根据色诺芬在斯巴达的《拉塞代蒙政体》和《希腊语》以及普鲁塔克的《利库格斯》，一个被认为值得抚养的孩子被交给了他们的母亲，让她照顾到7岁。然而，白天，孩子陪父亲到syssitia（“餐厅俱乐部”）坐在地板上，潜移默化地学习斯巴达习俗。利库格斯制定了任命国家官员派多诺莫斯（paidonomos）的做法，负责让儿童上学、监督和惩罚。孩子们赤脚以鼓励他们快速行动，他们也被鼓励通过只穿一套衣服来学习抵御恶劣天气。孩子们从来没有吃过饱饭，也没有吃过美味佳肴。

7岁男孩的学校教育

7岁时，paidonomos将这些男孩分成约60个师，每个师称为ilae。这些都是同龄人组成的群体。他们大部分时间都在这家公司度过。ilae在一个20岁左右的eiren（iren）的监督下，ilae在他的家里吃饭。如果男孩们想要更多的食物，他们就去打猎或突袭。

So seriously did the Lacedaemonian children go about their stealing, that a youth, having stolen a young fox and hid it under his coat, suffered it to tear out his very bowels with its teeth and claws, and died upon the place, rather than let it be seen. (Plutarch, "Life of Lycurgus")

晚饭后，男孩们唱着战争、历史和道德的歌曲，或是艾琳对他们进行测验，训练他们的记忆力、逻辑和简洁的说话能力。不清楚他们是否学会了阅读。

The Iren, or under-master, used to stay a little with them after supper, and one of them he bade to sing a song, to another he put a question which required an advised and deliberate answer; for example, Who was the best man in the city? What he thought of such an action of such a man? They used them thus early to pass a right judgment upon persons and things, and to inform themselves of the abilities or defects of their countrymen. If they had not an answer ready to the question Who was a good or who an ill-reputed citizen, they were looked upon as of a dull and careless disposition, and to have little or no sense of virtue and honor; besides this, they were to give a good reason for what they said, and in as few words and as comprehensive as might be; he that failed of this, or answered not to the purpose, had his thumb bit by his master. Sometimes the Iren did this in the presence of the old men and magistrates, that they might see whether he punished them justly and in due measure or not; and when he did amiss, they would not reprove him before the boys, but, when they were gone, he was called to an account and underwent correction, if he had run far into either of the extremes of indulgence or severity. (Plutarch, "Life of Lycurgus")

出席的养子

不仅是斯巴达人的儿子的学校，而且还有养子的学校。例如，色诺芬把他的两个儿子送到斯巴达接受教育。这些学生被称为特罗菲莫。即使是希洛特人和佩里奥伊科伊人的儿子也可以被接纳为通奸犯或莫沙克人，但前提是斯巴达人收养了他们并支付了他们的会费。如果他们做得特别好，他们以后可能会被授予斯巴提亚人的特权。内疚可能是一个因素，因为希洛特人和佩里奥伊科伊人经常收留斯巴提亚人出生时拒绝抚养的孩子。

体育锻炼

男孩们打球、骑马、游泳。他们睡在芦苇上，默默地忍受鞭打，或者再次遭受鞭打。斯巴达人把舞蹈作为一种军事舞蹈和摔跤的体操训练来学习。这种做法意义重大，斯巴达从荷马时代起就被称为舞蹈之地。

从agoge到syssitia和krypteia

16岁时，这些年轻人离开阿戈奇，加入syssitia，尽管他们继续接受训练，以便加入成为氪星（隐秘）成员的年轻人。

Hitherto I, for my part, see no sign of injustice or want of equity in the laws of Lycurgus, though some who admit them to be well contrived to make good soldiers, pronounce them defective in point of justice. The Cryptia, perhaps (if it were one of Lycurgus's ordinances, as Aristotle says it was), Gave both him and Plato, too, this opinion alike of the lawgiver and his government. By this ordinance, the magistrates dispatched privately some of the ablest of the young men into the country, from time to time, armed only with their daggers, and taking a little necessary provision with them; in the daytime, they hid themselves in out-of-the-way places, and there lay close, but, in the night, issued out into the highways, and killed all the Helots they could light upon; sometimes they set upon them by day, as they were at work in the fields, and murdered them. As, also, Thucydides, in his history of the Peloponnesian war, tells us, that a good number of them, after being singled out for their bravery by the Spartans, garlanded, as enfranchised persons, and led about to all the temples in token of honors, shortly after disappeared all of a sudden, being about the number of two thousand; and no man either then or since could give an account how they came by their deaths. And Aristotle, in particular, adds, that the ephori, so soon as they were entered into their office, used to declare war against them, that they might be massacred without a breach of religion. (Plutarch, "Life of Lycurgus")

资源和进一步阅读

• 卡特里奇，保罗。“斯巴达寡头政治中的识字”，《希腊研究杂志》，第98卷，1978年11月，第25-37页。
• 康斯坦丁尼杜，索特罗拉。《斯巴达祭祀舞蹈中的酒神元素》，《凤凰》，第52卷，第1/2期，1998年春夏，第15-30页。
• 托马斯·菲盖拉：《斯巴达的饮食贡献与生存》，《美国语言学协会学报》（1974-2014年），第114卷，1984年，第87-109页。
• 哈雷，T.卢瑟福。“斯巴达公立学校”，《希腊与罗马》，第3卷，第9期，1934年5月，第129-139页。
• 惠特利，詹姆斯。《克里特法律与克里特文化》，《美国考古学杂志》，第101卷，第4期，1997年10月，第635-661页。