As a historian, I have always said that no culture has a clean slate. We have all done things in the past we are not proud of, but then again, we are humans, we make mistakes. This is normal. The important thing is the recognition and correction of those errors. For those who may not know, the City of Sparta had a significant slave population at one point called the Helots, from a neighboring village in the south called Helos, that Sparta had conquered. When Sparta lost to the Thebans of Greece in 371 BCE, the Thebans ended slavery in the City, which resulted in a notable decline for Sparta at that point.
But in 464 BCE, another strike against the slave system took place, this time from a God. Some of the Helots sought refuge in the Temple of Poseidon Asphaleius (Poseidon of Safety) in Tainaron, which rested in the South Peloponnese, but the sanctuary itself predates the enslavement era. When the Spartans found the refugee Helots, they took them out of the temple and killed them. I'd say this was a huge violation of Xenia, since the slaves were suppliants in the presence of the God. Shortly after this, a great earthquake (Poseidon is the Earth Shaker), struck Sparta and destroyed it. This event was interpreted at the time to be punishment from Him. The Gods were believed to protect the Sacred Law of Xenia, and would deal out punishment for violating it. Still to this day, we Hellenists uphold that Law. Not to mention the obvious transgression of interrupting the worship of Poseidon and killing His worshipers.
To me, it shows not only that the Gods protect Sacred Law, but that they care for everyone who comes to them, even if they are at the lowest level of society. The slave can be loved by the Gods the same as the master, the poor the same as the rich, etc. I think that if wealth or status mattered, Poseidon would have reacted less harshly at the violation, but it was one of the most devastating natural disasters to happen to Sparta.
The moral of this post is, whenever you feel like you are a disappointment or someone the Gods don't care about, think again.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
I'll see you at the next Herm down the road,
Chris Aldridge.
Links To Information:
Temple Of Poseidon Tainaron, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, 2025, accessed on November 8th, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Poseidon_(Tainaron).
Sparta, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, 2025, accessed on November 8th, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta.
Sparta Earthquake, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, 2025, accessed on November 8th, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/464_BC_Sparta_earthquake.
Xenia, Hellenic Faith, accessed on November 8th, 2025, https://hellenicfaith.com/xenia/.