Athenian Society In The Time Of Pericles Summary

Athenian Society in the Time of Pericles, 461-428 BC

Daily Life and Leisure Activities

Tradition within ancient Athens occurred as soon as a child was born, the child would be presented to the father who would then have to decide whether or not they’d accept the child – by picking it up – or rejecting it, which would proceed with the newborn child being left outside. If the child were accepted, the family would decorate the doorway of their house with a wreath of wool (for a girl) or a wreath of olives (for a boy). Most evidence remaining from ancient Athens in the time of Pericles presents Historians with the information that Athens was a male dominated society and that there was little to no account of women This information must be taken

The poorer classes in society would eat the food that they could grow themselves or was cheap, such as lentils, wheat, barley and chickpeas. The wealthier Athenians would be able to afford portions of seafood within their diets, such as octopus, squid and eel. Athenians would generally eat around three to four times a day. Breakfast would consist of barley or wheat bread that was soaked in a little wine; this was followed by a meal at midday and a small meal or snack in the mid-afternoon. The biggest meal of the day was dinner and was eaten at sunset. Women or slaves would contribute towards most of the preparation of food; men largely performed the preparation of food mainly only prepared the meat and fish. Food was generally served in bowls or on plates and cutlery was mostly used to cut meat and cheese. Other uses of food include sacrifices at festivals and celebrations. Meat was rarely eaten other than during

Women were often limited to working indoors and tending to family matters. The occupations of women generally required little education or none at all. An example of one of these occupations was a sex worker. One type of sex workers were Pornai or streetwalkers and are a common prostitute, Auletris were flute players that provided musical entertainment for symposiums and then became prostitutes as the party progressed, these women were limited to a total of 2 drachma a day. Hetaerai were the “upper-class” prostitutes and weren’t paid with money or obliged to have sex. Instead Hetaerai were given gifts in exchange for their company, this was due to the high status of Hetaerai and their standards of being highly educated in comparison to other women. Most women often made clothes for themselves and their families; some would turn this into a trade by becoming seamstresses or