Jade


 * __ SPARTAN GIRLS __**

Spartan girls were kept at home to do work around the house starting when they learn to walk. They learn some if lucky and serve their family proud. Rich women wouldn’t do anything around the house. Instead, they would have peasant girls do all the work for them. The women of the house would be treated extremely important until the man of the house came home. Than the woman would be treated just like the c hildren. If a women gave birth to a weak child, they would throw it over a cliff or hillside, or give it to a service to become a slave. Babies don’t get named usually a week or two after birth, because babies had a good chance of dying the second day of their life. Usually people would burry the baby if it was born and than died the day after these days. But then, Spartans would just throw it over a cliff or hillside. To find out if the baby is weak or not, the mother would bath the baby in red wine to see it’s reaction. If it would start panicking, the mother would say that the baby is weak. Women disliked the idea of disposing of the weak, but she had no say in what they did. Peasant women would keep their children weak or strong, because any child would be help to earn money by working in the fields with her. Children played with toys such as rattles, yo-yo’s and small clay animals. Girls were born to stay home and help their mothers around the house and in the fields. Girls didn’t get to go to school, so they got educated by their mothers. Only some girls learned to read and write, because it was a very hard thing to teach. Some girls even learnt ancient secret songs and dances, depending on how rich they were. It was illegal for a girl age ten and under to hold a knife unless they were cooking and cleaning. Otherwise, they would be taken away to become a slave. Some were even killed depending on what she was doing with the knife. Girls had to stay home until they got married. Girls at twelve and thirteen were considered adults and were expected to get married and have children. Rich girls would marry men their father or brothers choose who they would marry. Peasant girls would meet their husbands in fields while working for money. Rich girls usually had up to seven husbands. Girls can only leave the house when there is a funeral to go pay respects. Many do so they will have people come to theirs. They were even sometimes allowed to go to special events and festivals. Peasant women would only go to festivals to serve food for little money.

**__ SPARTAN BOYS __** Spartan boys were kept under certain circumstances from the Spartan law. Boys had school, military, learning their fathers trade, work and marriage. They were expected to keep their city-state in the right direction and to be a leader in everything they did. Men were the most important in Sparta. Even the peasant men were treated with great respect, while peasant women would be treated like dirt and would be abused from strict rich families. In ancient Sparta, boys were considered more than girls. That was because they were strong and could do so much more than girls in that way. Women and girls depended on the men to protect them from any danger. Most peasant boys were weak and the rich always gave them mean looks and some even spat at the peasants feet. Peasant boys were embarrassed and were told that they had no reason to be living, and that they can’t do anything useful because they weren’t strong like they should be. Boys went to school at age six or seven. Girls didn’t go to school, instead they were at home getting taught by their mothers how to cook and clean and keep the house in straight order. When boys turned seven, they would get taken away and get sent to get trained in the military. They would stay there until age thirty, when he would be done his training and would wait at home until there was war and they would need him. Young boys would stay at home helping with fishing and sailing waiting to be able to enter school. Boys would also learn their father’s trade. They would use their father’s trade to be smart and trade with others getting a better deal than the other. Their father would tell their son to make friends with very wealthy people. They would do that because that would mean that they had a good trade and they would tell the boy their families trade if they got close enough. Boys would tell each other stories about the Spartan way. A popular story was about a boy that was very hunger and found a fox, but hid it under his shirt to hide it from the guards so the boy wouldn’t get in trouble, not showing any pain in his face while the fox was chewing through his stomach. Spartans were proud of this story because it meant that they were strong. Boys were considered youths until age thirty, that’s why they can’t leave military training until they reach that age. Boys usually don’t marry until they reach their middle thirties. They don’t marry until in their thirties because they don’t come back from war until than. Older boys and even men were paid to beat the small boys in the military to toughen them. Otherwise, they would get hurt easily in war and would get killed much faster. They would also lose more of they’re army and the other would just seem like it’s getting bigger. Boys sixteen start looking for jobs if they don’t want to be in war. That hardly happened, because in Sparta they made it seem like that was the reason men lived. The job of men was to protect their city-state. If not wanting to be in war, popular jobs were businessmen and Olympic athletes. Boys would do sports such as gymnastics, wrestling, running, jumping and throwing to keep strong and healthy. Many men died a hero, discoverer or athlete. Men were the commanders of the house and would get buried in grounds special to the family. After the man of the household would die, the woman would look for another husband to support her family. She would usually look in places where the rich would go, such as in the expensive areas of the market or horse ranches. When she would get married again, they would move into a new house and live life until that man would die.