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    Women in Sparta

    Filed Under history, movies 

    Late Friday night, the DH and I tagged along with my brother and his wife to see 300. The DH was excited because he loved Sin City, and is fascinated by the warrior codes and battle formations of ancient societies. I strongly disliked Sin City (though I do understand its appeal to so many men), but I share his interest in ancient cultures and mythology.

    So anyway, we talked for a long while about it the next day. He and I both had some prior knowledge of the Spartan way of life, but spent some time reading up on the Battle of Thermopylae in particular. Truth truly is stranger than fiction. I was quite impressed at how basically every over-the-top aspect of Spartan life depicted in the movie was strongly rooted in historical record (I cannot say the same for the depiction of Xerxes; I don’t know anything about him being pierced everywhere and made up like a drag queen).

    What most intrigued me in my readings, however, was the way in which Spartan women were virtually equals in their societies. I found it very curious that Sparta - as militaristic and pragmatic as it was - was the only place in Greece where women had a great deal of personal freedom and power. The women of those Greek states that were rich in philosophy and the arts were really viewed as inferior. So why was Sparta different? Was it precisely their pragmatism that caused them to have such progressive views about women? Not to say that they were well informed about all things - they practiced infanticide, too.

    Any thoughts or information about this? I’ll have to look more into this later - I’ll put that on my list of “Someday” activities.

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