Manners & Customs

Burial Rituals and the Afterlife of Ancient Greece

As seen in the literature of ancient Greece, tombs and rituals of the wealthy were extravagant. Gold and jewels were essential grave offerings of respectable and honored tombs, perhaps used as a way to display wealth and status. It seems the wealthier you were the more elaborate your final resting place. The ancient Greeks had distinct methods of b...

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Everyday Life in Ancient Greece

Centered within a loose collection of city-states (often at war with one another), ancient Greek culture reached its pinnacle during the fourth century BC - an era described as its "Golden Age." Art, theater, music, poetry, philosophy, and political experiments such as democracy flourished. Greek influence stretched along the northern rim of the Me...

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Death and Funeral in Ancient Greece

The Funerals. An Athenian's Will.--All Menon's patient's are to-day set out upon the road to recovery. Hipponax, his rival, has been less fortunate. A wealthy and elderly patient, Lycophron, died the day before yesterday. As the latter felt his end approaching, he did what most Athenians may put off until close to the inevitable hour--he made his w...

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Children of Ancient Greece

Babies born in ancient Greece often had a difficult time surviving. Many died in the first couple days of life; therefore, babies did not receive names until the seventh or tenth day of life. If a baby was born deformed, it might have been abandoned on a mountain (female babies were abandoned more often than males). Sometimes abandoned babies were ...

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Ancient Greece Daily Life

How would you have behaved if you had lived in ancient Sparta? (Lie, cheat, steal, because that is the Sparta way!) Or in ancient Athens? Or in Corinth, Argos or Megara? The ancient Greeks were very proud of their city-state! They were also proud of being Greek. The ancient Greeks were thinkers. They loved to talk. They honored their gods and respe...

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Marriage in Ancient Greece

In the ancient Greek society, marriage was regarded as an auspicious relationship. Marriage was very important to carry family chain.n the Greek culture, every respectable woman became a wife if she could. In marriage, there was hardly room for choice. Destiny played an important role in solemnizing marriage....

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Ancient Athenian Women

What was the role of women in Athens? To live, controlled by the men in their lives. Their father controlled them before they were married. Their spouse controlled them once they were married . What did girls do? They learnt to read- in school or at home. They learnt important household skills-spinning, weaving, sewing, cooking and other household ...

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Marriage (Gamos) in Ancient Greece

How Athenian Marriages are Arranged.--Over this typical Athenian home reigns the wife of the master. Public opinion frowns upon celibacy, and there are relatively few unmarried men in Athens. An Athenian girl is brought up with the distinct expectation of matrimony.[*] Opportunities for a romance almost never will come her way; but it is the busine...

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Ancient Greek Education

The Greek Gods were much more down-to-earth and much less awesome than the remote gods of the East. Because they were endowed with human qualities and often represented aspects of the physical world--such as the sun, the moon, and the sea--they were closer to man and to the world he lived in. The Greeks, therefore, could find spiritual satisfaction...

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Culture of Athens

The class system in Athens was made up of two distinct classes- slaves and citizens. These classes were rarely open to any of the other classes; citizenship alone was given only to male Athenians. The same hierarchy of classes existed within other Greek city states as well (an even finer division can be drawn when looking at the social structure of...

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