Athenian daily life essays

Athenian daily life essays In Ancient Greece, boys go to school, while the girls stayed at home to help their moms cook and look after the household. In Athens, it was a man's world. In the family, the father was the head of the family. The wife stayed at home and ran the household. The husband could divorce, if the wife was unfaithful or had no children. The marriage was arranged by the father or a close male relatives or guardians. For women life didnt extend far from the home, which was thought to be their sole realm of existence. Though they ranked higher than slaves did, they were treated in many of the same ways. Just like slaves, their mothers trained women as adolescents what their domestic duties were. They were secluded from all males, including those in their family. The main purposes are to have children to continue the family name and to honor the parents. Athenian women had virtually no political rights of any kind and were controlled by men at nearly every stage of their lives. Since men spent most of their time away from their houses, women dominated Athenian home life. The wife was in charge of raising the children, spinning, weaving, and sewing the familys clothes. She supervised the daily running of the household. In a totally slave based economy, ample numbers of female slaves were available to cook, clean, and carry water from the fountain. Only in the poorest homes was the wife expected to carry out all these duties by herself. In a sense, poor women lived freer lives than that of the aristocratic women they served. They could work in the fields or sell in the marketplace, pretty much going about their way as men did. (McKay page 76) The Greeks were polytheistic people. Meaning they believed in more than one god. Its impossible to say exactly how many gods there were because different Greeks worshiped different gods and some small villages worshiped the main gods and their own village gods. There are hund...