Athenian Slaves and Women
Athens was Classical Greece's most famous city-state.In the Classical Athens's society,men were recognized as the superior beings,whereas women and slaves were the lower form of peoples in the society at that time.(Perry et al 1996:63).In this essay ,I'll first investigate the rights of Classical Athenian women and slaves from several different aspects and make comparisons between the two before judging whether women had significantly more rights than slaves.Firstly,from a political point of view,Classical Athenian society denied both women and slaves from and political rights.They were not allowed into the Assembly.This is because Classical Athenians believe that women are unable to reason intellectually ,they can't translate their reasons effectively and their reasoning lack authority because of their inferior status.(Cartledge 1993:70)The management of the city-state was strickly permitted to the free-mens only,who were the "superiors" as Aristotle once said:"The male is by nature superior and the female inferior and the one rules and the other is ruled."(Aristotle Politics cited in Perry 1996:63)Slaves were diminished,undoubtedly,by the Athenians too,as Aristotle said:"He[slaves]can recognise intelligence in others,alth
In conclusion,women of Classical Athens had slightly more rights than slaves,but the status gap between the two wouldn't be really significant.Only in certain matters where women had more rights than slaves,but overall,they both had almost equal rights,and most importantly they were the on the lower level of the Greek Society heirarchy,below free-men. Classical Athenian wives were women that were chosen by their husbands to share a life with them.This includes bringing up their children,contribute financially to the family,taking care of household chores and basically managing their entire house.(Xenophon Oeconomicus 6-10 Extracts paragraph 2)Both husband and wife have their own responsibility in the house and they both need the company of each other because own have the abilities that the other lacks,by this pairing,life in the family would be complete.(Xenophone Oeconomicus 6-10 Extracts paragraph4).On the other hand,slaves are considered as properties of their masters.To say,they serve their masters as if they were instruments (Cartledge 1993:124)in the house.They are expected to perform their duties according to their master's commands.From this perspective,women had a little more rights than slaves.
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Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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