Spartan Women

Among ancient Greece’s city-states, it is Athens and Sparta that still pervade public consciousness. Known for their different contributions to the ancient world, both Athens and Sparta remained rivals and even fought the Peloponnesian War to establish hegemony over the Hellenistic domains. While Athens is commonly remembered for its contributions like democracy, Sparta is conceived as cold, tough, and highly militarized.

In contrast to their Athenian rivals, Spartans lived modest lives driven by their military prowess. That being said, the role of spartan women often gets overshadowed by the popularity of the city-state’s male populace. Besides war and producing some of the finest soldiers in the ancient world, Sparta was also known for its relatively egalitarian society that did not restrict women to stereotypical roles. The Spartan King Lycurgus, who purportedly reformed Spartan society in the 7th century BCE, laid down norms that required women to be just as fit and driven as men.

Spartan society functioned on numerous norms that required women to oversee the household, manage estates, and monitor businesses and farms mostly independently. Since men were almost always away training or at war, women ran a considerable portion of Sparta’s day-to-day affairs.

Within the ancient Greek world, Spartan women held a distinctive position that was a mix of independence, responsibility, and social expectations. Unlike their counterparts in other Greek city-states, Spartan women enjoyed a level of freedom and influence unparalleled in the ancient world. From their formative years to adulthood, Spartan women were trained, educated, and even made to exercise as per state doctrine.

While Athenian women remained restricted to the household and performed tasks such as weaving, cleaning, and other domestic labor, Spartan women were expected to participate in athletics and train in exercises in addition to other tasks. Spartan society believed that strong and physically fit women would be capable of giving birth to strong children, who would invariably find their way into the Spartan military. Most of the domestic tasks were left to helots, who were a subjugated populace, often serving as personal serfs in most Spartan households.

At the heart of Spartan society lay a reverence for martial virtue and communal welfare. While Spartan men bore the burden of military service, statecraft, and external defense, Spartan women were entrusted with the preservation of the Spartan way of life, business, and cultivation. Spartan women underwent a rigorous regimen of physical and mental training in order to prepare for the demanding roles they would assume as wives, mothers, business owners, estate managers, agriculturists, and keepers of Spartan traditions.

From a young age, Spartan girls were immersed in a culture that celebrated strength, resilience, and self-reliance, traits deemed essential for the perpetuation of the Spartan state. Unlike in other Greek polities, Spartan women went through state-mandated education and were taught at the household, while their brothers and male counterparts would instead attend the Agoge from the age of seven.

Moreover, Spartan women wielded significant influence within the familial and communal domains. As matriarchs of their households, they possessed a considerable degree of authority and autonomy uncommon in other Greek societies. Their opinions were sought on matters of family governance, and their wisdom was revered by both kin and community members alike.

Spartan women also played a crucial role in upholding the religious and cultural institutions that pervaded Spartan society. As priestesses of certain cults and guardians of sacred rites, they mediated between the mortal realm and the divine. In essence, Spartan women were not merely passive participants in the tapestry of Spartan society but active architects of its enduring legacy. Their relative parity with the men in their societies was nearly unheard of in the ancient world; however, this feature of their commune was instrumental in the rise of Sparta as the most powerful Greek city-state in the course of history.