Growing up in Ancient Greece

Home Life

Greeks at home

• Most Greek houses were small, with a walled garden or yard in the middle.

The house was made of sun-dried mud brick. Mud houses crumbled away in a few years, and had to rebuild.

The house had a roof of clay tiles, and small windows, with no glass, but wooden shutters to keep out the hot sun.

Rich Greeks

• Rich Greeks had slaves -sometimes 50 slaves worked for a rich family. Slaves did the hard work, on the farm, in the fields and workshops and in the house too.

Families and women's lives

Married women stayed at home much of the time.

At home, Greek women spent much of their time spinning thread and weaving cloth.

They looked after the children and prepared food.

Poor women went out more.

They worked alongside their husbands, fetched water, and did the family washing in a stream.

They could chat with friends while they worked.

Rich women went out only with a

slave, perhaps to visit women

friends.

In Athens, only poor women went

shopping alone.

Rich women always went with a

slave or a male companion.

Woman weaving

What did Greeks wear?

• A Greek woman wore a long tunic, called a chiton, made from a piece of cotton or linen material. It reached the ankles. Over it, she wore a cloak, called a himation - thin for summer, thick for winter, and draped from the shoulders.

Young men wore short

tunics, older men

preferred long ones.

Slaves often wore just a

strip of cloth (a

loincloth).

Many people went

barefoot. Some

wore leather

sandals Men and women wore wide-brimmed hats,

to shade their heads from the hot sun. We

know Greeks liked jewellery, because

jewels were buried with dead people in

their tombs.

Greek food

• Bread honey

• Wine Fruit Cheese

• Fish

• Vegetables

• Eggs

• Nuts

• Figs

Only rich people ate much meat,including

hares, deerand wild boar killed by

hunters.

Octopus was a favourite seafood.

They used the oil for cooking, in oil

lamps, and cosmetics.

Sons and daughters

• Many Greek parents wanted boy children. A son would look after his parents in old age.

A daughter went away when

she married, and had to take a

wedding gift or dowry.

This could be expensive, if a

family had lots of daughters.

Most girls were only 13-16

years old when they married.

Often their fathers chose

husbands for them.

A father could decide whether or not the

family kept a new baby.

Unwanted or weak babies were

sometimes left to die outdoors.

Anyone finding an abandoned baby could

adopt it and take it home, perhaps to

raise it as a slave.

If a couple were rich, they might hire a

poor neighbour or a slave to nurse a new

baby.

Going to school

• Boys went to school at age 7.

• Girls were taught at home by their mothers.

Most Greeks schools had fewer than 20

boys, and classes were often held

outdoors.

What did Greek children learn?

• Girls learned housework, cooking and skills such as weaving at home.

Boys at school learned reading, writing, arithmetic,

music and poetry.

They wrote on wooden tablets covered with soft wax,

using a pointed stick called a stylus. They used an

abacus, with beads strung on wires or wooden rods, to

help with maths.

Part of their lessons included learning stories and poems

by heart.

Boys did athletics, to keep fit and prepare them for war

as soldiers. They ran, jumped, wrestled and practised

throwing a spear and a discus. They trained on a sports

ground called a gymnasium.

CLIL

This is a presentation for everyday life in Ancient Greece.

By Emily

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