Athens and Sparta

            Ancient Greek cities ruled themselves.  Athens and Sparta were two vastly diverse cities, located in Greece.  There are merely a few similarities between these towns.  Athens is an artsy, people-loving kind of city, while Sparta is a burly, warlike city, with no respect for human life. 

Athens:

          Art and Architecture in Athens was exceedingly important.  Pottery, painting, weaving, and sculpting are some examples of their art, as well as singing, acting, reading, and writing.  Their architecture was extremely ornate.  It includes the Propylaea, a half completed entrance monument to the Acropolis; the Parthenon, a marble temple to Athena; and the Erechtheum, a temple to Poseidon, Athena and a legendary king named, Erechtheus.  This last temple includes a south porch with a roof supported by six, marble maidens.  Pericles built two of these marvels.

          The Athenians believed that there were many Olympian gods; Aphrodite (love and beauty,) Artemis (Moon and Hunting,) Athena (wisdom,) Demeter (harvest,) Hera (marriage and queen of the gods,) Hestia (home and hearth,) Zeus (lightning and king of the gods,) Poseidon (sea,) Hermes (travel and merchants,) Hephaestus (fire,) Hades (death,) Dionysus (wine and festivity,) Apollo (sun and music,)and Ares (war.)  These gods and goddesses could be helpful, or plain nasty!  When Greeks died, they believed they would become ghosts and float down to the underworld, where they would be judged.  Very good souls and heroes went to a place called Elysium, common folk went to Asphodel Fields, and criminals went to a great pit called Tartarus, where they were tortured.  A three-headed guard dog named Cerberus guarded the gates to the underworld.

          Athens was a peaceful city.  The people enjoyed freedom and knowledge.  At the age of seven, boys began participating school and finished at the ripe age fourteen.  Girls however, learned everything at home from their Mothers or nursemaids.   They were not allowed to participate in the Olympic games, and only unmarried women were permitted to watch.  Men could partake in any game, but only entered if they excelled in a particular sport.  Chariot racing, discus throwing, running, jumping, wrestling, martial arts, boxing and horse racing were the usual sports in the Olympics.

Sparta:

          Sparta was not the art-loving city that Athens was, however there were a few Spartans who sculpted and created other pieces of art.   They were rare folk, and did not surpass the Athenians in their art.  Spartan art was slightly shapeless and boring, due to their roughness.  There were only a few monuments and temples in Sparta.  Two of these would be the Menelaion, a monument to Menelaos and Helen, and the Amyklaion, a temple to Apollo.

          Spartans also believed in the Olympian gods, the underworld and Cerberus, but they pictured the gods as crueler beings.  They believed that Artemis (who was kind to the Athenians) was pitiless and vindictive.  They also felt closer to Zeus, rather than Athena, and called themselves descendants of Hercules, a son of this great god. 

          Spartan life revolved around war and discipline.  Both girls and boys went to train in the barracks at around six or seven.  The boys were taught reading, writing, music, dancing, wrestling, gymnastics, survival skills and war drills.  The girls are thought to have learned these things also, but we don’t if their training was as harsh.  Between the ages of eighteen and twenty, the youths had to pass a fitness test.  If they failed they became perioikos or middle class citizens.  If a girl passed, she became a citizen, was assigned a husband and given the rights to own land or run a business.  If a boy passed, he too became a citizen, but a warrior.  Spartans also partook in the Olympic games.

          As you can see, these city-states each had their  own pros and cons.   They had many more differences than similarities.  Women had more freedom in Sparta, but had to endure rough training, unlike Athenian women.  Men in Athens were quite intelligent, but could not fight as well as the Spartan men.  Athens and Sparta were unique in their own ways.

~Abby Lauren Dortch

6^th grade, 10-17-11