Ancient Greek Women
In ancient Greece women were viewed as property. As a child a girl was property of her father and as a married woman she was property of her husband, who was chosen for her. Ancient Greek women had little to no freedom outside the home. Women could attend weddings, funerals, some religious festivals, and, on occasion, she could visit female neighbors. The front door of a woman’s home is known as the boundary of a good woman’s territory. When a woman’s husband is invited out he may take his children, but not his wife. When a husband had friends over, the wife could not join them (Golden, 72). Also, it was an offense for a woman to speak to a man who was not her near relative. It was once said by someone unknown that his sisters and nieces were “so well brought up that they were embarrassed in the presence even of a man who is a member of the family” (Golden, 72). Women were property of men and shouldn’t be seen or heard. Women of today’s modern society have the freedom of choice to participate in activities that ancient Greek women were not, such as events in the Olympics, professional sports, and sexual intercourse and pleasure with whom she chooses.
Since women were not allowed outside of their homes they were unable to watch history being made. I am talking about the ancient Olympic games. Not only were women excluded as competitors, but as spectators as well. One woman, however, had an influence on the Olympic games when she broke taboo; she even provoked a rule change. A mother disguised herself as a trainer and slipped into the Games to watch her son’s boxing match. After his victory she leaped a barrier to congratulate him and thus revealed herself. From then on out trainers, like athletes, must be naked (Golden, 67). Barred from the Olympic games women held their own Olympic games in honor of Hera, the sister-wife of Zeus. During this festival unmarried girls competed in a footrace 5/6ths the length of the men’s, according to a Web page sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Golden also stated that women competed in wrestling and chariot races in the Olympics in honor of Hera, however, I found no information supporting this statement in any other source I used. Towards the end of the Pre-Christian era women increasingly became emancipated and their short races were introduced in the Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games. women competing in soccer, wrestling, boxing, just this weekend I saw women competing in sumo wrestling for the first time on ESPN, women have been competing in In conclusion, women of modern society are free to do what they choose unlike women of ancient Greek society. Ancient Greek women could not participate in the Olympics or even watch them for that matter. Today women are competing in all the same even
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Approximate Word count = 1112
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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