Athens Vs. Sparta
Both Athens and Sparta showed great power at the rise of the Greek culture around the fifth century B.C.E.. Although unique in their own ways, Athens and Sparta shared characteristics within each culture. Similarities between Athens and Sparta included religious practice, labor systems, and governmental structure. Differences involved the type of government Athens and Sparta had, whether it was centralized or decentralized, and whether the government was elected or not. The primary base for religious practice in Athens and Sparta is strikingly the same. Both regions had been polytheistic, meaning that they believed in more than one god. Today, this particular religious practice is called Greek Mythology. Athenians and Spartan believed Zeus, the God of Lightning, as the supreme leader in their religion. With this polytheistic outlook towards religion, Athens and Sparta had heavily practiced their religion on multiple, complex gods all in charge of their own certain responsibilities. For example, Athena, the patron goddess for Athens was worshiped for her reason, intelligence, arts and literature while Ares, the patron god for Sparta was worshiped for his violent ways being the god of war. Ares represented Sparta’s militaristic ways and strong warriors.
…show more content…
Each region of Athens and Sparta densely relied on slave labor. Slaves were part of the lowest class and performed much of the work needed to maintain agriculture. In Athens, slaves were called Metics. They received no rights and could not own land. On the contrary, Sparta named their serfs “helots.” Helots were most often treated as tools. In fact, helots were referred nothing more than agricultural technology used for the maintaining of the plants in our experiment. Still however, helots were paid for their labor though half of the their profits was taken by the landlords they had worked