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Women in sparta and athens
Ancient greek society roles of spartan woman
Womens rights in athens compared to sparta
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The chapter, “Women and the City of Athens”, matters because it shows that women are still facing the same inequality as seen thousands of years ago in ancient
The book “Spartan Women” by Sarah B. Pomeroy seeks to reconstruct the lives and the world of the Sparta's women; including how their legal status changed over time and how the women held on to their amazing autonomy. Susan B. Pomeroy generally analyzes ancient texts and to construct the world of most noticed females. Sarah B. Pomeroy is a Classist author in the twenty-first century. Throughout this paper, what will be discussed is: the author credentials, the book’s main aim, the book’s evidence, and the author writing style of the book. Spartan Women would be a powerful credible source to learn the life the Spartan women endured during their time.
Sparta was a society in which war was at its center. This militaristic lifestyle translated into the role of women being higher than that of other Greek women such as the Athenians. When a fellow Greek women asked the Spartan queen Gorgo, “Why is it that only Spartan women can rule men?” she replied, “Because we are the only women who give birth to men.”
They are not allowed to speak up and if they did their opinion was not as important as men’s. Women could not do much more than raise children and be home cleaning and doing chores. They were seen like this because women were portrayed as a flower, delicate and that they were not able to hurt anything or anyone. The goddesses play an important role and affect Odysseus’ plan. Circe gave him advice.
The implication that most of the infantry soldiers are working class men is presented through the use of language in the speaker’s speech. On the other hand, it also shows that the upper class people are not interested in joining the military. To explain, the way in which the speaker uses simple language throughout his speech shows that he, who sign up to become a soldier, is not high class people. This is because the upper class people tend to use more grand style of speech to show their power and authority, while most of working class men use less grand style of speech or complicated sentences. For example,.
Even in modern time, the options and rights available to women are not fully equal to men’s. In many ways, women are seen as inferior to men, but as seen through the female characters in The Odyssey, by Homer, there have been high points throughout the past in women right’s. The women in The Odyssey help Odysseus throughout his strenuous journey back home showing that women had an influential role in ancient Greek society. Two of the best examples of helpful and powerful women throughout the epic poem are Circe and Athena.
In Greek epics, tragedies, and mythology women are portrayed in various ways. Women are mainly considered to be weak and less important than men, but there are some women who are shown to be strong and heroic, despite the reputation that was placed onto them in Ancient Greek civilizations. There were two particular women that were strong and took the roles of their husbands while the men left to fight in the Trojan War. These two women were Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon. These two women were different in how they chose to rule while their husbands were at war and how they acted once they got back.
The education of Sparta varied in strengths and in weaknesses. The Sparta’s were first located in southern Greece called the Peloponnese. In this colony, the Sparta’s only vision was bloodthirsty war and violence. At the age of seven, a young boy is removed from his family and is expected, from his 8th to his 21st year, become educated to a brutal military-like discipline. Therefore, regarding the education in Sparta, the weaknesses outweighed the strength because the Spartan’s didn’t value family morals, the basics of reading and writing were taught, and the upbringing of Spartan boys was cruel and painful.
In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, there are many female characters who play the role of a villain. Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, and the sirens are among the women with the largest, negative impacts on Odysseus’ journey home. Though some women, such as Athena, Eurycleia, and Penelope, are loyal to Odysseus throughout the poem. With such a wide range of female characters, they all contribute different things throughout the book, whether the impact of their actions is negative or positive. Regardless of the outcomes, Homer has quite a modern view of female representation in his poem.
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
The women felt that the war was causing disruption and ruining the unity between the people. Particularly, the main protagonist Lysistrata herself, gathers the power of females in hopes for peace and the reunion of Greece. Although the women initially were dubious about ending the war with a sex strike, it was Lysistrata who brought leadership to the group, encouraging all to contribute their powers for good, as she says, “Our country’s fortunes are in our hands; and whether the Spartans shall perish and the Boeotians shall be completely annihilated” (Aristophane 34-35). During this process, the women were faced with corrupted men, who believed that females should have no participation in the topic of war. Rather than succumbing to the demands of the men, Lysistrata insisted and argued for women to take charge and restore Athens.
In ancient times, there is a general sense that women were simply items and slaves to their husbands. Ancient Greece specifically has a renowned reputation of favoring men. Men possessed the dominant role in public affairs and events while most women were pressured to stay at home. Very few records extensively discuss women; the records focus mostly on men. Despite the lacking records, it is certain how ancient Greeks viewed their women and their relationships with their male counterparts.
Women are weak, helpless, and have no real purpose other than to serve men and take care of children. . . or so they were perceived in history. In the Odyssey, one can see that Homer’s portrayal of women challenges the depiction of women during that time period. Throughout the book, many women intervened in Odysseus’ journey home to Ithaca, for better or for worse. One will see Penelope, Athena, Circe, and other women impact Odysseus’ expedition home.
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.
The men of Athens feel threatened when women show agency because their whole patriarchal system depends on female complacency. Although Athenian society
