- Great Rhetra
The Great Rhetra was one of the two greatest bodies of classical Greek
direct democracy , the other being theAthenian assembly . In both cases there was a limited franchise and the Spartan mechanism was further limited to yes or no approval of proposals put to it by thegerousia ,ephors , and kings. This process of yes or no approval, also identified with the term, is supposed to have been introduced by Lycurgus under the direction of following Delphic oracle¹:I.
Oh! thou great Lycurgus, that coms't to my beautiful dwelling,
II.
Dear to Jove, and to all who sit in the halls of Olympus,
Whether to hail thee a god I know not, or only a mortal,But my hope is strong that thou a god wilt prove, Lycurgus.
Cravest thou Arcady? Bold is thy craving. I shall not content it.
III.
Many the men that in Arcady dwell, where food is the acorn.
They will never allow thee. It is not I that am niggard.
I will give thee to dance inTegea , with noisy foot-fall.
And with the measuring line mete out the glorious campaign.Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth;
IV
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity blowing,
Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies uponevil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea's master.These oracles they from Apollo heard,
And brought from Pytho home the perfect word;
The heaven-appointed kings, who love the land,
Shall foremost in the nation's council stand;
The elders next o them; the commons last;
Let a straight Rhetra among all be passed.
¹Tyrtaeus ,Plutarch
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