Women of Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, boys were educated in schoolsAlthough today's women who read the educational
while girls were educated at home. In fact, evidencesystem of ancient Greeks can be lead to believe that
supports that women were educated at home exceptGreeks did not care about their women, historic
for music and dance lessons. Often educated by theirevidence suggests that in fact Greek women seem to
husbands, brothers, or fathers some Greek womenhave been the best educated women of any culture
became famous throughout history due to theirup until fairly recently, into the 19th century. As
advanced education level. But this was not common.sociologists and anthropologists support, culture
Women in ancient Greece were considered essentialinvolves skills that are passed on by education and
in order to take care of their families' well-fare, buttraining and are developed by discipline and practice.
education was not something they were allowed toAncient Greek women have always been involved
invest time in pursuing. The main idea behind thiswith their own culture related to the family and child
concept was that women did not need a formalupbringing. But the interesting fact remains that they
education because they did not need to compete withhave always been involved in early childhood
men. The fallacy of this is that women need to supporteducation as well. According to evidence, other
the work of the men and if they are not educatedsocieties involved women in later aspects of education
then they cannot provide support and will not be ablelater in history, but in ancient Greece the distinction
to educate their children.between women and men in education emphasized a
A specific category of ancient Greek women, whoseparate women's culture that had its special religious
attended special schools where they learnedholidays and festivals devoted to the worship of the
entertaining, conversation, and rhetoric, was thefemale spirit. In fact, music was one of the main
Hetaera group. Since these women kept company tosubjects for the education of women and some
men while they discussed and enjoyed long foodancient Greek women became important in the area
festivities, they needed to be better educated so as toof entertainment-not in ancient Greek theater where all
converse with the privileged men, but were notthe roles were played by men. In relation to music,
considered citizens. The ones who never received theancient Greece laid the theoretical foundation for
privilege of being educated were slaves (men orcontemporary polyphonic music so it is probable that
women). The interesting thing is that in case they hadthe women of Greece enjoyed success in that field.
been educated before they became slaves, theyFurthermore, before the Trojan War women in
were able to work and be considered to win backGreece were permitted to vote, but they lost this
their freedom.privilege because men felt that they voted
In principal boys learned grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic;irresponsibly. Unfortunately, Greek women did not
these were selected so as to help studentsregain their voting privileges until the twentieth century
communicate effectively. Moreover, the classic ancientas a result of various political, cultural and social
educational system included a study of literature andmisjudgments.
language, apart from arithmetic, music, geometry andFinally, it should be noted that the schools of ancient
astronomy. On the other hand, girls were taughtGreece were so effective and well-known that they
weaving and other household chores, like dancing,have been widely copied. This is true even for today's
music, and physical education. The girls that wereschools. Like ancient Greek schools, the day is divided
intended to become hetaerae-as mentionedby subject periods and a teacher presents his or her
above-also learned grammar, rhetoric and dialectic.subject matter to students, who are divided by age.