evotion to the State.
A Spartan mother who has lost her boy in battle exclaims: "Did I not
bear him that he might die for Sparta?" To another, waiting for tidings
of the battle, comes a messenger announcing that her five sons have
perished. "You contemptible slave," she replies, "that is not what I
wish to hear. How fares my country?" On hearing that Sparta is
victorious, she adds, without a tremor: "Willingly, then, do I hear of
the death of my sons."

Marriage is the determining factor in the economic conditions of
society, and the regulations prescribed concerning it are an excellent
index to the character of any people. Under the Lycurgan system,
marriage was strictly under the control of the State. The goddess of
love was practically banished from Sparta. Only one temple to Aphrodite
stood in Lacedaemon; and in this the goddess was represented armed, not
with her magic girdle, but with a sword, and seated with a veil over her
head and fetters upon her feet, symbolizing that she was under
restraint. History records many instances of affection between husband
and wife, but considerations of love did not enter into the marriage
contract. No frail woman was allowed to marry. The age of marriage was
fixed at the period which was considered best for the perfection of the
offspring, usually about thirty years in the case of the men, and about
twenty for the maidens. Plutarch describes in uncolored language the
chief features of the marriage relations of the Spartans:

"In their marriages, the husband carried off his bride by a sort of
force; nor were brides ever small and of tender years, but in their full
bloom and ripeness. After this, she who superintended the wedding comes
and clips the hair of the bride close round her head, dresses her up in
man's clothes, and leaves her upon a mattress in the dark; afterward
comes the bridegroom, in his everyday clothes, sober and composed, as
having supped at the common table; and entering privately into the room
where the bride lies, unties her virgin zone, and takes her to himself;
and after staying some time together, he returns composedly to his own
apartment, to sleep as usual with the other young men. And so he
continues to do, spending his days and indeed his nights with them,
visiting his bride in fear and shame and with circumspection, when he
thought he should not be observed; she also, on her part, using her wit
to help to find favorable opportunities for their meeting