Hi folks! The Greek world is changing dramatically during the transition from the Dark Age to Archaic Greece. Take a look at this week’s assigned primary source readings and let me know what moment or scene stands out to you. What are these authors telling us about this transformative time?

One passage that really caught my attention was from Hesoid's Works and Days, when he warns his brother Perses that "work is no disgrace; idleness is a disgrace" I found this line powerful because it reflects how deeply the Greeks valued hard work, discipline, and fairness. Hesoid seems to be reminding his audience that success and justice come through honest labor, not through greed or taking advantage of others. It also shows how moral lessons were often tied to practical advice about daily life, especially for farmers or ordinary citizens trying to live rightly.

The text that stood out to me originates from Plutarch’s “Sayings of Spartan Women”. Gorgo warns her father of Aristagoras, who promises a “vast sum of money” in return for military assistance. The daughter expresses that he will be ruined if he accepts Aristagoras’s bribery. She also observes that servants are helping Aristagoras with his shoe, where she tells her father, ‘foreigner hasn’t any hands”. Through Gorgo, I believe the author reinstates how corruption contradicts with the values of the Spartans. I also believe Gorgo’s dramatic remark to her father about Aristagoras shows the lack of respect she has for him. Aristagoras shows dependency which can also be a sign of weakness – especially for a man. The matter that Gorgo replied to Aristagoras also shows how Spartan women were able to speak much more freely than others also show how outspoken women were able to communicate freely. In other parts of the reading, it shows remarks where women are speaking with freely even in an insulting manner to their sons. The survival of a warrior who failed at his duty was looked down on. With much shamefulness a mother tells her son “Do you intend to slink in here whence you came forth” and shows her garments public shaming him for his cowardness. This emphasizes the loyalty people had over their city-state during this place in time. It also shows the city-state is above all – even their own children. It’s best to have a honored dead son than a cowardly living one. In the reading in Pomeroy, it also informs us of the importance of strong military over family by informing that newborn males were examined to check they would grow up to be strong warriors. If the babies to fail expectation, they would be killed. I would like to know if there were mothers that accepted their son’s fate and instead of belittling them. I would assume that there were women who had their motherly instincts step in and if so what did they do to protect them against the rest of society?

The particular detail that jumped out at me as I read Plutarch- Sayings of Spartan Women was the emphasis on how honorable it was to serve and protect one's country, even if it means dying. It was a proud achievement for young men but even more for the women in their lives. One could also gather that doing quite the opposite meant you were a coward and was a disgrace to your ancestors, family, and country. 

The author communicated well how one's duty to their country determined the kind of person they were. They were either cowards or brave warriors. The author also showed how the women in Sparta preserved their society's strong culture, with their bold and charismatic words that pushed men, including their sons, to fight to live up to the standard. 

This reading supports many of our previous readings, such as Homer and Pameroy, where though men are the ones leading and protecting, the women uphold the standard and are the backbone of the society and their households. 

The section that stood out most to me from Sayings of Spartan Women was when Argileonis, Brasidas’ mother, when men were praising her son, and she remarked, “My son was a good and brave man, yet Sparta has many that are better than he.” This remark highlights the most important Spartan value: loyalty to the state above the tragedy of the loss of life or to nursed pride in one’s offspring. In my interpretation, the author’s purpose was to express how deeply ingrained ideals such as discipline, courage, and collective honor truly were, even in Spartan women’s culture. It also illustrates that women in Sparta, unlike other Greek City-states, were expected to acknowledge and reinforce these values as much as men. In contrast to the vastly different readings I have completed, this document reinforces that Spartan society was deeply militarized and that moral strength was seen as an important value, equal to any physical strength. I would be interested in knowing and learning more about how much of these sayings reflect the reality of women’s lives in Sparta vs an idealized image constructed and imagined by later writers such as Plutarch.

The passage that interested me this week is “The Myth of Prometheus and Pandora.” I found it interesting how Pandora was created to bring misfortune, sorrow, and pain to men. I believe the author was trying to show that making the gods angry brings suffering to people. The story also teaches that humans should not deceive one another. This document shows how men can be ungrateful and mischievous, often causing their own troubles. It also reminds me of the story of Ishtar and Gilgamesh, where Ishtar’s anger toward Gilgamesh led to destruction in the city, just as Zeus punished humankind for Prometheus’s behavior. Since Pandora is described as the first mortal woman on Earth, I would like to know how her story continued and how she continued the legacy of women afterward.

The best piece of writing from "Sayings of Spartan Women" / Plutarch to which I could relate this phrase was where the mother gives her son his shield and says, "Bring it back, or on it." This statement starkly embodies the Spartan values, wherein a courageous death was considered preferable to cowardice and disgrace. Another vivid detail was when Argileonis, on learning that her son Brasidas had died, stated that Sparta has "many a man better than him." These passages struck me by their stark uncompromisingness, mirroring the rather small room for private grief, as opposed to the civic duty borne by the public.

At worst, it sullies the memory of the Spartan artilleryman who willingly gave his life in battle to protect his home and city and has become a hero in their cause. Plutarch emphasized that the view of these gritty moral ideals was so ingrained in the domestic affairs of Spartan life, particularly in the home and the role of the housewife, that for a mother to speak such words would indeed be inspiring and emphatic for children. Such statements are less about history than about presenting and giving great moral lessons; lessons meant to instill in the reader such Spartan ideals of discipline, honor, and selflessness over family or the city itself.

The document states that in Sparta, war and civic duty formed the heart of identity, and women played a key role in enforcing these ideals within the family; mothers did not appear as soft figures of consolation but stern enforcers of the city's values, demanding courage from their sons and scorning cowardice. It also reveals how strongly communal expectations outweighed personal feelings, with grief suppressed in favor of public honor. Because Plutarch was writing centuries later, it also shows how the image of Sparta became idealized by later Greeks and Romans as a model of austere virtue.

What relates to our present time is how these themes elicit sacrifice, duty, and moral instruction. Even today, communities still expect individuals, especially soldiers and their families, to reconcile, accept, and tolerate personal loss with public ideals and patriotism, as well as honor. On the same lines, mothers continue to fill the role of moral voices in politics and culture, like the Spartan mothers who molded their sons' characters. Similarly, it is worth noting that modern nations always incorporate these tales of suffering and valor because, like Plutarch, they use these sayings to build up pride or discipline in the image of their country. Discriminations that effectively evoke the present time quite much include sacrifices, duty, and moral instruction. Even today, individuals, more so soldiers and their families, are expected to bear public ideals of patriotism and honor with personal loss. Indeed, mothers very much continue to play the role of moral voices in politics and culture, like the Spartan mothers who molded their sons' actions. Just as Plutarch used them to create a proud and disciplined picture of Sparta, modern nations tend to encode stories of sacrifice and heroism into their sacrosanct to reinforce their identity and their collective values.

One part that really stood out to me was when a Spartan mother gave her son his shield and told him to come back “with it or on it.” I found this powerful because it shows how much Spartans valued bravery and honor, even more than staying alive.

Plutarch is showing us that women in Sparta weren’t just quiet or passive—they were a big part of passing down values like courage and loyalty. For mothers, the greatest honor was not if their son lived, but if he fought bravely for Sparta. This tells us a lot about how their society was built around the idea of sacrifice for the community.

Compared to places like Athens, where women stayed more in the background, Spartan women seemed to have stronger voices and were respected for encouraging strength. Something I wonder, though, is how much of these sayings were truly spoken and how much Plutarch added to make Sparta look tougher.

A passage from Hesiod’s Works and Days that stood out to me is the myth of Pandora. In the story, Zeus commands the gods to create the first woman, presenting her as both attractive and dangerous. Pandora is described as “a plague to men who eat bread,” and when she opens the jar, she unleashes struggle, sickness, and misfortune onto humankind, leaving only hope inside. I think Hesiod’s goal was to explain the struggles people face in life, while also sending a strong warning about women. The story portrays women as a source of temptation and blame for human suffering. This gives a view on how gender expectations in early Greece were shaped by suspicion of women and an emphasis on male control. At the same time, the text reflects the cultural shift after the Dark Age, when society was defining roles more rigidly. Compared to Sappho’s poetry, which gives women a voice and portrays their emotions more positively, Hesiod’s version is harsh and negative. This disparity makes me curious about how women might have experienced the cultural expectations in reality, and whether their daily lives matched or challenged the stereotypes found in myths and literature.

One detail that really stood out to me was the story of Pandora in Hesiod, when she opens the jar and lets out all the troubles into the world but leaves Hope trapped inside . I think the author was trying to explain why people suffer and why life is so hard, but also to show that hope is always there to keep people moving forward. This makes me think that people back then believed the gods were in control of everything, and they used myths to explain the struggles of human life.

This document also tells us about the values of Hesiod’s time, like hard work and obedience to the gods, which is very different from Sappho’s poems that focus on love and emotions. It also feels different from the Spartan women, who were proud of bravery in war and wanted their sons to die honorably. I think all these readings show us that ancient Greece had many sides, some focused on farming and survival, some on personal feelings, and others on war and honor. I would like to find out more about how normal people actually felt about these stories and if they really believed every part of them.

What stood out to me the most was in the sayings of Spartan Women. One mother tells her son who is about to fight “Come back with your shield or on it.” That hit me because it shows how much Sparta expected even mothers to put honor above their own feelings. The value of courage and sacrifice was stronger than family grief.

I think the author wanted to show how the Spartan way of life made war and bravery the center of everything. Even women who were usually left out of battle, had a role in pushing these values. By speaking this way, they kept the culture focused on strength and pride in dying for the city.

This tells me that Sparta was very different from other places in Greece. In other stories we have read, women often mourn loudly or show their pain like in the Iliad when mothers and wives cry for their dead. But here the women are shown as hard and almost like soldiers themselves keeping their feelings hidden.

I think this connects to the idea of honor we see in Achilles too but it is sharper in Sparta because even women were expected to act tough. It makes me wonder if real women always felt this way or if this was just the image the city wanted to spread.

My question= did Spartan women really accept this idea, or was it mostly a story told to make the culture look stronger?