Went to Greek festival recently. Food was good. Dancing looked fun.

I don’t know what people in Greece are like today but there was nothing remotely reminiscent of Spartans at the festival. It’s not evident in the food except for maybe the sugar / butter rich desserts why this community is pushing obesity levels even by US standards.

What a difference a couple of millennia makes?

Sparta was never known as the culinary center of Greece. On dish was a soup made with congealed blood. When a Greek from another city tasted it he said, " Now I know why the Spartans are so ready to die in battle."

Sparta had relatively little lasting influence in terms of the definition of "Greek."

It turns out that philosophy and government are more durable legacies than a specific fighting style.

is this post serious?

Are you not entertained?

Real Spartans had six pack abs. We know this from video that was taken at the battle of Thermopylae.

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:
is this post serious?

+1

My cousin lives in Norway and he says he never sees any Vikings...

Come on. Not really serious.

Still, I was expecting more to a Greek festival than just gyros. Are gyros the defining aspect of Greek culture these days?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Are gyros the defining aspect of Greek culture these days?

Most of the other Greek foods are harder to pronounce.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Come on. Not really serious.

Still, I was expecting more to a Greek festival than just gyros. Are gyros the defining aspect of Greek culture these days?

Should be gyros, plate smashing, windex and lots of opahs.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Are gyros the defining aspect of Greek culture these days?

No but it's the only one we can talk about on this family friendly forum.

It happened a long time ago:

“Without its tough spearmen, Hellenic culture would have had nothing to give the world. It would not have lasted long enough. When Greek culture became so sophisticated that its common men would no longer fight to the death, as at Thermopylae, but became devious and clever, a horde of Roman farm boys overran them.”
— T. R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War

sigfreund, I'm going to bed now. I'm going to contemplate that quotation. Thanks.

And to konata's post title: Not a sign of Athens either...did you see a play by Aristophanes?

quote:

Originally posted by LBAR15:

+1

My cousin lives in Norway and he says he never sees any Vikings...

Not even Techno Viking?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FwsntHcWiy4

quote:

Originally posted by homie:

quote:

Originally posted by LBAR15:

+1

My cousin lives in Norway and he says he never sees any Vikings...

Not even Techno Viking?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FwsntHcWiy4

TechnoViking is German...

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:

quote:

Originally posted by homie:

quote:

Originally posted by LBAR15:

+1

My cousin lives in Norway and he says he never sees any Vikings...

Not even Techno Viking?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FwsntHcWiy4

TechnoViking is German...

The Techno Viking trancends all borders and cultures.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
It happened a long time ago:

“Without its tough spearmen, Hellenic culture would have had nothing to give the world. It would not have lasted long enough. When Greek culture became so sophisticated that its common men would no longer fight to the death, as at Thermopylae, but became devious and clever, a horde of Roman farm boys overran them.”
— T. R. Fehrenbach, This Kind of War

That's perhaps an oversimplification, not least of all because it assumes "Greek culture" was something monolithic, rather than a patchwork quilt of poleis. Secondly, it ignores the fact that, despite the rise of hoplite warfare as the dominant mode of fighting among the Greek poleis in the Archaic period, there were always other types of soldiers in the army; nearly always the armies were socially stratified since you had to purchase your own equipment: if you couldn't afford to be a hoplite, you weren't, but you still had to do something. Finally, it doesn't take into account the peculiar effect of Athenian democracy on their mode of war: the "common man" generally ended up becoming a rower in the burgeoning Athenian navy.

We could also go on about what happens when someone comes in with a professional army (e.g. Philip and Alexander) with even bigger spears and it confronts citizen armies.

The Roman army in its earliest periods was also a modified hoplite army and showed the same social stratification with the actual commoners being skirmishers and the more well-to-do being the heavy infantry (or cavalry, of course).

Sorry, tangent.

quote:

Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:

Sorry, tangent.

Hey Oat...Have you ever read any of Christian Cameron's works? Like the "Long War" series?
https://www.goodreads.com/series/48559-long-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Cameron

If so, how 'accurate' do you think he captures the timeframe? I love his work, but that time period is not my normal area, so I've wondered how someone like you would rate this work.

Tangent away - interesting.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

quote:

Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:

Sorry, tangent.

Hey Oat...Have you ever read any of Christian Cameron's works? Like the "Long War" series?
https://www.goodreads.com/series/48559-long-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Cameron

If so, how 'accurate' do you think he captures the timeframe? I love his work, but that time period is not my normal area, so I've wondered how someone like you would rate this work.

Never read him, but I haven't really ever read any historical fiction outside of Gore Vidal. That said, I skimmed through the glossary of terms he provides in the first book and noticed he actually made some of the same point I raised in his definition of "hoplite", so at the very least he seems to have an understanding of the socio-economic implications of hoplite warfare. He also mentions that every polis had its own measurement system, so his attention to detail seems good.