Women in ancient Sparta

"Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?"
"Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men."

Gorgo, Queen of Sparta and wife of Leonidas, as quoted by Plutarch

Spartan women were famous in ancient Greece for having more freedom than elsewhere in the Greek world. To contemporaries outside of Sparta, Spartan women had a reputation for promiscuity and controlling their husbands. Unlike their Athenian counterparts, Spartan women could legally own property and inherit, and were probably better educated.

Our knowledge of the lives of women in Sparta is limited, however, and frequently rests on conjecture, as the written sources we have are limited and from a largely non-Spartan viewpoint. As Anton Powell puts it, to say that the written sources are "'not without problems'... as an understatement would be hard to beat".

Youth

“for modesty attended them, and there was no wantonness in their behavior”

Unlike their male counterparts, it seems that all Spartan girls were reared, and Plutarch tells us that after birth they were immediately given to the care of women. Unlike their male counterparts, who were sent away from home at the age of seven to go through the agoge, Spartan girls would have been raised at home by their mothers.

Formal education

Female education is vague and rarely mentioned as in a formal class setting, presumably taking place in the home. It is at least documented that wealthier women wrote letters to their sons and it is therefore assumed that they could read and write. It is more clearly understood that women studied mousike, which consisted of the arts, music, dancing, and poetry. Given the Spartan focus on community as a family, it is considered possible that girls were also taught in a community-run institution that was given equally to all Spartan families.

Physical training

File:Spartan woman.jpg

Bronze figurine of a girl running, probably from Sparta

Female Spartan babies were, unlike their counterparts in Athens, as well fed as their male counterparts. This, like their athletic training, was in order to have physically fit women to carry children and give birth.

The Spartan exercise regimen for girls was designed to make them "every bit as fit as their brothers. They learnt to ride, and votive offerings have been discovered depicting Spartan women on horseback. Other exercise for Spartan women included running, wrestling, throwing the discus and javelin, and "trials of strength". It is possible that Spartan girls exercised naked, and Archaic Spartan art certainly portrays naked girls, unlike the art of other areas of Greece.

Girls also frequently competed in gymnopaedia, the Spartan festival of naked youths. Women were also known to compete in the Olympics and other important athletic events, usually wrestling.

Marriage

Spartan women seem to have married relatively late relative to their counterparts elsewhere in Greece. While Athenian girls might have expected to marry for the first time around the age of fourteen, Spartan girls might have waited until they were between eighteen and twenty, and probably married men who were around the age of 25. Unlike in Classical Athens, it seems that Spartans did not give dowries when their daughters married. This may have been to encourage Spartan men to marry women most suitable for giving birth to and raising strong children, rather than being concerned with their family's wealth.

Spartan men were legally obliged to marry from at least 500 BC, though those under thirty were not permitted to live with their wives, but instead had to visit them in secret at night. Even after they reached thirty, they were still expected to spend much of their time living in the barracks rather than the family home.

The evidence for the role of kyrioi (male guardians) in arranging Spartan women's marriages is not decisive, though Cartledge believes that like their Athenian (and unlike their Gortynian) counterparts, it was the responsibility of the kyrios to arrange a Spartan woman's marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride would have her hair cut short and be dressed in a man's cloak and sandals before being left alone in a darkened room, where they would be visited and ritually captured by their new husband. Married Spartan women were forbidden from wearing their hair long.

There is some evidence in ancient sources that the Spartans practiced polyandry. Herodotus says that the bigamy of Anaxandridas II was un-Spartan, but Polybius wrote that it was common at his time, and a time-honoured practice. Along with plural marriage, older men seem to have allowed younger, more fit men, to impregnate their wives. Other unmarried or childless men might even request another man’s wife to bear his children if she had previously been a strong child bearer. Even less evidence exists for the suggestion by the first-century AD Jewish scholar Philo that maternal half-siblings were permitted to marry in Sparta.

Spartan women were allowed to divorce their husbands without fear of losing their personal wealth. As equal citizens of the community, women could divorce and were not required to or discouraged from remarrying. The unique family unit of Sparta also did not force the woman to relinquish her children, as biological paternity was not important in raising the children.

Matriarchal duties

As Spartan men spent much of their time living in barracks or at war, Spartan women were in charge of the household. Aristotle was critical of the Spartan treatment of women on the grounds that in Sparta, men were ruled by their women, unlike in the rest of Greece.

All Spartan women, not just the richest, would have taken advantage of helot labour to perform the domestic tasks that elsewhere in Greece would have fallen to free women. Activities such as weaving which were considered women's work elsewhere in Greece were not considered fit for free women in Sparta. Therefore, women were more preoccupied with governance, agriculture, logistics and other sustenance tasks.

At any given moment the Spartan polis would have consisted of predominantly women, given that half of the men were at war. When the men weren’t stationed they were preoccupied with training and remained separated from their homes leaving the women to completely dominate the household. This is why socially and politically women managed and led the community.

Spartan law codified under Lycurgus expressed the importance of child bearing to Sparta. Breeding and raising children was considered an important cultural function in Spartan society, equal to male warrior in Spartan army. Under Spartan law, women who had died in child birth and men who died in battle both earned the honor of having their names inscribed on their gravestones.

Spartan women were encouraged to produce many children, preferably male, to increase Sparta's military population. They took pride in giving birth to a brave warrior. Being the mother of a popular warrior was a high honor for a Spartan woman.

Spartan women acquired so much wealth that in Aristotle’s analysis of the laws and history of Sparta he attributed its precipitous fall (which happened during his lifetime) from being the master of Greece to a second rate power in less than 50 years to the fact that Sparta had become a gynocracy whose intemperate women loved luxury. These tendencies became worse after the huge influx of wealth following the Spartan victory of the Peloponnesian War, leading to the eventual downfall of Sparta.

Religion

All Greeks worshipped generally the same gods, but location denoted a region’s emphasis on different gods. For instance, Spartans held warrior gods much higher than peaceful gods. Women more specifically worshipped gods associated with beauty, health, fitness, and childbirth (like Eileithyia).

Spartan women also participated in cults centered on local heroes or myths. The cult of Helen was important in Sparta, with many objects used by women – mirrors, eye-liners, combs, and perfume bottles, for instance – dedicated at her cult sites. As well as two major cult sites, a shrine to Helen was located in the centre of Sparta, and many steles featuring her were carved and displayed in the city.

Cynisca, the first woman to win an Olympic victory, also had a cult in Sparta, the "only woman on record" to have been thus commemorated.

Plutarch writes, in his life of Lycurgus, that only men who died in battle and women who died while holding a religious office should have their name inscribed on their tombstone. This would be consistent with the Spartan reputation for piety, though Latte emended the manuscript to read instead that women who died in childbirth would have named memorials, a reading which is accepted by many scholars. This emendation, on the basis of two funerary inscriptions for Spartan women, has been questioned by Dillon.

Clothing

Spartan women's clothing was simple and notoriously short. They wore the Dorian peplos, with slit skirts which bared their thighs. Many foreigners remarked that Spartan women’s legs were constantly spread. Since women did not weave their own clothes and instead left the creation of goods to the perioikoi, the purchase of elaborate cloth and of metal bracelets was a sign of wealth. It is unknown whether women wore these silver and gold bracelets at all times or if only for religious ceremonies and festivals. Women were also not allowed to grow their hair long.

Famous Spartan women

• Helen of Sparta (Helen of Troy)
• Queen Gorgo (wife of Leonidas I)
• Cynisca – famous chariot racer
• Euryleonis - famous chariot racer
• Arachidamia
• Chilonis (daughter of Leotychidas)
• Chilonis (wife of Cleombrotus II)

See also

• Women in Classical Athens