Great Rhetra
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The Great Rhetra was one of the two greatest bodies of classical Greek direct democracy, the other being the Athenian 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 the gerousia, 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,
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.II.
Cravest thou Arcady? Bold is thy craving. I shall not content it.
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 in Tegea, with noisy foot-fall.
And with the measuring line mete out the glorious campaign.III.
Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth;
There two winds are ever, by strong necessity blowing,
Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil.
There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides;
Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea's master.IV
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.
