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Sparta Flash Card #49: Everyday Life: daily life and leisure activities
Historian
Evidence
Xenophon
description of Greek dances
...jugglers, the female members of which were evidently hetaerae,
members of a class of courtesans. No doubt influenced by Egyptian
examples, they entertained guests at lavish banquets. The historian
Xenophon (c. 430–c. 355 BC) in his Symposium tells of the praise
Socrates lavished on a female dancer and a dancing boy at one such
occasion, finally himself emulating...
influence of Thucydides
Plutarch
Plutarch, The Ancient Customs of the Spartans 33 [239B]:
"They did not attend either comedy or tragedy, so that they might not
hear anyone speak either in earnest or in jest against the laws."
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Ancient Sparta
The ancient Greek city of Sparta has taken on the mantle of a legend. It
was renowned for its apparently invincible hoplite1 warriors. History
books classify Spartan society as 'brutal', 'culturally, economically and
politically stagnant', and so on. The problem is, Greek history is most
commonly supplied to us from the other great city-state of Greece,
Athens - Sparta's traditional enemy. The two were complete opposites,
and one of the best examples of this was in their concepts of the
individual's relationship to the state. Spartan society saw service to the
city as the citizen's greatest role, while Athens prized its inhabitants' civil
liberties and individuality. The rivalry, then, between Sparta and Athens,
which would erupt into the Peloponnesian War2 , was also an ideological
and cultural one.
lasses could afford to observe this custom); Spartan women, however,
were free to move about, and had an unusual amount of domestic
freedom from their husbands. After all, he didn't live at home until the
age of thirty.
Relationship
to other
Syllabus dot
points
Society and Government
Spartan society was divided into three main classes. At the top was the
Spartiate; the native Spartans who could trace their ancestry back to the
original inhabitants of the city. The Spartiate served in the army and were
the only people who enjoyed the full political and legal rights of the state.
Below the Spartiate were the Perioeci, or 'dwellers around or about'.
These were foreign people who served as a kind of buffer population
between the Spartans and the Helots. Because of this vital function, they
were accorded a great deal of freedom, far greater than that of the Helots.
Trade and commerce were the responsibility of the Perioeci, as the
Spartan citizens were not allowed to trade. At the bottom, of course, were
the Helots.
Spartan government was an odd affair. It had a monarchy, but even this
was not a run-of-the-mill one. Its overwhelming characteristic was
stability. This was, after all, what the people craved, and continued to
crave after the Messenian War. At the very top of the hierarchy was a
small group of five Ephors ('overseers'), collectively known as the
Ephorate. For all practical purposes, the Ephorate governed Sparta, for
these five men led the council, ran the military, ran the educational
system, ran the infant selection system, and had veto power over
everything coming out of the council or the assembly. They even had
power to depose a king; however, they needed powerful divine proof (in
the form of omens or oracles) to exercise this power. Whenever a king
left the city to lead an army into battle, two Ephors went with him to
supervise his conduct and report back to the other three, and to initiate
legal proceedings if necessary. The authority of the Ephors meant the
monarchy could never become overly powerful; though this in turn meant
that monarchs were constantly on edge and defensive. Internal disputes
meant Sparta could not always present a united front against its enemies.
Then came the monarchy - a dual one. Two kings held office at the same
time. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the dyarchy originated
from the twin sons of King Aristodemus, who founded the two royal
houses (the Agiads and the Eurypontids). Since the twins were so similar
it was impossible to tell which was older - the one who would inherit the
throne - so the twins' mother was consulted. She wanted the best for both
her sons (and for both of them to become king if at all possible) and so
she told the Spartans she did not know. The Spartans sent to the Oracle of
Delphi for a solution to the quandary, and she answered that both children
should be seen as kings, but the greatest status given to the elder. In the
end, it was a Messenian named Panites who suggested they find out by
watching the mother and observing which child was treated better (which
was washed and fed first, and so on), and whether she consistently tended
one first. They found she did indeed do this, and took the child to whom
she gave the greatest attention, declaring him first-born. He was named
Eurysthenes, and the other was called Procles. The son of Eurysthenes
was Euryphon (hence Eurypontids), and the son of Procles was Agis
(hence Agiads). However, it is more likely the dual monarchy was
decided on as a compromise between the two leading tribes of Dorians.
The Spartan crown was not necessarily passed on from father to son - it
could be passed on to the eldest male relative born during the previous
king's reign. The dual monarchy did create some problems. There was
traditionally a great enmity between the houses, so once again there was
another element of internal conflict in the governmental system.
Below the monarchy was a council - the Gerousia - which was composed
of the two kings plus 28 nobles, all of whom were over 60; that is, retired
from the military. The council debated and set laws and governed foreign
policy, and was also the supreme criminal court. The Spartiate selected
the council and could even veto council proposals. This strange
combination of hierarchal tiers means that the Spartan government,
described in modern terms, was a democratic timocratic monarchical
oligarchy.
The Rise of Sparta
But the real power lay with the Helots.
They were the oil in the system, but they were also the ones who could
put a spanner in the works. The Spartans therefore feared anything that
might stir them into revolt. So in the 6th Century BC, the Spartans began
to set their military sights on neighbouring states. However, when they
conquered their neighbour Tegea, they negotiated with their defeated
enemies rather than annexing their land and people. They demanded an
alliance of sorts (albeit a one-sided one - few responsibilities were laid on
Sparta, while the Tegeans became essentially Sparta's protectorate).
Tegea would follow Sparta in all its foreign relationships, including wars,
and would supply Sparta with a fixed amount of soldiers and equipment.
In exchange, the Tegeans could remain an independent state. This was a
brilliant diplomatic move. With this method, Sparta formed alliances with
a huge number of states in the southern part of Greece (called the
Peloponnese), and had become the major power in Greece when the
Persians invaded in 490 BC. Their power eclipsed that of any other Greek
city-state. The other great city of Ancient Greece, Athens, had little
power at this time though it was the Athenians who first showed that the
Persian army had 'many people, but few men among them' at the Battle of
Marathon.
After this, the Spartans played a prominent role in the other large battles
of the Greco-Persian Wars7 (Thermopylae, Plataea and Mycale), and
generally led the alliance of city-states opposing the invasion. Sparta and
its Peloponnesian League of allies still held its position of power after the
Persians had been pushed out of Greece, but the power of Athens, who
had also played a key part in the war, was also rising (to the point where
Athens had a great empire of cities scattered across the Aegean Sea and
an unmatched navy), and the rivalry between these two states would soon
erupt into war once again.
In 465 Sparta was struck by a massive earthquake which left much of the
city in ruins. The Messenian Helots (and two Messenian Perioecic towns)
took this as a heaven-sent opportunity to take back their freedom and
revolted. The length of the revolt is much debated among historians, with
some sources saying ten years, others four. At any rate, the revolt ended
up with a prolonged siege by the Spartans of Mt. Ithome in Messenia, a
natural fortress where the Helots had chosen to make their stand. It was
also the place where the first Messenian revolt in the 7th Century BC was
finally put down. Eventually the Helots were defeated and subdued, but
some of the survivors fled north to the Athenian city of Naupactus, where
they were allowed to settle. Athens was actually Sparta's ally at the time,
and sent 4,000 soldiers to help put down the revolt, but the Spartans sent
them away, made uneasy by their 'revolutionary spirit'8. This was one of
the reasons why the Helots were received at Naupactus: the Athenians
were insulted by dismissive attitude of the Spartans.
The Peloponnesian War
In no other war were so many cities captured and unpeopled, whether by
barbarians or in battles between the Hellenes, nor were so many people
murdered or driven from their homes.
The Peloponnesian War9 divided most of the Greek world into the allies
of Sparta and the allies of Athens, as shown by this map. The Spartans
had been looking for an excuse to start the fighting, and after Athens gave
assistance to the city of Corcyra, an enemy of Corinth, it had its chance.
From 432 to 404 BC Greece would be at war.
It was the Spartans who made the first move of the war, moving into
Athens' home territory of Attica with the goal of starving the city of its
grain supply; this, they hoped, would either starve their enemies into
submission or force them out into a pitched hoplite battle at which the
Spartans excelled. Unfortunately, they did not reckon with the advantages
of having an empire as far reaching as that of Athens. Thanks to the Long
Walls, which linked Athens to its port city of Piraeus, and its powerful
navy, Athens could import all the grain it needed from its other
territories. In fact, Attica could only support around 75,000 people with
home-grown supplies. The rest of the grain to feed the 250-300,000
people living there came from the Aegean island of Lemnos and Athenian
colonies on the Black Sea coast, Cyprus and north Africa. So as long as
Athens retained its naval supremacy, it had all the food it needed.
Meanwhile, Athens was free to launch raids into the Peloponnesian lands
of its enemies.
By 428 BC, the Peloponnesians were growing weary of this method of
warfare, which was obviously doing little damage to their enemy. Athens,
on the other hand, was growing increasingly bold, and in 425 BC the
Athenian Demosthenes established a camp within Messenia itself.
Demosthenes had brought with him soldiers from Naupactus (men of
Messenian descent), in an attempt to encourage further revolts. This was
successful, and the Helots wrought havoc among Spartan holdings in
Messenia. The Spartans reacted immediately and sent a roving task force
of soldiers (probably from the Krypteia) into the area to stop the raiders.
They also sent Brasidas.
The Spartan Brasidas was a belligerent man, but a great commander also,
and he was to prove the main thorn in Athens' side. He was allowed to
recruit an army with included Helots10. Brasidas was so eager for war that
he undermined any attempt on either side to negotiate. In 422 BC he was
killed in fighting around Amphipolis.
In 418 BC the two sides met in a huge battle at Mantinea. The Spartan
army, much changed from the old days of the Persian Wars due to the
inclusion of so many Perioeci and Helots, won a decisive, but hardfought, victory, proving their supremacy as fighters of pitched battles.
The Spartans used this victory to invest heavily in a large fleet of ships,
which was what eventually won them the war. The traditional king of the
seas, Athens, was defeated and its empire fell apart. The Spartans
installed oligarchic government in all the cities of the empire, replacing
the old democracies.
After the unconditional surrender of Athens at the end of the
Peloponnesian War, Sparta became the undisputed major power among
the Greek city-states. Stripped of its navy and its empire, Athens simply
became just one more city under the political control of its more powerful
neighbour in the south. Sparta didn't rule the city-states of Greece as if it
were an empire and so this period is called the Spartan Hegemony. It did,
however, exercise considerable influence over the domestic and foreign
decisions of these independent states. It exercised, then, hegemonic rule.
The Spartan Hegemony
The period of Spartan hegemony saw the first years of the maturing of
Greek philosophy. Socrates, who looms large as a principle founder of
Greek philosophy, had come to the end of his years when the Age of
Pericles closed. He was put to death in 399 BC. Plato, his pupil, who
more than anyone else is responsible for synthesising earlier Greek
philosophy into a single system, began his activities as a philosopher and
teacher in these years. Based in Athens, his school, the Academy, would
become the intellectual centre of Greece in the decades to follow.
Though Sparta held, for a time, the whole of Greece in its hand, it like all
things, could not last. The fortunes of all the Greek cities were constantly
changing, and new challenges were presenting themselves to the greatest
city in Greece.
The greatest challenge was not from Sparta's constant rival, Athens, but
from Thebes, which had, in 378, transformed itself from an oligarchy into
a moderate democracy, and reformed its military system.
Decline
The brilliant Theban philosopher and general Epaminondas oversaw
many of these reforms, including the creation of the Sacred Band, an elite
hoplite force of 150 homosexual couples (each couple fought next to each
other in the battle line), intended to prove a match in every respect to
even the fearsome Spartan warriors. Thebes managed to enlist the aid of
Athens, which was longing for a return to the glory days of its empire,
and led an army against the Spartans and their allies in 371.
Epaminondas, faced with an army of similar size and skill, won the day
with tactical brilliance, leaving the Spartan army in ruins.
Cleombrotus, one of the kings at the time, was killed along with 400 of
the 700 Spartiate males at the battle. Since there were only about 1,000
remaining before the battle, Sparta was now in dire straits. The Helots,
aided by Epaminondas, revolted once more and overcame the weakened
Spartans, taking back Messenia.
Without the economic driving force provided by the Helots, Sparta was
crippled, and it would never rise to its old greatness again. It would be
absorbed, with little real resistance, into the Roman (and after Rome's
fall, Byzantine) Empire.
The Spartan Myth
Sparta was one of the few cities of Greece not to be walled. Walls, like
archers, were considered effeminate by the Spartans; men were the
preferred means of defence. It is this attitude that has become
romanticised over the years (though the more practical reason for having
no walls could have been that any encircling rampart would separate the
fifth constituent village of Amyclae from the rest of the city).
The heroic last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae in the Persian Wars
was what Sparta was famous for, and this fame only grew as the centuries
passed. The Scottish historian George Buchanan (in 1579) praised the
Spartan kings (especially Leonidas) for their basic lifestyle, criticising
modern kings for living in so much luxury. In 1580 Michel de Montaigne
wrote:
There are triumphant defeats that rival victories. Salamis, Plataea,
Mycale and Sicily are the fairest sister-victories under the sun, yet they
would never dare compare their combined glory with the glorious defeat
of King Leonidas and his men in the pass of Thermopylae.
Such admiration lives on today. Leonidas was praised by Hollywood in
the 1960 film The 300 Spartans, and there are plans for a new film based
on Steven Pressfield's 1998 novel, Gates of Fire. It seems that even now,
millennia after its humiliating fall from power, Sparta lives on.
Key Figures
Some of the men who defined Sparta and directed the course of its
history, from its foundation, through its period of dominance after the
Peloponnesian War, to its decline and fall, are listed here.
Lycurgus
The name of Lycurgus is shrouded in mystery - there is some speculation
as to whether he ever actually existed as a man, for in several sources
(including Herodotus' Histories) he is described as a god. It is widely
acknowledged that he was not a king, but otherwise his status in Spartan
society is uncertain. He is credited with reforming the political and social
systems of Sparta sometime in the seventh century BC. These reforms
included:
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Organising the Gerousia and the Spartiate (then called the damos)
assemblies.
Dividing Spartan territory into 9,000 plots of land of roughly
equal size: one for each of the 9,000 Spartan males. Each
Spartiate male was equal.
Organising the Spartan legal system, writing some of the
fundamental Spartan laws and setting down the rights which every
Spartan citizen should enjoy.
It may well be that he never really existed, and that his reforms were
carried out by others. However, he was considered to be the father of
Sparta and the greatest mortal it ever produced.
King Cleomenes I
Reigning from circa 520 - 490 BC, Cleomenes was one of the few
Spartan kings to really challenge the supreme control held over the
monarchy by the Ephors. His father, Anaxandridas II, was married to two
women when his second wife bore him. He had married his second wife
when his first was presumed infertile (no children had been forthcoming),
but he loved her so much he refused to divorce her. So, as a result of this
most 'un-Spartan'11 behaviour, Cleomenes found a rival to the throne in
the form of his younger half-brother Dorieus, who was the son of
Anaxandridas's first wife. Since he was not heir apparent, Dorieus had not
been exempted from the Agoge (like most crown princes), and his claim
to the throne rested largely on his andragathie ('manly prowess'). The
Spartans, however, kept their customs and received Cleomenes as their
king after Ananxandridas' death. Dorieus left Sparta soon after, trying
(unsuccessfully) to found a colony in either north Africa or Sicily.
Cleomenes also made an enemy in the form of his Eurypontid co-ruler,
Demaratus (reigned circa 515 - 491 BC). This enmity came to a head in
506, when Cleomenes attempted to rid himself of Athens' irritating
democracy by installing a puppet tyrant, a move Demaratus opposed. As
we will discover, Cleomenes had a talent for making enemies. In 494, at
Sepeia, he destroyed an army from Argos, with whom Sparta was often at
odds, killing around 6,000 Argive citizens. Argos had been Sparta's great
enemy in the Peloponnese for a long time and the two states were often at
war. Cleomenes had developed fierce anti-Persian tendencies, while
Argos remained neutral12.
As the years passed he became increasingly troublesome, meddling in the
politics of both Sparta and the other Greek cities. He made enemies of
many, including, fatally, the Ephorate. He went at least slightly mad, and
took to poking his staff of office into the faces of passers-by. According
to Herodotus, he was such an embarrassment that he was put into the
stocks under the guard of a Helot. He managed to persuade the Helot to
give him a knife, with which he freed himself and then committed suicide
by slicing himself to pieces from the feet up. Whether this story is true or
not is open to debate; another, perhaps more probable, cause of death was
that he was murdered on the orders of his heir, Leonidas.
King Leonidas I
Perhaps the most famous of all the Spartan kings, Leonidas' name has
gone down in history as that of the king who led the 300 Spartans to their
deaths at Thermopylae, on the orders of the Ephorate.
He married his predecessor Cleomenes' daughter, Gorgo, who gave him
an heir, Pleistarchus. Despite her husband's advice to 'marry a good man,
and bear him good children', which he gave her before he went to his
death at Thermopylae, she does not appear to have ever remarried.
Gorgo
Gorgo is one of the few women in Spartan history to be ascribed any
great role. Hers began in 500, when she would have been eight or nine.
Her father, Cleomenes, was being offered a huge sum of money by
Aristogoras of Miletus to send Spartan troops to aid a revolt of the Ionian
Greek cities under Persian control in Asia Minor. Before Cleomenes
could make a decision, Gorgo is said to have warned him against being
corrupted by this foreigner. She makes a further intervention in the course
of Spartan history around 15 years later, when a messenger arrives in
Sparta bearing a wax tablet, apparently blank. No-one could guess the
significance until Gorgo told the authorities to scrape off the wax, upon
doing which they found a message written in ink on the wood beneath. It
was a message sent by the exiled ex-king Demaratus, warning Sparta of
the Persians' plans to invade Greece.
Regent Pausanias
Pausanias took the reins of power after the death of Leonidas since
Pleistarchus was still under age. Leonidas was his uncle; and where
Leonidas was famous for a defeat, Pausanias was famous for his victory
in commanding the largest Greek army ever at Plataea. After the Persians
were driven out of Greece Pausanias remained the overall commander of
the Greek alliance and set up a head-quarters at Byzantium, from where
he could strike against Persian holdings in the Aegean islands and Asia
Minor.
He was recalled to Sparta in 478 after his allies found his arrogance too
much to bear, but he returned to Byzantium, without authorization, the
following year. He ordered chronicles of his life to be written, praising
his achievements and generally downplaying the role of anybody else in
the defeat of the Persians. He was relieved of his command shortly after,
but remained in Byzantium where it was rumoured he was taking up
Persian ways. He was summoned home by the Ephors again in 469 after
being accused of intriguing with Helots. We do not know the precise
nature of the supposed intriguing, but Pausanias took fright and sought
sanctuary in the temple of Athena in Sparta, only to be walled up and
starved to death.
Lysander
Lysander was a man with ambition - enough ambition to plan his way to
the throne of Sparta, despite the fact he was not a member of either of the
royal houses. It was also he who could be credited with the final defeat of
Athens in the Peloponnesian War. In 407 he was appointed Nauarch13
and in 405 dispatched into the Aegean to defeat the Athenians at sea; he
was helped financially by his personal friend the Persian prince Cyrus.
His mission was a convincing success, and Athens was completely
defeated. Lysander was by then an influential figure in Sparta, and had
plenty of opportunities for expanding its power.
In about 400, with Sparta now ruler of Greece, war with Persia was once
again on the horizon as Cyrus had been overthrown by his older brother
Artaxerxes II. The Eurypontid throne was being contested, and Lysander
backed his old friend Agesilaus, hoping to rule Sparta through him.
However, once Agesilaus was on the throne, things did not go according
to plan. In 396, Agesilaus himself took command of the anti-Persian
forces in Asia Minor, and Lysander was left with nothing. But in 395, an
alliance of city-states including Thebes and Athens declared war on
Sparta, and Lysander was appointed as one of the two principal
commanders of the Spartan forces in this war (the other being the Agiad
King Pausanias). However, due to Lysander's wish to win his victory
alone, his forces failed to link up with those of Pausanias', and he was
killed in battle.
When Agesilaus returned from Persia in 394 he claimed (very publicly)
that he had found a papyrus outlining a proposal Lysander was
presumably about to make that the Spartan monarchy should be thrown
open to all Spartiate males, and that succession should not be confined to
the two houses. This weakened the power of Lysander's supporters and
meant this could never become a reality. Lysander's dream of becoming
king of all Sparta never came true.
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1
Heavy infantrymen, armed with a large round shield, spear and
sword; wearing a helmet, body armour and greaves. They were
citizens who fought for their city, and had to provide their own
equipment. Hoplites nearly always fought in a phalanx.
2
A conflict which divided most of Greece, between Athens and
the cities making up its empire, and Sparta and its allies in the
Peloponnesian Confederacy (such as Thebes and Corinth), lasting
from 431 to 404 BC, ending in total victory for Sparta.
3
The other peoples Sparta subjugated in conquering its territory
were also enslaved.
4
It is often overlooked that slaves were a significant part of the
society of all the city-states - including Athens - and that Helots
were probably no worse off than the others.
5
Rather like a secret police force.
6
To which each Spartan had to contribute a certain sum to pay for
the food.
7
Sometimes referred to simply the Persian Wars.
8
According to the Athenian historian Thucydides. The democratic
Athenians would probably have been shocked to discover that the
rebel Helots were not 'barbarians', but fellow Greeks.
9
More often known among the Spartans as the Athenian War.
10
Who were later freed and given status similar to the Perioeci.
11
According to Herodotus.
12
When the Hellenic League (the collection of states who formed
an alliance against the Persians) was formed, Argos did not join
due to the presence of Sparta in the League, so this neutrality
could simply have been because of its feuding with Sparta, and
nothing to do with its views on Persia.
13
Admiral of the Fleet.
Daily Life
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Childhood
Children lived with their mothers in the women's quarter until they were
7 years old. They slept in wicker baskets or wooden cradles.
The children played with balls, miniature chariots, rattles, yo-yos, rocking
horses, and dolls and animals made from clay. Many had pets. They
especially liked dogs. Other pets included ducks, quail, birds, goats,
tortoises, mice, weasels, and grasshoppers. At age 7 the boys went to
school.
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Schools
The schools varied from one city-state to the next. The Spartans were the
most envied by the Greeks. They were taught to be tough from an early
age.
Spartan Schools
When babies were born in Sparta, Spartan soldiers would come by the
house to examine them. If the baby did not look healthy, it was taken
away and left to die or trained as a slave. If the baby was healthy, it was
assigned membership in a brotherhood or sisterhood.
The boys in Sparta were sent to military camps of their brotherhood when
they turned 7. They learned how to read and write until they were about
14. The Spartan government wanted to make the boys tough. To do this
they were given little clothing and no shoes. They slept on hard beds
made of reeds and were not given any covers. They were not given
enough food. They were trained in survival skills and how to be a good
soldier. Reading and writing were taught as secondary skills.
Between ages 18 to 20 each boy had to pass a fitness test. If he did not
pass the test, he became a perioidos. This was a person of middle class
who had no political rights and was not even considered a citizen. If the
boy passed he served in the military and continued to train as a soldier.
Military service lasted until the boy reached age 60.
The girls were trained in the school of their sisterhood. They were taught
physical education. Classes include wrestling, gymnastics, and combat
training. The Spartans wanted girls to be strong so that they would have
healthy children. At age 18 the Spartan girl had to pass a fitness test. She
was then assigned a husband and allowed to return home. If she failed the
test, she became a perioikos.
Athenian Schools
Boys were taught at home by their mothers until they were 6 or 7 years
old. In Athens the education was left up to the father. Students were
taught by private schoolmasters. The boys from wealthy families were
taken to school by a trusted slave. The students learned to write on waxcovered tablets with a stylus. Books were very expensive, so they were
rare. The students in Athens learned to add, subtract, multiply, and
divide. They also learned about fractions. Students learned the words of
Homer and how to play the lyre. Boys were trained in sports. Wealthy
children learned to ride horseback. Other sports included wrestling, using
a bow and a sling, and swimming. At age 14 boys attended a higher
school for four more years. At age 18 boys went to military school. They
graduated at age 20.
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Roles of the Men and Women
Men
The Ancient
Greek World
In Greece the men ran the government. They
spent a lot of their time out of the house while
involved in politics. Men also spent time in the
fields overseeing the crops. They sailed, hunted,
and traded. All of these activities took the men
away from home. Men enjoyed wrestling,
horseback riding, and the Olympic Games. Men
had parties in which the women were not
allowed to attend.
Women
Women had little freedom.
Wealthy women hardly ever left
the house. They sent slaves to the
market. They were allowed to
attend weddings, funerals, and
some religious festivals. Their job
was to run the house and bear
children. Greek women supervised
slaves who did all the cooking,
cleaning, and tending of the crops.
Male slaves guarded the women
when the men were away. Except
in Sparta girls did not go to school.
They learned only the basics of
reading and math at home. Girls
were taught how to run a house.
Women lived in a special section
of the house called the gynaeceum.
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Marriage
Athenian Marriage
The day before the wedding the girl took a bath from a sacred spring. The
water was poured from a vase called a loutrophorus. The girl then
worshipped the goddess Artemis. She offered the goddess symbols of her
childhood such as toys and a lock of her hair.
Marriages usually took place in January. Wedding ceremonies started
after dark. The bride traveled from her home to the home of her groom in
a chariot, or a wagon if she was poor. Friends of the bride and groom lit
the way with torches. They played music to scare away the evil spirits.
The bride would eat a piece of fruit at the ceremony to show that food
and other basic needs would come from the husband. Marriages were
arranged by the father of the bride. The bride did not even meet her future
husband until the day of the wedding. Girls married at about age 15 and
her groom would be about twice her age. Grooms were given a dowry. If
the husband died, the dowry and girl would return to her father.
Spartan Marriage
Spartan women were not given a special celebration on their wedding
day. The ceremony was brief and private. Afterwards the husband and
wife would meet in secret until the husband reached the age of thirty. At
that time he was allowed to live in the same house as his wife.
Divorce
Divorce was quite common and allowed. The women would frequently
remarry.
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Clothing
Greeks wore simple free-flowing clothing. Most clothes were made of
wool or linen. The wool was woven into a lightweight material. The wool
was often dyed using natural dyes from plants. In the fifth century B. C.
cotton was imported from India. Only the rich could afford to buy it.
Most families made their own clothes. They were made by the women in
the family or by female slaves. They were decorated to represent the citystate in which they lived.
Tunics called chitons were formed by draping a
piece of rectangle-shaped cloth around the body
with belts, hooks, buttons, or brooches. Up until
the sixth century the women wore a rectangle of
woven wool. It was about six feet wide and about
18 inches longer that the height of the person
wearing the garment. The fabric was wrapped
around the wearer with the extra material folded
over the top. It was pinned on both shoulders with
the extra material falling free looking like a cape.
The pins used for fastening the garment were open
with a decorated head. During this time period the
men wore similar chitons that came to the ankles.
During the fifth century the men began wearing
shorter chitons with one shoulder pinned.
Until the fifth century garments were white. Beginning with the sixth
century the clothes were decorated with a wide range of colors. Later the
tunic was replaced by thin linen or occasionally silk. At this time the
fabric was much wider and could measure up to 10 feet wide. The length
was measured from the wearer's shoulder to the ankle with no extra. The
tunic was fastened on both sides of the neck with two long pins or metal
brooches called fibulae. The fabric was pulled in at the waist with a belt.
At this time the chiton sleeves were popular with the ladies. These were
made by fastening the ends of the two pieces fabric many times from the
shoulder to the wrist. The fabric pulled away from each clasp making
oval shaped openings all along the arm. The men's tunics were wore at
knee-length. The women wore their tunics to the ankles.
Both men and women wore cloaks called himation. These were also
made from a rectangular piece of fabric. The men's were usually kneelength while the women's were long.
Greeks wore shoes when they went outside. Everyone had strapped
sandals. Boots were made of leather. The women wore ankle length boots
while the men wore heavy boots with laces.
The first real hat was invented by the Greeks. It was worn when traveling.
The hat had a chin strap to hold it on.
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Hair
Italic Low-Footed Red Figure
Bowl
with High Handles 4th century
B.C.
The women wore their hair long.
They arranged it in braids on top of
their heads. The styles were held in
place with waxes and lotions.
Women tied back their hair with
cloth headbands called
cecryphalaes. These wrapped
around the head.
Men kept their hair short. They
wore beards unless they were
soldiers.
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Homes
Greek homes were plain. They were built of wood, mud brick, or stone
buildings. They had only two or three rooms built around an open
courtyard. Windows were small and set high on the walls. They could be
closed with shutters. They were whitewashed to a bright white. In poor
homes, the cooking was done outside over a campfire. Few homes had
chimneys. Instead they had small vents in the ceiling to allow smoke to
go out. There was not much difference between the homes of the wealthy
and the poor. The largest difference was where the home was located.
The wealthy home would be located in a different district in the town.
The wealthy spent their money on expensive clothes, jewelry, and slaves.
Expensive homes had one foot thick walls. This kept thieves from
stealing. The lower part of the wall was stone and the upper part was
brick. These homes included:
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pastas - an open courtyard with a columned entranceway
aule - a living room
andron - room where the men ate and entertained (This room
usually opened into the courtyard.)
oikos - family dining room (Next to the kitchen and bathroom so
they could be heated at the same time.)
gynaeceum - master bedroom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Food
The Greeks ate three meals each day. Breakfast was eaten at sunrise.
They ate a small midday meal and a late afternoon snack. The main meal
was eaten at the end of the day.
The soil was poor along the coast. With irrigation and crop rotation the
Greeks were able to raise some crops. The soil was more rich in the
plains. In the plain regions the Greeks were able to raise wheat and
barley. Greeks made a large variety of breads including milk bread, rye
bread, wheaten bread, farmhouse bread, brown bread, braided bread, and
square bread. Because wheat could only be raised on the plains, there was
not enough to feed all the people in Greece.
Greek t and Architecture
Greeks grew olives, grapes, and figs. Other fruits that were eaten were
apples, prunes, apricots, cherries, and dates. These fruits were often
baked into cakes and pies which were sweeten with honey. In their
gardens they raised peas, navy beans, and lentils. Green vegetables were
rare and very expensive. The Greeks cultivated mushrooms beginning in
the fifth century B. C. They kept goats for milk and cheese. Some kept
chickens for their eggs. Many foods were cooked in olive oil.
Greeks usually drank water. Some drank goats' milk. Another drink was
made with fermented honey. Homemade wine was very popular with the
rich. It was thick and heavy and had to be diluted with water.
Meat was rarely eaten. It was mostly used for religious sacrifices. Greece
had a lot of wild game to hunt. Hunters found pheasant, partridge, quail,
and wild guinea hens. They also hunted wild boars, bear, deer, foxes,
weasels, hares, moles, cats, porcupines, and hedgehogs. Greeks ate a lot
of fish and seafood. Fishermen caught gilt-heads, mullets, turbot, and
tuna.
Ancient Greeks didn't use napkins. Instead they wiped their hands on
pieces of bread which were given to the dogs. They ate stew and porridge
with spoons. They cut their meat with knives. No forks were used. Meals
were served on plates made from wood, clay, or metal.
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Entertainment
Dance was very important to the Greeks. Some dances were for men, and
others were for women. Over 200 dances were performed by the Greeks.
Dancers were accompanied by lyres, flutes, and percussion instruments.
The Greeks created many stories. Aesop's Fables were written by an
Ancient Greek.
The Greeks had many religious festivals.
Festivals
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Cronia - harvest festival
Panathenaea - festival in honor Athena
Great mysteries of Eleusis - 11 days
Apatouries - festival in honor of Athena an Zeus
Pyanepsies - Apollo
Thesmophories - Demeter
Oschophories - Dionysus and Athena
Kalkeia - Athena and Hephaetus
Italoa - Demeter and Dionysus
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Rural Dionysian festival
Lenaea - festival in honor of Dionysus
Anthesteries - festival in honor of Dionysus and the dead
Minor mysteries of Eleusis
Diasies - festival in honor of Zeus
Chloia 0 Demete
Procharisteria - Athena
Great Dionysia - 6 days
Targelies - Apollo or Demeter
Thalysies - Demeter and Cora
Skira - Demeter and Cora
Dipolies-Bouphonies - Zeus
Arrtophoria - Athena and Aphrodite
Additional Entertainment
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Agora (marketplace) The marketplace was for men. Young boys
and women were not allowed to come until the afternoon. This
large space of about 100 by 200 meters held barbershops,
bathhouses, perfume vendors, drinking establishments, and
brothels.
Gymnasia (gym) The gymnasia was a large exercise yard
surrounded by changing rooms, practice rooms, and baths. The
Greeks wanted healthy bodies. Due to this they spent a good
portion of each day exercising in the gym. Wrestling, boxing, and
javelin and discus throwing were enjoyed sports. Athletes wore no
clothes while exercising. They oiled or dusted their bodies before
and after exercising.
Theater - large open theaters were built in many cities.
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The photo to the left is a statue fragment of a satyr from the
Temple of Dionysus on the South Slope of the Acropolis, Athens.
Classes of People
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Freemen - divided into classes
o Lowest class were the thetes (urban craftsmen)
o Middle ranks - small farmers
o Top - aristocrats who owned large estates
Many occupations fell between these classes.
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Metics - free non-citizens - Metics were usually Greeks from
other city-states. They worked in low paying jobs.
Slaves o Highest Level - some worked as tutors and police officials
o Middle Level - domestic slaves - often considered one of
the family
o Lowest slave worked in the mines
Women - had few rights - often treated like a domestic slave
Grave relief of Dexileos, 394 BC
As displayed in the Keramikos Museum
Photos courtesy Janice Siegel and ©1999 Dr. J's Classical World
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