Section 4: Daily Life in Athens

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Section 4 Daily Life in Athens
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I. The Athenian Economy

• Most Athenian citizens were farmers who grew
  olives, grapes, and figs on terraced hillsides

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I. The Athenian Economy

• The Athenian assembly voted to send farmers to
  colonies throughout the Mediterranean

Greece and Its Colonies, 550 B.C.
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I. The Athenian Economy

• Colonies imported and exported goods, promoting
  trade and spreading Greek culture

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II. Home and Family Life

• Athenians built magnificent temples and other
  public buildings

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II. Home and Family Life

• Most Athenian homes were simple - made of
  sun-dried brick without plumbing

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II. Home and Family Life

• Marriage and family life were very important and
  parents always arranged marriages

A woman was regarded as the property of her
father and then of her husband until she died. If
a daughter did not get married, she remained the
property of her father, and became a dishonor for
the family and a financial burden. The new bride
was subject to the control of her mother-in-law
and she had to be obedient to her in-laws.
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II. Home and Family Life

• The main purpose of marriage was children, but if
  parents could not afford to raise the baby, it
  was left to die

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II. Home and Family Life

• Parents loved their children, as shown in an ode
  the female poet Sappho wrote to her daughter

Poets Sappho and Alcaeus
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II. Home and Family Life

• Legally and socially, Athenian women were
  considered inferior to men

Girls were treated as daughters all of their
lives while boys came of age at eighteen. Greek
society was patriarchal -- it was controlled by
men and did not allow women full political and
social rights. Men tended to behave more like
fathers toward women. Thus, if a woman got
married she passed from the authority of one man
(her father) into that of another (her husband).
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II. Home and Family Life

• Women could not own property and could not appear
  in public without their husbands permission

If there was no son inherit the family property,
then a daughter would inherit the property. She
was expected to marry a close relative chosen by
her father so that he might inherit the land.
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II. Home and Family Life

• A womans duties included managing the household
  and slaves and raising children

A husband expected his wife to be already skilled
in domestic tasks, such as weaving, spinning,
cooking, cleaning, and managing slaves. Marrying
a young girl was thought to be a very positive
thing by the men in ancient Greece because she
could be taught good habits
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II. Home and Family Life

• Boys over the age of seven were cared for by a
  pedagogue, a male slave who taught the boy manners

The word "pedagogue" comes from Greek Antiquity,
where it referred to the slave who led his
master's children to school
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II. Home and Family Life

• Girls stayed at home and learned to run the
  household

In Athens, as in most Greek city-states except of
Sparta, girls stayed at home until they were
married. Like their mother, they could attend
certain festivals, funerals, and visit neighbors
for brief periods of time. Their job was to help
their mother, and to help in the fields, if
necessary
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III. Education and Military Service

• Wealthy men engaged in politics, intellectual
  conversations, and athletic activities

Athens Agora
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III. Education and Military Service

• Athenians valued education and boys studied
  reading, writing, grammar, poetry, music, and
  gymnastics

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III. Education and Military Service

• Athenians stressed the ideal of a sound mind in a
  healthy body

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III. Education and Military Service

• In the 400s B.C. schools for older boys were
  opened by men called Sophists

Near the end of the 5th century BC, a growing
demand for education spawned a class of teachers
known as sophists. They traveled throughout
Greece, giving lectures and teaching students.
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III. Education and Military Service

• Sophists taught government, mathematics, ethics,
  and rhetoric

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all criticized the
sophists, the traveling professional teachers who
taught pupils a variety of subjects, especially
rhetoric, the art of persuasive speaking. The
sophists taught people how to make the weaker
argument appear the stronger. They were more
interested in winning an argument than in
discovering truth.
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III. Education and Military Service

• At age 18, males received military training and
  then served a year either as hoplites, on the
  armys flanks, or rowing warships

The Greek Phalanx