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ancient greece woman roles
ancient greek societies womens role
women roles in greek society vs now
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Daily Life of Ancient Greece Internet Exploration
The Ancient Greece civilization was very different in between female and male. Female and male had a unique role in the ancient Greece civilization. This civilization was under male control because only men possibly will be citizens and only highborn males benefit from a proper education. Men got instruction in military, involve in politics or went to the Theatre for amusement. The men observed dramas tragedies, or comedies that they were related to.
In the other side, women were not allowed to watch any of the Theater performance. Women were anticipated to stay in the house to do all the domestic work, and take care of the kids. Women were not implicated in civic life or in government.
The ancient Greece left us a wonderful knowledge in diverse areas like in science and technology, art and architecture, literature and theatre, philosophy, political structure, government, education. The ancient Greeks originated all of these areas of wisdom.
One of the biggest differences in between ancient Greece and the modern America is how ancient Greece treat women. Women during the ancient Greece had no political rights of any type. The most important obligations for women were to take care of children and to run the household. The responsibilities of a rural woman were farming work.
The life at home was in control by the women. The women organize the daily operation in their house. Also, when the family had slaves, the women slave cook, clean and breastfeed the children of their owner. In a poor family during the ancient Greece, a woman was expected to take care all these duties by herself.
In contrast, modern American women have the same rights like men do. Modern American women are the most evenly treated in contrast with some women around the world, and to be more specific compared with the ancient Greece women. Modern America women are self-sufficient, self-respect, and
In Classical Greece, roles played by males and females in society were well-defined as well as very distinct from each other. Expectations to uphold these societal norms were strong, as a breakdown within the system could destroy the success of the oikos (the household) and the male’s reputation—two of the most important facets of Athenian life. The key to a thriving oikos and an unblemished reputation was a good wife who would efficiently and profitably run the household. It was the male’s role, however, to ensure excellent household management by molding a young woman into a good wife. Women were expected to enter the marriage as a symbolically empty vessel; in other words, a naïve, uneducated virgin of about 15 years who could be easily shaped by a husband twice her age. Through the instruction of her husband, the empty vessel would be filled with the necessary information to become a good wife who would maintain an orderly household and her husband’s reputation, thereby fulfilling the Athenian female gender role for citizen women.
Ancient Greek society treated women as secondary citizens. Restrictions were placed on the social and domestic actions of many aristocratic women in ancient Athens. The women depicted in Homer's Odyssey, on the other hand, are the ideal. Penelope, Clytaemestra, Athena, and Helen are all women with exceptional liberty and power.
Women had very few rights, they lived as prisoners, serving men 24 hours a day. Women were sheltered from society, restricted to their husbands and their husbands houses, crying out for help and justice but there is no one to there to hear their screams. In the play Antigone when the title character had to sneak out of the house to meet up with Ismene. Ancient Greek men ruled a lot like over protective fathers with teenage daughters. Men were also scared of women gaining confidence and begin thinking on their own or worse taking action or speaking out against men, like in the play Antigone where Antigone confronts Creon by burying Polyneices after Creon strictly stated that no one bury him. If someone were to bury him, the whole Polis would stone them to death. When Creon found out that someone buried Polyneices, he did not even consider that it could have been a women that did it.
When thinking of ancient Greece, images of revolutionary contrapposto sculpture, ornate lecture halls, and great philosophers in togas are sure to come to mind. As the birthplace of democracy and western philosophy, ancient Greece has had an inordinate influence on the progression of the modern world. However, the ancient Greeks’ treatment of women is seemingly at direct odds with their progressive and idealistic society.
Women in Sparta were more dominant in society than their Athenian sisters. Spartan women were given a good education, they were taught how to read and write, and were good in arts and athletics. Spartan women were expected to be smart enough to control their property. Spartan women had different freedoms and advantages than other Greek women; they had to be physically, emotionally, and intellectually strong. Spartan women were notoriously known for their razor-sharp wit and outspoken natures. They were encouraged to develop their intellect, and owned more than third of the land almost two-fifths of the state. While husbands and sons were working in the military, women took charge of everything inside and outside of the household. Spartan women were in control of their sons until the totalitarian society took them over at the age of 7. Being under a totalitarian society, Sparta had a strong military and citizens did not have an easy lifestyle like the Athenians. A totalitarian society meant that the political system had full control of the state, and controlled all aspects of public and private life. Spartan men dedicated their lives to the forces, and other services to the state of Sparta. Leaving their wife to the family wealth, and owning all property. Athenian men were away discussing politics, and when they came home they expected obedience from their wives. Athenian men had to be in control at all times while in public, but no social control behind closed doors. Athenian women never inherited any property, and they were left available to male relatives. Material power led the women of Sparta and Athens to marry a relative for heritance money. Financial power for women in Athens, was unlawful no woman could be in charge of mon...
Women in the ancient world had few rights, they differed from country to country or, in the case of the women of Athens and Sparta, from city-state to the city-state. The women of the city-states of Athens and Sparta had profound differences in their roles in the political and the daily lives of their families and their cities. When it came to the difference in levels of power and the rights of women, Sparta was a leader in its time. At the same time, their rights as citizens were almost the same. While they did not take an active part in politics, they had opinions and ideas like women all over the world. Their thoughts, deeds, and opinions rarely recorded or if they were, the male historians or philosophers of the time recorded them. What were roles did the women in ancient Athens and Sparta? Were they citizens, did they have personal freedoms? On the other hand, did they in a time when the beginnings of democracy were happening were they less than a second-class citizen? The misogyny and patriarchal societies continued throughout the ancient and classical periods only beginning to change in the Hellenistic era.
Greek and Roman women lived in a world where strict gender roles were given; where each person was judged in terms of compliance with gender-specific standards of conduct. Generally, men were placed above women in terms of independence, control and overall freedom. Whereas men lived in the world at large, active in public life and free to come and go as they willed, women's lives were sheltered. Most women were assigned the role of a homemaker, where they were anticipated to be good wives and mothers, but not much of anything else. The roles of women are thoroughly discussed in readings such as The Aeneid, Iliad, Sappho poetry, and Semonides' essay.
According to research, the role of women in classical Greece was extremely limited. Men and women were segregated all over in the Greek society, even in the home (Source 9). Women were secluded in their homes to the point of not being able to leave their own quarters except on special religious occasions or as necessity dictated (Source 10). All women were tightly controlled and confined to the home to insure that their husbands were provided legitimate male heirs. Beyond this, women had no true value (Source 6). Clearly, male domination in Greek society was like enslavement to women. A marriage contract dated 92 B.C. can be located in Women's Life in Greece & Rome by Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant which defines unacceptable behavior within the union of marriage. The document requires that both husband and wife be chaste within the context of the household, but although nothing prevents ...
Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we came to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man.
Women in ancient Greece are an interesting subject and only so much is known about the exact day to day lives of them however from what records remain it would seem that they were kept at a relatively low level on the social hierarchy. Even in Pericles ' Funeral Speech which seems to be an almost utopian discretion of aspects of Greek life Pericles himself states that “Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men whether for good or for bad.” Pericles states that the greatest of women should be the ones whom are not noticed but still preform there tasks while not catching the attention of men. Adding to this even the great philosopher Aristotle bags on the women of Greece simply by stating that ”female [souls are] inoperative” With this simple statement Aristotle makes it seem that women are somehow broken and can never live up to the same standards as men. Even Xenophon, The Economist rambles on...
Unlike other Greek city states, women played an integral role in Spartan society as they were the backbone of the Spartan economic system of inheritance and marriage dowry and they were relied upon to fulfill their main responsibility of producing Spartan warrior sons. These principle economic systems affected wealth distribution among Spartan citizens especially among the Spartan elite class. Spartan women led a completely different life than women in most other ancient Greek city states, as they were depended upon to maintain Spartan social systems. In a society where the state is more involved in home life women had freedom of movement and they were permitted to communicate with men who were not their husbands. Women had domestic responsibilities including the maintenance of homes and farms when the men were on campaign, while the typical Greek female responsibilities such as weaving were delegated to slaves. Girls were raised much like Spartan boys as they were made to go through physical training insuring their success in fulfilling their most important role in society, child-bearing. The few primary sources on Sparta and Spartiate women, namely Aristotle, Plutarch, Herodotus and Xenophon were historians who lived after the prominence of ancient Sparta; therefore, the facts regarding the women’s influence in social, economic and political issues must be carefully interpreted and analysed with help from secondary sources.
Athens, even though named after a goddess, was an extremely male dominated culture. To take a step further, you only had true freedom if you were a male of Athenian decent. Women, foreigners, and slaves were not viewed anywhere near the same light. Women and foreigners (Metics) held similar social status and differed from slaves slightly, but they also shared certain things in common.
In Ancient Greece, women had little to no freedom in their lives. For instance, they had no role in politics, leaving that completely to men, were expected to stay indoors for the majority of their lives doing household work because they were under the control of a male relative, usually being their father or husband, and they were not allowed to study medicine. These standards were set by great writers such as Aristotle who wrote of women being inferior to men. He believed women were more emotional, which is why they would be useless in politics, and they were more deceptive and mischievous. Because only men were doctors, many women were dying during childbirth due to the fact that they felt uncomfortable about having a man handle their pregnancy.
Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted. Intriguingly enough, despite the customary submissive role, women had a more multifaceted role and image in society as juxtaposed with the rather simple role men played. Morals for the two were also different. Men obviously had the upper hand with women being the traditional passive.
Mythology was very important to the men and women of ancient Greece. They worshipped the gods and goddesses, wrote poems about them, and based a great deal of art work off of them. The people of Greece looked to the gods and goddesses for help in all aspects of their lives; including health, agriculture, and war. Reading about Greek mythology can inform people about the society of Greece itself because the Greek gods were created by the people of Greece. Three main goddesses who were worshipped by the Greeks were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. These three goddesses represent three different types of women in Greek society. Sarah Pomeroy, author of Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, believed that “the goddesses are archetypal images of human females, as envisioned by males” (8). Pomeroy understands the significance in the differences between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and what those differences meant for the women of Greece who were required to follow three important rules. The first rule was for the women to live a life of domesticity and motherhood. This was very important to the men in the society. The women were the only ones able to bear children. Also, if they were forced to stay in the house, men could keep a greater control on their wives, and not have to worry about them having affairs. The second important trait was virginity until marriage. Its importance to the Greek culture lied in the fear of a woman’s power. The men of the society felt it best that a woman remained a virgin until she was married; however this same attribute was not required of a man. Their belief can be explained by this quote written by P. Walcot in the article “Greek Attitudes Towards Women: The Mythological Evidence”: “The Greeks believed women...