The cities of Athens and Sparta were both advanced for their time, but differed in their idea of appropriate women’s roles. While Spartan women were relatively important to the social and political spheres, women in Athens were considered nothing more than breeding machines to produce men for the society’s powerful army. Aside from the fact that both groups of women were married for the sole purpose of bearing children, there are hardly any similarities between the treatment of women in Sparta and Athens.…
Due to gender difference the society places men and women in unequal positions. Men are considered superior and capable of being leaders while women are considered inferior to their male counterparts. Traditionally, it was assumed that women were incapable of reasoning but were endowed with the capability of nurturing the society. It was also believed that the position of women…
Plato’s Republic provides insight into what Socrates believed to be the ideal society. However, Arlene Saxonhouse critiques the way he portrays women in his society, saying that he “turns women into men.” Saxonhouse goes on to explain that what Socrates does to women, he also does to philosophers by turning them into politicians. I agree with Saxonhouse’s criticism because she exposes the inconsistency in Socrates thinking, however I feel that she does not give enough notice to the overall capabilities of women in politics.…
Women in Ancient Greece were often seen as inferior and unintelligent, they quite rarely made impacting decisions. Women were not allowed to own property or have a job that could earn them real money, they legally belonged to their father or husband. Despite the lack of power women had in Ancient Greece, Homer did not take that into account while writing. In The Odyssey, women are critical to Odysseus’ trials, and successes.…
barely any say in what they can do. Therefore, women are considered inferior to men in The Odyssey and in ancient Greek culture.…
One thing that could have influenced women’s roles in society is the philosophy and the religion of the time. The religion of a society can dictate everything about people’s everyday lives, from what they wear, to what food they eat. Moreover, religion can especially influence how people treat and perceive others. The main religion of Ancient Greece at the time was the polytheistic Greek mythology that revolved around the twelve major Olympian gods and goddesses. While women did have a strong presence in the mythology with some of the most prominent gods being goddesses, such as Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the patron of Athens, the women in Greek myths were often very archaic stereotypes. They were usually either trying to stir up trouble for the male heroes or they were undyingly loyal to their husbands. “Myths and literature abound with female characters trying their best to derail the plans of male heroes, from the supreme witch Medea to the deadly, if lovely, Sirens. They can also be represented as ruled only by wild passion and ecstatic emotion such as the Maenads. In contrast, the ideal chaste woman loyal to her absent husband is epitomized by Penelope in Homer’s Odyssey” (Cartwright). Besides religion, another thing that greatly influenced society’s thinking was the philosophy of the time. In Greece, the most notable philosophers were…
Plato and Aristotle both understood the importance of wisdom and virtue in founding a good regime. In their writings, they suggest the effect they felt a ruler had on a regime and vice versa. Where Plato saw a linear slope of five increasingly misguided and degenerating regimes, Aristotle saw six regimes: three true and three corrupt. Each regime has a ruling political good. This will be more apparent in Plato’s Republic, but is also present in Aristotle’s Politics. They agree that a good ruler will yield a good regime, but differ in their opinions of how the perfect regime should be managed. It’s important to note which people qualify as citizens and their status relative to the regime. Both philosophers set out to identify the capabilities and dynamics of all regimes and devise a way to achieve the best possible regime to channel human ambition and desire.…
In today's society, most men often take some type of dominant role over women, varying from higher paying jobs, certain real life stereotypes, education, etc. Although it is like this today, some societies and cultures in prehistory varied from patriarchy to matriarchy and even to gylany. Throughout my essay I will be touching on how vital women were, the roles they played in ancient times and the switch between cultures from equalitarian to patriarchal. One quote that supports one of my ideas about today's societal norms is from The Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas “We are still living under the sway of that aggressive male invasion and only beginning to discover our long alienation from our authentic European heritage-gylanic,…
Ancient Greece is arguably the birthplace of democracy, a society built on principles of equal rights and privileges. Ironically equality did not exist in this democracy because women could not vote. Woman had no say in government because they were not considered citizens. Women were treated as inferior to men, subjected to stay at home, marry and bear sons. This was a much maculated society. Sophocles lived from 497-406 B.C.E in Ancient Greece during this form of democracy. His plays reflect the ancient Greek society such as gods, kings, and woman. In the tragedy Antigone the male gender have a dominate role in society symbolizing power and dominance whereas women are believed to be beautiful and submissive. Sophocles in his tragedy demonstrates the imbalance of genders and the consequences of men who abuse their power and women who step out of the boundaries society place them in.…
Throughout history, cultures from around the world has set hat standards for women to abide to. Up until the twentieth century, women were viewed as second class citizens by society and had less freedom and rights than their male counterparts as compare today in the modern world where women can be more involve in society. Although women still face discrimination such as the glass ceiling in the business corporate world, the quality of life of the western woman today has drastically improve from what women used to face on a daily bases for example a Greek woman from the classical era of the tragic play Antigone by the Greek writer, Sophocles. Antigone portray the role of women of in a Greek society by having two opposing characters, Antigone and her sister, Ismene, with two different contrasting perspectives of morality vs. law on opposite sides of the spectrum in addition having a male view of how women should and should not act .…
Women of most cultures are secondary to men. Because women can’t work in the fields and don’t have the same strength, they generally come second in the hierarchy. Even today, though it may be unintentional, that’s how it is.…
Throughout the ages, many people feel they have a statement to make, and make this statement through literature. Although at first glance, Homer's "Iliad" may not seem to be a criticism of society, underneath all the violence and deep storylines there is a message dying to get out. In the culture of the Iliad, mortal women are treated as property rather than human beings. While the gods attempt to treat the goddesses the same way, the goddesses are quick to assert themselves and claim equal power. This is Homer's way of saying that the attitude towards women in his time period is wrong and unjustified. While men worship goddesses, they still treat women as lesser beings.…
In a society that was purely patriarchal and misogynistic, women in the ancient world had few rights. Men and women were usually separated into different worlds, each with their own set of responsibilities and rules to follow. It is hard to fully define what women were like in antiquity simply because there can be no such thing as a “typical woman”, women differ from polis to polis and depended on social and economic background. The one thing that was expected of any woman was to belong to citizen families and maintain that family by giving birth, preferably to future male citizens.…
Sexual orientation: Ireland: lesbians may be denied pap smears because it is believed that they cannot get some disesases or infections…
First of all, Plato insisted that women would be inferior in performing the same task as men. Although Plato was a progressive in the view of the role of women in an ideal city, he was still influenced by the traditional view of women’s native culture. Plato’s vision of an ideal society was based on the necessity for productivity from all of the members, which women were expected to work as much as men. In this ideal society, individuals were valued based on their abilities to produce rather than their sexual roles (454d). As a result, women in this society had a chance to be valued outside of their traditional roles of being wives. Plato insisted that women were capable of the same tasks as men, but stated that women would definitely be weaker in performing them (466c). According to Plato Republic, Plato thought women were somehow physically weaker than men that even though they could do the same job, such as cutting down the trees, they still could not perform at the same level as men did. (467b)…