Question

Based on this observation by Lycurgus, what was life like for women in Sparta?

Answer 1

Spartan women were famous in ancient Greece for having more freedom than women elsewhere in the Greek world. To contemporaries outside of Sparta, Spartan women had a reputation for promiscuity and controlling their husbands. Unlike their Athenian counterparts, Spartan women could legally own and inherit property and they were usually better educated. The extant written sources are limited and largely from a non-Spartan viewpoint. Anton Powell writes that to say that the written sources are "'not without problems'... as an understatement would be hard to beat".