SDBRKYH Greek Warrior Sculpture, Spartan Warrior Statue Samurai Model Tin Metal Craft Collection 1/18

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The Heraean Games is the earliest recorded women’s running competition and was held every four years at the Olympic stadium.

This statuette of an Athletic Spartan Girl is a bronze figurine depicting a Spartan young woman wearing a short tunic in a running pose. Bencze, Agnes. “Art and Craft in Archaic Sparta.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/spar/hd_spar.htm (June 2014) Further Reading Spartan Statue Unveiling Program, June 9, 1945, Box 2407, Folder 45, Madison Kuhn Collection, UA 17.107, Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan. Bravery and courage were mandatory. A boy who showed the slightest sign of fear was shunned. Any aversion to combat caused him to be ostracized.The typical characteristics of Laconian bronzes are slender bodies with muscular legs, arched and swelling thighs, immature chest in female figures, and long faces with strongly marked facial features. Laconia bronzes were widely traded and have been found inregions outside Sparta.

During the festival, some Spartan maidens ran a unique race in honor of Dionysus. This ritual was celebrating the girls’ rites of passage and involved dancing, singing, and other athletic events. (The picture above is an example from the British Museum) Spartan Women The statuette in British Museum [3] is in a special kind of outfit: a short chiton affixed to the left shoulder leaving the right shoulder and breast bare. This is the type of athletic costume especially for the participant in Heraea Games, [4] the earliest recorded women running competition held quadrennially in Olympic stadium. [5] Although women in Ancient Greece (except Sparta) were not encouraged to participate in athletic activities and were excluded from the Olympic games, [6] they could participate in the foot race at the Heraea, which was an athletic event for females of all ages. [5] Thus, this particular piece depicts a participant in the Heraea. One speculation proposed that the costume is adapted from a light garment worn by men in hot weather or while performing hard labor. [7]At the beginning of the 5 th century BC, war broke out between Persia and Greece. The Greek city-states came together as one to repel a mass invasion led by King Darius of Persia. However, isolationist Sparta was initially reluctant to play a part in the hostilities and was conspicuously absent from the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, which saw the Greeks notably defeat the more numerous Persians. A number of these statuettes were made in Sparta dating from the 6th century B.C. and were used as decorative attachments to ritual vessels, such as cauldrons used as votive dedications. Sparty was officially dedicated on June 9, 1945, located in the intersection of Kalamazoo Street, Chestnut Road, and Red Cedar Road.John Hannah gave a speech entitled, “The Spartan” with remarks made from Leonard Jungwirth and the band playing the fight song.