Plutarch's Expectations Of Athenian Youth

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Around 1200-350 B.C.E, ancient Greece was mostly dominated by the rivalry between the two city-states, Sparta and Athens. Athens was the birthplace of democracy, thus, was also the least rigid of the two. Athens contained the most sophisticated people in Greece whereas Sparta was comprised of unsophisticated people and were more militaristic. Spartans considered their youth to be property of the Spartan states, and trained them for military life from a young age. Athenians, however, had different expectations for their youth. They believed that their children should be honest, loyal, respectful, and should serve their community to the best of their abilities. The two texts, Plutarch’s Lives by John W. McFarland, Pleasant F. Graves, Jr. and Aubrey Graves and The Oath of Athenian Youth by Anonymous, describe the different expectations and behaviors the city-states of Sparta and Athens had for their respective youth. Because Sparta was a militaristic state, it needed to develop their youth for military life from a young age. According to Plutarch’s Lives, “children were actually considered to be the property of the Spartan state, the parents having little claim to them…”. This is important because if the youth were not treated …show more content…

They believed that their children should be honest, loyal, respectful, and should serve their community to the best of their abilities. As stated in The Oath of Athenian Youth, the youth “…will never bring disgrace to this, our community, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice”. They are expected to help their community by being honest and brave. The text also states “we will transmit this community, not only not less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us”. This means that they expected to serve their community more than their community has served them. Those are some of the expectations and behavior the city-states of Athens had for their

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