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Agora: Life of Women of the Ancient Greek Society as Portrayed in the Movie

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Agora: Life of Women of the Ancient Greek Society as Portrayed in the Movie
In Ancient Greek society women had a lower social status than males, they were mistreated degraded and controlled. They were controlled by men whether it was their father or their spouse, females very given little voice, if any, in major decisions. The social life of women in Ancient Greek often mirrored the submissive female image. They were confined indoors because ‘working out of doors’ was thought to be a place for women to become potential ‘prey’ for rapists and seducers. Therefore they spent most of their lives in the household learning to read, learning household skills such as weaving and sewing, the house was considered to be a secure or safe place; however, inside the home, women were often raped by their own husbands. Women only left the household to perform religious duties. In ancient cultures women were seen as objects for they were ‘given’ in marriage by the father to the soon to be spouse, women were only seen as child bearers and housewives. In Ancient Greek theatre women were thought to be insignificant compared to that of Greek men. The roles of women in Greek drama are all roles conceived by men, because all the ancient playwrights were men. In Agora women are not treated nearly as badly as they were in normal Greek society although Hyatia is the only main female character in the film she is still not respected as much as she should be, one of the main reasons she is not looked up to is because of her peculiar (at the time) occupation, in the time of Ancient Greek normal everyday citizens did not find it relevant whether the earth was flat or round so in their eyes her occupation was a waste of time and wasn’t worth their attention as shown by most of the students. Although she is not mistreated and abused she was not treated with the respect that she deserved as she was the daughter of the director of the Musaeum of Alexandra, Theon, and she had made amazing scientific discoveries. Hypatia made a large impact when she handed Orestes a bloody

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