Process Paper

Group Website

Women of Ancient Greece

Rights and Responsibilities

            When my teacher Mrs. Richonne explained to our class about the National History Day project, I was excited about it, I've always enjoyed history. Out of all the countries, my favorite is Ancient Greece, my favorite part of it is the mythology. I've read books how when you bound to a rock waiting to be eaten by a monster, a hero comes, sweep you off your feet to be his wife. Or how a wife handles a country while the husband is fighting a war against Troy. These stories amaze me, but I know that they're just stories, no women can have much freedom in the ancient civilization. So when I learned about the National History Day project, I wanted to learn more of what real women can do, not imaginary stories. When I told my partner of my idea, we agreed on the subject.

            After reading so many years of Greek Mythology, I believe I can retell all the stories. Joanna was never a beg fan of Greed Mythology, but after I suggested for her to read some, she agreed with me that they're the best stories. Originally, we had other ideas such as “ What are the knights'  true responsibilities, rescuing damsel in distress or fighting evils,” but after we went to the Heritage Park Library, we found out that it supplies a lot more information of Ancient Greece than knights, so we affirmed our decision. Our best resources are some websites and books. The websites offered a whole range of topics of the Ancient Greeks. The books supply only a limited amount of information. I tried e-mailing authors that wrote a lot of books about Ancient Greece and even a Greek Orthodox priest, but we had no luck in their replies.

            One book I found was from Mrs. Richonne it was a big book of Greek Mythology which have proven very useful in supplying me in many collected mythology which can be included in Joanna and many website. Two other books were very helpful, one was the Odyssey the other was the Iliad, both written by Ancient Greed poet, Homer. In these two epic poems many things were explained by him, making a primary source from the first viewpoint on Odysseus's wife Penelope. It explains an exception to the whole concept of women not able to do anything.

            Our website shall be the doorway for people to understand what life really was like for the women in the Ancient Greek World. People shouldn't be blinded by the sweetness of all those mythological characters. Instead they should know what really happens to women. From our many books, we decided to create a timeline when a girl baby is born all the way to her death. Also another focus timeline shall be put in a way that shows you what a woman does from dawn to dusk, in comparison to what a man does. But also a page will be listed of all those women that did not stick to what they are suppose to do.

            Our project talks of the rights and responsibilities of what an Ancient Greek woman has to do. As boring as their lives may seem to us, it was what they are born to do, and it didn't matter what they thought. If we compared an ancient woman to a modern one, we probably can barely see anything in common. Through out a woman's life those days, they were expected to do much for their family, but thought of as poorly as dirt. They barely had any rights of their own. Owned by her father when she is unmarried, owned by her husband afterwards. But their responsibilities piled sky high. They show the example of unfairness in the Ancient World that thankfully not many cultures use any more.