Short Paper: Women in Ancient Greece.

Short Paper: Women in Ancient Greece.

The attitude toward women presented in the few sources that were analyzed seemed to be quite different. It seemed that society then, could not determine what exactly a women's "acceptable" role and behavior should be. Even though society was confused with the attitudes and preconceptions of "who" women should be, philosophers voiced several different opinions on this controversy.

In "The Republic", Plato defends that women should be presented as an equal to men. He makes this point clear in his writing to conclude that women are just as qualified to hold a government position as men. To Plato, this is because he feels that all people are naturally competent of some task, and he sees that women have the ability to guard just as well as men. He feels that there would be something missing from the government if women were excluded because women are part of the society too.

Plato.

Herma of Plato, Musei Capitolini, Rome

English: The School of Athens (detail). Fresco, St...

(Page 160)

He also refers to the impractical ways that women were being treated during that time. He feels that they were being held at a lower level of society and comments on the unnatural way women were living. (Page 160)

Plato also defends women's role in producing good offspring. He makes it clear that women's job in birth isn't just to bear the child and deliver it, but to offer good attributes through genes which she may have. He says that the best women should mate with the best men as much as possible, and the worst women should mate with the worst men as seldom as possible. This is Plato's way of building the best society as possible. (Page 162)

On the other side of things, after reading "The Poems of Sappho of Lesbos and Semonides of Amorgos", there...