Athenian Slaves and Women essays

Athenian Slaves and Women essays Athens was Classical Greeces most famous city-state.In the Classical Athenss society,men were recognized as the superior beings,whereas women and slaves were the lower form of peoples in the society at that time.(Perry et al 1996:63).In this essay ,Ill first investigate the rights of Classical Athenian women and slaves from several different aspects and make comparisons between the two before judging whether women had significantly more rights than slaves. Firstly,from a political point of view,Classical Athenian society denied both women and slaves from and political rights.They were not allowed into the Assembly.This is because Classical Athenians believe that women are unable to reason intellectually ,they cant translate their reasons effectively and their reasoning lack authority because of their inferior status.(Cartledge 1993:70)The management of the city-state was strickly permitted to the free-mens only,who were the superiors as Aristotle once said:The male is by nature superior and the female inferior and the one rules and the other is ruled.(Aristotle Politics cited in Perry 1996:63)Slaves were diminished,undoubtedly,by the Athenians too,as Aristotle said:He[slaves]can recognise intelligence in others,although he has none... (Aristotle Politics Extracts paragraph 5).This gives expression that slaves do not have the intelligence to rule,and therefore should be ruled .Women and slaves did not take part in any political activi ties and both shared the same levels in this field of politics. The city-state of Classical Athens had a population of around 100,000 people(Lewitt 2000:7)and the Assembly was the place to meet to discuss the matters of the city-state,but not all 100,000 could attend at once to discuss,therefore,there was a ruling that said only citizens were allowed to attend(Lewitt 2000:7).This implied that women and slaves werent ...