Becoming a housewife was the expected role of Classical Athenian women. After marrying and having children, the woman were in charge of all household duties. The duties of a household wife depended on whether or not the household was rich or poor. In a rich household, the wife would distribute jobs to the slaves working both inside and outside of the house. Housewives not only were responsible for the slaves; they also had the task of training the household workers. The wives were expected to care for anyone in the household who became sick, and if a family member died, the housewife would be in charge of visiting the tomb regularly to present offerings.
In poor households, the wife had many more duties, as poor households had no slaves to assist with the work. Additional duties for a poor housewife would include shopping for food, making the family's clothing, and retrieving water. A poor housewife would be likely to acquire a job to assist with the finances of the household. These jobs could include acting as a wet-nurse, midwife or small-time market trader.
Housewives were kept in seclusion. They were not allowed to mingle with men in any setting. A housewife was not allowed to answer the door of her home or even be in the same room as male guests who visited. The houses' rooms also separated males and females. The wives, daughters, and female slaves lived upstairs, in rooms that were away from the windows and streets.
Religion was the one area of public life where women could participate freely. In Athens the priestess of Athena, the city's eponymous goddess, held much honor. She was consulted for major decisions and her words were well respected. During the Panathenaea, a festival to celebrate the birthday of Athena, the daughters of nobles who were virgins were chosen to carry sacred baskets in the procession. This choosing of virgin women was both an honor and an insult as the reputation of girls who were not chosen was put in doubt.
Prostitution flourished in Greece, specifically in Athens there were two types of prostitutes:
- Hetairai: considered the higher of two prostitute classes; they underwent extensive training and were considered professional sexual entertainers.
- Pornai: the lower of the two prostitute classes; they were often slaves, foreigners or metics.
- Prostitutes were also drawn on drinking cups as a form of pinups for male entertainment.
They preferred daughters to sons so that they could train them in the trade of prostitution.
Mothers were essentially the head of the households in Spartan society. Sons were taken from the house at age seven and put through agoge. Daughters also underwent public education, although girls stayed in their mother’s houses until they were married, around the age of eighteen, and would have developed an overwhelming bond with their mothers. Women were not expected to learn domestic duties like weaving and cleaning, as the estate’s helots would perform these tasks. Therefore, women were more preoccupied with maintaining their physical stature, bearing children, and supervising the helots who worked the land.
When the men weren’t stationed they were preoccupied with training and remained separated from their homes leaving the women to completely dominate the household.
Under the Spartan law, women who had died in child birth and men who died in serving their country both equally deserved the honor of having their names in-scripted on their gravestones.
Spartan women were highly encouraged to produce many children, preferably male, to increase Sparta's military population.
Spartan women were allowed to divorce their husbands without fear of losing their personal wealth. As equal citizens of the community, women could divorce and were not required to or discouraged from remarrying.
Female education is vague and rarely mentioned as in a formal class setting, presumably taking place in the home. It is at least documented that wealthier women wrote letters to their sons and it is therefore assumed that they could read and write.
In their youth, female Spartans ran around naked alongside the boys and competed in gymnastics, wrestling, foot and horse races, and other required physical trials, all in the public’s view. Women were also known to compete in the Olympics.
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