet?”
“Oh ay, do tell us!” cried more than one voice.
“I warrant he’ll be a priest,” said Elaine.
“He will have fair hair and soft manners,” remarked Olympias.
“Nay, he shall have such hair as shall please God,” said Heliet, more gravely. “But he must be gentle and loving, above all to the weak and sorrowful: a true knight, to whom every woman is a holy thing, to be guarded and tended with care. ”

“ Myron appeared to be about to answer, though somewhat perplexed by the question, when they were interrupted by the well-known blast of the trumpet. They had not observed that they were prolonging their discourse far into the night. Sallu and the slave came up, and pulled the poles of the tent out of the sand. 93“It is time,” said Elisama, “that we should desist, and indeed such disputes, Helon, have little results! Let him fear God, and he will believe in the law.” ”

“ HELA, or HEL, name of the queen of death and of the shades below, daughter of Asa-Lok and of the giantess Angurbod. She is frightful and appalling to behold: her body is of white or natural colour below the girdle, but all above is blue or livid, from congealed blood. The gods, terrified at her sight, exiled her from Asagard, and cast her down into Niffelheim, to rule over the dead. There, in her castle Helheim, she receives the ghosts of the worthless and cowardly, and of those who die of old age or sickness, who omit to cut runes to Odin. ”

“ Who then is likely to set himself against thee, O king, offering war, when thou art leading both all the multitudes of Asia and the whole number of the ships? I for my part am of opinion that the power of the Hellenes has not attained to such a pitch of boldness: but if after all I should prove to be deceived in my judgment, and they stirred up by inconsiderate folly should come to battle with us, they would learn that we are the best of all men in the matters of war. ”

“ Binds his thews to iron bands.
LXXXIV.
Changeless are the Gods—and bred
All their wrath divine in him!
Bull-like fell his furious head,
Swell'd vast cords on breast and limb.
LXXXV.
As loud-flaming stones are hurl'd
From foul craters—thus the gods
Cast their just wrath on the world,
From the mire of Helot clods.
LXXXVI.
Still the furious Helot stood,
Staring thro' the shafted space ”

“ The Hellenes, I say, were coming to the rescue with speed, having been appointed to their several places: and meanwhile the men of Delphi consulted the Oracle of the god on behalf of themselves and on behalf of Hellas, being struck with dread; and a reply was given them that they should pray to the Winds, for these would be powerful helpers of Hellas in fight. So the Delphians, having accepted the oracle, first reported the answer which had been given them to those of the Hellenes who desired to be free ”

“ The tales which Hellenes and Barbarians have told with or without pertinency, the marvels they have seen, the divine judgments they have illustrated, the wealth they have amassed, the crimes they have committed, their intrigues, loves, hates, and sorrows—these and more than these are welcome to Herodotus, and if he does not find them in sufficient abundance, then like a true Homeric poet he invents or adapts to suit himself. ”

“ An hour before sunset Henriot put his rugs and food upon a donkey, and gave the boy directions where to meet him—a considerable distance from the appointed spot. He went himself on foot. He slipped in the heat along the sandy street, where strings of camels still go slouching, shuffling with their loads from the quarries that built the pyramids, and he felt that little friendly Helouan tried to keep him back. But desire now was far too strong for caution. The desert tide was rising. It easily swept him down the long white street towards the enormous deeps beyond. ”

“ To this day a more than Spartan haughtiness alloys the many noble qualities which characterize the children of the victors, while a Helot feeling, compounded of awe and hatred, is but too often discernible in the children of the vanquished. ”

“ When Helon reached the Beautiful-gate, it was scarcely possible to pass, so great was the crowd of men and lambs. The children of Israel, out of all the tribes from Dan to Beersheba, from the extreme point of Galilee to the desert of Arabia, strangers from Egypt, Cyprus, Syria, Cappadocia, and Babylon, were here assembled in their festive attire. Every master of a house carried his lamb upon his shoulder, or had it driven before him by his servants. ”

“ Clarice ended, “why our Lord deals so differently with thee and with me. Are we not both His children? Yet to thee He hath given the desire of thine heart, and on mine He lays His hand, and says, ‘No, child, thou must not have it.’”
“I suppose, beloved,” was Heliet’s gentle answer, “that the treatment suitable for consumption will not answer for fever. We are both sick of the deadly disease of sin; but it takes a different development in each. Shall we wonder if the Physician bleeds the one, and administers strengthening medicines to the other?” ”

“ They ought however, being men who speak the same language, to make use of heralds and messengers and so to take up their differences and settle them in any way rather than by battles; but if they must absolutely war with one another, they ought to find out each of them that place in which they themselves are hardest to overcome, and here to make their trial. Therefore the Hellenes, since they use no good way, when I had marched as far as the land of Macedonia, did not come to the resolution of fighting with me. ”