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The role of women in ancient Greece and Rome
Women's role in ancient societies
Women's role in ancient societies
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There were many aspects of Athenian culture that lead to the success of the city-state. But, the most important aspect Athenians are so successful is due to their amazing education.
According to page 263, Athenian women were treated differently than mn. First of all, girls did not go to school. Instead, they helped out around the house and were taught by their mothers to cook, clean, spin thread, and weave cloth. Not only did girls help out around the house, but they also learned ancient secret songs and dances for religious festivals. Surprisingly, wealthy girls can become married by the young age of 15. But, there father has to choose who she has to marry. On the other hand, the poor girls have more of a choice to choose who she wants to marry. Lastly, this shows the success of the city state because if the men were always training, there would not be anyone to take care of the houses and crops, which is why the woman did all of the chores. In conclusion, the woman took care of the houses while the men were training.
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First, the boys were taught at home by their mother or male slave just by the ages 6 to 7. Furthermore, boys studied music, sang songs, and played the lyre. Not only that, but they were also taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and literature. Unfortunately, books were very hard to find and quite expensive. Last but not least, men started military training by 18 years old so they could be prepared in case of war. In addition to the boys education, it explained they were important to the success of the city state. Boys were taught to grow up strong and mighty. On the other hand, woman grew up learning to cook and clean. So, the men were not only strong, but smart too because they also grew up by reading
Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted. Intriguingly enough, despite the customary submissive role, women had a more multifaceted role and image in society as juxtaposed with the rather simple role men played. Morals for the two were also different. Men obviously had the upper hand with women being the traditional passive.
The people of Athens show interesting but not unusual values mostly directed towards their own personal gain. Mostly the Greeks valued wealth, Knowledge, and society and with these values they end up placing little value in there women and slaves which are on an almost even level when it comes to quality of life. The Greeks narrow-mindedness when it came to corruption and overconfidence in democracy quite possibly led to the downfall of their empire.
Men spent there time doing things outside the home, such as visiting markets and going to the gymnasium; meanwhile, women were required to spend their time at home. Some families could afford to have female slaves, but those slaves did not do every single job, so the wives were required to tend to the household and infants, which made it not possible to leave their house. Women sought companionship in other women to talk about their daily tasks and gossip. Athenian women were clothed and secluded so that they would be concealed from the eyes of strange men. They wore simple clothing that was not eye catching. The chapter also talks about the death rates of women in their childbearing years and how the death rates increased during these times. Pomeroy uses a chart about what occurs during a women’s pregnancy that was fascinating and explains what happens during pregnancy, as well as rituals.
Before comparing the women of the Odyssey to those of Athens, it is beneficial to take a look into the lives of the latter. A respected woman was to have characteristics including obedience, virtue, refinement, productivity, honor, beauty, talent and intelligence (social consciousness). Sarah B. Pomeroy has studied this aspect of ancient life and discusses it in her book, Families in Classical and Hellenistic Greece. She states that women from this Athenian polis (city-state) are part of their husbands' oikos. Though, these women have some power within the oikos, their primary responsibility was the procreation of sons. They held very little and most likely no political power. They lived by guidelines set by society which were fairly restrictive. They must not do tasks out of doors, for then they would become "the potential prey of rapists and seducers" (Pomeroy 21). The wife must be kept chaste and pure, and so there was a need for a slave-woman. Not only were the women not allowed outdoors, but they were not to come into contact with strangers, particularly men. For, men would vie "to win honour for themselves at the expense of other men's honour, and wives were often mere adolescents" (Pomeroy 21). These "mere adolescent" wives were not only confined in their roles as women, they were also physically confined within the walls of ...
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 naïve, uneducated virgin of about 15 years who could be easily shaped by a husband twice her age. Through the instruction of her husband, the empty vessel would be filled with the necessary information to become a good wife who would maintain an orderly household and her husband’s reputation, thereby fulfilling the Athenian female gender role for citizen women.
In Ancient Greece, women had little to no freedom in their lives. For instance, they had no role in politics, leaving that completely to men, were expected to stay indoors for the majority of their lives doing household work because they were under the control of a male relative, usually being their father or husband, and they were not allowed to study medicine. These standards were set by great writers such as Aristotle who wrote of women being inferior to men. He believed women were more emotional, which is why they would be useless in politics, and they were more deceptive and mischievous. Because only men were doctors, many women were dying during childbirth due to the fact that they felt uncomfortable about having a man handle their pregnancy.
Women had very few rights, they lived as prisoners, serving men 24 hours a day. Women were sheltered from society, restricted to their husbands and their husbands houses, crying out for help and justice but there is no one to there to hear their screams. In the play Antigone when the title character had to sneak out of the house to meet up with Ismene. Ancient Greek men ruled a lot like over protective fathers with teenage daughters. Men were also scared of women gaining confidence and begin thinking on their own or worse taking action or speaking out against men, like in the play Antigone where Antigone confronts Creon by burying Polyneices after Creon strictly stated that no one bury him. If someone were to bury him, the whole Polis would stone them to death. When Creon found out that someone buried Polyneices, he did not even consider that it could have been a women that did it.
There isn’t enough literature from this time period from the lower and middle classes of society, and the view of women we have comes from writings of the upper class males. As much of an enigma that the women of Athens were, it is clear that “women were for the most part legal nonentities,” (O’Neal 117) that were denied any association and participation in the intellectual life of their city. The women were not involved in getting an education, and never learned to read or write. O’Neal writes, “The principal spokesmen of fifth century Athens, Pericles and Thucydides, disdained Athenian women.” (O’Neal 117) Based on their writing, and on surmountable evidence, it can be assumed that women had only two roles in Athens - a wife, or a mother. A girl was ideally married at 14 or 15 years of age, and there was necessity that the bride was a virgin, otherwise she was shamed and sold into
In ancient Greece, women of wealthy families lived a life of segregation amongst the walls of their own homes. Due to the rapid expansion of Athens and more people moving from rural spaces to urban spaces; the duties of women moved from outdoor jobs, like agriculture, to indoor and less important jobs, like taking care of all the house duties (Pomeroy 1975, p71). Despite the fact that there were a number of roles that women played in the Athenian society, including prostitutes and priestesses, Xenophon believed that the most respectable work for an Athenian woman was to be a model wife. This main role was divided into three sub-roles that had to be done in order to be the perfect wife: take care of children, look after the shared property and to be responsible for her servants.
Women in Sparta were more dominant in society than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were given a good education, they were taught how to read and write, and were good in arts and athletics. Spartan women were expected to be smart enough to control their property. Spartan women had different freedoms and advantages than other Greek women; they had to be physically, emotionally, and intellectually strong. Spartan women were notoriously known for their razor-sharp wit and outspoken natures. They were encouraged to develop their intellect, and owned more than third of the land almost two-fifths of the state. While husbands and sons were working in the military, women took charge of everything inside and outside of the household. Spartan women were in control of their sons until the totalitarian society took them over at the age of 7. Being under a totalitarian society, Sparta had a strong military and citizens did not have an easy lifestyle like the Athenians. A totalitarian society meant that the political system had full control of the state, and controlled all aspects of public and private life. Spartan men dedicated their lives to the forces, and other services to the state of Sparta. Leaving their wife to the family wealth, and owning all property. Athenian men were away discussing politics, and when they came home they expected obedience from their wives. Athenian men had to be in control at all times while in public, but no social control behind closed doors. Athenian women never inherited any property, and they were left available to male relatives. Material power led the women of Sparta and Athens to marry a relative for heritance money. Financial power for women in Athens, was unlawful no woman could be in charge of mon...
When you think of ancient Greece, you probably think of togas, polytheism, epic heros, and olives. But do you how women were treated or veiwed? There is quite a lot of evidence displayed throughout manyplays, epics and other documents. Oedipus the King and The Odyssey are two ancient Greek works of literature that exemplify their society perfectly. Ancient Greece was a patriarchial society where women were treated as objects and sex symbols and misogyny was often present.
Their limitations amongst society can also be noticed by the amount of education that they are entitled to. Plato’s Republic mentions how the role of women is determined by the status of their spouse. For instance, if a woman were to be the wife of a guard, then she would be expected to live at the level of that status, too. She is expected to be able to contribute to society a great deal more rather than stay at home and take care of her children and household.
With respect to women and their place in Greek society, it was essentially based on the family unit. Initially, the household and/or Oikos were composed of both free individuals and slaves. Basically, the Oikos were under the dominion of the head of the household, and were bound by a set of complex family relationships. “The household covered not only the members of the nuclear family, but the whole physical and economic unit, including property, and land, and there was strict limitation of succession by inheritance.”1 Interestingly, with respect inheritance, marriage and property, the primary concern was for the preservation of the family, their survival and the survival of the Oikos. “Typically a man would marry when the property was divided on death…and would eventually establish his own Oikos…thirty or thirty five appears to have been the normal age for a man to marry.”2 It was stated in Athenian law that sons succeed their fathers, and all sons were to share the inheritance. However, a family with no sons, the inheritance would most often be left to the daug...
Around the 400s C.E. Greece was broken up into city-states that were in constant war with one another. Greece was and still remains a patriarchal society. Although today women have equal rights in Greece, they did not in the 400s C.E. Typically, women were confined to their homes, and their marriages were arranged. The women in the society had little to no political influence, and had very few rights. This excludes the women of Sparta, who experienced quite the opposite of the other Greek women. These women had more power and freedom over their households because of their militaristic society while the men were serving in the military. In Greece only men were able to be citizens, and the upper class men were the only ones who received educations. This also excluded Sparta because the
One of the main reasons why Sparta was better than Athens was because women had many more rights. The passage states, “In Sparta women were stronger and they formed friendships with men as they chose. They could also own property by themselves. In Athens women did chores such as weaving or cooking, but