Ancient Greek Girls: Greeks lived in a family structure much like what is followed nowadays. A family usually consisted of a mother and a father and their children. Just like in the present, ancient Greeks preferred a male child over a female child as the boy would take care of the parents in their old age while girls would marry and go away.
Girls in ancient Greece were not given much importance. They were forced to live, controlled by the men in their lives i.e. father and brothers before marriage and husbands after marriage. Not many girls were sent to school as they were taught basic reading skills mostly at home.
Household Skills of Greek Girls
Greek Girls were made to learn various household skills like cooking, weaving, sewing, spinning and other household jobs. Girls were made to marry at an age of around 13-16 years to men of almost double their age or even more.
Dowry system was prevalent in ancient Greece and the girl’s father would have to arrange for the pre-decided dowry before the marriage. In case of a divorce, which was frequent, the girl would get the dowry back.
Marriages in Greek
Marriages in ancient Greece were normal and subtle compared to what we see today. When a girl used to move-in with a boy she was considered married and when she moved-out or stopped living with the boy, she would be considered divorced. Marriages back then would have some celebration and ceremonies but they were much subtle as compared to the current times.
The girl during the marriage would take with her a pomegranate or any other fruit which had many seeds as a sign of fertility. One of the prerequisites of marriage used to be the virginity of the girl.
Usually, girls would give birth to many children back then as a result of which their life expectancy would reduce to around 30-35 years. Greek Girls were not allowed to go out of the house except for going to some religious ceremony or weddings.
Ancient Greek women’s rights
Poor women had to go out to get water and some time to work in fields or sell vegetables etc. Most of the time women from rich households were always accompanied by a slave. Ancient Greece was where democracy was born, but women had no political rights.
People of ancient Greece had a lot of respect for their Goddesses but the actual women were not given much respect, especially if the girl could not give birth. When a new child was born it was up to the husband to decide if the child will be accepted or not.
If the child is not accepted then it will either be abandoned to be killed. Hence, the women did not have a voice in most of the decisions and were mainly responsible for household chores and raising children that were accepted.