ipl-logo

Ancient Greek Women

648 Words3 Pages

I would have liked to be an ancient Greek if I were a male citizen. In Greece, men could vote, run for office and participate in daily life. Also, Greek men also received proper education and education is very important to me. Also, men could participate in plays. I really enjoy acting and would like to do that.
There are two things that would make me not want to be an ancient Greek, and that is if I were a woman and if I were not a citizen.
Women in ancient Greece were not held as equals to men. In Greece, it was the father’s obligation to make an appropriate marriage for their daughters, so that meant that in most cases women were married very young to people they didn’t really know. There was little concern for the women in these relationships. …show more content…

There was also the Greek belief that women had to get pregnant otherwise it would be bad for their health. Although I do want to have children, I do not like the idea of society saying that I would be getting sick if I were not pregnant. I want to be able to have a career, and have children, something that was impossible in ancient Greece for a woman.
Overall, women had no political rights and were controlled by men at almost every stage of their lives, something that I would not be able to tolerate. I would do better in Sparta, where women were treated more like equals than in Athens.
In ancient Greece there was the philosophical view that there was a natural superiority of males, and I would not have been able to put up with that if I were a woman. I am sure if I were a male, I would have just gone with the flow because it would not affect me. However, I do not like anyone thinking they are better than anyone else, so it would have bothered me.
Non citizens were also not able to participate in political life in Athens. I do not like the idea of living in a place where I do not have a voice. Also, usually not citizens were poorer than citizens and given worse jobs. Non citizens also could mean slaves, and I would not have like to been a slave in any time period or place, Ancient Greece was no

Show More
Related
772 Words | 4 Pages

The only way you could become a citizen was if you were a free-born male, and your parents were free-born. “Free-born adult males: Yes, if parents were free-born Athenians.” Any children born from a slave or freed slave would never be eligible to become a citizen. According to document A, Athens’ downfall was due to them being so cold towards the people they had conquered and treated them as “aliens,”. “What was the ruin of Sparta and Athens, but this, that mighty as they were in war, they spurned from them as aliens foreigners those whom they

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

The better system for citizenship between Athens and Rome was the Romans system. In Rome it didn't matter what gender you are you were able to be a citizen. If you were a slave then you couldn't be a citizen no matter what. In Athens the only way you could have been a citizen would be if you are a native adult. People in Athens had a hard time becoming citizens and if they weren't they had to be slaves or work for others.

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

The Assembly, on the other hand, is open to all citizens except women who are not allowed to Comparison Between Athens and Sparta 4 participate in politics (“Two Faces of Greece”, n.d). The Assembly passed the laws and made decisions (“Two Faces of Greece”, n.d). During the time of Pericles, the Jury was created so that not only the aristocrats can participate (Brand, n.d). The Spartan government, on the other hand, is dubbed as an oligarchy where only few are running the system (“Two Faces of Greece”, n.d).

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

Additionally, if this oppression of women did not exist, we may have seen Calypso keep Odysseus with her and his journey to return home would have been over. Finally, we could have seen a battle between Athena and Poseidon for the salvation or damnation of Odysseus. The levels of status high to low would be male gods, female gods, mortal men, last and least, mortal women. Due to this patriarchal system where they can not lie or hide or make their own choices, they were oppressed and this held them back from changing the overall course of the

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? Who held public office? What rules governed the selection of public office holders? How were the two city-states similar in their governmental structures? How did they differ?

Read More
491 Words | 2 Pages

Women in The Odyssey Gender roles, specifically of women, were a little different back in 700 B.C. They played more of a typical role, expected to get married and have kids at a young age. They were expected to take care of the house and children, while their husbands were out fighting wars. However, while women in The Odyssey were greatly valued for their beauty, Homer reveals that they also had to be intelligent to be successful in their lives.

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

Socrates’ admiration for Sparta’s unique principles revealed, that not only were Spartans different from the rest of the Greeks, but how restricted the right to an education was to women in other parts of Greece. In Athens, wealthier families hired tutors to teach their daughters the basics of writing and reading, but the rest of the Athenian girls had no “formal” education. In rare occasions, daughters of Athenian aristocrats, particularly females of the noble Athenian family, were sent to live with one of the many female cults that served numerous temples of various goddesses to acquire knowledge from them (Lewis,

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

Clearly, Sparta and Hellenistic women had more freedom and social rights than Athens women. The reason of how this phenomena occurred might be that at that period of time, Athens had the largest population of Attica. This indicates that the in this male community in Athens, the males could carry on almost all of the responsibilities of a society while the women could just stay at home and serve the men while they took part in public life. However, in Sparta and the Hellenistic era which there were not so much people around, women’s role would be more than simply taking care of household and children, they would need to shoulder some responsibility for their society, which brought along freedom and rights for

Read More
351 Words | 2 Pages

I wouldn’t want to live in sparta because , they are ruled by a Council Of Elders; also did not trade with other economies. This supports my evidence because, only a small group of people made laws and decisions, and know one got freedom of speech and no voting as well. They didn’t trade with others because they are known for their farming and they are isolated because of mountainous land. Which If it were me I would not want to be isolated from others.

Read More
458 Words | 2 Pages

Where as in Athens women weren't even allowed to leave there houses in there own accord. Furthermore on average women were married of at the age 12 or

Read More
2071 Words | 9 Pages

They viewed sex in terms of phalluses, of active and passive: something that was done to somebody, rather than with them [Source 2][Source 6][Source 9]. While an adult male was expected to sexually pursue both women and boys [Source 4][Source 9], a grown man who preferred a passive role would have been stereotyped as effeminate and ridiculed [Source 2][Source 4]. Marriages were usually for political or monetary reasons rather than love, so most romantic bonds were between two men [Source 9]. Another thing that separates the Ancient Greeks from the norms, values and definitions of today is that they attached no shame to sex

Read More
1413 Words | 6 Pages

Sadly, most of how women lived away from their husbands’ world and how they interacted with other female companionship remains a mystery. Even the Olympic Games were under a males only policy, with the exception of a small event women held in honor of Hera in Olympia . Contrary to most ancient cities and popular belief, some women in ancient Greece were actually able to hold more than just the title of housewife. Although they were still secondary to men, in some Greek city-states, such as Sparta, women held much more freedom and a larger role in society .

Read More
1236 Words | 5 Pages

The Greeks did not trust women with any agency or control in their lives, even when they were away. Greek sexual morals were designed to villainize the relationships between men and women, while male homosexual relationships were seen as pure. In contrast, in Roman society, especially among the elites, women were expected women to sometimes participate in decisions of magnitude, either as an active member of the family or as a vessel for economic or political power. Elite Roman women made connections, either thorough formal marriages

Read More
852 Words | 4 Pages

In the Greece civilization, ladies were not given a position, they were thought to be not as much as slaves. Rome’s general public was separated into

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

Over generations, the role of women in society has shifted and changed immensely, improving upon many aspects of rights and values that women have. The changes occurred gave women opportunities to provide ideas, to have the same rights as men, giving women freedom, leading to many contributions of many significant and valuable events. But from current roles of women being equal to those of men, how women stood in ancient society significantly differs and contrast with ours today. Throughout history, the role and significance of women were always outweighed by the dominance and influence of men. The role of women in ancient times varied throughout, depending on the place and area in the world, in which women had different roles and impacts on their own society.

Read More

More about Ancient Greek Women

Related Topics

Open Document