"Kithairon's Shadow" by Jon Edward Martin. Spartan Values.

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Spartan ValuesMartin, Jon Edward. In Kithairon’s Shadow. (2003)Many of Amompharetos’ values and beliefs are evident in Kithairon’s Shadow. He thought that war solved everything. Perfection was very important to him. One thing that he didn’t value was his family. Amompharetos was a typical Spartan warrior; he valued war and perfection, but not his family.

The most important thing in Amompharetos mind is the war. He, like the other Spartans, began training for war at age seven, and he mentioned several times that he enjoyed fighting. He said once that he longed to have been selected to march to Thermopylai (Martin, 12). He also told Kallikrates that, “men look to us to lead, not hide behind this [wall]” (Martin, 35). When Amompharetos talks to his dad he says that the barbarians need to be defeated on land, where Sparta can fight.

Another thing that Amompharetos valued was perfection. There is a lot of emphasis on his physical appearance in the book, which he made sure was just right.

He looked like the perfect military leader. The reason that Amompharetos did not want to accept Amnestos into his phidition was because he thought that Amnestos would be a problem (Martin, 92). Amompharetos didn’t want problems, which is why he didn’t want Athens to continue fighting in the water. He thought Sparta could fight better. Perfection would have been a good quality for a Spartan military leader to have most of the time, but there were some things he did not find as important.

Amompharetos did not value his family very much. His wife is with him a short time during the Hyakinthia, and his children are never with him (Martin, 76). The time he visits his parents he wants to talk to his dad about the war (Martin, 46). Amompharetos talks to his mom about the barley, but he just argues with his dad. He was very respectful to them, though. Amnestos became like family to him. It would have been hard for him to have a family when he was away at war all the time.

Amompharetos’ values were typical of most men; they were trained to think this way. These values helped him greatly when he was on the battlefield. If he had different beliefs the outcome of the war could have been changed. War and perfection were important to him, while family took second place. Amompharetos says it best, “Sparta must fight” (Martin, 70).