Men and Women in Ancient Greece

What would your life be like if you were part of the Ancient Greek Civilization?

To view a timeline of the ancient Greek culture CLICK HERE

Men in Greece

Men in Ancient Greece had much more power or stature than women did. Their activities encompassed politics, the theatre, and work focused around agriculture and trade. Much of the artwork within this time depicted warfare, as this was a time of many wars, control struggles, and instability, or uneasiness.

Women in Greece

A woman’s role in Greek society was completely different! Women did not have any rights, and were controlled by men. Women could not vote, and participate in many of the Greek theatre activities. Greek women could really only attend weddings, funerals, and state religious festivals, these are places that women were looked at as having important roles. The most important role that women had included having children and organizing the family life. She would cook and take care of the household, while the males were out hunting or tending to political agendas.

* Interesting fact: Many families had slaves. It is expected that a large number of people were slaves at this time. Duties of slaves included being a keeper of the house, tutoring, and allowing for men to enjoy politics, and the arts

Where did they live?

Many houses had two or three rooms in them and were not ornate, but rather simple. One special feature about their houses was that there was usually a courtyard surrounded by rooms. Other houses that you might find as you travel around cities in ancient Greece would be similar to houses you would see today. Main rooms included the kitchen, bathing room, and bedrooms. One interesting room, the gynaikonitis, was a room or woman’s suite.

There were also parties that men would have after the evening dinner, they were called symposiums. Female entertainers or servants could attend, but Greek culture and custom did not allow the wives and daughters of the guests to be invited.

Now we know what daily life was like, lets see what theatre was like in Ancient Greece!

 
 

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