Blurb:

In this chapter I argue that at the center of the construction of Spartan masculinity is the signifier pain. Pain determines the boundaries between proper and improper masculinity. This chapter investigates, then, the mythic construction of Spartan masculinity in the works of modern and ancient male authors showing how pain as indexical sign deployed in myth and ritual is a central signifier by which to mark proper masculinity, Spartan and otherwise.