Zara's Virtual Museum by Zara Martins

The Governing of Athens

zmartins — 2016-10-05 01:28:11 UTC

GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE
Athens had a very civilised governing system with a sophisticated way of preventing things like dictators. Athens was a democracy, which literally means 'for the people' in Greek. The citizens (male only) voted in the Ekklesia, a body of people of about 3500, who voted for things like passing laws, who to penalise and what to sentence in court. Then there was the Boule, a group of wise men who generated laws to be passed. All of these rulers were equal. Each year, the Ekklesia got together and voted on the most unpopular citizen to prevent any one dictator getting the upper hand. Athens was very advanced in governing for its time period. (Source A, B & D)
LAW AND ORDER
Athens was also a very civilized city-state with laws that tried to maintain peace. Every citizen had access to courts, voting on sentences for the accused and even the death penalty was a punishment. Any person could take a case to court, but it could take ages for the case to be cleared and justice to be distributed, and it was all timed by a water clock. The Juries let the Ekklesia vote on who to penalise and who to set free in complicated cases and normal thefts. A common punishment, the death penalty, was suicide, compared to modern day death penalties. A Scythian slave handed the accused a bowl of poison as Athenians believed no citizen should lay a harmful hand to another, as it hardened their hearts. The accused had to drink the poison. So law and order was very professionally handled in a technical, organised way.(Source A, B & D)

Religion in Athens

zmartins — 2016-10-10 07:27:15 UTC

GREEK GODS
Athenians believed in 20 Greek Gods, based on the daily parts of Greek life. Some of these Gods include Poseidon, God of the sea, Zeus, God of lightning, Hera, Goddess of marriage, women, childbirth, and family and their namesake, Athena, Goddess of wisdom, war, arts, useful crafts and more. These Greek Gods form the basis of Greek religion. (Source A & C)
WORSHIP
Athenians worshipped by going to temples nearly daily, building magnificent structures and oracles to the Gods and even some sacrificial practices. Athenians had a massive structure of Athena in one of their temples, which they left flowers and gifts at her feet. Athenians were very religious.(Source A & C)
FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS
The Olympics was the major sporting event held every four years from 776 BCE to AD 2016. But they very different to the Olympics we have today. These Olympics had long jump, discus throwing, javelin throwing, wrestling and boxing, and women were not allowed to watch. There was no marathon races or swimming. There was also the Pythian Games to honour Apollo, which involved gymnastics, chariot racing, singing and musical performances and another festival to honour Dionysus, God of literature, a competition of playwrights. The Ancient Greeks were big fans of festivities and celebrated many that are still celebrated today. (Source B)

Lifestyle in Athens

zmartins — 2016-10-10 08:01:59 UTC

SOCIAL CLASSES
In Athens, there were three social classes- Citizens, Metics and Slaves. Citizens were only males with an Athenian-born mother and father who lived very good lives with an excellent education. They were not always financially equal, but they were certainly politically equal and had the freedom of speech. Metics were freed slaves, foreigners or merchants who worked hard to earn a living. Metics could only become citizens if the Ekklesia chose to bestow citizenship on them. Slaves, if they were owned by citizens, could eventually buy their freedom and they worked in shops, houses or their masters' chosen workplace for money, but if they were state-owned, they worked long hours in a mine for no salary.Together, these made up the population of about 20,000 people in Athens. (Source A & B)
WOMEN AND GIRLS
Girls were usually confined to learning domestic and menial work until the age of 14. They were then married to a man of 30 or above in an arranged marriage and expected to have children and look after the house when he went out for the day as well as raising and teaching the kids. Women also had to manage the slaves and run the house when the husband left. They were not allowed to go into certain rooms of the house when their husband had company over. Women were the backbone of Athenian life and though they were not treated as much more than Metics, they helped keep Athenian life on track. (Source A)
MEN AND BOYS
Boys had more of an educational aspect to their lives. The boys were enrolled in school from 7 years of age, where they learned music, mathematics, literature and more. They lived at home throughout most of their education, and when they grew up and were able to marry, they bought a typical Greek house and had children at the typical age of 30, or they joined the military and, like Pericles, pursued the defence of Athens. Most men excelled in education, and became playwrights, musicians or mathematicians, forming the famous parts of Greece. (Source A)
CLOTHING
Clothing for men and women in Athens was quite restrictive of athletic movement and was the basis of what people think the typical Greek outfit was- a toga. Athenians actually wore a woollen chiton made of linen or a peplos, homespun and gathered and pinned at the shoulder; and when they went out, they wore a himation over their garments. Women wore a soft band, called a strophion, around the middle section of their torso. They usually wore leather sandals. Most of the Athenian clothing was exclusive and heavy, even in the summer. (Source A & E)
ENTERTAINMENT
The Athenians found entertainment in dancing, music, plays in the theatre, recitals, chariot races and sports. It was basically the arts that entertained the Ancient Athenians, after all, their namesake Athena was the Goddess of the arts and useful crafts. Women were not granted the privelige of viewing any type of entertainment. Many women could, however, find entertainment in going to the Agora, a marketplace which was recently excavated in 1927. This was where most people bought and sold goods. It wasn’t much entertainment, but it certainly kept them busy. Mostly only citizens could afford to see such spectacles as dancing and playwrights, as Metics and slaves were often the performers earning money through the performances. (Source C)

Athenian Military and Leaders

zmartins — 2016-10-10 09:50:20 UTC

PERICLES
Athenian life wasn’t focused on war, but it was involved in quite a few, because of Sparta, who started quite a few of them (and in a few of them they were forced to work as allies); but it was Pericles that Athenians really considered a great leader in the military and city-state. Pericles once bribed the Spartans to stop another major war between the two city-states, helped re-capture an island that revolted against Greece (the island, Samos, ended up surrendering after nine months of siege) and spent 14 years making Athens the wonder-city of it's time by building magnificent temples, structures and decorating Athenian life. He died of the Plague in Athens, 429 BCE after both his sons and his first wife died of the epidemic. Pericles won many great battles, saved, calmed and led the Athenians bravely for many years, and is considered one of the best Athenian leaders in Ancient History. (Source F)
ARMY
The Athenians did not need a constant army like Sparta did, but they certainly had one just in case. Athenian boys had the choice of joining the military once they turned 18, until the age of 22, which was the age when they could no longer join the army. However, any man under the age of sixty could be called on to join the army in a time of war. Unlike Sparta, Athens didn't make the military a mandatory life-choice for boys. In fact, the only time the military was compulsory was, as mentioned earlier, in a time of war. Once again, Athenian life shows it doesn’t revolve around war. (Source F)

INTRODUCTION

zmartins — 2016-10-20 04:48:20 UTC

Athens was an Ancient Greek city-state of about 20,000 people, but there is a modern-day Athens as well. Today, we are able to find more and more artefacts that show Athenian Lifestyle, Government, Military and Religions in an Athenian’s day to day life.

Olympics

zmartins — 2016-10-20 04:51:18 UTC

A discus thrower on a vase with a javelin.

CONCLUSION

zmartins — 2016-10-22 22:12:17 UTC

You can conclude that Ancient Athenian life can be considered easy by today’s standards. Slaves were able to buy freedom, women were confined to housework and citizens entertained by Metics and Slaves. They wore simple garments, unless they were citizens, and had simple lives. Their military was of high standards and their leader, Pericles, played an important part of Athenian history, especially because most of Athenian archaeological evidence is thanks to him. You can also conclude that ancient Greeks were very religious and had many spiritual and political beliefs, alongside their many festivals including the Olympics. They also had very civilised and fair ways of distributing law and order, with democracy and the people’s needs at heart. Athenian life was unchallenging and held the power to the people, making it a fair and just city to live in. You can conclude Athens was an advanced, civilised, undemanding city which was very just for its period in time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

zmartins — 2016-10-22 22:18:48 UTC

A) Textbook
C) Hicks, P. (1999). Ancient Greece. London, Great Britain: Wayland Publishing.
F) Macgregor, M. (2013-15). The Story of Greece. Retrieved 20/09/2016 from http://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=read&author=macgregor&book=greece&story=pericles
D) Martin, T.R. (n.d.) An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander. Retrieved 20/09/2016, from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0009%3Achapter%3D9%3Asection%3D2%3Asubsection%3D3
B) Sawyer, R. & Townsend, P. (1990). The Ancient World. Marrickville, New South Wales: Science Press.
E) University Press. (2012). Culture and Society . Retrieved 10/10/2016 from http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Clothing/