Skyler Wilkins

Research Paper

Professor Abrecht

12/11/2024

300 to three percenter

In recent years the alt-right has seemingly been obsessed with

Spartan culture, appropriating them to promote extremist ideas. Phrases like

“Molon Labe”, to Spartan helmets with American flag colors on them show an

attempt to promote modern movements by idealizing past civilizations.

These attempts however conveniently leave out certain aspects of spartan

history like slavery and a rigid class system. In this paper, I will explore

primary sources of Plutarch, Xenophon, and Herodotus to understand what

Spartan culture was truly like. Modern sources of Sarah E. Bond, Donna

Zuckerberg and Heidi Morse will show how the alt-right is idealizing and

misusing false versions of Spartan culture today. I will argue how a

“fantasized” version of Sparta is being used to justify modern extremist

ideologies, why it’s important to call out and push back against these

misuses of history, and what the effects these false versions of history could

be.
 So, what was Sparta actually like? Sparta was not your typical city-

state in ancient Greece. We know from Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus that

reforms under Lycurgus equality were prioritized as well as communal living

and military discipline. Land was redistributed to limit economic hardship and

the agoge was created. I think of the agoge as an extremely long and harsh

boot camp or selection process that started as a child and lasted until around

age 30. Boys in the agoge were starved so that they would learn to steal and

be stealthy, if caught they would be punished severely (5). The process was

meant to toughen up the warriors so that they would be resistant to pain.

Only those who completed the agoge were considered real citizens. It wasn’t

all about war, Spartan society was designed to work as a collective, meals

were shared, and in some cases wives as well. Plutarch stated that "Lycurgus

insisted that equality could not be achieved by mere words, but through the

communal sharing of wealth” (4). Everything was to be shared, the focus was

on the collective group and not the individual.

For those men that passed the agoge, they no longer had to worry

about food, water, or shelter for the rest of their lives, which was taken care

of by the state. However, those that didn’t, were not considered citizens,

could not vote, and were looked down upon by the rest of the city (4). That’s

only if you were born with the opportunity to become a citizen, underneath

the “equality” was a massive slave force known as Helots. The Helots did

essential jobs for survival like farming so that the Spartan Citizens could

focus on fighting and wars. Herodotus describes the Helots being treated
horribly, often being killed to keep them in line. While the Spartans claimed

to be a society of equality and discipline their society relied on slave labor

and fear. There were constant wars against the Helots to keep them in line,

who were an essential part of the Spartan's livelihood. This is almost entirely

left out in modern-day depictions of Sparta.

To understand an everyday person and the alt-rights obsessions with

Sparta, we have to discuss the movie 300. The movie 300 came out in 2006

and has no doubt dramatically changed the public’s perception of what

Sparta was like. In the middle of a war between the United States and Iraq

and just 5 years after the 9/11 terror attacks this movie perpetuated

Islamophobia. In the movie, Persians are shown as overtly feminine and

sexual. They are shown as evil conquers and the Spartans as the savior of

the free world. In the movie, it’s shown that 300 Spartans bravely faced off

against the entire Persian army. Even though there were actually around 900

helots there that fought as well (2). The movie also emphasized

hypermasculinity and physical fitness showing the soldiers as unmatched

soldiers of discipline. The movie presented them as guardians of freedom

and the “ideal” man. Obviously, this isn’t true, but I think it’s important to

recognize that this massive box office hit is all many people know of ancient

Spartan society. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and with the war(s) in

the Middle East how this movie perpetuated people’s fear and hate of non-

white invaders.
 So why do the alt-right and really many people today idealize Sparta

in modern times? I think it’s necessary to point out that all people who wear

shirts with Spartan helmets or run “Spartan Races” are not alt-right

members. I think a lot of people just like the aesthetics and are completely

unaware of the realities of the real Sparta. I asked a longtime colleague of

mine about his American flag-colored, Spartan helmet tattoo, to try and get

an idea of why a regular person idealizes Sparta. I have known him for seven

years, so I know that he is not an alt-right member or even a member of the

right. I asked him why he got it, and what he thought it represented. He

responded that he regretted getting it, but at the time he thought it looked

cool. I asked how he knew about Spartan society and where he got his

information. To no surprise at all of his information about Spartan society was

from the movie 300. We talked a little more and he had no idea Spartan

society was built on the backs of a slave labor force. We both were in the

military together at a counter-terrorism unit so, I suppose I understood the

“militaristic” appeal of it. Ultimately though he just thought it looked cool.

While I know he can’t speak for all the non-alt-right people who like aspects

of Spartan Culture, I think it shows how some people think just it looks cool

and, in their mind, it represents toughness.

This doesn’t explain the Alt-rights fascination though, the center of

what this paper is focused on. As I mentioned before the aesthetics capture a

lot of people's attention, this is especially true on the alt-rights side. Let’s

look at the movie 300 for example, movie hero atmosphere, lots of jacked
guys, slow-motion fight scenes, and the whole narrative of “free” men

fighting against tyranny. This movie is the most known “source” of

information many people have on the Spartan world in today’s society. The

problem with movies like this is that they conveniently skip over important

parts. Things like communal wealth, Spartans not being the type of invincible

soldiers they were depicted as, and most notably leaving out aspects of

slavery in the Spartan world (1). The Alt-Right cherry-picks certain ideas and

properties like discipline, masculinity, and defiance against an oppressor and

leaves out everything that doesn’t fit their narrative. “Molon Labe”

supposedly said by King Leonidas at the battle of Thermopylae has become a

fan favorite of gun activists. Next time you drive past a gun store, look at the

stickers on the cars parked out front, I bet you’ll see a few that say “Molon

Labe” or translated as “come and take it” in English. "Come and take it" has

become a unifying saying in the alt-right world against things like

government overreach or “threats to freedom”. This line completely out of

context, as catchy as this saying may be, was not about government

overreach but against a Persian invasion. In reality, Spartan society was even

more strict and authoritarian than modern governments today and certainly

more than what the alt-right would be comfortable with.

Classical images and sayings are hijacked by communities and

people online and create ideologies of white dominance. On sites like Reddit,

4chan, and other social media, imagery of Spartans symbols are used to

promote toxic masculinity, military-style discipline, and resistance against

societal change or what they see as societal collapse. These websites select

texts from Spartan history to perpetuate the idea that their beliefs are

“timeless” truths (6). These online communities create and push the idea

that “Western civilization” is under attack, and that there is a need to return

to the classical values like in Sparta. In the alt-rights skewed version of

history, Sparta is the ultimate guardian against mixing different races and

cultures. This isn’t just about admiration of militarism or thinking the

feathers on top of helmets look really cool, but rather about creating a fake

lineage of cultural and racial purity (6). When the alt-right presents Sparta as

a utopian white society of community and discipline they are trying to

legitimize their own racist claims. The ironic part is that Sparta was never the

ideal society these groups make it out to be. I mean it was an oligarchy, the

power of the city-state was controlled by a few powerful men and their

families. All the laws were set up to dismiss change and keep this rigid

structure in place. Freedom was nowhere to be found in ancient Sparta.

So, what exactly has the alt-right gotten wrong about ancient Sparta?

Clearly, they only choose certain aspects to glorify while completely ignoring

others. They love to glorify the discipline and training but so conveniently

forget about the slave labor force Sparta survived on. While I don’t doubt

that many alt-right members know nothing of actual Spartan history they

leave out certain facts for a reason. The real truth of Sparta wouldn’t fit their

narrative, so they have to abstain from certain truths to make their version

work. The truth is that Sparta was much more complicated and honestly
much more depressing than what they are shown as in pop culture. Take the

helots for example, I don’t think there was a single one shown or mentioned

in the entire movie 300. The Helots propped up Spartan culture so the

citizens could train and prepare for wars. Instead of thanking the people who

supported their culture, they treated them horribly. There was even a

secretive police force called the Krypteia, who were charged with keeping the

helots in check and killing those who showed signs of wanting to rebel (5).

The Krypteia Sound weirdly like the Gestapo in Nazi Germany to me. Even

people who lived during the time of Sparta like Herodotus’ who seemingly

admired the Spartans in some ways pointed out contradictions in their

society. Like how the Spartans thought of themselves as defenders of Greek

freedom but back at actual Sparta, their entire society was built on slaves

(2). Since the realities of Sparta don’t fit the alt-rights narrative they have to

ignore the facts and make the Spartans out to be a perfect society of Gerald

Butler looking warriors.

Another thing the alt-right seems to have gotten confused about

is gender roles. In Sparta, women had much more freedom compared to

other Greek city-states. They were expected to be physically fit, and own and

manage estates and land (4). This doesn’t exactly coincide with the alt-rights

traditional gender view that women should be subordinate to men. Women in

Sparta were extremely important and also had an amount of autonomy

hardly seen elsewhere in the Greek world. The alt-right portrays Spartans as

individualistic but this is completely opposite. Their land was communal, food
was redistributed, and state-controlled education was a vital part of their

civilization (4). In all realities, Sparta was closer to a highly militarized

communist society than to an individualistic one the alt-right envisions.

Spartan citizens were expected to adhere to strict laws, and not conforming

to the laws was severely punished. A state-controlled; almost communal

civilization isn’t exactly what the alt-right wants.

So why does it matter? Why should we care that some people are

misusing historical data? It matters because history can be powerful, it can

send a powerful message. When people misuse history to fit their own

agenda, they create harmful ideologies that are “legitimized” by history.

Appropriating Spartan ideologies and symbols isn’t just about the alt-right

thinking the Spartans were cool. It’s an attempt to validate their exclusionary

beliefs by connecting them to a version of the idealized past. This makes

their beliefs seem more reasonable and a type of timeless truth (3).

Not only this but the message it sends to younger generations.

Romanticizing certain aspects of spartan culture like militarism and hyper-

masculinity, can be confusing to younger people about what and who to be.

Focusing on only war and looking like Gerald Butler idealizes a very one-

dimensional way of living. Focusing on just those aspects of being doesn’t

encourage other traits like empathy and critical thinking. This could be

confusing to young people, especially young men about what their role in

society should be according to this false version of history. It also sends a

message of diversity in culture, or really rather of not being diverse. By

sending the message that a “successful” society can only be achieved by

racial purity it perpetuates the hateful ideologies of the alt-right.

Don’t fret quite yet, there are ways we can counter these heinous

beliefs and views. One way is by highlighting the diversity and clear

contradictions that were prevalent in ancient societies. By highlighting the

role that women and Helots had in Ancient Sparta we complicate the claims

that the alt-right has about Sparta. By challenging and calling out narratives

that are completely incorrect we show that the alt-rights simplified version of

history is really much more complicated (1). It is crucially important we don’t

let the alt-right take control of ancient histories and myths to promote their

own hateful ideologies. History does not belong to just one person or just one

group, if we let people rewrite it we lose any real connection to the past. Not

only connection but truth, how can we ever hope to learn from our past if we

are ignoring some parts or just rewriting others? In this class, we studied

ancient Greek civilization, most of the time it seemed that many rulers and

kings did not learn from their own past and kept fighting in the same form

over and over. Take Sparta for example, this idealized perfect society

(according to the alt-right) never changed or progressed, and eventually fell

out of importance because of their ways.

The alt-rights fascination with Sparta and Spartan civilization is

not because they love the history of Sparta. It’s not because they want to

understand the complex oligarchical political system or communal living. The

alt-right wants to create a myth and leave out all the complexities and
contradictions of real Spartan society. They want a myth of a Sparta that fits

their hateful agenda. Their misuse of history is deliberate because the real

version of Sparta doesn’t align with their worldview. Social media and pop

culture movies aren’t helping, they often send the same message as the alt-

right. Although that is most likely unintentional, it still sends the wrong

message. If we are ever to improve our world it’s necessary to understand

our past, all of it. History isn’t just a collection of old stories but information

we can learn from and improve ourselves with. By confronting the false

versions of history some groups push, we can take back history from those

who twist it for their own use.

Bibliography

1. Bond, Sarah E. “This Is Not Sparta.” Medium, May 7, 2018.

https://eidolon.pub/this-is-not-sparta-392a9ccddf26.

2. Herodotus, and William A. Johnson. The essential herodotus. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 2017.

3. Morse, Heidi. “Classics and the Alt-Right: Historicizing Visual Rhetorics of

White Supremacy.” Learn Speak Act, February 15, 2018.
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/learn-speak-act/2018/02/15/classics-and-the-
alt-right/.

4. Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives: Life of Lycurgus, n.d.

5. Xenophon. Scripta minora, with an English translation by E.C. Merchant.

Nabu Press, 2016.

6. Zuckerberg, Donna. Not all dead white men: Classics and misogyny in the
Digital age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.