FREE ESSAY ON A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ATHENS

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ATHENS

Welcome to Athens, the marvel of Greece! The city which is the fountainhead 
of beauty, wisdom and knowledge. Even as your ship approaches the Athenian 
Harbor Piraeus, you can see the marble monuments of the Acropolis and the 
Shining golden edge of the spear, which belongs to the gigantic statue of 
the goddess Pallas Athene. This is one of the greatest works of the sculptor 
Phidias, and symbolizes both the power and justice of the violet city as 
it's contemporaries called it.
Athenian women had virtually no political rights of any kind and were 
controlled by men at nearly every stage of their lives. The most important 
duties for a city dwelling woman were to bear children preferably male and 
to run the household. Duties of a rural woman included some of the 
agricultural work: the harvesting of olives and fruit was their 
responsibility.
Since men spent most of their time away from their houses, women dominated 
Athenian home life. The wife was in charge of raising the children, 
spinning, weaving and sewing the family's clothes. She supervised the daily 
running of the household. In a totally slave based economy, plentiful 
numbers of female slaves were available to cook, clean, and carry water from 
the fountain. Only in the poorest homes was the wife expected to carry out 
all these duties by herself. A male slave?s responsibilities were for the 
most part limited to being doorkeeper and tutor to the male children. 
Athenian women had very limited freedom outside the home. They could 
attend weddings, funerals, some religious festivals, and could visit female 
neighbors for brief periods of time. In their home, Athenian women were in 
charge! Their job was to run the house and to bear children. Most Athenian 
women did not do housework themselves. Most Athenian households had slaves. 
Female slaves cooked, cleaned, and worked in the fields. Male slaves watched 
the door, to make sure no one came in when the man of the house was away, 
except for female neighbors, and acted as tutors to the young male children.
Wives and daughters were not allowed to watch the Olympic Games as the 
participants in the games did not wear clothes. Chariot racing was the only 
game women could win, and only then if they owned the horse. If that horse 
won, they received the prize. . Women spent much of their time in the 
courtyard of the house, the one place where they could regularly enjoy fresh 
air. Athenian cooking equipment was small and light and could easily be set 
up there. In sunny weather, women sat in the roofed over areas of the 
courtyard, for the ideal in female beauty was a pale complexion.
Women?s clothes underwent relatively few changes in style. Greek clothing 
was very simple. Men and women wore linen in the summer and wool in the 
winter. The ancient Greeks could buy cloth and clothes in the agora, the 
marketplace, but that was expensive. Most families made their own clothes, 
which were simple tunics and warm cloaks, made of linen or wool, dyed a 
bright color, or bleached white. Clothes were made by the mother, her 
daughters, and female slaves. They were often decorated to represent the 
city-state in which they lived.
The two most commonly worn garments were the chiton or tunic and the 
himation or cloak. The chiton came in two styles. Its earlier Doric version, 
preferred by Athenian women until the end of the 6th century BC, was called 
the peplos and was made of wool. Cut into a simple rectangle measuring half 
again the height of the person wearing it, it was folded over, wrapped 
around the body, and pinned at the shoulders and side. It was sleeveless, 
with large arm openings. Expensive versions were decorated with elaborate 
woven figures or designs. The Ionian chiton was made of linen that fell into 
more elaborate vertical folds than its heavier wool counterpart. The sides 
were sewn up to create a long cylinder, which was then caught, by a girdle 
or cord at the waist. Short sleeves were added to the sides.
Athenian houses, in the 6th and 5th century B.C., were made up of two or 
three rooms, built around an open air courtyard, built of stone, wood, or 
clay bricks. Larger homes might also have a kitchen, a room for bathing, a 
men's dining room, and perhaps a woman's sitting area. Much of ancient 
Athenian family life centered around the courtyard.
The ancient Athenians loved stories and fables. One favorite family activity 
was to gather in the courtyard to hear these stories, told by the mother or 
father. In their courtyard, Greek women might relax, chat, and sew. Most 
meals were enjoyed in the courtyard. Greek cooking equipment was small and 
light and could easily be set up there. Along the 
coastline, the soil was not very fertile, but the ancient Greeks used 
systems of irrigation and crop rotation to help solve that problem. They 
grew olives, grapes, and figs. They kept goats, for milk and cheese. In the 
plains, where the soil was richer, they also grew wheat to make bread. Fish, 
seafood, and homemade wine were very popular food items. In some of the 
larger Greek city-states, meat could be purchased in cook shops. Meat was 
rarely eaten, and was used mostly for religious sacrifices. 
In ancient Athens, the 
purpose of education was to produce citizens trained in the arts, to prepare 
citizens for both peace and war. Girls were not educated at school, but many 
learned to read and write at home, in the comfort of their courtyard. Until 
age 6 or 7, boys were taught at home by their mother or by a male slave. 
From age 6 to 14, they went to a neighborhood primary school or to a private 
school. Books were very expensive and rare, so subjects were read out-loud, 
and the boys had to memorize everything. To help them learn, they used 
writing tablets and rulers.
In primary school, they had to learn two important things - the words of 
Homer, a famous Greek epic poet, and how to play the lyre, a musical 
instrument. Their teacher, who was always a man, could choose what 
additional subjects he wanted to teach. He might choose to teach drama, 
public speaking, government, art, reading, writing, math, and another 
favorite ancient Greek instrument - the flute. Following that, boys 
attended a higher school for four more years. When they turned 18, they 
entered military school for two additional years. At age 20, they graduated. 
Athens! 
Probably no other place has seen such a constellation of geniuses in so many 
fields of human endeavor. It was the Greeks who invented politics, science, 
philosophy, theater, and sports as distinct and meaningful human pursuits. 
And in Athens, all of these, together with poetry, art, and music reached 
their creative peaks. The cradle of democracy, Athens remains in many 
respects the model of fair government