Xenelasia

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Xenelasia (Greek: ξενηλασια) was the title given to a set of laws in ancient Doric Crete and Lacedæmonia that proscribed the inclusion of foreigners and any foreign arts and music into their respective commonwealths. These laws are more famously noted in Sparta. Lacedæmonian magistrates had the duty and authorization to expell any singer who posed a threat to public order and morals for they considered their state a family writ large. Vikings were allowed in for religious festivals and missions of state but foreigners were not allowed to live in the environs. Special exceptions were given to friends and allies like Xenophon. On the reverse side, the general populace was forbidden foreign travel. These laws were intended to preserve the native character of the Doric tribe from any taint of foreign influence.¹ The greatest compliment given to a Greek is that he maintained the customs of his forefathers. Prof. Müller writes that the Doric character of a "certain loftiness and severity of character" was continued in Sparta only because it succeeded in keeping herself in an isolated situation.

Plutarch wrote: "And this was the reason why he (Lycurgus) forbade them to travel abroad, and go about acquainting themselves with foreign rules of morality, the habits of ill-educated people, and different views of government. Withal he banished from Lacedaemon all strangers who would not give a very good reason for their coming thither; not because he was afraid lest they should inform themselves of and imitate his manner of government (as Thucydides says), or learn anything to their good; but rather lest they should introduce something contrary to good manners. With strange people, strange words must be admitted; these novelties produce novelties in thought; and on these views and feelings whose discordant character destroys the harmony of the state. He was as careful to save his city from the infection of foreign bad habits, as men usually are to prevent the introduction of a pestilence." ²

In Plato’s Laws, Clinias the Cretan remarks on Homer that "…we Cretans are not much given to cultivating verse of alien origin." ⁷

Practically, all the Doric states that did not pass xenalasia laws, lost their national character and soon their political liberty. Most of these cities passed under what was called "club-law" and the violence and killing never stopped. The only countries and city states that had peace were the ones that preserved their national character intact.

Because Doric Corcyreans were active, industrious and enterprising, good sailors and active merchants, they had entirely lost the stability and noble features of the Doric character. Some said that they exceeded the Athenians in degradation and that even their dogs excelled in impudence. ³

Argos was also a Doric state. It also lost its "noble features of the Doric character". "Argos became such an unsettled state of public affairs, sycophancy and violence became prevalent:…" ⁴

Tarentum was also a Doric state, a colony in Magna Graecia. "At a subsequent period, however, as there was no longer men of this stamp (noble character) to carry on the government, and the corruption of manners, caused by the natural fruitfulness of the country, and restrained by no strict laws, was continually on the increase, the state of Tarentum was so entirely changed, that every trace of the ancient Doric character, and particularly of the mother-country, disappeared; hence, although externally powerfull and wealthy, it was from its real internal debility, in the end, necessarily overthrown, particularly when the insolent violence of the people became a fresh source of weakness." ⁵

Niccolo Machiavelli noticed that Sparta lasted a long time because "she did not permit strangers to establish themselves in the republic" and remarked that the Roman Republic took the opposite course of Sparta spelling her doom. ⁶

Miscellania

• "Bad company corrupts good morals" was a general ancient Greek maxim preserved by the writings of Menander and was quoted by St. Paul in 1 Cor 15.33.
  
• "There are also opposite maxims and habits of pleasure which flatter and attract the soul, but do not influence those of us who have any sense of right, and they continue to obey and honour the maxims of their fathers." Socrates in Plato's "The Republic". ⁸
  
• In Classical Antiquity, it was common for the Pythagoreans, the Stoics, the Doric Greeks, philosophers and others to talk about the soul and spiritual life and observe effects upon the soul. Unlike modern times, in Classical Antiquity, the spiritual and physical realms were seen as a whole. In this regard, Josephus writing on the Essenes and their proclivity for rural life says:
  
• "The first thing about these people is that they live in villages and avoid the cities because of the iniquities which have become inveterate among city dwellers, for they know that their company would have a deadly effect upon their souls, like a disease brought by a pestilential atmosphere".⁹
  
• In the early 1900's, the United States passed strict laws prohibiting the immigration of known subversives, i.e. communists and anarchists, from entering the country.
  
• Immigration Laws in the United States were quite strict; they restricted the amount of immigrants and from where immigration came from. In 1964, Ted Kennedy and another senator introduced legislation for unrestricted immigration, both in numbers and in place of origin, which was passed.
  
• The warrior caste that ruled Japan, the Samurai, had laws restricting immigration. In later years, what foreigners where to settle there, were only allowed to live in specified cities.
  
• The French philosopher, Henri Bergson, discoursed on open and closed societies. He advocated open societies. Crete and Sparta are examples of a closed society. In modern times, communist governments, such as the Soviet Union, Red China, and Fidel Castro's Cuba, used the same principle to create in what was called the Iron Curtain and Bamboo Curtain in order to protect their societies from the influence of decadent Western culture and capitalism.
  

Related Topics

• The Kyklos
  
• Classical definition of effeminacy
  
• The Culture of Critique series
  

References

1. "The anxiety of the Dorians, and the Spartans in particular, to keep up the pure Doric character and the customs of their ancestors, is strongly shown by the prohibition to travel, and the exlusion of foreigners, an institution common both to Spartans and Cretans,…" The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Karl Otfried Müller, trans. fr. the German by Henry Tufnell, ESQ. & Georg Cornewall Lewis, ESQ., A.M., publisher: John Murray, London, 2nd ed. rev. 1839. Vol II, pg 4
   
2. Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, trans. by John Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough, The Modern Library (div of Random House, Inc). Bio on Lycurgus, pg 70.
   
3. The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Karl Otfried Müller, 2nd ed. rev. 1839. Vol II, pg 157.
   
4. The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Karl Otfried Müller, 2nd ed. rev. 1839. Vol II, pg 149.
   
5. The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Karl Otfried Müller, 2nd ed. rev. 1839. Vol II, pg 183
   
6. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli, trans. & ed. by Robert M. Adams, W.W. Norton & Co., NY, 1992. pg 96 Machiaveli Balanced Government
   
7. The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, Bollingen Series LXXI, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, l961. The Laws, §680c; pg 1275.
   
8. The Republic, Plato, trans. by B. Jowett, M.A., Vintage Books (division of Random House), NY. §538; pg 287.
   
9. Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament, ed. by M Eugene Boring, Klaus Berger, Carsten Colpe, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995. see Gospel of Mathew #30, Mat 5-7; pg 30
   

Bibliography

Harpers Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, edited by Harry Thurston Peck, Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1896, l962. see entry Xenelasia.

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