Athenian Women

Hipponax an ancient poet once said, “Two happy days a woman brings a man: the first, when he marries her; the second, when he bears her to the grave”(Fordham). This is how women were depicted and treated in Athens. Most were either sold into slavery or prostitution..Many Greek City States treated and depicted women this way; however, Sparta was an exception from this way of thinking. Sparta, could be called a safe-haven for women’s rights. Women in Athens were different than Spartan women. But how is this so?
Women in Athens were disrespected as a person and served only a few purposes to the community. Athen’s city-state suggested that women were either slaves, prostitutes, or straight up slobs. Like an Athenian person once said, “Good Women
The Mycenaeans were the ones who settled there. Only for a short time before Greece overcame them. But, the Pelasgians would kill their women if they did something they weren’t supposed to. So with this evidence, we can claim that Greece inherited these costumes after the takeover. Which could explain why they treated women this way. But that’s just a theory, possibly they picked up on Mesopotamian customs from the trade market. Or just simply Mesopotamia had inherited this land after it was taken over by another colony. Another theory could be that they adapted Trojan thoughts after they won the war. There are constant places before Greece where women had a Hellenistic view on them. All we know is that, women were treated badly in and around Greece. Even before the Greeks have taken over the
What women would call “ The Heaven of rights.” This one civilization is where American traits actually came from. Sparta started off small, but big enough to overrule the Messians. The Messenian territory had a very fertile land where Sparta would soon start to grow crops. But, for every Spartan there was 10 Messenians. Which also came into account for the uprising of the helot slaves. So because of numbers, they put every male citizen into the army . Starting at the age of 7, till the age of 65. Leaving all of the estates unsupervised and unowned. So, they now needed women to run the estates and look after some of the helot slaves. Which made all the women merrier when they were able to take part in their society. Also, they had regained their rights and privileges. But, not everyone could watch the women and see if they are doing their job correctly. Thus, the Spartans gave women incentives ,object that makes someone do something. This incentive was the ability for women to own and inherit land (Fleck and Hanssen;