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Spartan women enforced the state ideology of militarism and bravery. Plutarch relates that one woman, upon handing her son his shield, instructed him to come home "either with this, or on it". [46] Because Spartan men spent much of their time living in barracks or at war, Spartan women were expected to run the household themselves.
All women, including slaves, were protected. Gortyn women, like Spartan women, were able to enter into legal agreements and appear before the court. They were able to own property without male co-ownership or permission. Husband and wife had equal right to divorce. A free, divorced woman could throw her child into the river.
272 BCE – When Pyrrhus attacked Sparta, the women of the city assisted in the defense, assisted by Chilonis. [112] [113] [114] 272 BCE – Spartan princess Archidamia leads Spartan women in the construction of a defensive trench and in the aiding of the wounded in battle during the siege of Pyrrhus. [115] [116]
What is more, the Spartans used helot women to satisfy the state's human personnel needs: the 'bastards' (nothoi) born of Spartan fathers and helot women held an intermediary rank in Lacedaemonian society (cf. mothakes and mothones below) and swelled the ranks of the citizen army. It is difficult to determine whether these births were the ...
A Spartan citizen in good standing (a Spartiate) was one who maintained his fighting skills, showed bravery in battle, ensured that his farms were productive, was married and had healthy children. Spartiate women were the only Greek women to hold property rights on their own, and were required to practice sports before marriage.
In other Greek city-states, free citizens were part-time soldiers who, when not at war, carried on other trades. Since Spartan men were full-time soldiers, they were not available to carry out manual labour. [89] The helots were used as unskilled serfs, tilling Spartan land. Helot women were often used as wet nurses. Helots also travelled with ...
The economic power of Athenian women was legally constrained. Historians have traditionally considered that ancient Greek women, particularly in Classical Athens, lacked economic influence. [146] Athenian women were forbidden from entering a contract worth more than a medimnos of barley, enough to feed an average family for six days. [147]
Eurotas River. According to myth, the first king of the region later to be called Laconia, but then called Lelegia was the eponymous King Lelex.He was followed, according to tradition, by a series of kings allegorizing several traits of later-to-be Sparta and Laconia, such as the Kings Myles, Eurotas, Lacedaemon and Amyclas of Sparta.