Greek Daily Living Essay, Research Paper

Some people believe that no civilization has ever been able to compete with today’s western culture and lifestyle. However, the ancient Greeks with their amazing ingenuity were able to develop an amazingly high standard of living for their time. Although the Greeks had little technology, they had a creativity that enabled them to live much in the same way as current civilizations founded over a thousand years later.

Don Nardo, the author of the book Life in Ancient Greece, described Greece as a warm, dry, and mountainous region about the size of New York State (10). The weather and topography of the region greatly affected the style of homes in Ancient Greece. Michael Poulton described these styles homes in his book Life in the Time of Pericles and the Ancient Greeks. Conditions were cramped in the cities and towns. Nearly all rooms opened into the central courtyard. Solid walls on the street side of the home provided security. A single door to the home was locked and bolted. Since the Greeks spent most of their time outdoors, most homes had little luxury (Poulton 53).

All homes contained little furniture. The master of a wealthy house may have a chair and a footstool while the women and children only used stools. The dining room included large, comfortable couches and small, nearby tables for eating. Other common household furniture included beds, chests, storage boxes, and large baskets for storage and shopping (Poulton 54). Olive oil lamps of either pottery for poorer families or bronze and silver for richer families provided lighting in the home (Poulton 54).

Water was scarce in ancient Greece and had to be piped in from springs in the surrounding hills. Few homes had wells, but most families sent their slaves to public cisterns or bought water from the water carriers. The Greeks often bathed in large, shallow bowls and used clay pots called chamber pots as toilets (Poulton 54).

Nardo described the Greek family or oikos as consisting of parents, children, grandparents, servants, and slaves (Nardo 12). Poulton declared the Greek man’s main purpose as producing children, preferably boys. Since there was no social security or respect given to the elderly in ancient Greece, children were important to the care of their elderly parents (Poulton 58). A new baby was presented to the household gods. The decorations on the doorframe indicated the sex of the baby; crowns of olive leaves symbolizing wealth and good fortune indicated a boy while wool symbolizing a life of housework and child rearing indicated a girl (Poulton 58). Louise Schofield, the editor of the book Ancient Greece, mentioned that children were considered infants until their third birthday. At a spring festival the toddlers were given miniature wine jugs to symbolize the end of their babyhood (Schofield 24). Author of the book Growing up in Ancient Greece, Amanda Purves explained that throughout their childhood, boys were encouraged to be brave and independent. She also indicated that many children even had their own slaves (Purves 7). Purves identified knucklebones (a game similar to jacks), balls, and hoops as popular games and toys of the children in Ancient Greece (Purves 66). Other popular toys were rattles, clay animals, yo-yo’s, and terra-cotta dolls (Donn 7). Pets including birds, dogs, goats, tortoises, and mice were also popular with ancient Greek children (Donn 7).

Education was very important to each of the Greek city-states. Boys attended school from age seven to age fifteen, and the rich employed slaves as private tutors. The Greeks taught the Illiad and the Oddysey to the children along with reading, writing, music, and physical education (Poulton 58). Anne Pearson, author of the book Ancient Greece, explained that the Greek referred to the teacher of reading, writing, and arithmetic as grammatistes and the music teacher as kitharistes (33). Students wrote with pointed sticks on wooden tablets covered with soft wax (Schofield 26). Poulton points out that because there were no public universities, the rural Greeks had to follow the trade of their father. In the cities where public life was emphasized, rich families urged their children to attend private schools that taught the student how to deliver speeches and debate along with the fundamentals of city politics (Poulton 58).

Another aspect of the young Greek’s life was marriage. The ancient Greeks had a very different idea concerning weddings and marriages than modern standards. Before the Greek wedding, the bride would sacrifice her toys to Artemis, the virgin goddess, to symbolize the end of childhood. She would also take a ceremonial bath to wash off her old life (Purves 16). The bride’s age ranged between thirteen and nineteen years. Her husband was usually around thirty years of age. Since the father arranged the marriages, the wedding itself could be the first meeting of the betrothed couple (Nardo 55). Having no public ceremony, the bride was led to her new home by her husband along with a procession of friends who showered the couple with fruit and grain for good luck (Purves 16).

Women were not held in high regard in Ancient Greece. Women were not allowed to vote or take part in public affairs (Purves 7). Women’s power was limited to day-to-day household matters. They spent most of their time in the women’s quarters at home managing the household slaves, making and mending clothes, weaving and spinning wool, supervising the children, and overseeing the preparations for banquets and parties (Nardo 17). Women were allowed to go to the market or agora, the theater, and religious festivals accompanied by a male relative or family servant (Nardo 17). Spartan women and hetairai, high-class prostitutes, were the only exceptions to the subservient role of women in ancient Greek society. They had more freedoms, spoke their mind, and were better educated than most women (Nardo 18).

Slaves were a very vital component to the ancient Greek lifestyle. Slaves were often prisoners of war, orphans, pirate’s captives, or children of slaves and often well educated. The city employed slaves as policemen, junior civil servants, and silver miners. Contractors, businesses, and households also employed slaves (Poulton 59). Most household slaves were treated well and could even save their small wages to buy their freedom. However, the slaves working in silver mines suffered under terrible conditions (Schofield 31).

The rich men of the city often owned farms or silver mines operated by slaves and servants. Living off the proceeds, they spent most of their time participating in political and social affairs (Schofield 30).

Beauty and cleanliness were also very important to the ancient Greeks. Men, women, and even children were expected to look beautiful (Purves 14). Therefore, both men and women bathed often, using olive oil to remove the dirt from their bodies (Purves 12). Men exercised frequently to maintain an adequate fitness level for athletics and military service. Following exercise, the men would rub olive oil into their skin to keep it supple. Women wore perfumed oils but avoided the sun since pale skin was favored (Pearson 40). Some Greek women even wore make-up (Purves 14).

Men and women also cared about their hair and clothing. They always kept their hair clean and neatly trimmed (Nardo 49). Many also perfumed their hair. Women spent much attempting complex hairstyles, many involving popular headbands (Purves 14). The Greek also admired the blond look. But since blond hair was rare, many attempted bleaching their dark hair (Donn 8). The Greeks most common clothing was the chiton made of a single rectangular piece of linen or wool fitted around the body with brooches, pins, and belt-like cords (Nardo 48). Because of the warm climate, many Greeks went barefoot or wore leather sandals (Nardo 49).

Meals were lazy affairs in Ancient Greece. Often men reclined on couches, women sat on stools, and children ate standing up or sitting on the floor (Purves 20). Containing little meat, their diet mainly consisted of grains, fruit, and vegetables (Nardo 42). The Greeks liked their meals served steaming hot and used bread to hold the food to prevent the burning of their fingers (Nardo 43). The Greeks favored wine with dinner. Even children were permitted to drink wine. The wine, however, was only one part wine and two parts water (Nardo 43).

The Greeks ate very light meals. Breakfast consisted of a single piece of bread dipped or soaked in wine. For lunch, cheese, olives, figs, dates, grapes, or currants replaced the bread (Nardo 42). Supper was served in the late afternoon and was generally more substantial, consisting of a thick porridge served along with vegetables (Nardo 43). The Socratic quote, “Bad men live to eat and drink, good men eat and drink to live”, describes the Greek view of the purpose of food (qtd. in Nardo 42).

The rich men of the city-states had many popular pastimes. Many chatted, argued, drank, raced horses, and spent time at the sports center exercising and showing off (Poulton 58). Some men also enjoyed participating in and watching boxing and wrestling matches (Purves 70). The Olympic Games was another popular event with the men of the Greek city-states. Because the athletes competed naked, the women and children could not attend the games (Purves 72). Dinner parties were another popular pastime that involved only men. Men would eat and drink, discuss politics and philosophy, tell jokes, riddles, and stories, and would be entertained by hetairai, high-class prostitutes. The theater was a popular family pastime. The family would watch tragedies by Euripedes and Sophocles, and comedies by Aristophanes in an amphitheater (Purves 67).

The high standard of living of Ancient Greece is even more impressive when one considers that the civilization existed in fifth century BC. Although the society had its faults, such as slavery, one cannot help but notice the many strengths of the society. The Greeks managed to form stable governments, an education system, housing, and food for the people. An intelligent person cannot help but admire the Greek mind and its ability to stretch and create.