Women and Slaves in Sparta Sparta was definitely more progressive in people equality that the other city-states in Greece. The woman of Sparta had much more rights and opportunities that women in other city-states like Athens. For example, women could own their own land and control their own property and women also wore a special tunic that showed that they had freedom. Women were also free to speak to the husband friends and even remarry to another man if their husband has been gone for too long at war. Unlike in Athens, woman and men were both educated. Women studied something called Mousike, which was a combination of different lessons consisting of music, dance, and poetry. When women got older, the were very skilled with governance, …show more content…
When women did get married, they cut their hair short, wore a man’s cloak and sandals, and was to said to be visited by a spirit, telling the girl if she was going to have a good marriage. Since for a majority of the time, woman's husband was gone at war, women were expected to be strong enough guard property from invaders and revolts from slaves. Another name for slaves in ancient Sparta was Helots. Helots were state owned slaves, which meant that they were assigned to work on specific plots of land. They’re many different ways that one can become a Helot, for example, you could be kidnapped and forced into slavery, you could also be an enemy soldier that was captured in a war or you could have been born into slavery. In ancient Sparta, the Helots outnumbered free Spartans 20 to 1, leading many to believe that this was the reason why Sparta created a government. Since there were many more Helots that free Spartans in Sparta, this led to the Helots having power. The Government was afraid that the Helots would revolt so they treated them very harshly and punished them for the tiniest mistake. Although Helots were treated very harshly, they still had some rights. Helots could marry anyone at any time and they could also if they had enough money,
Sparta was a very unique society which could be defined as Utopian Militaristic State. Spartan boys all were devoted their entire lives from an early age to the Spartan army. This heavily militarist society was also unique in terms of women's position in society. They had much more rights and freedoms than other Greek women, but in terms of family life they were not so lucky. Women were living separately from spouse during their whole lives. Their husbands were only coming to home at night, they were secretly removed after a short time. And also they were separated from their sons for military training. Women had to be strong in family and social life. Spartan lawgivers wanted girls to receive a good education in order to prepare them to their womanhood duties.
In no other city-state did women enjoy the same freedom and status as Spartan women. As a military-driven society, the Spartans realized that “regardless of gender all Spartiates had an obligation to serve the militaristic end of Sparta.” With this focus in mind, women were allowed more freedom, rights, and independence. Spartan women were
All Women got to own their own property, In addition, Spartan women could move around with freedom without their husbands, and wear whatever clothing they’d like. And Finally, Homosexuality was very common in Sparta. Many people believed that this happened in all of Greece, but it was only spread in a small number of Greek states.The men of ancient Sparta were largely homosexual, or bisexual. This may be because men grew up with the same group of males throughout their entire life. From when they started training at the age of 7, to when they died in battle alongside them in war.Bisexuality was also fairly common among women. And these are the three reasons why I would love to live in
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.
Throughout the ancient world women possessed few rights and privileges. A woman’s freedom varied depending on where she was born, in this case Athens and Sparta. But it can be said that most women were second-class citizens during this time period. Most women had limited social roles, little education, and no involvement in politics. Power and freedom was something that only existed in a man’s world, while women were expected to be submissive, docile, bear children, and take care of the household. Surviving records from ancient Greece show that women’s roles did not differ much from city-state to city-state but there were exceptions that include noble women and most notably, Spartan women. Some civilizations treated women with respect
First, besides their strong military, Sparta was known for providing women with a decent amount of rights. In these rights, education was provided. According to Plutarch(Document E), women had to be educated and trained in order to produce healthy offspring. Women were trained in many things such as “wrestling running, and throwing the quoit*, and casting the dart”(Document E). These activities were meant to strengthen women in order to produce “healthy and vigorous offspring”(Document E). By producing healthy and vigorous offspring, Sparta had a better chance at winning battles. Therefore, women being provided with an education had highly contributed to the strengths of a Spartan education.
But in the Spartan society, the woman had a dignified position just because they were the mother of the famous Sparta worriers. The Athenian women were also not allowed for education or to educate themselves. Men were the only ones allowed in the schools. They also wore clothing that completely covered their bodies and was not able to walk where they
The freedom and greater respect for Spartan women began at birth with the fact that there were more girls than boys, because they were not victims of the state program of infanticide as was practiced in Athens. There were laws setup that required female infants and children to be given the same care and food as their brothers in contrast to other Greek cities where girls were frequently given less and lower quality food. The reason for this was because it was thought that if the girls had more food then their bodies would be better prepared for producing a healthy child for the Spartan society.
During the early era of the Golden age and late of Classical age of Ancient Greece, from the years 520-321 BC womens roles were significantly different between the two mainly Greek city state Athens and Sparta. These roles that the women presented had huge differences in a way women were portrayed in their societies. Both cities were very different in many ways, the females were raised very differently, and had different duties they had to perform. For example if you commit adultery by Spartan women it was considered tolerated and encourage in their society on the other hand adultery in Athenian women was not even considered and substantially have very few consequences. Unlike the Spartan women Athenian women were treated as unimportant citizens in a lot of ways. They were classified into three different classes. The lowest class which were considered as slaves, the citizen class, and the Hetaerae which were considered as prostitutes, but they were allowed to have education and go to marketplaces, and have rights. With Spartan women they were taught to read and write, also were expected to protect themselves and the children since men were barely around. They were definitely different from other Greek cities and were mainly raised to act as warriors because of the responsibility of owning and protecting their homes. These womens had three considerable lifestyle differences how they were raised , How were their marriages, and what responsibilities they had. These will serve
women didn't have to fight in the army, and women still got to be trained. In the
In today’s society women are able to hold any position equal to that of a man. During ancient times, women were not given such opportunity. In basically all ancient civilizations, women did not have a role in society. This is especially true in ancient Greece. History has said that Athens is the place of freedom and democracy while Sparta is a restricted society. Though this might be true, that was not the case for women. Women in Homeric Greece and Sparta actually had more respect and freedom than those in Athens.
They couldn't leave the house with out their husbands permission like they could not visit the temple with out their husband permission.Unlike in Sparta, women had more freedom. They didn't need husbands permission, they could run a business , trained as a warriors, and they also attend military
Work, discipline and feeding are three words that would perfectly sum up the daily routine of slaves in ancient Greece. Slaves were the backbone to the greatness, strength and stability to the ancient Greeks, according to Aristotle. Being divided into many different city-states, Greece as a whole contained a variety of social structures, and therefore, a range of positions occupied by slaves. Slavery allowed the citizens of Athens and also Sparta to focus on the aspects of life they thought were important. Most slaves did not appear any different from the poorer Greek citizens, therefore making it much more difficult for historians to determine exactly how many slaves there were during these times. Ascertaining a true understanding of
Slavery is a powerful word. To be a slave and to be owned by a person or household is something I'm very fortunate that I never had to experience. Unfortunately throughout civilization this was exactly how things were. The rich got richer and the poorer, poorer. The rich needed people to work for them so they purchased slaves to do all their daily chores and make their life a luxury. Once you were a slave, you were bound to your owner and had to do everything they asked of you. It was a no questions asked policy. Spartacus was a slave that had something else in mind. He decided he had enough of it and started a revolution to be a free man. Many other slaves in Italy had the same vision and joined
The simple fact is that everybody has heard of the Underground Railroad, but not everyone knows just what it was. First of all, it wasn=t underground, and it wasn=t even a railroad. The term AUnderground Railroad,@ actually refers to a path along which escaping slaves were passed from farmhouse to storage sheds, from cellars to barns, until they reached safety in the North. One of the most widely known abolitionists in history is a slave by the name of Harriet Tubman. She is best known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad and risked her life to help free nearly 300 slaves. The primary importance of the Underground Railroad was the ongoing fight to abolish slavery, the start of the Civil War,