Download The Spartans and Women in Ancient Greece

Or a Tale of Two Wars
• The polis or city-state was
the central focus of Greek
life.
• A strong identity and loyalty
– kept the city-states divided
Cities
The Acropolis of Athens
Spartan Values
 Strength
 Duty
 Discipline
Athenian Values
– Individuality
– Beauty
– Freedom
A city of the wise
Where:
City located on southern portion of the Greek peninsula, not on
the Peloponnesus
Known For:
A city run by thinkers and known for both its military might and
wisdom in government and battle
Named After: Athena, goddess of wisdom in battle and counsel
Art & Beauty
• Values art and beauty above all
• Sculptures, buildings, keeping
oneself beautiful very
important
• Art: culture, sculpture, paintings,
vases, poetry, theater- ALL very
important
Schooling in Athens
• Athenian boys are tutored at home until age 6-7
• Then sent to school for primary education until age 14
• Schools were private but tuition was low enough that
even the most poor Athendians could afford to send their
sons to school for a few years
• Boys are taught ball games while older boys are taught
running, boxing and wrestling.
• All Athenian boys were expected to read heavily, because
literature played a very important part in their education.
• The national epic poems, Homer's Illiad and Odyssey,
were mandatory teaching in all Athenian elementary
schools.
But What About the
Girls?
• Athenian girls were not officially schooled,
• They were allowed to learn in the privacy of their own
homes, but as a result, most Athenian women had
primarily domestic educations
Government
• New, democratic ideas emerge from Athenian
culture and society:
– Direct Democracy: Citizens elect their
representatives
– Public Debate: Becomes an art in
Athens to discuss and argue specifics of
government
– Duties of the Citizen: All citizens have
responsibilities such as voting,
participating in the government process
Athenian Government
• Athens’ government frequently changed. The
move towards democracy started with Solon
• He was an aristocrat who introduced
democratic principles to Athenian government
• His laws gave all free adult males the right to
participate in the assembly
• The assembly voted on new legislation and
other major decisions
Pericles
• An aristocrat who brought democracy to its full measure
• He made it possible for the poor to still be politically
active
• He asked for fees to be paid for those who served
politically
Freedom to:
• Have a say in public business
• Live a private life without interferences
• Rise, by one’s own merits, from poverty and obscurity to
renown and wealth
Athenians used their freedom to freely:
• Obey the laws and authorities
• Refrain from injuring one another
• Display valor to defend their city
Practiced throughout Greece
and in Athens
• Slaves usually barbarians (nonGreeks), typically captured in
war.
• Others were born slaves or
their free parents sold them
into slavery for money.
Image Credit: Σταύρος
Citizens
Perioikoi
“Dwellers Around”
Free Non-Citizens
Helots
Slaves (from Messenia)
Map Credit: Jkan997
“Most Spartan institutions have
always been designed with a view
to security against the Helots.”
– Thucydides
Units of Social Organization
GOVERNMENT
EDUCATION
FAMILY
Legendary Lawgiver
Credited with the
development of
Spartan institutions.
Bas-relief of Lycurgus, one of 23 great
lawgivers depicted in the chamber of
the U.S. House of Representatives
Until I return…
Checks &
Balances
STABLE
Government
MIXED
Government
Separation
of Powers
LEGISLATIVE
Gerousia (28)
Apella (All)
EXECUTIVE
Kings (2)
Ephors (5)
JUDICIAL
Gerousia (28)
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/SpartaGreatRhetra.png
BICAMERAL
BACK
Gerousia
(Upper House)
28 Members (Age 60+)
Plus 2 Kings = 30
Aristocracy
Gerontocracy
BACK
Apella
(Lower House)
All Spartan Citizens
Debate
BACK
Kings (2)
Diarchy
Commanders-in-Chief
ARMY
Ephors (5)
One Year Terms
BACK
Kings (2)
“We swear to
uphold the
laws…”
“We swear to
support the kings…
as long as they
uphold the laws.”
BACK
Gerousia
(Supreme Court)
28 Members (Age 60+)
Plus 2 Kings = 30
Aristocracy
Gerontocracy
BACK
Spartan Education
• Physical training and fitness was considered to be an
important part of a Spartan child’s education.
• Girls did not fight in wars but they took part in physical
activities because Spartans believed fit and strong
women would have healthy babies that would be good
soldiers.
• Boys went to live at an army barracks at the age of 7.
• Horrible Histories – PT Conference
• ALL Spartan citizens
were professional
soldiers.
• The lives of Spartan
men were highly
regimented from birth.
Screenshot from the movie, 300, accessed here
Birth
A Spartan mother presents her child
to the elders for a birth inspection.
Age 7-20
“Raising”
All Spartan males were
required to go through the
agoge (raising), where they
received 13 years of military
training.
Image Credit: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-peloponnesian-wars/images/the-new-and-final-agoge
Age 18-20
SEDITION
The most talented Spartan
youths were selected for
service in the Krypteia, a
secret, elite band charged
with terrorizing the Helot
population.
Image Credit: http://vixstar1314.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/and-so-night-falls/
Finally!
At 21, the young Spartan
male could take his place
among the citizen hoplites...
Spartan Shield (hoplon)
Note the Lambda for Laconia,
the Spartan homeland
…and get married.
NOT UNTIL YOU’RE 30!
Although they got married at 21, Spartan
men lived in the barracks until age 30.
“It is better to
marry than to
BURN WITH PASSION.”
-- St. Paul
“A legal kiss is never as good
as a stolen one.”
-- Guy de Maupassant
(19th century French author)
The
Spartan
Woman
Statue of a winner of the Heraia (footrace
every four years to honor Hera)
The Spartan
Woman
On being quizzed by an
Athenian woman, ‘Why is it
that you Spartan women are
the only ones who rule your
men?’, she replied ‘Because we
are the only women too who
give birth to men.’
-- From Plutarch, Sayings of Spartan Women,
quoted in Cartledge, The Spartans (125)
Statue of a winner of the Heraia (footrace
every four years to honor Hera)
Spartan Women
“‘For it was not by imitating other states, but by
devising a system utterly different from that of
most others, that he [Lycurgus] made his
country prosperous…he insisted on physical
training for the female no less than for the
male sex: moreover, he instituted races and
trials of strength for women competitors as for
men, believing that if both parents are strong
they produce more vigorous offspring…’”
– (Xenophon, 4th century B.C.,
Constitution of the Lacedaemonians
http://people.uncw.edu/deagona/amazons/spartanwomen2.htm#Education
“There are no adulterers in Sparta.”
-- ancient saying
With it…
...or ON it!
CHILDBIRTH
A Spartan Woman’s Glory
CHILDBIRTH
A Spartan Woman’s Glory
A Spartan woman would be buried
with a gravestone if she died in
childbirth (men had to die in battle).
Greek Women Compared
EDUCATED?
GYMNASTICS?
HOUSEWORK?
Own Property
their own right?
Short Skirts?
Athenian
Spartan
NO
NO
YES
YES
YES
NO
(Helots did this)
in
NO
YES
NO
YES
Wife Swap
• http://www.schooltube.com/video/f8836a3434a31a97579
b/HORRIBLE-HISTORIES-Wife-Swap-Spartans-andAthenians