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The role of women held in Sparta at the time
The role of women held in Sparta at the time
The role of women held in Sparta at the time
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Sparta, a city-state from Ancient Greece, was very respected in its time. One of few cities to rival its power was Athens. With thousands of poleis in Ancient Greece, it was a great achievement to reach this level of prestige. So how did Sparta become so strong? I believe the strength of the city can be contributed to the roles of both men and women working and devoting their lives to Sparta. Since birth, both sexes were educated, treated, and acted accordingly to reap the most power the state it can from its people.
To quote the Greek philosopher Xenophon, “‘It was not by imitating other states, but by devising a system utterly different from that of most others, that he [Lycurgus] made his country prosperous…he insisted on physical training for the female no less than for the male sex.’” This
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This is exactly how Spartans acted, and expected their children to act. This hardened personality starts at birth, when parents gave their child to the elders so they could examine him or her and make judgement on whether or not they should live. If a baby is weak or feeble, it was left on Apothetae, as Plutarch states in source two. This occuredd because the elder’s thought process was that if a baby is weak from the beginning, it is not worthy to live in Sparta, and would simply use up resources without giving back to society. When men went to war, their mothers often used the phrase “with your shield or on it,” when saying goodbye. This essentially meant that the son should either come home a hero or die for the state. This phrase’s meaning was quite literal, if a woman’s son came home after losing or doing something cowardly in war, she would oftentimes kill him and bury him without dismay. Using this for motivation, Spartan soldiers did all they could to win battles using both force and tactics. The way they acted ultimately brought great success to the state and they never lost a
Education The Spartans were raised and educated to be perfectly obedient and obey the state without question. Spartan education had no interest with literature, intellectual or academic activities and did Spartans were not taught subjects like mathematics, science or geography. Even as babies, Spartiates were treated harshly - they were made to eat whatever food they were given, left alone, left alone in the dark, and it is probable that no attention was paid to babies when they cried.
Unlike other Greek city states, women played an integral role in Spartan society as they were the backbone of the Spartan economic system of inheritance and marriage dowry and they were relied upon to fulfill their main responsibility of producing Spartan warrior sons. These principle economic systems affected wealth distribution among Spartan citizens especially among the Spartan elite class. Spartan women led a completely different life than women in most other ancient Greek city states, as they were depended upon to maintain Spartan social systems. In a society where the state is more involved in home life women had freedom of movement and they were permitted to communicate with men who were not their husbands. Women had domestic responsibilities including the maintenance of homes and farms when the men were on campaign, while the typical Greek female responsibilities such as weaving were delegated to slaves. Girls were raised much like Spartan boys as they were made to go through physical training insuring their success in fulfilling their most important role in society, child-bearing. The few primary sources on Sparta and Spartiate women, namely Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus and Xenophon were historians who lived after the prominence of ancient Sparta; therefore, the facts regarding the women’s influence in social, economic and political issues must be carefully interpreted and analysed with help from secondary sources.
Sparta had very different values than that of societies today. Located on Peloponnese, a peninsula in southern Greece, it slowly grew enough to be considered a city-state. The people there valued military more than morals. The Spartans owned helots and fought against an army much bigger than theirs and everyone died but stopped the Persians using the phalanx. The strengths in Sparta’s education system outweigh the weaknesses because boys were taught the proper attitude, to care for and use their bodies, and how to be prepared for whatever comes their way.
One of the greatest responsibilities a woman had in Classical Sparta was giving birth to the Spartan males. Through physical training when a young teen with the Spartan boys, the women needed to be healthy and strong to produce healthy children capable of going through the agoge training. “…By athleticism they made sure that their children would be up to the standard of physical fitness demanded by the Spartan system.” (H.Michell, Sparta). The Spartan mother would prepare the young Spartans prior to the agoge; she would have minimal interaction and supply minimal clothing and
lthough it might seem that Athens and Sparta's would have a similar military because both of them were very close to the Aegean sea, but they are very different. Athens had lots of ports in Aegean Sea this made it so they had a very strong navy and they spent a lot of their time in boats. On the other hand though they were not exceptional with their ground troops. In Sparta things are very different than in Athens. Sparta had an excellent army. The boys were trained to fight a soon as they turn seven years old. This made them have one of the best armies of their time. Although they had a great army their navy struggled and lacked success. Athens and Sparta both had their strengths and weaknesses.
The Spartan military was a force to be reckoned with. At birth, male babies were inspected for any deformities. If any were found, the baby would either be killed or left to die in the wilderness. For the boys who passed, even before military training started, they were schooled in arts such as dancing, along
As military life was central to Spartan culture, the Spartans had to well-trained army. The Spartans emphasized discipline and physical endurance. Spartan soldiers in battle would fight to death. Spartans rarely abandoned or surrendered in battle. The army was led by one of two kings of Sparta. Although the Spartan army used the Phalanx
Sparta barely gave anyone a chance. They would kill babies right off the bat if they “weren’t strong enough. They did not wait for them to grow up to see if they would be strong. They also killed boys in the agoge. Document A states “organizing war-games” was a big thing. Those war games often led to death. They also had an event called the Flagellation each year. Basically they would whip two boys repeatedly to see who would drop first. Some of the boys would die or be seriously
At that age he was removed from his family and, from his eighth to twenty first year, he was educated by the state according to the rigorous [military-like] discipline.”(Doc, A)This way of life was unhealthy for the children because the only adults they ever met were the abusive army generals. The children were almost always fighting or training and would never have had time to relax. Also, in addition to the young boys away, the daughters were separate from their families as well. This was because the Spartans believed in training the girls for childbirth from a young age. Due to this separation, the Spartans most likely did not know what the word “family” even meant. This weakened Sparta mainly because it obliterated any possible family connections, which is something most successful modern societies value today. Depriving its people of non-military human interactions was a major flaw in the Spartan
Fertility and childbirth was considered the number one responsibility of Spartan wives and the average age of a Spartan bride was 18-20, 4-6 years later than other Greek states. There was a general control of female marriage in Sparta much like the rest of Greece. Fathers would arrange marriages in order to create family alliances through blood tying and dowry exchanges. Although Sparta was a monogamist state there is evidence of wife sharing, if one woman’s fertility was considered exceptional and she produced warrior sons she could be shared by her husband with other men. There is even evidence of marriage between close kin to insure the production of good Spartan warriors. Divorce was a foreign concept to Sparta as it was only done under the direct orders from the Ephoroi. Hodkinson failed to express the importance that was p...
Two very known city-states of Greece where Sparta and Athens. Although the two differed greatly they both were the most powerful of these city-states. Sparta is known for its militaristic society while Athens is known for its intellectual and political attainments. In Sparta their military was highly valued. At the a very young age boys were taken from their homes and trained extensively to be soldiers. This process was called child-rearing. These boys would grow up in poor and abusive conditions that would prepare them to become soldiers, who would serve in the military until they were 60 years of age if capable. The male gender was highly valued in Sparta to the point where women were praised for staying in shape to bear healthy sons, who could eventually serve in the military. The mothers raised their children on the state religion and to be soldiers. The state
Athens is stronger and more successful city-state than Sparta because of their strong government. Instead of civil war and the creation of a large military Athenians chose to reform their government. This shows that they cared about the government and how everyone was treated and that they lived safety in the civilization. They wanted to change their government and make it
Because Sparta was a militaristic state, it needed to develop their youth for military life from a young age. According to Plutarch’s Lives, “children were actually considered to be the property of the Spartan state, the parents having little claim to them…”. This is important because if the youth were not treated
Sparta was ruled by two kings who ruled simultaneously as well as a council of twenty-eight men. There were three main groups of Sparta; the Spartans, which were full citizens, Helots, which were the slaves, and Perioeci, which were the craftsmen and traders. At age seven, all boys went through the Agoge, which was a tough military training to strengthen their army. The women of Sparta participated in a number of athletic competitions to strengthen themselves for when they were to give birth. A lot of the daily tasks that women would often do were handled by the Helots instead of the women. The people of Sparta also believed in a number of things; they encouraged stealing in the boys who went to the military training. They weren’t allowed to travel to foreign places for fear that they might learn new traditions, if a baby was born too small or not healthy, they would be brought to a chasm. The people of Sparta also ate together, whether they were rich or
While girls were training mainly in order to become efficient "baby factories”(Brand, n.d., p.7). Boys began tough training known as "agoge”. The aim of it was to train boys to withstand harsh weather condition, lack of food and train sneak skills of the one. Every year only one coat was given to wear during it nevertheless of season. Practically minimum of food was given to them, so they were constantly living in the state of malnutrition. Accordingly to Brand, in order to survive they were encouraged to steal a food but if they have been caught severe punishment was applied, not for the fact of stealing, but because of being found (n.d., p.6). Such acts has given the birth of stories which were told for children. One of those stories was about the spartan boy who captured a live fox. In order to not be exposed to passing soldier he hid it under his coat allowing fox to bite his stomach and showed no sign of pain in his body or face ("The Spartan Family”,