Page 108 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

(Opposing Viewpoints continued)
with races and wrestling and discus and javelin throw- ing, so that the embryos formed in them would have a strong start in strong bodies and develop better, and they would undergo their pregnancies with vigor and would cope well and easily with childbirth. He got rid of daintiness and sheltered upbringing and effeminacy of all kinds, by accustoming the girls no less than the young men to walking naked in processions and dancing and singing at certain festivals, when young men were present and watching. . . . The nudity of the girls had nothing disgraceful in it for modesty was present and
immorality absent, but rather it made them accustomed to simplicity and enthusiastic as to physical fitness, and gave the female sex a taste of noble spirit, inasmuch as they too had a share in valor and ambition.
Q InwhatwayswerethelifestylesofAthenianandSpartan women the same? In what ways were they different? How did the Athenian and Spartan views of the world shape their conceptions of gender and gender roles, and why were those conceptions different?
Sources: Xenophon, Oeconomicus. Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Xenophon, Memorabilia and Oeconomicus, Loeb Classical Library Vol. IV, translated by E. C. Marchant and O. J. Todd, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Copyright a 1930, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Loeb Classical Library is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans, Aristotle, Politics, and Plutarch, Lycurgus. From Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Socrates. Edited by Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland. London: Routledge, 1994, pp. 393–95. Copyright 1994 Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland.
Women were kept under strict control. Since they were married at fourteen or fifteen, they were taught about their responsibilities at an early age. Although many managed to learn to read and play musical instruments, they were often cut off from any formal education. And women were supposed to remain at home, out of sight, except when attending funerals or festivals. If they left the house, they were to be accompanied.
Male homosexuality was also a prominent feature of Athenian life. The Greek homosexual ideal was a rela- tionship between a mature man and a young male. It is
most likely that this was an aristocratic ideal and not one practiced by the common people. Although the relationship was frequently physical, the Greeks also viewed it as educational. The older male (the “lover”) won the love of his “beloved” by his value as a teacher and by the devotion he demonstrated in training his charge. In a sense, this love relationship was seen as a way of initiating young men into the male world of po- litical and military dominance. The Greeks did not feel that the coexistence of homosexual and heterosexual predilections created any special problems for individu- als or their society.
Chapter Summary
The earliest Greek-speaking people migrated into Greece about 2000 B.C.E., and by 1600 B.C.E. they had established a Greek civilization, known as Mycenaean civilization from Mycenae, one of its major cities. After its collapse in the twelfth century B.C.E., Greece entered a Dark Age. With the end of the Dark Age around 800 B.C.E., the era of the polis, or city-state, began. The polis was a community of citizens ruled by its male citizens. The two most famous city-states were Sparta, a militaristic polis ruled by an oli- garchy, and Athens, which became known for its democratic institutions in spite of the fact that many slaves and women had no political rights.
The Greek city-states flourished and reached their height in the classical era of the fifth century B.C.E. The century began with
70 Chapter 3 The Civilization of the Greeks
the Persian wars, which tem-
porarily unified the Greeks,
who were victorious against
the powerful Persian Empire.
But the growth of an Athenian
empire led to a mighty conflict
with Sparta—the Peloponnesian War—that weakened the Greek city-states and ultimately opened the door to an invasion by Phil- ip II of Macedonia that put an end to their freedom in 338 B.C.E.
The civilization of the ancient Greeks was the fountainhead of Western culture. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle established the foundations of Western philosophy. Herodotus and Thucydides created the discipline of history. Our literary forms are largely
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