Daily Life in Athens

1. Daily Life in Athens

2. Public Life • Boys who lived in Athens in ancient Greece understood that they were the ones who would be active in government one day. Men held the most important titles in Greece.

3. Marketplace • On the way to school, boys passed through the Agora of Athens. The Agora was the center of public life as the Acropolis was the center of religious life. • Agora – public market and meeting place. The Agora was held outside because of the mild climate in Greece.

4. Agora of Athens

5. Agora of Athens (drawing)

6. Business of Men • Early in the morning, many Athenian men made their way to the Agora. Once there, they talked politics, philosophy, or current events. • As they talked, they would hear the shouts from vendors – sellers of goods in the marketplace. Buyers and sellers often debated the price of goods.

7. Private Life • Throughout ancient Greece, homes were plain. They were constructed of mud brick rooms set around an open courtyard in the middle. • Rooms included a kitchen, storeroom, dining room, bedrooms, and the occasional bathroom. • The Greeks ate simple foods: • Breakfast – Usually just bread. • Lunch – olives with bread. • Dinner – Served hot and included fish and vegetables. Meat was hardly ever eaten.

8. Women in Athens • Most women stayed at home and away from the Agora. Greek men thought that women needed to be at home for protection. • Women could not participate in politics, vote, or own land. • A woman’s primary job was to run the household. In some wealthy households, women had completely separate quarters (their own area of the house).

9. Women in Athens, cont. • Women organized the spinning and weaving of yarn, looked after the food and wine, and cared for the children. • Women also looked after the family finances, and if the family owned slaves were responsible for them as well. • If a woman belonged to a poor family, she would make pottery or tend sheep to help make money for the family.

10. Slavery in Ancient Greece • Slavery was very important in Athens because it gave the men time to participate in government and politics at the Agora. • Slavery – condition of being owned by someone else. • History estimates that perhaps 100,000 slaves lived in Athens. (The population of Athens at the time was only around 310,000 including the slaves.)

11. Who Were the Slaves? • People became slaves either because they were conquered in battle or because they were taken by pirates on the seas. Children born to slaves were automatically slaves themselves.

12. Lives of Slaves • Slaves had no privileges and were the lowest class in Greek society. They received no education and held no political rights. • Some slaves worked on farms, some worked in silver mines, and some worked with artisans to make pottery or other goods. Other slave tasks included constructing buildings, and making weapons.