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The Society and Politics of Sparta, 478–404 BC

The education of Spartan girls

  • 2 things to know
  • Component Group 1

Overview

Recall questions on the girls' races, wrestling and discus, why they did no spinning or weaving, their festival choruses, the age of marriage, Lampito in Lysistrata, Plutarch's reliability, Alcman's maiden-songs for Hagesichora and Agido, and the bronze running-girl figurine in the British Museum.

What you need to know

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Key term

Where were Spartan girls brought up, and how was this different from the boys' arrangement?

Key term

Why were Spartan girls not taught spinning and weaving as Greek girls elsewhere were?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Where were Spartan girls brought up, and how was this different from the boys' arrangement?

    Model answer

    Girls stayed in their family homes rather than living in barracks, but the state organised public physical training for them.

  2. 2

    Name three athletic exercises Spartan girls were trained in.

    Model answer

    They ran races, wrestled, and threw the discus.

  3. 3

    Why did the Spartan state train its girls physically?

    Model answer

    Strong and healthy women were expected to bear strong children and to survive childbirth, so their training served the state's need for future soldiers.

  4. 4

    Why were Spartan girls not taught spinning and weaving as Greek girls elsewhere were?

    Model answer

    Helot women did the household textile work, so a Spartiate woman was trained instead to command a household and to produce and raise children.

  5. 5

    What public role did girls perform at Spartan festivals?

    Model answer

    They sang and danced in choruses before the whole community, praising brave men by name and mocking those who had failed.

  6. 6

    How did the singing of Spartan girls at festivals reinforce the values the state wanted in its men?

    Model answer

    Praise and ridicule delivered in front of everyone made a young man's reputation depend on the opinion of the women as well as the men, so it added shame and honour to the pressure to fight well.

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