A Spartan nurse takes a baby, who has been condemned as too weak to live, to Mount Taygetos to die. By Donn Philip Crane (1878-1944). The first century writer Plutarch (46-119) explains that Sparta had a ritual by which newborn babies were judged by the elders, and those thought unfit to live were left at the foot of Mount Taygetos. However, no other source speaks of this Spartan practice, and no infant remains have been found at this site.

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Photo credit: © The History Emporium / Alamy / Afripics
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