6. The rejection of deformed infants was a form of population control not limited to Sparta
Sparta became well-known for its removal of infants born with deformities of limbs, blindness, or other signs of weakness. According to Plutarch, Spartan infants were presented to city elders for inspection. A healthy and well-formed infant was given back to the father, along with orders to rear the child in accordance with Spartan morals and law. “If it was ill-born and deformed, they sent it to the so-called Apothotae, a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taygetus”. To the Spartans, such children offered little to the state in return for the expense and trouble of raising them to presumably unproductive adulthood.
Sparta was not the only Greek city-state to endorse the abandonment of children which were deemed by society to be a potential burden. Aristotle, who endorsed nearly all forms of population control by the state, supported infanticide for all children born with deformities of any kind. Politics, volume 7, by Aristotle called for a law which mandated the extermination of such unfortunate children. He believed the law was necessary to prevent parents, especially those of the poor and lower classes, from hiding children with deformities during their infancy.