The Roles Of Spartan Women By Sarah B. Pomeroy

Spartan Women by Sarah B. Pomeroy, is a book on the roles of women in Sparta. The book revolves the daily lives of Spartan women and goes in depth about the elite and lower classes. The women of Sparta are commonly believed to be unimportant and to have an insignificant role in society. Most primary sources were not from Sparta itself and were usually written by other people such as Plutarch and Xenophon. Pomeroy work on ancient Greek history has led her to try and better understand the women of Sparta. Despite the fact that little is relatively known about Sparta’s society, Pomeroy argues that Spartan women are important and highly influential because they were symbols of beauty, educated, powerful, and wealthy.
Sarah Pomeroy is an ancient historian and author who is known for writing women’s history. She was …show more content…
The first three chapters focuses on motherhood, which was an important theme in Sparta. The men were made to be warriors and the women were made to be mothers. Education was important in shaping a girls future, which is discussed in the first chapter. Then becoming a wife and the roles of a mother shows why the Spartans revere women. In chapter four and five, Pomeroy discusses the elite and lower class women of Sparta. While there is much information about elite women, this group was few in numbers. Elite women were often royalty or wealthy. This was the exact opposite for the lower classes. The lower class women vastly outnumbered the elites and upper class, but not much is known about them. Often history and sources focus on the upper class. Pomeroy discusses about women who were not Spartans but were ruled by them. These slaves and second-class citizens were known as the helots. In the last chapter, religious is the topic. While the numbers of religion is large in numbers in Greece, the Spartans focuses on religious that emphasize female beauty, health and