Women of Greece
If you were a woman how would you rather be treated? If you are the relaxed, dependent type, perhaps you would find the life of the typical Athenian woman agreeable. Athenian women spent most of their lives indoors doing mostly domestic activities. But if you are an independent type of lady, who enjoys exercise, not overly modest, and do not mind sharing your bed with more than one man, then you would probably enjoy the life of a Spartan woman. The basic similarity between the lives of the women in these two city-states was that they had the same overall role: bearing strong children. The soldier-centered state was the most liberal state in regards to the status of women. Women did not go into military training but they were educated in a similar fashion. Their daily life was spent outside doing physical training. The women were required to do physical training just as vigorous as the males of Sparta; contests of running and strength existed for each sex. The motive for these physical activities for the women was so that they would be able to be strong mothers. The state determined if children, male and female, were strong or weak. Weakling children were left in the hills to die of exposure. In Alkmans' Partheneia, th
" Women were allowed to keep their dowries after divorce and they kept their inheritance until a male heir came along. The threat of divorce, when seen as realistic, gave power to a woman who had brought her husband great wealth. Menander commented on the teaching of reading and writing to women, "What a terrible thing to do! Like feeding a vile snake on more poison. The ceremony was held at the father's home where there was a feast and wedding hymns to be sung. This shortened the years of being able to bear young but was supposedly good for the woman's fertility. The upbringing of an Athenian woman was quite different. Her only purpose was producing healthy children. Another unique aspect of the Spartan society is that the women were allowed to hold property. Aristotle who censured Sparta for her economic arrangements states that, "nearly two-fifths of the whole country belongs to women, because there are many sole heiresses and also because the Spartans give large dowries. They spent most of their day inside in the women's quarters. The superintendent of the wedding comes and cuts the bride's hair close to her head, dresses her in a men's clothing, and leaves her upon a mattress in the dark. It was believed that a woman could not act independently so she was required to have a guardian whenever she left her house. At birth an Athenian girl was not expected to learn how to read, write, or even earn an education. Her father would arrange the marriage with the husband to be. This freedom was quite frustrating to Aristotle and he deems it as one of the defects in the Spartan system.
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physical training,
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Acceptance Essays
