Sparta vs. Athens: Lycurgus vs. Pericles Funeral Oration - Essay Example

? Sparta vs. Athens Lycurgus" vs. "Pericles Funeral Oration Introduction The importance of justice in building a formidable society cannot be overemphasized. This is because societies that thrive both economically and politically have been known to act in a justice and fair manner (Galston 18-78). Social justice is simply a moral conception and has to do with giving a person or a group of people what belongs to them in terms of entitlement and morality. Injustice breeds rebellion and discomfort. Such a state of mind is dangerous for any nation and thus cannot thrive. The freedom given to a people in terms of equal rights has a major bearing on the success of such a society. The existence of free and equal people in a society, presence of personal and political liberties, giving equal opportunity to all and an aspect of cooperation does benefit a society more (Bates 12-26). The idea of equal justice for all is seen to be evaluated in these two states. The poor treatment of women in society comes into focus when we look at these two states. Injustices were committed to the female gender and actually what is referred to as equal justice is totally imbalanced (Keyt133–52). This has to do with the weakness experienced within these two societies where equal freedom was infringed by the presence of social classes or limits put on the public life especially when it came to the female gender (Collins 67-87). Discussion There were in existence two major forms of governance in the ancient Greece in form of democracy practiced in Athens and Oligarchy in Sparta. Military capabilities became the main focus at the time for the Spartans while on the other hand the Athenians concentrated more on gaining comfort and cultural practices (Thucydides 202-209). The oligarchy kind of governance made Sparta have a war-like attitude which was the first priority given and seemed to meet the needs of the people. An authoritative and potent kind of state came into existence in Sparta empowered by such war-like attitude. There are various contrasting issues that were in place such as the rights of women, availability of social strata, and the value that was put to human life. The power was simply held by a group of ephors who were only five men. There was a general call from the constitution to all men to engage in military education at a tender age of seven for training on being tough and self-sufficient. The individual’s life was meant for the state where one lived and died for it. Any form of foreign trade and travelling was banned from Sparta thus locking out foreign ideas thus giving a chance to aspect of surprise when they attacked (Adams). The democracy enjoyed in Athens was flawed since choice was made on eligibility to serve with limited powers and the idea of expelling the speaker in case such a person became very powerful was a normal practice (Bogotch 301-320). There was blatant abuse of this rule and thus did infringe heavily on those freedoms of speech that could be exercised by the citizens. The male citizens were given equal rights and the government majorly did focus on an individual as opposed to state. It is not surprising that Athenian males had full rights such as voting rights and highest ranks in the society, while women who were citizens were still considered minors. At the age of marriage, the fathers did offer their daughter for marriage where they led indoor lives as wives. They were thus condemned to childbearing, sewing and doing house chores. In the Pericles’ Funeral Oration, we find a very damning contempt of women in public life. In this Oration, many references regarding the equality and justice than could be enjoyed in the Athenian life is expressed. In this Oration, it is clear that women did not share any form of equal rights with the male gender and no reference as such does exist when the Athenian people are mentioned, only male race is known. Metics did not have to own land nor take part in any form of government activity since they were considered outsiders (Thucydides 202-209). The Athenian laws did have protection for the slaves against being treated in a brutal manner even without them having any right to property ownership. This is different from the Spartan government whereby the slaves had no law protecting them and were treated brutally and killed in case they were found to be defying the government. Sparta also treated women differently since girls that survived infancy got good public education which was more physical than it could be expected to be academic. These Spartan women were taught their roles in taking care of the male warriors. They were married off at twenty and bearing of many children was encouraged. With the aim of increasing the number of Spartans as much as it could be possible, Lycurgus did offer certain incentives for those couples that were giving birth to children. These Spartan women were given freedom of equality but only denied voting rights which was not a practice in Athens. Their housework was restrained and this was because such chores were reserved for slaves. To these Spartan women, choice was promoted and were not forced to bear children and did lead some form of outside life where they did racing, wrestling, and boxing, among other things. This power given to the women made Sparta to thrive both politically and authoritatively. Spartans did not put a lot of tension towards women when it came to the public good. They were considered full members of society and respected for that matter. Yet the Athenians had little regard for women participation in public life. To them, the private good for women was important and thus women were not allowed in public life and were condemned to indoor life. The treatment of women as equal members of society by the Spartans brought about a prosperous state due to the contribution that women empowerment made. This is a serious strength as we can clearly see the thriving of the Spartan state which respected the women and had a special place for them in society as opposed to the Athenians. The disrespect and poor treatment of Athenian women to the extent that they were confined to house business with no say acted towards weakening the state of Athens. The injustice within the Athenian society still extends to the fact that only male of the upper class did have rights and real freedom that could be considered absolute. The injustice that could be spotted in the Spartan state has more to do with the totalitarian culture that was promoted by the insistence on military and war-like culture. This was because the ephors had absolute power and could simply dictate any form of thought and action of the whole Spartan state. These two states actually made great errors which shaped them and later became defined by such flaws in their systems (Alsbury 105-126). The orations in Athens did glorify the achievements made by males and these were majorly done during funerals and were made to stir up the warring spirits of the state at war. The reputation mentioned only focuses on male gender in society. The Pericles outlines the fact that in case a man is in a position to give service to the state, such a man will not be prevented by any obscurity of his condition. The equal justice that is exuded in these orations actually has no reference to a woman member of Athenian society. War seems to take center stage, yet women are not to go to war according to the practice of Athenians (Thucydides 202-209). Conclusion Membership in any political practice such as voting is an important milestone in any society. Segregation of participants in such an exercise puts the society at crossroads, due to the feuding party which feels discriminated against. Such discriminative practice could still help define the fall of such states (Huxley 139–49). This is because of the fact that fairness and justice treatment of all the people in society leads to the presence of social order, of which if absent such a society fails. For this reason, it is important that justice is given to all in any society to ensure that it succeeds. Failure to do so is cause for problems that could be avoided if keen consideration was given (Johnson 85-102). Works Cited Adams, Paul. “On Lycurgus and the Spartans” Xenophon. Accessed 28th September, 2011. . Alsbury TL, Shaw NL, Policy Implications for Social Justice in School District Consolidation. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 2005, 4(2): 105-126. Bates, Clifford, Aristotle's “Best Regime”: Kingship, Democracy, and the Rule of Law. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003: 12-26 Bogotch IE, Educational Leadership and Social Justice: Theory into Practice. J. Sch. Leadership. 2002, 12(2): 138-156. Calderwood, P.E. (2003). Toward a Professional community for social justice. J. Transformative Educ. 1(4): 301-320 Collins, Susan D. Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Galston, William A. Justice and the Human Good. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980: 18-78 Huxley, G. “On Aristotle's Best State.” In Paul Cartledge and F. D. Harvey (eds.) Crux: Essays Presented to G. E. M. de Ste. Croix. London: Duckworth, 1985, pp. 139–49. Johnson, Curtis N. Aristotle's Theory of the State. New York: Macmillan, 1990. 85-102 Keyt, David. “Aristotle and Anarchism,” Reason Papers 18 (1993), 133–52. Repr. In Richard Kraut and Steven Skultety. Aristotle's Politics: Critical Essays. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005, pp. 203–22. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War. In The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in the Fifth Century Athens, translated by Alfred Zimmern. 4th edition (Oxford: 1924), pp.202-209 Read More