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Krypteia or crypteia (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ???pte?a / krupteía, from ???pt?? / kruptós, “hidden, secret things”) was a tradition involving young Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
ns, part of the agoge
Agoge

The agoge was a rigorous education and training regime for all male Spartan citizens, except for the first born son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad....
 (classical Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ) regime of Spartan education. Its goal and nature are still a matter of discussion among historians.

Young Spartan men who had completed their training at the agoge with such success that they were marked out as potential future leaders, would be given the opportunity to test their skills and prove themselves worthy of the Spartan military tradition through participation in the krypteia.

Every autumn, according to Plutarch
Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
 (Life of Lycurgus, 28, 3–7), the Spartan ephor
Ephor

An ephor was an official of ancient Sparta. There were five ephors elected annually, who swore each month to uphold the rule of the two Kings of Sparta, while the kings swore to uphold the law....
s (classical Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ) would pro forma
Pro forma

The term pro forma is a term applied to practices that are wikt:perfunctory, or seek to satisfy the minimum requirements or to conform to a Convention or doctrine....
 declare war on the helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a helot without fear of blood guilt.






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Krypteia or crypteia (Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: ???pte?a / krupteía, from ???pt?? / kruptós, “hidden, secret things”) was a tradition involving young Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
ns, part of the agoge
Agoge

The agoge was a rigorous education and training regime for all male Spartan citizens, except for the first born son in the ruling houses, Eurypontid and Agiad....
 (classical Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ) regime of Spartan education. Its goal and nature are still a matter of discussion among historians.

Young Spartan men who had completed their training at the agoge with such success that they were marked out as potential future leaders, would be given the opportunity to test their skills and prove themselves worthy of the Spartan military tradition through participation in the krypteia.

Every autumn, according to Plutarch
Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 ? 120 ? commonly known in English as Plutarch ? was a Ancient Rome historian , biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonism....
 (Life of Lycurgus, 28, 3–7), the Spartan ephor
Ephor

An ephor was an official of ancient Sparta. There were five ephors elected annually, who swore each month to uphold the rule of the two Kings of Sparta, while the kings swore to uphold the law....
s (classical Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 ) would pro forma
Pro forma

The term pro forma is a term applied to practices that are wikt:perfunctory, or seek to satisfy the minimum requirements or to conform to a Convention or doctrine....
 declare war on the helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a helot without fear of blood guilt. Unarmed, the kryptes were sent out into the countryside with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed. This could be used to remove any helots considered troublesome and provide the young men with a manhood test and experience of their first kill. Such brutal oppression of the helots permitted the Spartans to control the agrarian population and devote themselves to military practice. It may also have contributed to the Spartans' reputation for stealth.

Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
 (Laws, I, 633), a scholiast to Plato, and Heraclides Lembos (Fr. Hist. Gr., II, 210) also describe the krypteia.

  • Some scholars (Wallon) consider the krypteia to be a kind of secret police
    Secret police

    Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state.Secret police forces are typically associated with totalitarianism regimes, as they are often used to maintain the political power of the state rather than uphold the rule of law....
     force organized by the ruling classes of Sparta
    Sparta

    Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
     and targeted at the enslaved helot population that economically supported it. This does not square with the fact that a boy who got caught was in fact punished by a sound whipping (for getting caught), which suggests a possible link with the gymnopaedia
    Gymnopaedia

    The Gymnopaedia, in ancient Sparta, was a yearly celebration during which nudity youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing....
    , an annual festival of military activities and games for adolescents.
  • Others (Koechly, Wachsmuth) believe it to be a military training, similar to the Athenian ephebia. Jeanmaire points out that this bushranger
    Bushranger

    Bushrangers, or bush rangers, were outlaws in the early years of the History of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian The Bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities....
     life has no common point with the disciplined and well-ordered communal life (see homonoia) of the Spartan hoplite
    Hoplite

    The word hoplite derives from hoplon , meaning an item of armour or equipment, thus 'hoplite' may approximate to 'armoured man'. Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greece City-states....
    ; but as it is only a short passus in a very long and thorough training, this could precisely fit an additional skill only rarely useful when separated from one's unit.
  • Jeanmaire suggests that the krypteia was a rite of passage
    Rite of passage

    A rite of passage is a ritual that marks a change in a person's social status. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
    , possibly pre-dating the classical military organisation, and may have been preserved through Sparta's legendary religious conservatism. He draws comparison with African secret societies' (wolf-men and leopard men) initiation
    Initiation

    Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components....
     rituals.


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