Sparta Flash Card #1: - The Cohen Curricula
Sparta Flash Card #20: role and status of women: education | |
|Historian |Evidence |Relationship to other |
| | |Syllabus dot points |
| |97. The education of Spartan mothers (Xenophon, Constitution of the Lacedaemonians 1.2-10. 4th | |
|Xenophon, Constitution of the |cent. B.C.) | |
|Lacedaemonians 1.2-10. 4th |It was not by imitating the customs of other states, but by knowingly doing the opposite to most | |
|cent. B.C.) |of them, that Lycurgus made his fatherland pre-eminently successful. | |
| |(1.3) To begin at the beginning, here is his legislation about the procreation of children. Other | |
| |people raise the girls who will bear the children and who are supposed to have a good upbringing | |
| |with the most limited portions of food and the smallest possible amount of delicacies. They make | |
| |sure they abstain from wine completely or give it to them mixed with water. | |
| |The other Greeks think that girls ought to sit in isolation doing wool work, leading a sedentary | |
| |existence like many craftsmen. How could they expect that girls raised in this way could produce | |
| |significant offspring? (1.4) By contrast, Lycurgus thought that slave women could make a | |
| |sufficient quantity of clothing. | |
| |But as far as free women were concerned, because he thought childbearing was their most important | |
| |function, he decreed that the female sex ought to take bodily exercise no less than the male. He | |
| |established competitions of running and of strength for women with one another, just as he did for| |
| |the men, because he thought that stronger offspring would be born if both parents were strong. | |
| |(1.5) As for a wife's sexual relations with her husband, Lycurgus saw that men in other cultures | |
| |during the first part of the time had unlimited intercourse with their wives, but he knew that the| |
| |opposite was right. He made it a disgrace for the husband to be seen approaching or leaving his | |
| |wife. As a result it was inevitable that their desire for intercourse increased, and that as a | |
| |result the offspring (if there were any) that were born were stronger than if the couple were | |
| |tired of each other. | |
| |(1.6) In addition, he stopped men from taking a wife whenever they chose and decreed that they | |
| |marry when they were in their prime, because he thought that this was better for their offspring. | |
| |(1.7) He saw that in cases where it happened that an old man had a young wife, the men were | |
| |particularly protective of their wives, and he knew that the opposite was right. He required that | |
| |the older man bring in a man whose body and mind he admired and have him beget the children. (1.8)| |
| |But in case a man did not want to cohabit with his wife, but wanted worthy children, he made a law| |
| |that he could beget children from a woman who was noble and had borne good children, if he could | |
| |persuade her husband. [17] (1.9) He agreed to allow many such arrangements, for the wives who | |
| |wanted to have two households and husbands who wanted to acquire brothers for their children, who | |
| |had blood and powers in common, but did not inherit their property. [18] | |
| |Thus Lycurgus had different ideas about the begetting of children, and anyone who wishes to may | |
| |judge whether or not he succeeded in producing in Sparta men who were superior in height and | |
| |strength from the men in other states! | |
| |[pic] | |
| |Notes | |
| |17. Note that while husbands can decide what to do with their wives, wives do not have a choice | |
| |about what to do with themselves or their husbands; as in the Republic, they are regarded in | |
| |Lycurgus' legislation as vehicles for the production of children. | |
| |18. Cf. Hodkinson in Powell, 1988, 90: 'Both monogamy and polyandry can be interpreted as | |
| |practices designed to limit the number of legitimate offspring a man sired and hence the division | |
| |of the inheritance'. | |
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|BOS 1 |IX Role and status of women: land ownership, inheritance, education | |
| |Land ownership/inheritance | |
| |A lot we don’t know about the land system, appears to have been private property as well as kleroi| |
| |(state allotments). | |
| |At the beginning of the classical period women could inherit a family estate, however, she could | |
| |not own it and it passed to her offspring. | |
| |By end of classical period women occupied most of the private estates (2/5 according to | |
| |Aristotle), as they outnumbered the men who kept dying in battle. | |
| |It is believed women also owned their own dowries. | |
| |Education | |
| |“I bore him so that he might die for Sparta” - Plutarch, shows the role of women was to bear | |
| |healthy warriors. | |
| |Young Spartan girls remained at home with their mothers but they were still expected to be | |
| |educated. | |
| |It is assumed that girls were taught the basics of reading/writing, like boys. | |
| |Girls underwent physical fitness/athletic training so they would become fit mothers and give birth| |
| |to healthy warriors (this indicates good medical knowledge). | |
| |Spartan girls were famous for physical beauty, education and independence throughout Greece. | |
| |They participated in most sports (e.g. javelin, boxing) and sometimes exercised with the boys. | |
| |Lysistrata (by Aristophanes) is an example of how other Greek poleis viewed Spartan women (as | |
| |muscular, promiscuous women). | |
| |Plato says Spartan girls did not live trivial lives. | |
| |Girls may have been organized into groups/bands like boys. | |
| | | |
|BOS 2 | | |
| |Spartan Women | |
| | | |
| |Spartan girls were not brought up to perform domestic tasks such as weaving and spinning as their | |
| |Athenian counterparts were. In Sparta, only slaves did these activities. | |
| |The girls instead participated in physical training with the boys and, presumably, since it is | |
| |known that they took part in various dancing and singing competitions, they also joined the boys | |
| |in learning to play the lyre, to dance, and to recite and chant poetry. | |
| |They did not join in military training however and did not live in barracks but at home. | |
| |The role of women in Spartan society was primarily to produce healthy children. | |
| |The object of exercising with the boys was so that they became strong and healthy so their | |
| |children would likewise be born strong and healthy too. | |
| |They continued their training through the early months of pregnancy and ate and drank freely. | |
| |Apparently these measures worked, for the Spartans were remarkable for their size and strength. | |
| |According to Plutarch, a foreigner once asked the wife of King Leonidas why the Spartan women | |
| |were able to influence men more than wives in other cities. She replied, “We are the only women | |
| |who can control men because we are the only women who give birth to men.” | |
| |Thus the pride of a Spartan woman was to be a mother of a truly courageous member of the Equals. | |
| |There are stories of mothers who carried this so far that they would much prefer their children to| |
| |be killed honourably in battle than to survive without honour. | |
| |This attitude was quite in keeping with the spirit of Tyrtaeus’ poetry and with the spirit of | |
| |Sparta in general. | |
| |To die for the city was a man’s highest honour and what a mother dreamed of for her sons. | |
| |Had considerable freedom and since Spartan women did not really have a family to look after, it | |
| |seems quite likely that they may have been rather bored. | |
| |In addition to their relative freedom, the Spartan women gradually gained control of much of the | |
| |city’s private estates, and thereby acquired great power and influence. | |
| |This may have been due to that fact that the Equals were not allowed to own more than the city had| |
| |originally granted them, and when the number of Equals reduced by war, women may have overtaken | |
| |the vacant estates. | |
| | | |
| |Role of Women | |
| | | |
| |According to many historians such as Powell “the citizen women of Sparta were believed to lead | |
| |unusual lives by Greek standards.” | |
| |Their role in Spartan society was primarily to stay strong and healthy in order to produce healthy| |
| |children as stated by Lycurgus in the Great Rhetra but their roles in society were seen to extend | |
| |much further than just childbearing with their influence also being felt in both Sparta’s economic| |
| |life and, to a lesser extent, the religious life. | |
| | | |
| |> Childbearing | |
| | | |
| |Spartan women, unlike their Athenian counterparts, “were freed from domestic duties and treated | |
| |like men.” They spent most days involved in intense exercises such as running, wrestling, javelin | |
| |and discus throwing and the unique form of exercise known as bibasis. | |
| |However, according to Barrow and Powell alike, “the physical training of girls was far from | |
| |feminist” and seemed only to be tolerated to serve the state purpose of producing more and | |
| |superior children. | |
| |According to Xenophon, Lycurgus decreed that “women should take as much trouble over physical | |
| |fitness as men…on the grounds that if both parents were strong, the offspring would be more sturdy| |
| |and the women themselves would be able to bear the pains of labour.” | |
| |This view that the role of women was to produce strong, male children is also reflected by | |
| |Plutarch who stated, “Those who buried a dead person were not permitted to inscribe that name on a| |
| |grave except in the case of a man killed in battle or for a woman who had died in labour.” | |
| | | |
| |> Propaganda tools for the State | |
| | | |
| |In association with their role to giving birth to physically strong children, women also played a | |
| |role in the indoctrination of their offspring. | |
| |According to S Blundell, “Females in Sparta were so thoroughly indoctrinated that they formed an | |
| |effective branch of a state propaganda machine.” | |
| |This propaganda was seen most often to take place during festivals such as the Homos were Spartan | |
| |girls composed songs for Spartan boys deserving praise, cheering the winners in competitions and | |
| |mocking those who lost. Thus, in an attempt to avoid their disapproval, Spartan boys were provided| |
| |with more motive to continually strive for excellence. | |
| |Thus it can be seen how the women of Sparta became tools for the state in encouraging rivalry | |
| |among their offspring and in creating a striving to excel in the young male population, their role| |
| |ultimately creating the beginnings for excellent warriors. | |
| | | |
| |> Economy | |
| | | |
| |Even though Spartan women were recognized as Equals, they did not have the right to attend the | |
| |Apella and vote on the running of politics and government. | |
| |According to Bradley however, “Spartan women had a different type of power and the influence in | |
| |Spartan society” which was attributed to their strong economic positions as landowners. | |
| |Aristotle, censuring Sparta’s for her economic arrangements, stated that “nearly two –fifths of | |
| |the whole country belongs to women, because there are many sole heiresses and also because | |
| |[Spartans] gave large dowries.” | |
| |This growth in economic prestige is evident in relation to Kyniska, the daughter of King | |
| |Archidamus, who won an equestrian event at Olympia, which, according to R Sealy, indicates that | |
| |“to compete was a mark of wealth…” | |
| |During times of war, women also had to often manage their husband’s kleros and therefore played an| |
| |important part in the economy in regards to management and production of agricultural articles. | |
| |Thus the role that women had in the economic life of Sparta was extensive and as a result “woman | |
| |had effective control of plentiful wealth.” (Bradley) | |
| | | |
| |Therefore it is apparent that women in Spartan society played various and significant roles that | |
| |contributed to all aspects of the polis. When raising their children they proved to play effective| |
| |roles in state propaganda and trained their children in their indoctrinated ideals. The economy | |
| |was a sector, which they contributed to immensely in the form of dowries and their monopoly of | |
| |landownership. Thus Spartan women were seen to be unique in their freedom to participate so widely| |
| |in the running of the Spartan state. | |
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