Download Women in Ancient Times Athens and Sparta were the two great

Women in Ancient Times
Athens and Sparta were the two great powers of Greece. Each had its own ideas
about women, ideas that changed from century to century, and even decade to
decade. No law, no custom was permanent. Political events and personal needs
governed many practices. What did not change in each of these cities was the
belief that a well-run household was the sign of a good wife. Unfortunately, most
of our information concerns upper-class women. Ancient authors and records
reveal little about women of the lower classes.
Athens
Themistocles, the famed fifth-century B.C. Athenian naval commander, once said,
“My little boy rules Athens, for he governs his mother, and his mother governs
me.” How true this was we do not know, but even if it were true, Themistocles’
wife enjoyed a position known to few women in Athens.
Athenian laws concerning women were very restrictive during the Classical and
Golden ages (c. 480-330 B.C.). Disobedience meant loss of respect and severe
punishment. A woman’s place was in the home, segregated from the world.
Conformity without question was the rule, except for the poor, whose lives were
directed more by survival than by custom. For instance, poor women, especially
widows, worked at occupations such as spinning, selling ribbons, making festive
garlands, and bread making.
Girls were under their mothers’ care until they married. Education meant learning
to spin, weave, sew, cook, and care for the basic needs of the house and its
occupants. Formal schooling was not available for women, since they had to
remain in special quarters in the household. They were not allowed to move freely
about the house and, in some instances, even had to ask permission to go from
one area in the house to another. If a wedding or a funeral was passing by the
house, a girl might be given permission to go to the front door and watch.
Marriages were prearranged; the girl was usually eighteen to twenty; the groom,
thirty to thirty-five. Marriage was considered a necessity and a civic duty. The
gods needed new worshipers, and the state always needed brave citizens and
soldiers. Love was not considered.
Once a woman married, her life became a little less confined, and her duties
increased. The servants were her responsibility, as was the smooth and efficient
running of the house. In her possession were the keys to the cupboards and areas
where household property was kept. The young children were totally under her
care and supervision. She could walk about the house a little more freely but could
go outside only with a servant, and then just on certain occasions, such as to visit
a friend.
The seventh-century B.C. Athenian legislator Solon enacted a law forbidding any
wife from leaving her house with more than three garments or a basket longer
than one cubit. This was to prevent scandalous talk and desertion of family.
Divorce was not common, but it was easily obtained. A man simply charged his
wife with some impropriety and expelled her from his house. A woman had no
political rights and could not act legally except to divorce her husband. If her
written plea was accepted by the magistrate, before whom she had to appear
publicly, her husband had to return her dowry.
In contrast, Athenian women of Homer’s day (c. 700 B.C.) interacted with men
and took an active part in daily affairs. And after the time of Alexander the Great
(336-323 B.C.) women again enjoyed more freedom. Why this was so is difficult to
explain, but perhaps the difference in attitude resulted from the fact that in the
early years and in the later years, time and pleasure revolved around private and
domestic life, while the people of the Classical and Golden ages were more
concerned with politics and the glory of the state.
Sparta
In Sparta, the Greek city-state south of Athens, women were treated very
differently. There, women were brought up for the good of the state: Soldiers
needed the moral encouragement of women, and Sparta needed strong, brave
warriors. To bear children worthy of being Spartans, girls needed to be physically
fit. Gorgo, the wife of the Spartan king Leonidas (died 480 B.C.) once remarked,
“We Spartan women are the only women who give birth to men.” For this reason,
physical exercise was mandatory. Men and boys exercised daily in the gymnasia
for men, while women and girls worked out in the gymnasia for women. In Sparta,
girls also received a basic education in sports, dancing, singing, and music.
Unlike the women of Athens, Spartan women were taught reading and
writing. Spartan girls were better fed their Athenian counterparts, and were taught
writing, something which Menander (an Athenian) said, "Teaching a woman to
read and write? What a terrible thing to do! It’s like feeding a vile snake on more
poison."
Women's roles in Sparta were not limited to marriage and procreation. Spartan
women had many rights that other Greek women did not have. Namely, they could
own and control their own property. They could also take another husband if their
first had been away at war for too long. A woman was expected in times of war to
oversee her husband's property, and to guard it against invaders and revolts until
her husband returned; hence many Spartan women are pictured as warriors.
Slaves in Ancient Times
Both the leading states of Greece - Sparta and Athens – depended entirely upon
forced labor, though the system in Sparta is more properly described as serfdom
rather than slavery. The distinction is that the Helots of Sparta are a conquered
people, living on their own hereditary land but forced to work it for their Spartan
masters. Their existence is a traditional rural one to which certain rights remain
attached. The slaves of Athens, by contrast, have no conventional rights. But their
condition varies greatly according to the work they do.
Athens
Slaves were the lowest class in Athenian society, but according to many
contemporary accounts they were far less harshly treated than in most other
Greek cities. Indeed, one of the criticisms of Athens was that its slaves and
freemen were difficult to tell apart.
Slaves were excluded from the religious festivals of Athens, could not own land,
were denied some civil rights and could not participate in political activities. They
were able to hold dominance over many of the trades. Trade work itself was
appalling to most citizens. Slaves were not expected to attain anything but a basic
education in Greece, but were not excluded from it. Some masters allowed their
younger slaves apprenticeships in their workshops; eventually the slaves’ wares
and income would add to their master's wealth. Some of the wealthier students in
the Greek academies brought a slave with them to their classes. Slave work
ranged from the light domestic work to the heavy work in the mines of Nubia, and
other places. In some cases, domestic slaves were ritually welcomed into the
house, by a walk around the hearth, and adoption was sometimes a happy new
beginning with child slaves.
A fundamental part of the Athenian economy, the most prized slaves worked as
tutors and police officials, and one group of elite slaves was even empowered to
herd citizens to the assembly with a long rope dipped in paint! Next in status were
domestic slaves who, under certain circumstances, might be allowed to buy their
own freedom. Often looked upon as 'one of the family', during certain festivals
they would be waited upon by their masters. Lowest of all slaves were those who
worked in the nearby Laurium silver mines - where most quickly perished.
Sparta
The slaves, or Helots, were the peoples who inhabited the lands of Messenia which
neighbored Sparta. Messenia was conquered by the Spartans in 640-620 BC. The
Messenians became state-owned slaves who lived on the farms of their Spartan
masters.
The main duty of the helots was agriculture. They were responsible for farming the
land and supplying a fixed quota of produce annually. This allowed the Spartans to
focus their attention on their military training. It was considered beneath the
Spartan males to work the land.
As a military society the Spartans relied heavily on the Helots to provide the
necessary food and provisions. Any produce that was left over the Helot families
were allowed to keep and do with as they wished. A highly frugal society, the
Spartans were not greedy or selfish in their consumption.
Helots could also act as servants to Spartan soldiers during times of war. When
necessary the Spartans raised whole armies of Helots who acted as light armed
soldiers. The Helots did not desert the Spartans in battle and many were some of
the Spartans best warriors. Distinguished military service could mean freedom for
a deserving Helot and his family.
Helots were state owned serfs and as such they were protected by the state. The
state relied heavily on their Helot population for survival, therefore to kill or injure
a Helot without reason was a serious crime. The Helots were not the property of
their Spartan masters, and the state would allow no unauthorized injustices to be
dealt them.
Politically and legally Helots had no rights at all. The state was free to send them
or dispose of them however they saw fit. The Helots could not vote and could not
hold property.
Helots out numbered Spartan males at least twenty to one and were therefore the
subject of continual suspicion. The Spartans created an elite secret police known
as the Krypteria. The Krypteria were responsible for keeping the Helots under
control. We are told by Aristotle that every year the Spartans launched campaigns
of terror and violence against them.