Section 4: Daily Life in Athens

I. The Athenian EconomyMost Athenian citizens were farmers who grew olives, grapes, and figs on terraced hillsides

I. The Athenian Economy

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

Greece and Its Colonies, 550 B.C.

I. The Athenian Economy

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

II. Home and Family Life

Athenians built magnificent temples and other public buildings

II. Home and Family Life

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

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.

II. Home and Family LifeThe main purpose of marriage was children, but if parents could not afford to raise the baby, it was left to die

II. Home and Family LifeParents loved their children, as shown in an ode the female poet Sappho wrote to her daughter

Poets Sappho and Alcaeus

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).

II. Home and Family LifeWomen 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.

II. Home and Family Life

A woman’s 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

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

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

III. Education and Military Service Wealthy men engaged in politics, intellectual conversations, and athletic activities

Athens Agora

III. Education and Military Service Athenians valued education and boys studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, music, and gymnastics

III. Education and Military Service

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

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.

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.

III. Education and Military Service At age 18, males received military training and then served a year either as hoplites, on the army’s flanks, or rowing warships

The Greek Phalanx