Marriage Between Men And Women

The marriage of an Athenian woman and man is hard to define exactly because there has not been an exact word translated that is equivalent to the word, “marriage.” The Athenians have words that translate as physical acts for a marriage for the sake of having a child, they also have words that translate as “cohabit” or “live together.” This leads to the conclusion that our traditional connotation of marriage as a bond is not the way it was in Athens. The reasons for a man and a woman to be joined in marriage were nor for love, as we would expect, it would be for profitable and more pragmatic reasons. Usually most beneficial to the male’s in the bride’s life. Since the women were not supposed to be unattended they are assumed to have accepted what was decided for them in terms of a husband. “…A husband normally addresses his wife as “woman.” The Greek word for woman, is

Reading the Aristotle's work On a Good Wife from Oikonomikos that was written in c. 330 BCE, one may see the reflection of the leading ideas, opinions, and rules in the Ancient Greek society. This work concentrates its attention on the guidelines for the young wives and husbands, their chords, values, and relationships. Reading through a long list of the requirements the wife should meet in order to acquire the respect and understanding of the husband, it becomes clear that the wives were expected to accomplish all the monotonous routine work and keep away from complaints. The author puts a strong emphasis on the importance of the reciprocity of the appropriate treatment in order to make the patriarchal way of life seem more democratic and

In Classical Greece, roles played by males and females in society were well-defined as well as very distinct from each other. Expectations to uphold these societal norms were strong, as a breakdown within the system could destroy the success of the oikos (the household) and the male’s reputation—two of the most important facets of Athenian life. The key to a thriving oikos and an unblemished reputation was a good wife who would efficiently and profitably run the household. It was the male’s role, however, to ensure excellent household management by molding a young woman into a good wife. Women were expected to enter the marriage as a symbolically empty vessel; in other words, a

Last, and most important, is that studies have not shown that more hours spent on homework leads to more knowledge. Time spent on homework does not correlate to better test scores. Some students can spend twice as much time as others and still not do as well. Grades do not necessarily improve with more hours of homework.

Spartan men weren’t allowed to have more than one wife so they would, “choose a woman who was the mother of a fine family and of high birth, and if he obtained her husband's consent, to make her the mother of his children.” (Xenophon p. 1). Another practice that was both a positive and negative was women being able to hold property of their own. There was a catch being that this could only happen during times of war (Text book). This was a doubled edged sword because as cool as it is that women were able to hold land at all, I would think that it would cause more strife between husband and wife if he were to take that right back once he returned, why even give it in the first

In the Spartan Constitution, Xenophon explained how the state of Sparta not only controlled its citizens from birth to death, but also attempted to control the quality of offspring produced. In the document, Xenophon mentioned a law that detailed how often a man and wife could sleep together. He also highlighted the requirement of physical fitness for both males and females to produce the finest offspring. These laws stressed the states acceptance for only a particular type of citizen, one that could have been of use to the states military and therefore contributed to the prosperity of Sparta. Both of these reforms that were

Spartan men were not allowed to be married or live with a women until they turned thirty. This is why many of the Spartans were gay and had male lovers. It was forbidden though, and anyone who was caught with the same sex was ridiculed and made fun of. The only reason marriage was acceptable to the Spartans was to breed new soldiers. in fact husbands who could not have children were not allowed to marry and were forced to stick with the military Spartan life

Allison Glazebrook and Kelly Olson’s chapter, “Greek and Roman Marriage" the authors discuss marriage practices in Ancient Greece and Rome and highlight the importance of wives in a family structure and society. They do so by looking at what was required for a legitimate marriage over the course of these civilizations’ history. In both cultures, Glazebrook and Olson especially look at how women and girls’ bodies were policed and defined. From an early age, girls were taught that their role in life would be remain sexually available to their husbands and produce heirs. From a modern perspective, girls in ancient civilizations married extremely young. However, this chapter address the “scientific” justification society gave to promote this practice

During the age of classical Greece some men, mainly the wealthier members of society believed that since they were unable to have any sort of emotional or intellectual relationship with their wives other male relationships were considered to be suitable. These men would develop relationships with adolescent boys, becoming their lovers and mentors. To a male citizen of Athens this form of behavior was completely acceptable and the attitude is that their wives should accept it as well. (Clay, 2005), (Levack, Muir, & Veldman, 2011), (Pomeroy, 2012)

The Spartan ideology to gain the perfect warrior started with women and their treatment towards them. To create the warriors they are known for, the Spartans made sure that their women were healthy and were able to carry children. Therefore, women had to be strong to have a baby; they had to be of the ‘right age’ before conceiving. This included being ‘wholly ripe… not small and unfit’ and Greek women in other states were usually married and impregnated as young as fourteen but the Spartans were usually married at eighteen. As a result, Spartan women were in the ‘prime of their lives’ before having a baby, setting a stark contrast to other Greek states that saw the process as making legitimate children of the state.

Isomachus is teaching his 15 year old wife very old Greek ideals of marriage and responsibilities. Initially, Isomachus states the importance of working for one another. Isomachus establishes that there are three reasons for pairing of “male” and “female”, procreation, to have children to take care of them when the parents become older, and gender roles (314). Through this, promoting or “teaching” what is expected of her while at the same time stating what can be expected of him. Additionally, Isomachus teaches his wife on how to treat others and their servants. Isomachus believes that it is important to train his wife because she becomes more virtuous all while he becomes a better man, and personally I believe it’s also to make his life easier.

The groom’s choice in bride was largely determined by the amount of dowry the bride would bring with her. Although the wedding was a happy ceremony, it was only the beginning of a woman’s loss of independence. Not only did women possess no independent status in the eyes of the law; she always remained under the supervision of a male. If her husband died, she was returned to her father’s or brother’s home where they would take charge of her. After the wedding, the wife’s duties were centered on the management of the home. She would overlook the slaves, mend and make clothing for her family, usually done by spinning or knitting, weave rugs and baskets for the home, or just fold and refold the clothing kept in the family chest. The wife was also responsible for maintaining her attractiveness for her husband. A proper Athenian wife would adorn herself with jewelry and use rouge upon her husband’s arrival home. Sometimes she might spend an entire evening sitting next to the couch where her husband lay reclining. Most importantly the Athenian women were seen as “fine upstanding matrons” fit to bear a race of excellent athletes” (Everyday Life in Ancient Greece, pg. 86). An Athenian man married primarily to have children. These children were expected to care for him in his old age, but more importantly to bury him with the “full appropriate rites” (Daily Life in Greece, pg. 57). Moreover, Athenian men married to have male children in order to perpetuate the family

The Spartan women served as wives and were the only women able to give birth to Spartan children. This is in opposition to the other Spartan women who just served as mingling entertainment for the Spartan men’s leisure. According to Kay O’Pry, “Aristotle writes, “Among Spartans in the days of their greatness; many things were managed by their women, and “Aristotle felt that the influence of

Spartan men, of course have been great soldiers, the best of their time, but for intimacy with woman and family life they were of little use. The fact is that from the time of Lycurgus, in Sparta existed artificial segregation of the genders. Young boys were taken from their families early on and were thought to go without women all their life. By the age of 30 Spartan man perfected this life lesson. It must be noted that at this age, they were instructed to marry. According to Plutarch, even married Spartan lived and ate at the barracks, separated from his wife. (Plut. Lyc. 10.1) Clearly that such division of men and women hardly had a positive effect on the development of heterosexual relationship. But only sex between a man and woman can conceive a baby; therefore, Spartan government provided state measures of coercion and encouragement for Spartan men to fulfill their marital and state duties. The supervisory authorities punished Spartan men for celibacy, for delayed and for bad marriage.

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).