Why Helots?
Today we focus on the Helots, captive people of the Spartan regime. The word “Helot” is most likely the perfect past participle of the Greek word that means “captives” or “prisoners of war”.
We have discussed the fact that the Spartans adopted the Lycurgan system because they needed an army to control their Helot slaves, but why did the Spartans have Helot slaves in the first place? Why were the Messenians not made an ally, client state, or annexed? Why adopt this strange and rare version of pseudo-slavery?
The truth is we don’t know the reason. Herodotus says that Lycurgus visited Crete, observed their system of government, and brought the concept home. There is an alternate theory also from Herodotus, and later advanced by the Spartans themselves, that Pythia, the priestess at the Oracle of Delphi, told Lycurgus how he should construct his new governmental system. It’s hard to be attracted to either theory given that we do not know whether Lycurgus was a real person.