Women
Ibycus
'Thigh Flashers'
Writing 6th Century BC
Aristotle
Women's Independence contributed to Sparta's failure
Gives little detail about their actual lifestyle
They were given too much control and were free to seek luxury
Women owned 2/5 of the land in Laconia by the late 5th Century- this lead to oliganthropia. Money married money so land was unevenly distributed.
Fathers chose who a woman married. She had no independence here.
This wasn't just women's fault. Lycurgus' laws were designed to increase birth rate. A man with more sons would have to further divide his state and so on, leading to oliganthropia.
Herodotus
King Ariston married twice. After neither wife gave him a child, he married his friends wife, forcing them to divorce. Demaratus was born 7 months later.- women were objects to be swapped and chosen.
c.499- Gorgo, Cleomenes' daughter warns him not to accept Aristagoras' bribe. Cleomenes took this advice.
c.521 King Anaxandridas had no children with his wife so ephors wanted him to dovorce and remarry. He refused but took a second wife.- Women were just pawns. Their job was to give birth, if they couldn't do that, there was no use for them.
When the original wife became pregnant, ephors watched the birth to ensure it wasn't fake.
Spartan women could voice opinions and be listened to, but this may have been because she was royalty.
Story told in 491 when Cleomenes wanted rid of Demaratus, so may have been fictional.
Alkman
'Maiden Song'- there is a premium placed on looks 'long legs' and 'yellow hair'.
Girls compare themselves to the choir leader who is likened to a horse, strong and beautiful.
7th Century BC
Xenophon
Other Greek girls would learn to weave and do sedentary tasks, Spartan girls 'took part in contests of speed and strength'
Implied girls were encouraged to drink wine like boys
If a widowed man did not wish to remarry, he could seek to breed with a women who had already birthed healthy children.
Older men were encouraged to allow younger men to impregnate their wives.
Permission had to be granted by the husband.
Husbands were not meant to spent too much time with their wives. Younger husbands were expected to sneak in and out of their house to see their wife.
Make them more desperate for sex when they met, therefore the sex would be more vigorous, creating stronger children.
Plutarch
Hagiography of Lycurgus
Plutarch says that Aristotle suggested men were submissive to their wives. Though he thought Aristotle was wrong because Lycurgus placed laws to regulate women's lives.
Running, wrestling, discuss and javelin- toughened to breed strong children and withstand childbirth.
Spartan women married later than elsewhere. When in their 'prime and ripe'
500 years after Classical period
A ritual where a women, future bride, would have to shave her head and dress as a man. The man would sneak away from the syssitia and have sex with her. The 'capture'
Frowned upon for young husbands to be seen visiting their wives for sex. Visits had to be secret. Apparently women would devise schemes to secretly meet their husbands for sex.
Head shaving homoerotic or symbol of transition from unmarried to married. (Spartan men wore hair long)
Men wouldn't see their wives in daylight until they'd given birth. -Fictional? Misunderstood the practice that marriage was only legally binding once a child was conceived?
No notion of adultery in Sparta but later (end of classical period?) women became known for their laxity.
Women would wash their babies in wine. An unhealthy child would lose its senses, a healthy child would grow stronger.
Lack of prostitutes in Sparta makes this evidence debateable
Nurses (unclear, could be helots) trained boys and girls not to be fussy, afraid of the dark, not to cry.
Polygamy not accepted, but this was necessary to produce an heir.