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Greek culture in the ancient world
Greek culture in the ancient world
Greek culture in the ancient world
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Athens vs. Sparta DBQ Athens and Sparta were two of the world's greatest ancient civilizations. Though they were both city-states in Greece they had their differences. Some of the largest contrasts were education, government, and the roles girls and women played in their societies. In Sparta the schools for children were very harsh and military based.
Zareef Peeroo Tim Bailey October 15, 2014 Athenians vs. Spartans The differences between government, the role of women, and the education status of Athens and Sparta led to similar yet very different societies residing in the same area; therefor I will deconstruct these issues using an analytical comparative framework. In, Athens and Sparta, it shows all the differences between the Athenians and the Spartans. Although the two City States shared a common heritage, their differences grew so large in their own minds that they were ultimately willing to engage in a life-and-death struggle to support their separate realities (Spielvogel).
You're seven years old and there are Spartan soldiers taking you away from your family to train for the army. This is what Sparta was like, their education system was to train you so you were ready to battle. Sparta was a city-state located in the Southern Greek Peninsula. By 500 BCE it was the dominant city-state in Greece. Sparta had enemies from outside their walls, which was Persia and Athens, but they also had enemies inside, which were the helots.
Second, due to the government in Sparta Sparta was more organized than Athens. Athens used a form of government called a Democracy, ruled by the people. Since the people of Athens may have different opinions, leading
Even to this day, we still use Athens and Sparta’s societal systems and structures because they were so revolutionary. Athens even introduced the idea of democracy, and Sparta had a strong military culture. Although Athens and Sparta were close together, Athens focused on leadership and education while Sparta focused on the military and war. However, due to their different governments and cultures, each has their strengths and weaknesses. However, because Athens focuses on its future leaders, Athens is the better model for a society.
Chaim Potok’s The Chosen is a book that is not characterized by its suspenseful plots nor rich dialogue; instead, it conveys powerful the powerful themes are friendship and self-identity through subtle interactions between characters and by intertwining events in history to further develop the story (Chosen). The Chosen explores the unlikely friendship between two Jewish boys: Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders. Reuven is an Orthodox Jew raised by his scholarly father and writer, David Malter. He has a very warm relationship with his father. This is contrasted by Danny's strained relationship with his father, Rabbi Isaac Saunders, also known as Reb Saunders, who is a stubborn and intolerant leader of his congregation of Hasidic Jews.
Though classical Roman, Athenian, and Spartan societies weren’t separated far geographically, culturally, the three city-states differed in what roles were allowed to women. Even though they both were in the same country, Athens and Sparta developed independently and had completely different societal values. The Athens of classical Greece is famous for being the home of great philosophers like Socrates and Plato, as well as being the birthplace of democracy. In comparison, Sparta was a governmental oligarchy and functioned as a warrior society. Of the two, it might come as a shock that Sparta allowed women more freedom rights than Athens.
The geography of Greece influenced the development of ancient Greek government and politics. When describing ancient Greece, “mountainous land” is the phrase one would use because Greece is made up of many mountains. Because of the mountains, it was difficult to commute from place to place. As a result of that, instead of Greece being ruled by one government, it formed many different poleis, which each had their own government Polis is the Greek word for independent city-states. Greeks had a strong connection with their polis, and they strongly identified with them.
Athens and Sparta have proven to provide strong governmental structure to help lead to each city-state’s success. Athens
City-states in Greece started in the Archaic period. Each city-state included governments, rulers, languages and religion. In Ancient Greece, it consisted many city-states including Sparta and Athens. Though Sparta and Athens were similar, they were also different. Including Sparta being better than Athens.
Athens and Sparta, located between the Aegean and the Ionian Sea, allied with each other in the Greco-Persian war. Due to the advanced and powerful navy of Athens incorporation with the well-built army of Sparta, they gained victory over the Persian Empire. After the victory, Athens gained wealth and dominance over the other Greek societies causing tensions between Sparta. They both share similarities towards their cultural background but had different views in creating an ideal society in addition to their state’s place in the world. Moreover, they differ from the concepts of a well trained or educated society and a well built military, but share similarities in their government format.
The Government Structures of Athens and Sparta Athens and Sparta were two large and well-known poleis among hundreds of poleis in ancient Greece at the time of the archaic and classical periods (Brand, 2010). Since those periods, they had different reputations of their own such as Athens for its establishment of the first democratic government and Sparta for its military. Although they were poleis under the name of Ancient Greece, their focus and priorities were different and so did their governmental systems. The right to participate in public life and decision-making in Athens and Sparta was based on citizenship and wealth.
First, Athens and Sparta differed in geographic positions. Athens, in modern days, finds itself as part of the Attica peninsula, surrounded by the Aegean Sea, the Gulf of Evoikos, the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth. An note of interest is that this peninsula finds protection from Mt. Egaleo to the west, Mt. Parnes to the north, Mt. Pentelikon to the north east and Mt. Hymettus to the east. However, located on a far south peninsula of Greece, known as the Peloponnesus peninsula, travelers find Sparta, known in modern days as Sparti. Sparti finds itself surrounded by Mount Taygetos on one side and the valley of Evrotas on the other, a much less complex layout than that of Athens.
Athens was better than Sparta because, it had a better government, education system, and had more cultural achievements. One element of Athens that made it the better city-state was the government. While in Sparta they had an oligarchy, a form of government in which the government power resides in the hands of select few; however in Athens they had a direct government. Direct government is where all the citizens participate directly in the government, by voting on laws, placement of public works, etc. Instead of a few individuals having a say in what happens, everybody can be heard and have an equal say.
The term “livability” has become very popular especially in last years due to the appearance of rankings measuring this phenomenon in different cities. The word “livable” is used in countless ways to describe quality of life and standards of living that every city aspires to achieve. But already in ancient Greece, people were focusing on improving their quality of life in cities. Everyday life, in the city-states like Athens, was based on many amenities considering public life and recreation. Men were spending time socializing in agoras, getting fit in gymnasiums or exploring culture in theaters.