Athenian Slaves and Women
Athens was Classical Greece's most famous city-state.In the Classical Athens's society,men were recognized as the superior beings,whereas women and slaves were the lower form of peoples in the society at that time.(Perry et al 1996:63).In this essay ,I'll first investigate the rights of Classical Athenian women and slaves from several different aspects and make comparisons between the two before judging whether women had significantly more rights than slaves.Firstly,from a political point of view,Classical Athenian society denied both women and slaves from and political rights.They were not allowed into the Assembly.This is because Classical Athenians believe that women are unable to reason intellectually ,they can't translate their reasons effectively and their reasoning lack authority because of their inferior status.(Cartledge 1993:70)The management of the city-state was strickly permitted to the free-mens only,who were the "superiors" as Aristotle once said:"The male is by nature superior and the female inferior and the one rules and the other is ruled."(Aristotle Politics cited in Perry 1996:63)Slaves were diminished,undoubtedly,by the Athenians too,as Aristotle said:"He[slaves]can recognise intelligence in others,alth
"(Xenophon Oeconomicus 6-10 Extracts paragraph 8)The wife(women) literally have more rights in this matter than slaves. The city-state of Classical Athens had a population of around 100,000 people(Lewitt 2000:7)and the Assembly was the place to meet to discuss the matters of the city-state,but not all 100,000 could attend at once to discuss,therefore,there was a ruling that said only 'citizens' were allowed to attend(Lewitt 2000:7). Women and slaves spend most of their time within the compounds of the houses,unlike men who spent most of their time away from their houses (The Ancient Greek World:www. From this perspective,women had a little more rights than slaves. (Plutarch Solon 20-23 Extracts paragraph 20). They attended social functions,and were admired for their wit. ) Women and slaves of Classical Athens were undoubtedly the class of people that were below free-men in the Athenian society hierarchy. 12)Solon also dissallowed anyone from selling their daughters or sisters into slavery,unless there were substantial reasons. This showed that women was much more favoured by the Athenian society than slaves,in the sense of legal rights. Another similarity that both women and slaves shared was that they were under the control of men for almost the whole of their lives. Citizenship was given to men that are above 18 years of age,and was heriditary,that clearly excluded women(although if they are free-women too) and slaves.
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