A Helt was a slave owned by the city-state of Sparta in ancient Greece. The Spartan Helots come from a group of people that subjugate the Spartans, a warrior culture. There has been controversy since antiquity about their exact characteristics, such as whether an ethnic group formed a social class or both. Citizenship was a privilege; Magistrates were usually reserved for men; Not everyone was allowed to serve in the army; The right to marriage was forbidden; Not everyone was allowed to own their own land; Certain occupations were considered obscene; And in almost every society there was at least one class of people who did not own their own. Critias, for example, described the Helts as “absolute slaves,” where, according to Pollax, they enjoyed a status “among free men and slaves.”
Between 750 and 550 B.C.E. Several ancient Greek civilizations began to spread to the mainland and beyond to Africa, Sicily, southern Italy, and Spain. Others say it simply means “slave” or “a serpent”. One of these statements may be true, as one becomes the other. As a group of people, the real origins of the helts are no less known. After the conquest of Messenia Spartan in the 7th century BC, the Messenians also lost their status as Helots. Maybe they were Akhian or Lacedemonians too. We can never find it, but the amazing thing about helots is that they had seven per spartan. Tied to the land, they initially worked as the lion’s share in agriculture and supported the Spartan citizens financially.
In America, Helots were given more freedom than African slaves, and although they were like other enslaved people, they still cared about the restrictions and the way they were treated badly. Because of their own numerical inferiority, the Spartans were always overwhelmed by the fear of the Helot Rebellion. Efforts to enter the office each year declare war on the Helots so that they can be killed at any time without violating religious rules. So the need to monitor the Helt population and prevent rebellion is one of the main concerns of the Spartans. The Helots were duly tortured, humiliated, and even killed: every autumn the Spartans declared war on the Helots so that they can kill any member of the Cryptia without retaliation. In Sparta, only strong children were allowed to survive. Any child who showed signs of weakness would be allowed to die. Also, Spartan men spent most of their lives in war and thus fewer women became pregnant. Spartan conservative foreign policy is often blamed by Helt for the fear of rebellion. During the war, the Helots joined their masters in preaching and also served as light-armed forces and occasionally fleets. There were a lot of attempts and upheavals to improve Helot, like the Senadan conspiracy.
