Why Is Sparta Better Than Greek Women

In the article Athens and Sparta by Mr.Duckworth states,”Sparta had a powerful army and Athens knew that they couldn’t beat them. ”This is a good aspect because it would keep Sparta safe from intruders. In the text it states,”In Sparta women had more

They would inherit land from their husbands if they died in battle. As Sparta became involved in more wars and more men died, significant amounts of land fell into the hands of women, to the point where by the fourth century, some of the wealthiest people in Sparta were women. The ability to own property meant that Spartan women were not wholly dependent on men as Athenian women were, and could exercise a degree of independence, especially if they were widowed. The ability to provide for themselves meant that they would not necessarily have to return to the protection of their father or other male relative. Spartan women exercised a much greater influence over society than their Athenian counterparts.

In the article by Aristotle’s, Spartan Women, he shares that, “the legislator wanted to make the whole state hardy and temperate, and he has carried out his intention in the case of the men, but he has neglected the women, who live in every sort of intemperance and luxury.” With the reading and discussing it in class, Sparta Women were “used”, the Peloponnesian War Influenced Aristotle article because this was the time when women were doing the most work and he saw this a wrong. Spartan Women were taking for granted, these women jumped in and covered for their men and played a major role.

Most of the information we have today about the women of ancient Greece was wrote by well educated, higher class men that were considered the experts of the time but naturally did not know what it was like to live as a woman. These men depicted the women as emotional, less rational, impulsive, and weaker than men, lacking knowledge of the world and dependent solely on them. But that idea did not hold true for the Greece city/state of Sparta.

In the ancient Greek world, Spartan women had the most rights and power of all the women during this time. These women were allowed education, becoming a wife was important, they were also depended on to produce strong and healthy offspring, and they were independent. Spartan women were superior compared to any other women of ancient Greece. Women played a huge role in society. To begin, young girls in Sparta had the freedom to mature on their own while growing up.

The treatment between women in Athens and women in Sparta was the difference between night and day. Women were treated completely different in Athens compared to Sparta. Neither of the society’s women were seen as overpowered or superior to men, but in one culture, women live a better life than the other. Women from Spartan civilizations were treated equal to men during their youth. Women from Sparta ran the civilizations due to the fact of the men serving in the military from the age of seven to the age of sixty-five.

The young girls trained with the boys before they left for the agoge so they got just as good of an education as the boys. They thought strong women made good strong soldiers and so they trained at running, javelin throwing, and discus. As a result of being educated, Spartan women were known for their smart wit and outspokenness. Women in Sparta were not able to to be in a position of leadership, however they could own and manage property and businesses.

Women took on a degree of authority that other Greek women did not posses or want, according to their own upbringing. In so far as the desire for “communal property and the amelioration of women’s lot” was concerned, the situation of women in Sparta was perfect for supporting the system in place (Foley 66). In so far as the culture was desirous of a nurturing or artistic element where the arts could flourish and political discourse and philosophical schools could abound, Sparta was not a particularly working or functioning city-state—at least, not on par with a city-state like Athens which was much renowned for its artistic cultivation and schools of philosophy and

In today’s society women are able to hold any position equal to that of a man. During ancient times, women were not given such opportunity. In basically all ancient civilizations, women did not have a role in society. This is especially true in ancient Greece. History has said that Athens is the place of freedom and democracy while Sparta is a restricted society. Though this might be true, that was not the case for women. Women in Homeric Greece and Sparta actually had more respect and freedom than those in Athens.

In Athens, there was a lot of opportunity for a male. An Athenian male could become a scholar, poet, politician, or pretty much anything they wanted; but females on the other hand, didn 't have that power. Men was under the understanding that females were incapable of making reasonable decisions in the political world. The idea of gender equality was non-existent in the Athens society. As said by Historian Don Nardo “throughout antiquity most Greek women had few or no civil rights and many enjoyed little freedom of choice or mobility.” He also stated “aside from poetry, women’s writing survives only in private letters written on papyrus preserved by ancient of nature, only from Hellenistic and Roman Egypt.” (O’Pry 2012) Women in the Athens society that were in an upper class were

Despite Athenian and Spartans being associates of the same influential nation, these two states or ‘Peloi’ and denominations of people in Ancient Greece in (400BC) were substantially different. The women in their own distinct societies endured several problematic issues and experienced inequity, demoralisation and condemnation. The notion of women and their purpose was typically conjectured by men in society, specifically Aristotle who claimed that women brought ‘disorder, were evil, were utterly useless and caused more confusion than the enemy’ . However despite misogynistic, biased and loathsome perspectives of women, both Athenian and Spartan women have all played exceedingly significant roles and contributed substantially to the prosperity of Ancient Greek society in their own inimitable ways.

But in the Spartan society, the woman had a dignified position just because they were the mother of the famous Sparta worriers. The Athenian women were also not allowed for education or to educate themselves. Men were the only ones allowed in the schools. They also wore clothing that completely covered their bodies and was not able to walk where they

In no other city-state did women enjoy the same freedom and status as Spartan women. As a military-driven society, the Spartans realized that “regardless of gender all Spartiates had an obligation to serve the militaristic end of Sparta.” With this focus in mind, women were allowed more freedom, rights, and independence. Spartan women were

A woman’s place was supposed to be at home, in both Sparta and Athens, but the capacity in which they were supposed to be at home differed substantially. In Athens, it was compulsory for women to be acquiescent and compliant. They were supposed to stay home most of the time, bearing, nourishing and taking care of the children, spinning and weaving clothes, keeping the home clean and tidy, preparing food or overseeing the preparation of food by the servants; women from Sparta were the complete opposite of the women in Athens, they were allowed to keep property with the over seeing of the male counterpart, which according to Aristotle, said that in 4th BCE, 405 Sparta was owned by women, and may have contributed to

The Athenian people had a very modernized and an opened outlook towards life. In contrast to Sparta, in Athens, males were not obliged to join the armed forces they had the opportunity to pursue a good education and distinct varieties of arts and sciences courses. The people of Sparta were not open to other forms of education they only focused on military obedience and power. They didn’t also associate with people outside their territories. Family ties in Athens however, were much stronger. Women were officially dependents of their spouses or their fathers. Women in Athens had no right to own an asset apart from their family. In Sparta, women enjoyed more privileges than women in the other Greek countries did. Women in Sparta were stronger and they formed close relations with their men as they chose. Women could also possess their own assets. In the Athenian region females worked on house chores such as cooking or weaving but in Sparta, the females were free of all of such chores. (Differ,