Ancient Athens Daily Life

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As for more modern societies, experiences of daily life in Athens and Sparta varied substantially according to socio-economic status. I have briefly compared four profiles below – socio-economically advantaged citizen; socio-economically disadvantaged citizen; woman citizen; and slave – and compared my impressions of their daily lives in the two city-states. However, a range of other profiles are also possible. Socio-economically advantaged citizens Athens’ socio-economic elite were landowners. “A life on the land, farming to produce only so much as was needed for consumption and leaving enough leisure time for active participation in the public life of the polis, was the social ideal” (Engen, n.d., 19th para). These citizens were exclusively…show more content…
Work dominated, and non-working lives tended to focus on pursuits such as dance and religion. Socio-economically dis-advantaged citizens’ lives in Sparta were dominated by military and associated pursuits. Women Although girls in ancient Greece received no formal education in the literary arts, many of them were taught to read and write informally, in the home (University of Pennsylvania, n.d.). Girls were considered to be adults and marriageable when they reached puberty and were expected to bear children (Rymer, n.d.-3). The daily lives of women in ancient Athens were oriented to raising children, domestic duties, spinning and weaving (Ancient Greece.com.,n.d.). Women were not involved in public life. Rather, they were generally restricted to the house. In contrast to virtually all other parts of Ancient Greece, Spartan women, though not eligible for citizenship, associated more freely with men and were trained and oriented just as rigorously so that they might become appropriate companions and mothers. Spartan women wielded significant economic control (Lumb, n.d.), engaged in activities outside the household and were permitted to engage in public comment (Brand,…show more content…
In Athens, many slaves were privately owned though the Athenian government also owned a pool. Even many relatively poor Athenian citizens had one or two slaves, while the socio-economically advantaged could own up to fifty. In contrast, Spartan slaves were publicly owned. Many slaves in Athens were engaged in household work and agriculture, while some were able to hold low level public jobs. Some could earn money and even attain freedom (Rymer, n.d.). Sparta, however, had a reputation for the harsh treatment of slaves (Rymer, n.d.). War was declared on slaves annually and a substantial domestic focus for the Spartan military was control of the slave population. It could be argued therefore that slaves were enemies of the Spartan state. Other aspects of daily life More generally, ancient Greeks in both city states: • Took supper, comprising staples such as vegetables, fruit and fish, as their main meal of the day; and took water and diluted wine as their main drinks (Rymer, n.d.-2). • Maintained relatively high standards of personal hygiene. They cleaned and exfoliated using oils and sand (Nell,
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