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Middle Class Men In Ancient Greece

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John Medina Ms. Tinker Honors English II Period 6 10 September 2014 Wiki Page: Middle Class Men in Ancient Greece Intro: As being part of the ancient Greek society, middle class men were called the “Metics”, meaning that they were the people that were not originally from Athens, but moved there from another location. They also could have been freed saves. They then became citizens, but were not allowed to do certain things the upper class were allowed to do; they were not even allowed to own land or property. On the other hand,all men were, in a way, treated equally. All men were higher in command than women were and had more freedom. Most Metics were found everywhere except for Sparta, but commonly found in Athens. From occupation, to …show more content…

According to Crystalinks, “For fun, in addition to drinking parties, the men enjoyed wrestling, horseback riding, and the f amous Olympic Games” (www.crystalinks.com). The Olympic Games were a gigantic entertainment hotspot that everyone attended. While the men wrestled and played games together, the women were not allowed to watch; since the men were …show more content…

In relationships between men, the older male was the “pronounced [masculine] of the elder [and] is indicated by his greater size, his beard, and a large cane; the boy, by contrast is depicted beardless and considerably smaller than his older partner” (www.reading.ac.uk) Some people believed that “male love was held to be an apprenticeship for manhood” (3) and not in a matter of naturality, said Andrew Calimach in the book, Lovers’ Legends The Gay Greek Myths. He also says that is was a “a way to learn about warriorship, culture, and proper behavior” (3), which molded the two partners into better, well trained people. The men that weren’t homosexual mostly tended to marry young teenagers (around the age of 15) after around the beginning of their menstrual cycle. In addition, men weren’t allowed to choose their wives, neither were the girls. It was the parents’ decision on who their daughter got to marry, and it was about at age 5 was where the girls were engaged and a man was already chosen for her. In his successful work, A Day in Old Athens, William Stearns Davis says that “the bride married at about the age of 15 and gave away her toys to Artemis before the ceremony” (1910) to reveal her

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(Doc B) Due to the fact that Athens taught women basic domestic skills this allowed men to focus on the advancement of the economic climate, such as trade on the Aegean Sea because they didn’t need to worry about their homes. “Finally, the citizen boys entered a military training camp for two years, until the age of twenty. Foreign metics and slaves were not expected to attain anything but a basic education in Greece, but were not excluded from it either.” (Doc H)

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