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As citizens of the United States of America, we are often blind to not only the current traditions of foreign nations, but also the historical traditions of early civilizations. For instance, many have heard of the Greek city-state Sparta; however, do they truly understand the impact of Spartan civilization in history? Sparta is quite unique in its structure and development, and its history offers valuable insight to early Greek civilization. In his novel Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield works diligently to uncover the realities of life in Sparta during the Persian Wars. Though the novel is a work of fiction, Gates of Fire is astoundingly accurate in its historical detail, and offers readers the opportunity to have a greater comprehension and …show more content…
Males were expected to enter the agoge in order to train to become warriors, while women were expected to stay at home and raise the children. In regards to women and marriage, Diomache – Xeones’ cousin – made this statement: “…this is not a woman’s world, cousin. It never was and never will be.” (Pressfield, 293). In early Greek society, as was custom in many early societies, women were not technically able to choose their husbands. The men were to choose whom they desired to marry, and the women were simply ‘given away’ to that man. It was also undeniably important that parents give birth to a male child. While females did have a role in society, males were recognizably dominant within Spartan society. Women simply were not allowed to serve in the military at this point in history, so male heirs were needed to continue on as a successful warrior society. In Gates of Fire, the idea of male importance plays out through Dienekes and his family. Dienekes technically does not have a male heir, and therefore was not (originally) chosen to fight at Thermopylae. However, through a series of events, Dienekes deceives the krypteis into believing that he had a male child out of wedlock. While he did so to save the child (his nephew, it should be noted) from impending death, his decision had lasting repercussions: since he was believed to have a male heir, he was now eligible to be chosen to fight in the Battle at …show more content…
In early Sparta, slaves typically came in the form of servants called helots. In discussing the concept of helots, the novel mentions that they were “…the serf class that the Lakedaemonians had created from the inhabitants of Messenia and Helos after they in centuries past had conquered and enslaved them.” (Pressfield, 12). While the male citizens of Sparta trained for war and went off to war to protect their city-state, the helots were left to tend the fields and produce food for the Spartans. All descendants of the former inhabitants of Messenia and Helos were automatically born into life as a helot; in addition, people born in other lands who later chose – or, in the case of Xeones, were forced – to migrate into Sparta were also considered helots. These helots of foreign-birth, who were certainly not eligible for citizenship, were often feared to be informants among their fellow helots. Helots were all expected to contribute equally to the labor and tillage of the soil, and fellow helots ensured a difficult life for those who did not. During Xeones’ time as a helot slave, both of these helot ‘issues’ are realized. Due to extensive injuries from having nails sent through his hands in his past, Xeones was relatively incapable of performing farm tasks. Being unable to work in the fields, along with his foreign origin, made for a rough life for Xeones. He was disliked by most of the
The social structure of Sparta consisted of the Helots, Perioikoi and Spartiates. Enslaved in the wars of Messenia were the Helots, considered as the property of the state, and released on rare occasion as Neodamodeis ’new citizens’. Tyrtaeus’ compares the enslaved Helots to ’donkeys worn down by heavy loads’, a downtrodden minority group with no great power. However, Thucydides accounts for their de-facto influence in Spartan administration, with ’most of their decisions with a view to precautions against the Helots. Finley supports this assessment, identifying certain advantages Helots held over other slave groups in this era. The basic rights of the Helots included the right to their own possessions; the ability to retain a percentage of their crop; and ’in general, all the normal human institutions except their freedom’. Rights afforded may have been in response to fears of a Helot uprising, as their obedience was paramount to a functional Spartan society, and vastly outnumbered the Spartan
"You Are There- A novel set in ancient Greece revisits a key battle between Sparta and Persia". The New York Times Book Review, Nov. 1, 1998 Pressfield, Steven. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermpoylae. New York: Doubleday
“No man ever proves himself a good man in war unless he can endure to face the blood and the slaughter, go against the enemy and fight with his hands.” The preceding was quoted from “The Spartan creed” by the poet Tyrtaeus. There are two authors in this primary resource reading which include Tyrtaeus as well as Xenophon, whom authored “The laws and customs of the Spartans”. These two works give great detail to the Spartan society. As history has presented it, Sparta was a smaller polis and yet was one of the most, if not most, influential societies in history. What we know of this culture comes to us from excavation of its heritage as well as literary works such as these. But are these “eyes” into history factual and creditable enough to base our own interpretations of such a masterful race? These writings are great resources for Spartan’s war enhanced values and societal customs, but lack in evidence of governmental affairs and religion. This lacking may have been due to both writer’s motives for their work.
Hellenic culture in the Spartan community was that of a humble elite. True Spartan culture is well captured in Xenophon’s work, Spartan Society, as he wrote of how this elitist society viewed not only themselves, but the other countries around them. This work shines light into the three-part worldview of the ancient, Hellenic Spartans of: humanism, idealism, and rationalism. As Xenophon begins to write over the whole of the Spartan society it can be seen how the Spartans lived out the worldview of this Hellenistic society. This living out of the worldview recorded in Xenophon’s, Spartan Society, illustrates their worldview through the noting of Lycurgus’ accomplishments and the contrast of the “other.”
Spartan spouses lived apart and often only met on rare occasions with the intent to procreate (Blundell). This tactic was used, because they wanted men to always be focused and training to be great soldiers, and not having to worry about family life would lessen the stress for the men (Blundell). Spartan women were given the role of taking care of the household, children, and the families finances (Blundell). However women in Spartan culture, were not brought up to do chores around the house, such as cooking or cleaning (Powell). The reasons behind that was they wanted the girls to focus their education on being physically strong and mentally strong (Powell). The women knew that when they started a household they would be given a helot or slave to take care of the small tasks around the home (Powell). Spartan women’s role in the household, gave them greater independence to be able to perform the activities they wanted to, and gave them the opportunity to be away from the
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.
The women were the only ones able to bear children. Also, if they were forced to stay in the house, men could have greater control over their wives, and not have to worry about them having affairs. The second important trait was virginity before marriage. Its importance to the Greek culture lies 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.
Helots were the original residents of the Laconian plain, the term Helots often means ‘prisoner of war’ and that is a good representation of what the Helots were, prisoners or slaves. Owned as property of the state they were assigned land that was owned by individual Spartans, they worked, lived on and made profit from the agricultural products derived from the land though a half of any harvest was directly given to the landowner. The helots produced all the food for the population of Sparta and worked incessantly to maintain the spartiate’s lifestyles, Tyrtaeus compared the helots to ‘Asses exhausted under great loads: Under painful necessity to bring their masters full half the fruit their ploughed land produced’. The tasks of the helots were generally agricultural though, when the Spartans w...
In the Bronze Age, early Greek’s political concern was largely on defense. During this time, while the men were serving in battles and war, women were expected to “bear future warriors” (Pomeroy 18), similarly to what Zeus enforced. Heroic Greek society demanded women to be married upon reaching maturity, and to begin having children immediately. The earliest writings of ancient Greece, usually accredited to Homer, show murderous arguments between men over women. Pomeroy writes, “It was a quarrel with Agamemnon over a valuable slave woman that precipitated Achilles’ withdrawal from the fighting at Troy and provided the theme for the Iliad.” (Pomeroy 25) Later, we will see how lawmakers enforced the role of women to prevent competition among
“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” The famous Greek philosopher Plato once said this, and society still has not fully fathomed this idea regarding gender equality. Fahrenheit 451 is a novel written by Ray Bradbury, set in a dystopian society. It touches on censorship, individuality and technology dangers, but the most prevalent recurring theme is based on gender roles and stereotypes. In the story, Guy Montag is a firefighter, whose sole mission is to burn books and any houses that contain them. Everything changes when he meets a young and insightful girl, Clarisse, who changes how he sees the world. Montag’s wife Mildred, is a housewife not only to him, but to an entirely fake family composed
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.
Pressfield, Steven. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. New York: Bantam, 1998. Print
One of the greatest responsibilities a woman had in Classical Sparta was giving birth to the Spartan males. Through physical training when a young teen with the Spartan boys, the women needed to be healthy and strong to produce healthy children capable of going through the agoge training. “…By athleticism they made sure that their children would be up to the standard of physical fitness demanded by the Spartan system.” (H.Michell, Sparta). The Spartan mother would prepare the young Spartans prior to the agoge; she would have minimal interaction and supply minimal clothing and
Since the city of Athens has the most information regarding laws and marriage due to the fact that it “was far larger in population and wealthier than the average Greek city,” so that’s the city I’m going to be focusing most of my research on. In the city of Athens, a women’s citizenship “consisted in the capacity to bear children who would be citizens,” with that being said, it is evident what values men seemed to think women had. When it came to marriage “Athenian women were given in marriage by their male relatives and their own choice had no legal bearing on the contract.” These women had pretty much no say in who they were going to marry, where they were going to go after getting married, and for the most part these women didn’t get a say on what age there were to be
In the year approximately 500 B.C., the Greek civilization came upon a time of peace. Because of the tranquil times, the civilization’s society had more time to focus on writing, math, astronomy, and artistic fields, as well as trade and metallurgy. Out of all the city-states of Greece, two excelled over all the rest, Sparta and Athens. Even though they were the most advanced and strong civilizations, they were bitter enemies. While Athens focused mainly on the people’s democracy and citizen rights, Sparta were ferocious and enslaved its original inhabitants, making them unable to leave