Mystery of Education

Vista Alegre Bilingual Center

History

Greek society

Monthly Exam

Daphne Sanchez

9°C

Vernon Villareal

11/01/2022
 Greek society was slave-owning and therefore very
unequal. It was composed of two groups of people:
the free and the slaves. The free belonged to no one,
and could own slaves, depending on their wealth.
They were divided into two categories:

Citizens: they possessed political rights, so they could

vote and elect public offices, as well as be elected
themselves as such. In the polis of Athens, the children
of Athenian fathers and mothers were considered
citizens. They paid taxes and were obliged to serve in
the army. Many of them were farmers or merchants.
They constituted a minority. It is estimated that in the
5th century BC, of the 400,000 inhabitants of Athens,
only about 40,000 were citizens.

Non-citizens: in Athens they were called

"metecos" and were emigrants residing in the
city. In Sparta they were called "periecs". They
were free men and women, but lacked political
rights and could not hold public office. They
were usually engaged in handicrafts and trade.
Some of them came to hold great fortunes.
Slaves were deprived of any kind of rights.
Both men and women of that condition, very
abundant in Greece, were deprived of
freedom and were property of the free men or
of the State. The condition of slave could be
reached in various ways: by being a prisoner of war, by being
the child of a slave father and mother, by debt, abduction, etc.
The living conditions of the slaves varied greatly: they were not
the same for a prized slave who worked as a teacher or doctor
as for a non-specialized slave who worked in agriculture or
mining. In any case, their owners had absolute control over
their lives and their legal consideration was that of mere
merchandise.

The Free Women in Greece

lacked political rights. They
were subject to the male,
whether he was the father or
the husband, and their
movements were very
restricted. Those who belonged to wealthy families rarely left
their homes, and within it they had their own particular space
assigned to them: the "gynaecium". Many activities reserved
for men (such as attending games) were forbidden to women.