Фалет Критский в Спарте

Abstract

The ancient tradition names Thaletas “the man expert in the legislation” (άνήρ νομοθετιϰός) because he was the carrier of ancient secret knowledge allowed him to act in Sparta as a re-organizer of the Gymnopaediae and in this connection in the role of the founder of a new music and poetic direction, in the role of a healer who banished the plague, and also in the role of a suppressor of internal conflict and an installer of social order. The activity of Thaletas on making the social order completely coincided with his activity in musical, poetic and ritual spheres. In other words Thaletas has expelled a sedition and has established the civil peace with follow modes: he united the citizens in choruses, has taugth them correct joint dancing movements, rhythms and songs, transformed street conflicts into the competitions made by precisely established rules within the framework of Apollo’s cult, and also forced the citizens to recognize that henceforth the annual performance of such uniting is the debt and indispensable duty of a community before Apollo - the god-purificator, healer and suppressor of strife. The close consideration and detailed analysis of the information kept in the ancient texts about Thaletas’ activity help to understand peculiarities of the constitutional experience of archaic Sparta. Its characteristic feature was active and regular use of the potential of ecstatic religious cults with the purpose of preservation of the social peace and establishment eunomia.