Sparta Seems to Have Allowed a Woman to Have Two Husbands. How Common Is Unclear.
Classical scholar Andrew G. Scott writes that Sparta seems to have been unique in ancient Greece in allowing a woman to be married to two men at once. Ancient sources show that this was a thing, Scott writes, though it is unclear how longstanding the custom was or how commonly it was practiced. He writes that the purpose of marriage at Sparta was the propagation of healthy offspring.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Take
The childbearing rationale makes Sparta’s two-husband arrangement look less like romantic improvisation than a reproductive strategy.
Pushback
Careful: Scott suggests the arrangement may have grown out of Spartan marriage and childbearing, and says the sources leave its frequency and duration unclear.