[Consider this a companion piece to the prior offering Recreational Reading as A Laboratory for Honor. ] Warrior cultures from time immemorial have what may be a curious, to our modern eye, intimacy with poetry. Our spare and laconic Spartans may have been averse to physical comforts considering them wasteful wallowing yet…they considered poetry as part and parcel of good martial development. We must never forget that “Homer’s” The Illiad and The Odyssey and other like poetic epics are collections of tales that were meant to be recited, told, sung, and pondered. Poetry to our Spartans was not just fireside entertainment or academic gloss to give a false sheen of bookish smarts. It was chosen carefully, composed with an eye on utility, recited and memorized to inculcate principles, ethics, and core attributes. It was used as a yardstick for the young to aspire to, a signpost for the brave to follow, a bolster for the temporarily weakened, a salve for those in straits...
Examining & Resurrecting Indigenous Skills and Frontier Rough & Tumble Combat