Why was Spartan women 10 marks? (1 Viewer)

[cazza.]

i just talkd about spartan women aswell, but comapred them to athenian women. also in explaining their significance i said that they were significant because through childbearing they produced the spartan warriors.

 

[frankyd]

i thought it was a good 10 mark question... if you know stuff bout women. it is spartan society, and women were a big part in society.. birthing, inheriting, control of house when husband not home, propagandists, singing, poetry. heaps of stuff. good question.

Yeah I agree with you I think that you could have brought in everything you discussed.

Also, there is the historian opinions... ie Aristotle and his fears of female power and Gynokokratia

 

[makemyday]

I mean there just isn't that much content comparing to kings, perioeci, government and social life.

all i said was child bearing child bearing child bearing, be a wife to citizen, xenophon says child bearing blah blah produce strong boy.

What else can someone write so much on spartan women, they have no political power and don't contribute much?

well you could have talked about her education, landownership rights, her role in mangaing property and was signifant in the transfer of wealth [ spartan marriage: wealth married wealth], her role in relgious festivals eg; the parthenion and yeh bascially her ultimate goal being to produce healthy offspring i suppose.

 

[makemyday]

I mean there just isn't that much content comparing to kings, perioeci, government and social life.

all i said was child bearing child bearing child bearing, be a wife to citizen, xenophon says child bearing blah blah produce strong boy.

What else can someone write so much on spartan women, they have no political power and don't contribute much?

well you could have talked about her education, landownership rights, her role in managing property and was signifant in the transfer of wealth [ spartan marriage based on: wealth married wealth], her role in relgious festivals eg; the parthenion and yeh bascially her ultimate goal being to produce healthy offspring i suppose.

 

[LynH1326]

Well, if you actually went into their roles, women do have a big part of society. They influenced the men to "come home with their shield or on it" and they publicly humiliated their sons, husbands ect if they did run away from battle. They had a role in religious ceremonies and were treated near equal due to their status as women and child bearers. Should've read into Xenophon.

CHILD BIRTH IS A BIG PART OF SOCIETY... IF THERE WAS NO CHILD BIRTH THEY WOULD HAVE ALL DIED OUT CENTURIES BEFORE!

It was rightly worth 10 marks to distinguish those who know all the details and those who have nooooo idea.

 

[karoooh]

It was an ok question. I'd have prefered the Agoge instead of the women though.

On the Agoge, did we have to write the STAGES of the Agoge, or just it's significance to Sparta and the education of boys? Because I wrote the latter and I usually write about the former and get fabulous marks. Now I'm not so sure. :S

 

[Kezia]

10 marks on Lykougous, I think I'd just die if I saw that.

I think they could have swapped the agoge and the women question around and it would have been more appropriate (in terms of marks), but there was enough to talk about either way.

yes agreed!! seroiusly all i know is that lycurgus gave them their laws/great rhetra thing..
thought the rest of the sparta questions were ok, but i dont really remember reading a whole lot of stuff about spartan women and religion?? i thought the source was a bit weird... did anyone know much about it?

 

[Ussia]

Omg women had nothing lol .... bullshit bro there signifance lol .. man they produced strong warrior like soliders...(children.. theme) also they could own land which other greek women could that is signifacnt. !!!! .. interact with the men -train athletics ..so they could train aswell... , be involved in relgious festivals ( played there role in society )..shows ..that they could accomplish more then other women in the greek world ..compare to say athens .. Omg also i mention about xenophon writing bout a famous spartan women chariot racer ... so shows there equalism.. whoever i said they couldnt vote etc.. " the mother where to provoke there men into being brave " Thucidyies ..writes of the old spartan proverb women and wifes would say to the men before the battle " come back on your shields not carrying them" .. this shows there warrior like tradition /customs.... Omg Goodluck fellas and ladies .!!!!.

 

[Ussia]

they couldnt own land other greek women srry ..

 

[hwall]

The child bearing is an important role in society but theyr also have the value of inculcating the children into society stressing Spartan values before they enter the agoge. There other important role of women is look after the Kleros while the men are at military training, controlling the helots, ensuring that produce is collected in order maintain citizenship through syssitia contributions.

 

[Cabrello]

I thought the come back on your shield or carrying it line was part of the sayings of spartan women...oh well

Theonly way they could've asked 10 marks on Lykurgus is if everyone in the state had read the life of Lykurgus, and even then for people to use other sources would be difficult because that would be the source htey'd give us.

 

[leetom]

I had never seen the source before, and I didn't know much about the religious role of women other than their inclusion in some of the festivals. Did anyone notice the woman in the source had short hair? I thought perhaps she was conducting some ritual in preparation for marriage, thinking of the marriage customs.

I should have read the question properly. It says the 'significance of women in Spartan society", rather than just 'Spartan women', which meant it would have been ideal to write about perioeci and helot women as well.

I was a bit stunned by the agoge question. The 'role' in the education of the boys? I thought the agoge was everything, and took a line that the agoge was a constant feature of Spartan society, noting that even when gaining citizenship the boys changed from students to mentoring the new generations in the agoge. I finished by saying that in a way, Spartan society was the agoge. Which, looking back, doesn't describe the role at all.

 

[The Brucemaster]

they couldnt own land other greek women srry ..

Care to translate this?

I thought it was a pretty fair question, as has been said it will hopefully act as a discriminator for a lot of people.
Also, you don't HAVE to agree with the question, it said evaluate so you were quite able to say they had little significance as long as you had reasonable evidence to back it up.
Having said that I think this would be a lot harder to do and there is certainly a lot of evidence to support the significant role that Spartan women played in society: religion, land ownership, marriage/fertility and education.

I think comparing them to other Greek women is actually a good way of showing their significane because it gives you a standard to compare to. There's an entire section in Plutarch where he talks about the significance of Spartan women, their role in society and how they are perceived by other Greek women.

In short, there was plenty of info so theoretically there shouldn't have been any problems.

 

[emm*]

i was so happy with that question! pretty sure i predicted nearly every sparta question no joke...went to past papers n saw wat they previously asked. was really quite freaky. dont worry im sure u did fine

 

[Royalist]

Because there are Feminists corrupting the BOS.
Naw yeah thats what i heard.
The question was very easy to answer though

 

[Cabrello]

I had never seen the source before, and I didn't know much about the religious role of women other than their inclusion in some of the festivals. Did anyone notice the woman in the source had short hair? I thought perhaps she was conducting some ritual in preparation for marriage, thinking of the marriage customs.

I should have read the question properly. It says the 'significance of women in Spartan society", rather than just 'Spartan women', which meant it would have been ideal to write about perioeci and helot women as well.

I was a bit stunned by the agoge question. The 'role' in the education of the boys? I thought the agoge was everything, and took a line that the agoge was a constant feature of Spartan society, noting that even when gaining citizenship the boys changed from students to mentoring the new generations in the agoge. I finished by saying that in a way, Spartan society was the agoge. Which, looking back, doesn't describe the role at all.

Very nice pick up on the short hair. Missed that quickly. Thinking about it more thoroughly, I think I treated this question really superficially and focused more on just putting down everything I knew about Spartan women. I didn't know anything about periokoic and helot women so I just didn't even think about that aspect of it