Sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos on the Akropolis of Sparta / 2016
Compared to Athens, Sparta has been subjected to far less archaeological work, and its akropolis and agora have not yet been excavated. As a result, it's difficult to put together a complete picture of ancient Sparta.
The Athenian general and historian Thucydides gives the earliest description of Sparta, but it is Pausanias's visit to the city in the 2nd century CE that provides most of the knowledge we have today.
The original layout of Sparta is difficult to map because in Thucydides's time, the city did not have any defensive walls. This is partially because Spartans viewed fortifications as frivolous, expensive, and unnecessary—they felt their men could do a better job defending the city than any walls could.
King Archidamos II, as imagined by character artists Ashley Sparing & Stephanie Chafe / 2018
In one of the Athenian general Thucydides's historical writings, he described a debate between the Spartan king
Archidamos and one of Sparta's ephors over whether or not the city should engage Athens and the Delian League in what would later become the Peloponnesian War.
Surprisingly, Archidamos argued for a more cautious approach, stating that their enemies were numerous, well-funded, and more skilled when it came to naval engagements. He believed that Sparta should not be so hasty in picking a fight until it was more prepared.
The ephor, meanwhile, appealed to the city's honor, and said that the only response worthy of strong Spartans was to vote for war.
Despite being the king, Archidamos's efforts to postpone the war were eventually overruled.
Lead figure of a winged goddess, perhaps Artemis Orthia, found in sanctuaries in Lakonia / Late 7th-6th cent. BCE (Archaic Greece)
Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and Apollo's twin sister. A virgin and a huntress, she was one of the most
important Olympian deities, and presided over crucial aspects of life: girls' transition to womanhood, childbirth, the rearing of children, but also Spartan boys" rites of transition to manhood, and certain aspects of war. She was most commonly depicted with a bow and arrow, and associated with deer.
Artemis had several cults in Sparta, and the most important of them was Artemis Orthia. This cult was closely associated to the Spartan education system, the agoge.
Many dedications to Eileithyia—the goddess associated with good deliveries—were found in the sanctuary, showing the two deities' roles were closely related.
Bronze figure of a running girl / 520-500 BCE (Archaic Greece)
Dionysos was the Greek god associated with wine, ritual madness, and theater. This temple was set on a hill opposite
the Spartan Akropolis. The site was called Kotona ["the hill"), which gave the god his epithet Kolonatas. The temple seems to have been a place of worship for women. When approaching adulthood, girls may have been initiated into the mysteries of Dionysos linked to this temple.
During the god's annual feast, Pausanias tells of a footrace involving eleven girls, the "Dionysiades"; this custom would have come from Delphi.
Runners, scene from a Panathenaic red-figure amphora / 333-332 BCE (Classical Greece)
According to Pausanias, the Dromos was used as a place for footraces, and contained gymnasia as well. It was open to Sparta's citizens, who could also offer sacrifices on the nearby statue of Herakles.
Inspired by The Art of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, by Kate Lewis, with courtesy from Titan Books.
(Behind the scenes)
The Spartan army encampment in Megaris sprawls across the landscape. Tents house weary soldiers, shields and spears neatly arranged, to be quickly grabbed if the Athenians should attack. These camps are a maze of tents and low buildings, temples and houses overtaken by war and generals, and are always well guarded.
"The layout of the locations needs to feel credible as though it could be lived in and at the same time needs to fit within the game metrics of fight and stealth," explains world director, Benjamin Hall. "Anywhere in the world where the player finds themselves against enemies are designed to be a homogeneous blend between art and design."
Jugate heads of the Dioskouroi (Castor and Pollux) from a bronze coin of Lakedaimon (Sparta) / 35-31 BCE (Hellenistic Greece)
Kastor and Pollux, the Dioskouroi, were divine twins, sons of Zeus and Leda, and brothers of Helen and Klytemnestra. One of them human and the other divine, they were linked to Sparta, as myth stated they were born on Mount Taygetos. The Dioskouroi were the protectors of the Spartan kings, and took turns in their royal duty. They helped the Spartans in battle, and they were associated with horsemanship as well as with athletic contests. In art, they were often represented with their sister Helen. An important number of marble reliefs of the Dioskouroi have been found in excavations of the Spartan area, and are now kept in the Sparta Museum.
Attic grave stele with hoplite battle scene / 390 BCE (Classical Greece)
Four Spartan kings played important roles in the Peloponnesian War: Archidamos II, his elder son Agis II, Pleistoanax, and his son Pausanias.
In 464 BCE, Archidamos Il managed to quell a helot revolt following an earthquake that shook the city to its core. A few years later in 445 BCE, his double in kingship, Pleistoanax, was exiled for presumably taking a bribe from the Athenian statesman Perikles—someone Archidamos had previously been on friendly terms with.
During the first part of the Peloponnesian War, which was named the Archidamian War after Archidamos, the king marched against Attika in 431 BCE, 430 BCE, and 428 BCE. He was succeeded by his son Agis II in 427/6 BCE, who was appointed a guardian because of his young of age. Agis did not manage to invade Attika, but together with Pleistoanax, who had returned from exile, they signed a treaty with the Athenians in 421 BCE known as the Peace of Nikias.
During the third part of the war, it was Agis's decision to occupy Dekeleia and control Athens's countryside, as well as access to the Laurion mines. This move was crucial, because Athens lost the possibility to mint coins with Laurion silver, restricting the city's ability to finance the war and pay for mercenaries and contributing to Athens's eventual surrender in 404 BCE.
Pausanias, meanwhile, was the king of Sparta who laid siege to Athens in collaboration with the admiral Lysander, which culminated in Sparta's decisive victory in Aigos Potamoi in 405 BCE.
Peltast depicted on shield of a hoplite, scene from an attic red-figure kylix / 520-490 BCE (Archaic Greece)
The mothakes are one of the less well-known classes of Ancient Spartan society. Most of what is known of them is the stuff of hypotheses and theories: they were either illegitimate children of Spartan fathers and helot or períoikoi mothers, orphans whose training was sponsored by guardians, or poor people whose training was paid for by wealthier Spartan families.
Mothakes accompanied Spartan boys in the agoge as their companions, or syntrophoi. Though they did not share the same rights as citizens, they could eventually join the Spartan elite if they completed their training, or if their patron bought them a unit of land known as a kleros. Fulfilling these conditions granted them citizenship, and allowed them to join the Spartan military.
Written sources attest that some mothakes, such as Gylippos, became accomplished military leaders during the Peloponnesian War. In fact, it's been suggested that Lysander, the famous Spartan admiral instrumental in winning the aforementioned war, was a mothax as well.
Warrior on horseback from a nomos of Taras, a Spartan colony / 344-340 BCE (Classical Greece)
The Lakedaimonian army was not exclusively made up of official Spartan citizens.
The army was composed of all male Lakedaimonians aged twenty to sixty [and occasionally even older], regardless of social class. Because of this, Helots and Perioikoi often fought alongside Spartan homoioi (citizens).
Men weighing merchandise with a large scale, scene from a black-figure amphora / 540-530 BCE (Archaic Greece)
The períoikoi were indigenous non-Spartan freemen who lived in the periphery of Sparta, but did not have political rights. They formed autonomous communities and developed local economies because, unlike the Spartans, they engaged in commerce and manufacturing.
In other words, while Spartans concentrated on war, the períoikoi focused on everything else. They could be carpenters, merchants, farmers, and fishermen, among many other professions.
Their dependency on Sparta did now allow them to develop a proper economy, but at the same time they aided the Spartans by allowing them to concentrate on military matters. It is also believed that the períoikoi procured of the metals and crafted the arms the Spartans used in battle.
Red-figure amphora depicting a warrior fighting against a Persian archer / 480-470 BCE (Classical Greece)
When Pausanias visited Sparta's agora, he described the imposing Persian Stoa, a structure built to commemorate the Greeks' decisive victory over the Persians in the Greco-Persian Wars:
"The most prominent building in the market place is the Persian Stoa, so called because it was built from the spoils of the Medes. In time they embellished it to the size and ornamentation which It now has. The columns are Persians of white stone, Mardonios son of Gobryas and others."
Inspired by The Art of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, by Kate Lewis, with courtesy from Titan Books.
(Behind the scenes)
"A dedicated river tool has been developed in order to render believable river layouts in a Greek mountainous landscape. Here is an in-game image of a spring river." – Vincent Lamontagne, assistant art director and lead biome artist.
Initials of Lakedaimon within wreath, from a Spartan bronze coin / 35-31 BCE (Hellenistic Greece)
The Spartan banner bears the letter "lambda", standing for Lakedaimon, the other name of Sparta. On their coins, the initials were lambda and alpha: "LA".
This emblem is inspired by Spartan shields bearing the lambda. While there's no archaeological evidence of these shields' decoration, they're known from textual evidence. A fragment of a comedy by Eupolis tells that the sight alone of the lambdas on Spartans' shields was enough to frighten Kleon.
On other occasions, shields were decorated by varied iconographies, as shown on numerous vases depicting warriors.
Inspired by The Art of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, by Kate Lewis, with courtesy from Titan Books.
(Behind the scenes)
Fearsome and formidable, these warriors are unmatched throughout Greece and the known world. These character studies by artist Fred Rambaud show the different types of warriors the Hero will encounter in Sparta, from the heavily armored brute, to the more nimble, spear-wielding fighter, and the brawler, replete in gold armor and a heavy ram's-head hammer.
Inspired by The Art of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, by Kate Lewis, with courtesy from Titan Books.
(Behind the scenes)
Storyboards are crucial to mapping out a sequence of events. These storyboards by Miguel Bouchard show the Hero's family sharing some dramatic moments at the top of the treacherous Mount Taygetos. This storyboard demonstrates the terrible decision made by Nikolaos.
Remains of the theater of the Akropolis of Sparta with view of Taygetos mountains / 2016
The Akropolis of Sparta consisted of several buildings that date from different chronological periods—from the Archaic to the Byzantine era.
At the top of the Akropolis was the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos, dated to the 5th century BCE. It was originally a sanctuary of Pitane, as confirmed by archaeological discoveries dating as early as the Mycenaean period.
Near the sanctuary of Athena was the ancient theater of Sparta. The theater seen in-game is based on a structure dated to the Roman period. The theater probably had a wooden stage; a fact supported by several inscriptions from the 2nd century CE. Excavations next to the theater also revealed connected shops.
The Akropolis of Sparta also held visible traces of the Skias, the semi-circular building of the archaic-classical periods—but with visible repairs from the Roman period.
Sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos on the Akropolis of Sparta / 2016
According to Pausanias, the two most important Spartan temples were the temple of Artemis Orthia, and the temple of Athena Chalkioikos.
Pausanias describes the building of the sanctuary of Athena Chalkioikos in great detail. It was Located on the Akropolis of Sparta, west of the agora. Its construction was started by the mythical king of Sparta, Tyndareos, but was completed by the Spartan sculptor Gitiadas in the 6th century BCE.
The epithet Chalkioikos [house from bronze] was attached to this temple due to the bronze and copper decorations on its walls. These embossed sheets depicted mythological scenes like Herakles's labors, achievements of the sons of Tyndareos, the Legend of Perseus and Medusa, and the birth of Athena. The bronze decorations and the bronze statue of Athena were the works of Gitiadas, who also composed a hymn to the goddess.
According to many ancient authors, Spartan women were an exception among other Greek women; authors from Athens were both fascinated and afraid of these figures, and presented them as both powerful and licentious.
In the warfare state of Sparta, girls were educated with a eugenic perspective to become the future wives and mothers of warriors. According to Queen Gorgo, they were the only Greek women who gave birth to real men, and were the only ones who "commanded to men". This famous sentence showed the authority of Spartan women in their city.
In addition to the desire for strength, gymnastics and sports were also emphasized in education to make the young women attractive enough to marry. This included being well-versed in music, dancing, singing, and poetry. Spartan women dedicated themselves to intensive physical exercise and led very different lives from their Athenian counterparts. They were more autonomous, and more free than many Greek women of ancient times.
They also may have trained themselves to wrestle. One purpose of this training could've been for the defense of the city and of their children in the event of an attack on Spartan territory.
