The role and status of woman in Spartan society.

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The role and status of woman in Spartan society.

Woman in Spartan society had much more power, influence and freedom then those in other neighbouring Greek states. Woman in other Greek areas were given manual tasks of making clothes, and harvesting crops. They were also given the plainest of foods and were rarely permitted to drink wine. This was not the case in Sparta.  Spartan woman were criticised by many ancient historians such as Aristotle for their power, but they maintained a very important role in Spartan society.

Woman of Sparta had the primary duty of producing physically and mentally strong children. They were expected to train regularly in order to maintain a high level of fitness. The view Lycourgus supposedly held was that if the mother and father of the child were fit and healthy as possible, the child would also have these traits and therefore a strong Spartiate. It is in this sense that the woman held if not the most powerful position in Sparta, without them their way of life, regulation and control would not be able to exist or continue in existence.

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 ‘Wife sharing’ is just one of the processes that illustrates child bearing as being a primary goal of woman as expected in society. If a man did not desire to be married, but wished to have an heir a married woman could if she wished conceive his child. If an older man was married to a younger woman he could choose a man with good physical qualities to impregnate his wife. This not only tells us of the pressures of producing an heir but also suggests that a woman’s worth and place in society was closely linked to her ...

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