Sparta (SPAR-tuh). City in southern Greece, mythological home of Helen and the Hero Twins, Castor and Polydeuces. Sparta was the rival of Athens in ancient historical times. The soldiers of Sparta were famed for their discipline and indifference to pleasure or pain. The story is told of a Spartan boy who hid a fox in his cloak and did not reveal it by any sound or grimace even though it gnawed out his entrails.