Classical Athens Vs Sparta Research Paper

Comparing and Contrasting Classical Athens and Sparta The classical Greek civilizations of Athens and Sparta showed some similarities, yet also showed a large number of differences. For example, these city-states had completely different views about women and their rules on female freedoms show this. Athenian women, like most of the women in other Greek city-states, were considered to be useful only for child-bearing and domestic jobs. Sparta, however, was the oddball out, giving the women of their civilization many more rights and freedoms. “Teaching a woman to read and write? What a terrible thing to do! Like feeding a vile snake on more poison.” (“Contrasting Patriarchies in Athens and Sparta”). Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and recognizable ancient city-states in Greek history. These two civilizations showed a majority of differences over similarities, although some similarities showed such as gender relations and slavery. Athenian women had little to no rights in the society, staying mostly indoors and only being referred to as someone’s
Sparta obtained most if not all of their slaves from conquered city-states. These “helots” often outnumbered the pure-born Spartans by a ratio of 7:1, and they usually got very out of hand and had to be “disciplined” during an annual beating. The slaves of Athens, or metics, were in far fewer numbers, as Athenians did not conquer as much land as the Spartans. Because Athenians took pride in farming land, the metics were more commonly used as craftsmen. The metics were used to build the buildings in the acropolis, usually keeping them busy. The Athenians had a very well-known government; Athenian democracy, one of the first democracies in the world. Sparta, however, went through many stages of government including; Monarchial, Oligarchical, and