Unlike girls in other city-states who might marry as young as 13 or 14, a Spartan woman usually continued her education until 18 or 20 and only then considered proposals by suitors brokered by her father or older brother.
The marriage ritual in Sparta began with a symbolic kidnapping in which, after the families had agreed to the union, the female Spartan was forcefully taken by the man to their new home and left with female attendants who prepared her for the marriage night. Her head was shaved, and she was given a boy’s clothes and left in a darkened room. At some point in the night, her new husband would surprise her, the couple would have sex, and then the man would leave to return to the barracks where he lived.
The wife was then expected to keep her hair closely cropped throughout the marriage. Some scholars have suggested this ritual was enacted to make the man, who had known only the company of other males up to this point, more comfortable in having sexual relations with a woman. The wife’s closely cropped hair, in the same style as a Spartan male’s, is also thought to relate to this same situation, making the woman appear boyish or manly.
Illustration : Bronze figure of a Spartan running girl, 520-500 BCE
womenfromhistory_bot ~ Women in Sparta, part IV ~
Show moreUnlike girls in other city-states who might marry as young as 13 or 14, a Spartan woman usually continued her education until 18 or 20 and only then considered proposals by suitors brokered by her father or older brother.
The marriage ritual in Sparta began with a symbolic kidnapping in which, after the families had agreed to the union, the female Spartan was forcefully taken by the man to their new home and left with female attendants who prepared her for the marriage night. Her head was shaved, and she was given a boy’s clothes and left in a darkened room. At some point in the night, her new husband would surprise her, the couple would have sex, and then the man would leave to return to the barracks where he lived.
The wife was then expected to keep her hair closely cropped throughout the marriage. Some scholars have suggested this ritual was enacted to make the man, who had known only the company of other males up to this point, more comfortable in having sexual relations with a woman. The wife’s closely cropped hair, in the same style as a Spartan male’s, is also thought to relate to this same situation, making the woman appear boyish or manly.
Illustration : Bronze figure of a Spartan running girl, 520-500 BCE
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