The Role Of Women In Ancient Greece And Sparta

Women in Athens and Sparta were treated completely different. Women in Sparta were viewed more equally, while the women in Athens were treated like slaves. Women in a Greek city/state known as Athens, were not educated, and were treated the same if not worse than slaves (Athenian, 2005). In Athens, “Women lived in a society completely dominated by men” (O’Pry, 2012). This all ended when the women of Sparta (a Greek city/state) were seen overcoming these issues. The life of a woman in Athens was completely different than a Spartan. Women were treated differently, in Sparta they could manage the land, have their own public opinion, and were treated equal as men, while women in Athens had no public or political rights. Not only was this a big

Athens and Sparta although very different, in every way, still shared some common aspects and laws when it came to women. Although we have seen that Spartan women had some form of independence when it came to politics, property and education, they were still controlled when it came to marriage and child bearing. We can see a similarity with this, in the Athenian women who had no control whatsoever, over who they married and to whom they must bear children to. In Athens, the female would be given by her male kyrios (most likely her father, sometimes her brother, at this stage of her life) in marriage with a man. And even once she was married away, she still had no say in what happened next. Sometimes her father could force her to leave her husband, hence dissolving the marriage.

During Homeric society and Mycenaean time there was a hierarchy within their society, men were seen as the Paterfamilias within their family, they were considered of a higher status, so they were able to enjoy more privileges. The odyssey is written from a men’s point of view so therefore the most likely readers would mainly be men as it focuses on Odysseus and how he took back his kingdom; was the paterfamilias and overpowered the women. Homer tells a story of the courage and pity of one man's life. There were leading roles of males within the odyssey due to the fact that in Homeric society women were looked down upon and their value was seen less than a man. The range of attention given to these women within the Odyssey was very minimal in comparison to the extensive amount of attention Atwood paid them. Homer portrayed Penelope as a flat character, that was seen less intelligent than Odysseus, who was portrayed as an intelligent, wise, dominant and heroic figure, who was able to get away with much more than Penelope. This was because women, within Ancient Greek times were below men on the hierarchy, due to the patriarchal society they were living in. Homer constructed these social expectations, from the expectations that existed during the Mycenaean time and from Homeric society; the time he constructed the epic poem. For example, when Odysseus was in the land of calypso, who was holding him captive, he was sleeping with her and being unfaithful to his wife Penelope, but

Athenian women, were confined to their homes in order to take care of their family. Other than watching over the household and attending their husbands, they had to take care of all chores as it was considered their “job”. They as well watched over their slaves and if anything was ever needed from the market a slave would be sent to go get it. These women did not live a public life as they weren’t able to leave their home. Married women were not allowed to speak with any men however, were allowed to socialize with other women unlike the married women from

This investigation will answer the question “What were the differences and similarities of the roles of women in Athens and Sparta?” This question is relevant due to the fact that the role of women and how they were treated back then are very different than today and we’ve come a long way since then in terms of women’s rights. It’s also important to see the drastic differences between the roles of women from one Greek city to another. The issues that will be addressed are their treatment and roles within societies and how they differ from the Greek towns Athens and Sparta. The places investigated will include Athens and Sparta. This will be accomplished through an examination of books, websites, and academic journals.

Women's lives were similar in many parts of ancient Greece, but the Greeks themselves singled out the city state of Sparta as being greatly different. The women of Sparta were granted an equal stake in the success or failure of their state. With their fathers and

Ancient times have a lost list of feminine roles and conduct to fit those roles. Ancient Greece was known as a patriarchal society in which women had little rights personally and legally. Women were subject to acts of seclusion as they needed

Historians have spent a long time attempting to establish what exactly life was like for women in ancient Greece. Like all studies of ancient Greece, they focus primarily on the two most powerful city-states in the Hellenic world, Athens and Sparta. Since the majority of the primary documents deal with these two cities, historians are only able to decipher a fragmentary view of what life was actually like for the entirety of society, let alone what life was like for women specifically. Nevertheless, researchers have dug through the chronicles of primary sources available in order to provide the most accurate depiction of Greek women possible. Researchers generally start by

Although, there are several exceptions. The situation strongly differed when it came to life in Sparta. It is a well-known fact that Sparta was a military state that established its own rules. Women were given more freedom, however, remained in the secondary position in the society. The women had the same responsibilities as men and did not need to be escorted by a man. Unlike the woman in other Greek cities, the Spartan women had the right to take part in the sports competition and take part in the public events (Pomeroy, 2002). It might sound like a little advantage in comparison with the contemporary scope of freedoms women exploit nowadays but of the Ancient times and strict patriarchal construction of society, it was a big step towards

Visual representations are understood through visual perceptual skills, which is the ability to interpret the information and construct meaning out if it (Advanced Vision Therapy Center, n.d.). In Ancient Greece, only elites could afford art, therefore Greek visual representations portrayed the elites’ ideology. It is a cycle of reinforcement where social and cultural values were represented through art works that played a major role in Greeks’ everyday life. The constant appearance of these values in each Greeks’ visual perception creates a reflection that further strengthens such values. One of the major sociocultural values was the enforcement of gender roles where women were inferior and dangerous to men due to their sexuality. A

The role of women, particularly in ancient history, is something that varies greatly between societies in different regions. The research in this project will be done with the goal of investigating these differences. Specifically, how did the roles of women in the ancient Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta differ from each other? Research will attempt to illustrate the public and home life of young married women in the 300s-400s BC, and identify the major differences between the roles of women in Athens and Sparta. Various sources will be used to investigate the lives of women, including books about life in ancient Greece and database articles. The book The Life of Greece and the article “The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece” will be especially helpful. After all the necessary information is collected, conclusions can be made about the difference in between the roles of women in these two city-states.

Women in ancient Greece are not treated fairly at all. In today’s world, There are many different roles women can play in society. During ancient Greece times there were only three roles a women could play. Even in those three roles, women were still underestimated and not treated fairly. The general attitude towards women in ancient Greece is that women are a goddess, like Athena, a temptation, like calypso, or a mother, like Penelope.

Women of Ancient Greece had few freedoms and limited rights. Statuses and women’s placement in the hierarchy were dependent on their husbands and number of births. They were kept under the control of their husbands, fathers, and brother and had little power in politics. Women also had few social interactions and were kept in the house to tend to the children as well as spin and weave. Only mistresses and prostitutes were given larger freedom in terms of social interaction, not totally under

The women of Sparta and Athens are completely different. In Sparta, the women had greater freedom; they were treated equal to men. Unlike Athens girls, they were free to have education and even attended the same schools as the boys. Sparta wanted their women to be well educated and active so that they could be strong mothers and able to take care of everything when the men went off to war. They were encouraged to have jobs as well.

The traditional view in the modern world of Greece has been perceived that men wed to bear and rise children but otherwise wives were not acknowledged, ignored and confided to the household. Women were kept in “Oriental Seclusion” that implied women were confined to specific rooms of the household and to hold no contact with anyone especially males who were not related (Thompson, 2012). This originated from the treatment of women in Athens from the western civilisation. Scholars argue that Athenian houses were separated into two main areas, one for the males and other for females. As many houses during this era were two story homes as the womens was the upstairs and the males area was the downstairs. “Anitphon discloses the story of the male