Krypteria or Crypteia (Gr. κρυπτεία / krupteía, from κρυπτός / kruptós, “hidden, secret”) was a ritual involving young Spartans, part of the agoge (Spartan education). Its goal and nature are still a matter of discussion among historians.

Young Spartan men who had completed their training at the agoge with such success that they were marked out as potential future leaders, would be given the opportunity to test their skills and prove themselves worthy of the Spartan military tradition through participation in the kryptia.

Every autumn, according to Plutarch (Life of Lycurgus, 28, 3–7), the Spartan Ephors would declare war on the Helot population so that any Spartan citizen could kill a Helot without fear of blood guilt. Armed only with dagger, the Krypteria were sent out into the countryside with the instructions to kill any Helot they encountered at night and to take any food they needed. This could be used to remove any Helots considered troublesome and provide the young men with a manhood test and experience of their first kill. Such brutal oppression of the Helots permitted the Spartans to control the agrarian population and devote themselves to military practice. It may also have contributed to the Spartans' reputation for stealth.

Plato (Laws, I, 633), a scholiast to Plato, and Heraclides Lembos (Fr. Hist. Gr., II, 210) also describe the krypteia.

Some scholars (Wallon) consider the krypteia to be a kind of secret police force organised by the ruling classes of Sparta and targeted at the enslaved Helot population that economically supported it. Others (Koechly, Wachsmuth) believe it to be a military training, similar to the Athenian ephebia. Jeanmaire points out that that this bushranger life has no common point with the disciplined and ordred life of the Spartan hoplite. He draws comparison with African secret societies' (wolf-men and leopard-men) initiation rituals.

Bibliography

• Henri Jeanmaire, « La cryptie lacédémonienne », Revue des études grecques 26, 1913;
• Hermann Koechly, Cryptia : De Lacedæmoniorum cryptia commentatio, Leipzig, 1835;
• Pierre Vidal-Naquet, “The Black Hunter and the Origin of the Athenian Ephebeia”, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 194 (1968);
• Wilhelm Wachsmuth, Altertumskunde: Hellenische Altertumskunde aus dem Geschichtpunkt des Staats, Halle, 1844.