Freedom For Women In Ancient Greece

Athenian society was very dynamic in many areas while it was strict in regard to the treatment of women. Although Athenian women were protected by the state and did not know a different way of living, they were very stifled and restricted. The only exception was slaves, and heteria, prostitutes, and this was due to the fact that they had no male guardians. Since these women were on there own they had to take care of themselves, and therefore were independent. In a more recent and modern way of viewing the role of a woman, independence and freedom to do as one likes is one of the most important aspects of living. In Athens the wives had none of this freedom and the prostitutes did. Who then really had a “better”

In much the same way that a woman was not held responsible for acts of adultery,

Women have played important roles throughout history. They have been responsible for the rise and fall of nations, sustaining families, and have been the focal point of worship in ancient religions. Moving forward in history, women's roles have continually changed. Their status as matriarchs changed as the more advanced ancient civilizations rose. The patriarchal societies of ancient Greece and Rome viewed women differently from some societies of past eras. The study of the economic and political status of women, their rights, and their contributions to both these ancient societies reveals how views change throughout history.

On the contrary to life of women in Athens, the women of Sparta had considerable freedom. They were allowed to leave their houses when ever they pleased. They were required per the state policy to have education both from physical and educational perspective. The reason for physical education was because they could make and nourish babies that would be healthy for the children to be capable of being good warriors and if the baby was not fit as they would be judged by the elders, as mentioned before they would be left to die outside the city.

In ancient Greece, there was one dominant city-state, or Polis as the ancient Greeks called it, and this was Athens. It was a beautiful society that enjoyed art and literature very much and valued things like wholeness and excellence. However, one thing the Athenians did not value was women. They were deemed inferior by men, and treated more as a decoration rather than a human being.

Greek Woman was considered to be submissive which means once you are married to a woman, then she is in your full control. The woman in ancient was not allowed to own the property, in one way we can also relate that the woman had fewer rights than the man because they could hardly express their feeling. The woman was not considered as the citizens.

Women in classical Athens could not have had an extremely enjoyable experience, if we rely on literary sources concerning the roles of women within the Greek polis. The so-called Athenian democracy only benefited a fraction of the entire population. At least half of this population was female, yet women seem to have had very little influence and few official civic rights. `The position of women...is a subject which has provoked much controversy.'

Sparta was an isolated Greek city-state located on a narrow plain in southern Greece called the Peloponnesus. Spartans valued military strength and were very suspicious of outsiders. Although Athens is a great place, Sparta would be a better condition to live in. One reason Sparta is preferable is because women were treated better than in Athens. For example on page 306, the article states, “Women could also own and control their own property.”

In Athens, there was a lot of opportunity for a male. An Athenian male could become a scholar, poet, politician, or pretty much anything they wanted; but females on the other hand, didn 't have that power. Men was under the understanding that females were incapable of making reasonable decisions in the political world. The idea of gender equality was non-existent in the Athens society. As said by Historian Don Nardo “throughout antiquity most Greek women had few or no civil rights and many enjoyed little freedom of choice or mobility.” He also stated “aside from poetry, women’s writing survives only in private letters written on papyrus preserved by ancient of nature, only from Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.” (O’Pry 2012) Women in the Athens society that were in an upper class were

Women’s role in Greece can be seen when one first begins to do research on the subject. The subject of women in Greece is coupled with the subject of slaves. This is the earliest classification of women in Greek society. Although women were treated differently from city to city the basic premise of that treatment never changed. Women were only useful for establishing a bloodline that could carry on the family name and give the proper last rites to the husband. However, women did form life long bonds with their husbands and found love in arranged marriages. Women in Athenian Society Women are “defined as near slaves, or as perpetual minors” in Athenian society (The Greek World, pg. 200). For women life didn’t

Respectable Athenian women seldom left their homes. Only men could purchase goods or engage in soldiering, lawmaking, and public speaking. The societies of ancient Egypt and of the Greek city-state of Sparta provided a rare contrast. Both Egyptian and Spartan women could own property and engage in business. According to Dr. Peter Picone, the author of “The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian” states “the Egyptian women seem to have enjoyed the same legal and economic rights as the Egyptian man”. Also he states that legal rights were on a class boundary more than a gender boundary. The Women of Sparta on the other hand were quite different from the women of their neighbor, Athens. As you well know, the women of Sparta were bold, freer, and well educated. Also with the Sparta women, everything depended up money, which would determine your rank in society. While some of the Spartan citizens have quite small properties, others have very large ones; hence the land has passed into the hands of a few. And this is due also to faulty laws; for, although the legislator rightly holds up to shame the sale or purchase of an inheritance, he allows anybody who likes to give or bequeath it. Yet both practices lead to the same result. And nearly women held two-fifths of the whole countries; this is owing to the number of heiresses and to the large dowries that are customary. The Women of Sparta on the other hand were quite

If you are deciding whether to move to a Greek city state, a polis, and which one; then come over to the Greek city state of Athens. In Athens, the government is a limited democracy meaning that the government is by the people, but specifically men who own land. This type of government goes with power and control specifically the ability part of the concept. Instead of having one person rule all of Athens, the men have the knowledge about how the people gain power; this also means that they have the ability to gain power, for that they are the ones who have most of the power. Athens isn’t just for the individual men, but for families and women. Women who have stronger family ties, it would mean that your husband would be the one

In the world of Ancient Greece, a large array of deities were worshipped. Each god had their own forms of identification in which they used to express themselves. This includes things such as personality, style, sexuality, and many other things. One of these forms of expression was gender. The Greeks seemed to focus more on the two typical genders, which are male and female. Some Greek gods seemed to play into certain gender roles, but others portrayed traits of the opposite sex. In this paper, I will be analysing the possibility that the Greeks believed the female and male genders were closely connected and that is why many of the gods are described with blended aspects of gender.

The society in the Ancient Greece was harsh to women and it shows in the limited list of the rights they had. In big cities, the percentage of the well-off population was rather high and the ideas listed by Aristotle could be applicable for this part of population only. The white-skinned hostess of the mansion had the slaves, numerous children, and a husband involved in the politics or public events (Rowlandson, 1998). If to look at her position on another side, her situation does not look so positive. First of all, her husband does not allow her to cross a doorstep without his escort so she is made to spend all her time at home. Unlike her husband, she cannot participate in any public event. Her husband does not mention her name because he

Women in ancient Greece had very few rights in comparison to male citizens. Women were unable to vote, own property, or inherit wealth. A woman’s place was in the home and her purpose in life was to rear children. Considering this limited role in society, we see a diverse cast of female characters in Greek mythology. We are presented with women that are powerful and warlike, or sexualized, submissive and emotionally unstable. In many myths, we encounter subversive behavior from women, suggesting, perhaps, the possibility of female empowerment. While produced in an ostensibly misogynistic and oppressive society, these myths consider the possibility for a collapse of male power and the patriarchal system. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey,