The role of women in Spartan society to the Battle of Leuctra

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The role of women in Spartan society to the Battle of Leuctra 371 BC

According to many historians such as Powell “The citizen women of Sparta were believed to lead unusual lives by Greek standards.” As stated by Lycurgus in the Great Rhetra women of Sparta were aware of their role in society in regards to staying healthy and fit to produce healthy offspring as well as partaking in the running of the economy. Women in Sparta were treated with the utmost respect, as they were an essential element in the ancient warrior society. Spartan women enjoyed much more freedom then women from the other polis (Greek city states). Spartan women were given great privileges as they involved their prominent positions in society in regards to education, family, religion and the economy, which soon became desired by women all over ancient Greece.  Ancient historians such as Plutarch, Xenophon, Aristotle, Plato, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides and Aristophanes provide valuable insight to the girls, women and mothers of Sparta, as they left no records themselves.

Plutarch's famous Sayings of Spartan Women aims to promote a Spartan society where females play an essential role in the indoctrination of their sons and where mothers are painted has brutal patriots.

Women were perhaps the most important feature of Spartan society for many reasons and even so their most important role was to give birth to healthy sons for Sparta. They weren’t allowed to spin or weave like women from other parts of Greece; such menial tasks were meant for the helots – state owned slaves. Source 2 (Plutarch on Sparta, p.160) “When an Ionian woman was priding herself on one of the tapestries she had made (which was indeed of great value), a Spartan woman showed off her four most dutiful sons and said they were the kind of thing a noble and good woman ought to produce, and should boast of them and take pride in them.” This quote illustrates that for Spartan women, skills in handicrafts were not essential, and were not regarded as important as bearing healthier, stronger sons for the army. Xenophon stated, “For free women the most important job was to bear children.” In order to inculcate the offspring with patriotism, the mother had to have the correct attitude herself. Spartan mother did rear their sons according to the customs and expectations of their state and society. They were proud of their role in shaping new generations of citizens as cited in Source 2, women who produce strong offspring’s (sons) should feel superior to other women and should be proud of their self righteousness. It implies that women with strong sons were strong themselves because it is believed that strong Spartan women and men create a strong offspring. ‘Great value’ also suggests that sons were worth more than daughters, as sons are the only ones that can achieve the greatest honour in Sparta. Women were encouraged to display patriotism by sacrificing the men whom they loved and so highly did they prize the warrior’s meed, that they are said to have said tears of joy over the bleeding bodies of their wounded sons. Source 1 (Plutarch on Sparta, p.160) “As a woman was burying her son, a worthless old crone came up to her and said: ‘You poor woman, what a misfortune!’ ‘No, by the two gods, a piece of good fortune,’ she replied, ‘because I bore him so that he might die for Sparta, and that is what has happened.” Instead of lamenting at the death of their sons, they took pride in the bravery that had led to that fate. The women were ordered not to mourn, to suffer in silence during their son or husband’s death. The character of Spartan women is marked with uncommon firmness. At the shrine of patriotism they immolated nature. Undaunted bravery and impeached honour was, in their estimation far beyond affection. If a son came home from Sparta without his shield the mothers wouldn’t tolerate a son’s act of cowardice and dishonour to Sparta. Sources tell us that a Spartan woman killed her son, who had deserted his post because he was unworthy of Sparta.  She declared: “He was not my offspring...for I did not bear one unworthy of Sparta.”

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The education of women was a uniquely Spartan concept within the polis, Spartan women were well educated and brought up in an orderly fashion to become proper mothers for the state, manage kleroi (state-owned property) and partake in religious festivals. As Spartan boys were surrendered to the agoge (Spartiate training program) Spartan girls remained at home with their mothers to get educated, learn reading and writing, as well as being organised into bands for team games and choral singing. In these bands they were taught, and had to regularly perform, choral lyrics of myths that had been immortalised through ancient songs and poems. ...

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