Women: land ownership, inheritance, education
The topic of Spartan Women has many different interpretations of it through modern and ancient writers. Though this does not mean that there is little information about them, they are written of regularly. Not all historians make a correct judgement which we see through two modern historians Sarah B Pomeroy1 and Paul Cartledge2. They both believe that there is bias from all the male writers though it was impossible for females to write during this time and even if there where writings what could stop them from being bias. Cartledge states that Xenophon was ‘sexist’ and the “His ideas about Spartan women were doubtless shaped by prior influences and experiences” on purpose which is a ridiculous remark.
Spartan Women where more privileged than most women as they had more freedom. Aristotle3 describes this by calling it a “life without restraint” and having a “licence”. Aristotle is a reliable source as we can compare him to Xenophon an Athenian who wrote that the Spartan Womens rights where to free. Aristotle wasn’t an Athenian even though he had lived in Athens so comparing both primary source writers we can rely on Aristotle. Aristotles claim which is re enforced by Plato4 is that “ Spartan women enjoyed authority in oikos and owned and managed property”, “ the women indulged in all sorts of luxury and licentiousness”. Though again we see a disagreement as Plutarch5 rejects this view. Plutarch “admired the importance of women furthering the revolutionary program”6 and therefore he was favourable to the behaviour of women. Though Plutarch is not a very reliable source and there are only useful aspects of information which are not obtainable anywhere else that can help us such as Kings of Agis 4. Richard J.A Talbert7 writes that “ Plutarch came to write lives through his study of philosophy rather than history, the lives are biography not standard history”. Obviously this makes it hard to extract the important...