Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Spartan Life
I found it interesting how the spartan govt. worked. The women didnt have the opportunity to be a citizen even though they seemed important in the spartan community. They were allowed education and they were allowed to mix with males when it came to activites but at the same time they could never be a citizen. Since the spartan men were considered a citizen at age 30 and then considered to be equal where did this put the women. They were obviously educated and also formed into troops at a young age, so it seems in growing up they had their own training in becoming a citizen but still did not have the right to be a citizen at the proper age. So with the majority of the population being helots and women its amazing that order was still kept within the Spartan population. Maybe being a citizen wasn't as a big a deal as having a productive govt.
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I also found it interesting that the women were never considered citizens and were treated as near equal to slaves. You have good spectulation in wondering what the importance of citizenship intself was. I ask you to consider this: being that the Spartans were so militant and dominating, perhaps they saw women as subordinate or inefective to their primary goal--conquering and physically controlling the enslaved masses.
Thanks for commenting. I do find it amazing that the role of being a woman in sparta seems so important for the fact that they are the ones who give birth to the future of sparta. The primary goal being is that the spartans need males to go through the agoge and become soldier/citizens to keep their city state functioning. On the other hand the women never revolted and understoood their roles.
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