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Comparison of women in Athens and Sparta
Differences in athens and sparta governmental structure
Comparison of women in Athens and Sparta
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James Thompson’s research on women in Sparta is not clear where he got the information. However, he seems to be the only one who does not compare Sparta directly to Athens until the very end, were he provides a chart on why women were more dominant than their Athenian sisters. His main focus of work was explaining what women could and could not do. In the beginning he briefly talks about Spartan boys before beginning to talk about the women. Throughout the article he talks about how having the responsibility of the house, properties and children must have been enormous without the husband there. He mentions some of the responsibilities and explained why marriages were the way they were. He talks about the women having a strong voice in their societies and benign influential in the decision making of the country despise the fact that they could not vote. He often makes reference of other people’s opinions such as saying “some have suggested…”. He talks about women owned a third of the land and could inherited land like the boys too. His work is intended for a general audience and one can argue that it could be aimed towards children.
This is a credible article; it seems that it is researched thoroughly and thoughtfully. Overall this article highlights my topic fairly well, and did meet my expectations; the author’s conclusion ended strong and summarizes the article greatly. Still, this article is not much different than my other twelve articles with the exclusion of one. In this article and others not all sources have different points of view and only one has done that.
This source was rather interesting because instead of being a web page full of information, this source was a letter written from the young women of Sparta t...
... middle of paper ...
...gh they still had a voice.
This article is credible and reliable; it offers two sets of information for the reader. It is also suitable for any age group. This site is helpful for those wanting to compare Athens and Sparta or simply read about one or the other.
Works Cited
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Thompson, James C. "Women in Sparta.”.WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. Web. 14 Feb. 2010.
"An Open Letter from the Young Women of Sparta." Fated To Be Friends: Classical Athens.Women in World History. Web. 15 Feb. 2010.
"Women in Athens and Sparta." Women in Athens and Sparta. Indiana UniversityBloomington, 28 Jan. 2003. Web. 15 Feb. 2010.
Alexandros, Kallistos. "The freedom of spartan women came at a terrible price." Ancient Worlds. 15 Jan. 2005. Web. 15 Feb. 2010.
"Women in ancient Greece." Ancient Grecce. Web. 19 Feb. 2010
...litary end even the women in Sparta would have been affected by the military ways of life almost as much as the young men. From childhood they were being primed to raise a family, they were taught in the ways of mid wifery, learning the correct manner in teaching the future young men of Sparta and keeping themselves fit to produce fit children.
Spartan women were allowed to own and control land. “Yet it does seem to be the case that Spartan daughters received as dowries one-half the amount of their parents’ property that their brothers received as inheritance.” (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 143. Print) Whereas Athenian women only received one-sixth the amount that their brothers inherited. Spartan women inherited three times as more than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were also allowed and even encouraged to be educated, whereas the education of Athenian girls was almost nonexistent. In Athens the majority of girls “… received merely a basic training in how to run the household, generally from their mothers. Girls may even have been discouraged from becoming literate in order to keep them “unspoiled.”( Garland, Robert. "The People." Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. 103. Print.) Whereas in Sparta the girls were educated at the state’s expense. “Specific lines of development were prescribed for Spartan girls as much as they were for boys. The educational system for girls was also organized according to age classes. (Pomeroy, Sarah B., Stanley M. Burstein, Walter Donlan, and Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. "Becoming a Spartan Woman." Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. 141. Print) Spartan women were also allowed more freedoms in the way that they dressed than their Athenian counterparts. “In earlier times Athenian women wore the peplos, a long heavy woolen garment which revealed little of the figure beneath. In the middle of the sixth century B.C., the peplos was replaced by a lighter and finer garment made of linen called
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Meyer, Jargen C. “Women in Classical Athens in the Shadow of North-West Europe or in the Light from Istanbul”. Women’s Life in Classical Athens. www.hist.uib.no/antikk/antres/Womens life.htm. Accessed: March 10, 2012
Athens and Sparta are both infamous Greek city states. Both could not be more different, yet similar in the way they governed their own city state. Another, main difference was the women’s rights and roles in the system. Athenian and Spartan women both were considered to be second to their male counterparts. Spartan women had more rights than Athenian women. Through, research realizing that the Spartan women were slightly greater role than Athenian women.
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
Kyle, D. G. (2003). " The Only Woman in All Greece": Kyniska, Agesilaus, Alcibiades and Olympia.
of the book. USA: Simon and Schuster, Inc. 2000. The.. Print. The.. Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece.
Youth would not be educated if education did not matter. Because education mattered, Rome and Sparta had a purpose behind educating their kids. In addition to education, children were educated at the age of seven. Another similarity was that education was different for both boys and girls. Girls were expected to be prepared to be mothers and housewifes. As Quintilian explains, “Before all things, let the talk of the child’s nurses not be ungrammatical. Chrysippus wished them, if possible, to be women of some knowledge; at any rate he would have the best, as far as circumstances would allow, chosen” (Paragraph 2, Quintilian). It was preferable for women to have knowledge on how to raise a child properly. Identically, Spartans had the same view, women were expected to be housewifes and caretakers. Plutarch states, “Upon this account, Spartan nurses were often brought up, or hired by people of other countries; and it is recorded that she who suckled Alcibiades was a Spartan woman” (Plutarch , 1). Spartan women were expected to have knowledge on raising a strong and healthy
Greek women, as depicted as in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of man and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was by far more impressive than what men did.
Based on Robert W. Strayer’s second edition of Ways of The World, Sparta offers the best life for women, whether it is with regard to her personal finances, physical fitness, or domestic role, Spartan women enjoyed more liberty than their contemporaries did in China, India, Athens, and Rome.
The ancient Greek culture when deeply examined reveals much turmoil on the basis of gender rights and personal roles within the society, as examined by Aristophanes, Plato, Bingen, and Pizan, each seemingly ahead of his or her time with respect to femini...
Scott, Micheal. “The Rise of Women in Ancient Greece.” History Today 59.11 (2009). History Today. 2009. Web. 09 Jan. 2014.
“Athens and Sparta” by Mr.Duckworth states, “Where they differed was that while the Spartans had militaristic values, Athenians were democratic. Sparta only focused on military related things. Athens focused on more things than just military. Sparta would have been a better place to live because the woman had more freedom than the people in Athens, they focused on military only, and they helped other states out during war.
Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave and kept under a close eye to prevent insurgence (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece). Additionally, Sparta had strict and trained soldiers that underwent intense physical exercising and instruction.