Essay Networks

Greece a country united by its name, but divided by its ways. Although Sparta and Athens were both Greek cities, their societies were different. Sparta was focused on having a perfect military, whereas Athenian daily life revolved learning and knowledge. When Spartan boys were being trained for an army, Athenian boys were being trained for life.

Sparta was a city-state based on strict military ruling. Lives of Spartans revolved around military. The education given was meant to create Spartans into soldiers. Not only were the Spartans raised to be military-minded, but they were also expected to be a disciplined marching army. The strict rules of the government made it so that every Spartan was to be physically fit. Those rules would be easier to deal with than some of the other laws that were firmly instituted. Such as, when a baby was born, Spartan soldiers came to see if the baby was healthy. If the baby did not seem to be healthy and strong, then the infant would be taken away and left to die on a hillside. The baby would be left to die, but if the baby was not taken away to die, then the infant would be trained to be slave (or helot). Now, if an infant was found to be perfectly healthy, then the child was assigned a brotherhood or sisterhood. They were usually assigned to the same one as their mother or father.

Schooling in Sparta started at age six or seven. The children were not well fed and the boys were taught to steal food. When they stole food, they could not get caught, for if they were caught, there were great consequences. There was an anecdote that speaks of a boy who stole a fox because he wanted to cook and eat it. Then, as two Spartan soldiers came near, he shoved the fox beneath his shirt. As he spoke to the soldiers, he allowed the stomach to eat through his stomach rather than admit to stealing and suffer the consequences. Mere children underwent brutal and horrid training. The boys marched without shoes and slept on hard beds. The boys did not get a break until they were sixty years old.

At the age of sixty, a Spartan soldier could retire and live out the rest of his life with his family at home. Even if a Spartan man was married, he could not live with his wife or his family. The barracks were his home for most of his life. Soldiers ate and slept in their barracks. There lives were there with their brotherhood.

Athens was a city-state based on knowledge and learning. The schooling of the two city-states greatly differed. Schooling in Athens started at about the same age as in Sparta, but the curriculums were greatly different. In Athens, students were taught to be more peaceful, but to be prepared for war. The only war training that the males of Athens received was two years of military training when they turned eighteen year old. Other than that, the boys went to school at their parents’ discretion. Although Athenian schools were private, the low tuition cost allowed even peasants to send their children to school.

In both Sparta and Athens, girls went to school from the age of six to approximately the age of eighteen. In Sparta, females had to pass a fitness test in order to be assigned a husband. If they did not pass, then they became a member of the middle class. Spartan girls are thought to have been trained just as the boys were, whereas in Athens, girls were taught domestics at school and how to read and write at home.

Athens and Sparta greatly differed in numerous ways, although they were both a part of Ancient Greece. Spartans taught children to steal and kill, whereas Athenians were taught Philosophy and only a minor amount of military skills at the age of eighteen just in case. It is amazing to see two city-states of the same country differ so greatly from one another.