These Spartan Women

I was totally taken with the beautiful men (and woman - Lena Headey!) while watching 300. But it's just such a shame we see so little of the women - certainly not enough of Lena Headey. Found this interesting bit of titbit about the Spartan women:

Spartan dances were famous for their vitality. In one particularly athletic version, women had to jump up and drum their buttocks with their heels as many times as possible. It was incredibly difficult,but most importantly for the ancients, it revealed a large amount of naked thigh. This is probably where Spartan girls earned their nickname: 'thigh-flashers.' As part of their state education, the thigh-flashers would go down to the banks of the Eurotas river for what one poet described as the 'nichta di ambrosias' – the ambrosial nights. The poet goes on to evoke scenes of ritual ecstatic dances and choral contests – the girls singing to each other of limb-loosening desire, tossing their longhair, being ridden like horses and exhausted by love. It's no surprise that Sparta was one of the few ancient cities that had the reputation for encouraging girl-on-girl sex. Women and men there were used to living separate lives.

They don't just give birth to real men.

Via here