Were the Spartans really that muscular?
Discussion
Over on the bodybuilding forum I'm on, we've just had a request for very muscular men to act as Spartan warriors as part of some film or something. What I was thinking is, were the Spartans really that muscular, or was it an exaggeration?
This is a serious question and I'd rather have piss takers leave it alone, thanks.
This is a serious question and I'd rather have piss takers leave it alone, thanks.
Muntu said:
Natural selection would suggest that they were
I suppose this would help, but the breast plates I have seen of the time (the ones with the rippling muscles on the armour) are much more muscular than someone could just naturally be. It'd take some serious shifting of weights of some kind to get them in that shape. Would they have known to eat vast quantities of meat, and lift weights in those days? We're talking around 3000 years ago.......Considering the sheer weight of the armour and the weapons they used, they'd have to be pretty big, muscular and fit to be able to fight with some skill for the duration of a battle.
Overly styled armour is, well, nothing new. Nothing wrong in making the enemy think that your army is ALL built like that.
Overly styled armour is, well, nothing new. Nothing wrong in making the enemy think that your army is ALL built like that.
Nickthebassist said:
Muntu said:
Natural selection would suggest that they were
I suppose this would help, but the breast plates I have seen of the time (the ones with the rippling muscles on the armour) are much more muscular than someone could just naturally be. It'd take some serious shifting of weights of some kind to get them in that shape. Would they have known to eat vast quantities of meat, and lift weights in those days? We're talking around 3000 years ago.......
I would guess that they were all meat eaters, the lentil eating flip flop wearing pansies probably stayed at home during the hostile events, unless they were used as 'cannon fodder' so to speak. I must admit, this bit of history isn't my strong pointNickthebassist said:
Muntu said:
Natural selection would suggest that they were
I suppose this would help, but the breast plates I have seen of the time (the ones with the rippling muscles on the armour) are much more muscular than someone could just naturally be. It'd take some serious shifting of weights of some kind to get them in that shape. Would they have known to eat vast quantities of meat, and lift weights in those days? We're talking around 3000 years ago.......They were, to put it mildly, fit as
. The breast plates would of course have been exagerated to put the fear of several anciant gods into the opposition. Think of it as projecting an image......
scotal said:
Nickthebassist said:
Muntu said:
Natural selection would suggest that they were
I suppose this would help, but the breast plates I have seen of the time (the ones with the rippling muscles on the armour) are much more muscular than someone could just naturally be. It'd take some serious shifting of weights of some kind to get them in that shape. Would they have known to eat vast quantities of meat, and lift weights in those days? We're talking around 3000 years ago.......They were, to put it mildly, fit as
. The breast plates would of course have been exagerated to put the fear of several anciant gods into the opposition. Think of it as projecting an image......
I just didn't know if they'd be the rugged image of male muscularity that they are always depicted as.
Nickthebassist said:
Muntu said:
Natural selection would suggest that they were
I suppose this would help, but the breast plates I have seen of the time (the ones with the rippling muscles on the armour) are much more muscular than someone could just naturally be. It'd take some serious shifting of weights of some kind to get them in that shape. Would they have known to eat vast quantities of meat, and lift weights in those days? We're talking around 3000 years ago.......They were not 300 esque in their muscle structure.
Go read some books rather than pontificating bollox on here.
Xenophon's the 10000 is a good start and there are huge numbers of books on Hoplite's during the period.
Search for a bloke named Peter Green.
The spartans would have probably looked pretty much similar to the various "warrior" tribes that still exist. Though they would probably be a little different due to racial and environmental factors.
Plains africans tend to be tall and thin with very deffined muscles as they are "self mobile" over large distances and so burn off any excess fat. Where as jungle and island based warrior peoples tend to have much larger muscles but carry more fat, either way compared to most of us desk sitting girlie men they are nails..
The closest equivilent to the spartans are likely to be todays elite infantry soldiers who spend a great deal of their time on physical fitness and base a lot of their training on long marches and runs. The physique of these sorts of bloke tends to be muscled but lean, certainly very few soldiers carry around large heavy body builder muscles for the simple reason that their endurance wouldn't be particulary good. Any spartan who started weight training would probably be left standing on the long marches.
However in the wake of 300, troy and other gay soft porns I suspect the expectation is that accient warriors must now look like the gladiators of ITV rather than the gladiators of 50BC
Plains africans tend to be tall and thin with very deffined muscles as they are "self mobile" over large distances and so burn off any excess fat. Where as jungle and island based warrior peoples tend to have much larger muscles but carry more fat, either way compared to most of us desk sitting girlie men they are nails..
The closest equivilent to the spartans are likely to be todays elite infantry soldiers who spend a great deal of their time on physical fitness and base a lot of their training on long marches and runs. The physique of these sorts of bloke tends to be muscled but lean, certainly very few soldiers carry around large heavy body builder muscles for the simple reason that their endurance wouldn't be particulary good. Any spartan who started weight training would probably be left standing on the long marches.
However in the wake of 300, troy and other gay soft porns I suspect the expectation is that accient warriors must now look like the gladiators of ITV rather than the gladiators of 50BC
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