Ancient Greece: Encyclopedia II - Ancient Greece - Society

Ancient Greece - Society

The distinguishing features of ancient Greek society were the division between free and slave, the differing roles of men and women, the relative lack of status distinctions based on birth, and the importance of religion. The way of life of the Athenians was more common in the Greek world than Sparta's special system.

Ancient Greece - Social Structure

Only free people could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a city-state. In most city-states, unlike Rome, social promenece did not allow special rights. For example, being born in a certain family generally brought no special priviliges. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in the government. In Athens, the populations was divided into four social classes based on wealth. People could change classes if they made more money. In Sparta, all male citizens were given the title of "equal" if they finished their education. However, Spartan kings who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families.

Slaves had no power or status. They had no right to have a family, own property, and did not have legal and political rights. Children born into slavery became slaves themselves. Greeks took many slaves from non-Greek peoples, but they also enslaved other Greeks in war. No free Greek is known to have ever advocated the abolition of slavery, and the Greek philosopher Aristotle referred to them as "living tools". By 600 BC chattel slavery had spread in Greece. By the 5th century BC slaves made up one-third of the total population in some city-states. Slaves outside of Sparta almost never revolted because they were made up of too many nationalities and were too scattered to organize.

Most families owned slaves as household servants and laborers, even poor families might have owned one or two slaves. Owners were allowed to beat or kill their slaves, yet hurting good workers made no economic sense because the master would be hurting his own property. Owners often promised to free slaves in the future to encourage slaves to work hard. Unlike in Rome, slaves who were freed did not become citizens. Instead, they were mixed into the population of metics, which included people from foreign countries or other city-states who were officially allowed to live in the state.

City-states also legally owned slaves. These public slaves had a larger measure of independence than slaves owned by families, living on their own and performing specialized tasks. In Athens, public slaves were trained to look out for illegal counterfeit coinage, while temple slaves acted as servants of the temple's deity.

Sparta had a special type of slaves called helots. Helots were Greek war captives owned by the state and assigned to families. Helots raised food and did household chores so that women could concentrate on raising strong children while men could devote their time to training as hoplites. Their masters treated them harshly and helots often revolted.

Ancient Greece - Way of Life

For a long time, the way of life in the Greek city-states remained the same. People living in cities resided in low apartment buildings or single-family homes, depending on their wealth. Residences, public buildings, and temples were situated around the agora. Citizens also lived in small villages and farmhouses scattered across the state's countryside. In Athens, more people lived outside the city walls than inside.

A common Greek household was simple, containing bedrooms, storage rooms, and a kitchen situated around a small inner courtyard. A household consisted of a single set of parents and their children, but generally no relatives. Men were responsible for supporting the family by work or investments in land and commerce. Women were responsible for managing the household's supplies and overseeing slaves, who fetched water in jugs from public fountains, cooked, cleaned, and looked after babies. Men kept separate rooms for entertaining guests because male visitors were not permitted in rooms where women and children spent most of their time. Wealthy men would sometimes invite friends over for a symposium. Light came from olive oil lamps, while heat came from charcoal braziers. Furniture was simple and sparse, which included wooden chairs, tables, and beds.

Ancient Greek food was simple as well. Poor people mainly ate barley porridge flavored with onions, vegetables, and cheese or olive oil. Few people ever ate meat regularly, except for the free distributions from animal sacrifices at state festivals. Bakeries sold fresh bread daily, while small stands offered snacks. Wine diluted with water was a favored beverage.

Greek clothing changed little over time. Both men and women wore loose tunics. The tunics often had colorful designs and were worn cinched with a belt. People wore cloaks and hats in cold weather, and in warm weather sandals replaced leather boots . Women wore jewellery and cosmetics, especially powdered lead gave themselves a pale complexetion. Men grew beards until Alexander the Great created a vogue for shaving.

Medicine in Ancient Greece was limited. Hippocrates helped seperate superstition from medical treatment in the 5th century BC. Herbal remedies were used to reduce pain, and doctors were able to perform some surgery. But they had no cure for infections, so even healthy people could die quickly from disease at any age.

To keep fit and to be ready for military service, men exercised daily. Almost every city-state had at least one gymnasium, a combination exercise building, running track, bathing facility, lecture hall, and park, open only to males. City-state festivals provided great amounts of entertainment. Gods were honored with competitions in music, drama, and poetry. Athenians boasted that their city hosted a festival nearly every other day. Huge Panhellenic festivals were held at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea, and Isthmia. Athletes and musicians who won these competitions became rich and famous. The most popular and expensive competition was chariot racing.

Ancient Greece - Education

For most of Greek history, education was private, except in Sparta. During the Hellenistic period, some city-states established public schools. Only wealthy families could afford a teacher. Boys learned to read, write, and quote literature. The also learned to sing and play one musical instrument and were trained as atheletes for military service. They studied not for a job but to become an effective citizen. Girls learned to read, write, and do simple arithmetic so they could manage the household. They almost never received education after childhood.

A small number of boys continued their education after childhood. While they were teenagers, they studied philosophy as a moral guide in life, and rhetoric to help make persuasive speeches in court of a political assembly. In the Classical period, this training was necessary for an ambitious young man. One important part of a wealthy teenager's education was a mentor relationship with an elder. The teenager learned by watching his mentor talking about politics in the agora, helping him perform his public duties, exercising with him in the gymnasium, and attending symposia with him. The richest students continued their education to college, and went to a university in a large city. These universities were organized by famous teachers. Some of Athen's greatest universities included the Lyceum and the Academy.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Society", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki