Ancient Greek women's lives centered around domestic tasks like weaving, child-rearing, and religious duties. They spun wool into thread using a distaff and spindle, then wove cloth on vertical looms. Women also participated in religious festivals, preparing sacrifices and making offerings. Their lives were largely confined to the household and socializing was limited, but fetching water could provide a chance for female bonding outside the home.

1. Ancient Greece
What was life like for
women?

2. These women have a
Making cloth was one of the most basket full of wool
important jobs for women in ancient
Greece.
This woman is spinning wool into
a thread.
a basket for wool
a spindle to
wrap the
thread round
weights to
help the
spindle spin

3. Women used a loom to weave the thread into cloth.
Explore this painting of an ancient Greek loom.
?
?
?
?

4. Women used a loom to weave the thread into cloth.
Explore this painting of an ancient Greek loom.
vertical threads
finished cloth rolled
hanging down
around a bar at the
top
bars to make it
easier to weave
loom weights to the horizontal
keep the threads thread over and
straight under the
vertical ones
How do you think an ancient Greek
woman might feel when she had
This loom weight has Athena’s
owl on it. Athena invented finished a new piece of cloth?
weaving.

5. Who do you think these women are and why?

6. an old nanny – she may have been in
the household for many years
the mother – girls
a nanny – usually
often got married as
a slave
young as 13 or 14,
but were usually older
when they had
children

7. Some girls went to school or were Girls were also taught music and
taught at home. The woman in dance. The Muses were female
this painting is reading from a goddesses of music, dance and
scroll. literature.

8. The women on these Athenian pots are entertaining men at a drinking party.
The woman on the left is a dancer. The woman on the right is playing the pipes.
Athenian free-born women were not allowed go to drinking parties, so these women
must either be slaves or foreigners living in Athens.
Why do you think free-born Athenian
women were not allowed to go to
drinking parties with the men?

9. When somebody died in the family, the women prepared the person’s body for
the funeral. They cut their hair short, wailed and sang laments, scratched at
their bodies and beat their heads.
It was usually women
who visited the grave
of the dead person to
make offerings of oil,
water and special
cakes.

10. This young woman is running in a
short tunic.
She is probably from Sparta, where
women did exercise to keep fit so
they would have healthy children.
These two young women are playing a
game of knucklebones.
It was like our game ‘jacks’.

11. Whatthe two strange objects are metal tripods, which were often given as
Clue:
do you think these women are doing?
gifts to the gods
The women are wearing fine
long dresses, a headband
and a crown.
an ox
an ox
a garland
of flowers
a garland
of flowers
The two bulls are going to be sacrificed to a god. The women have
the important job of decorating them to show they are special.

12. Here is another sacrifice. Can you find:
• the ox and the altar where it is going to be sacrificed?
• the priestess carrying on her head a basket with the sacrificial knife in it?
• the statue of the goddess Athena?

13. Here is another religious festival. Can you spot:
• some women dancing?
• the priestess at the altar?
• the high priestess or goddess on her throne?
This is probably a festival to help make the grain seeds grow and produce food.
Why do you think ancient Greek women had such important
jobs to do in connection with worshipping the gods?

14. These Athenian women are fetching water from the public fountain. Women
spent most of the day in the house with the other women in their own household
and with the children and the slaves. Carrying water was a heavy and tiring job.
Look at the picture. Can you think of reasons why Athenian women might
have enjoyed going to fetch water?

15. Find out more about ancient Greece
Visit the main Museum website
www.britishmuseum.org
Use Explore to look at some of our objects
www.britishmuseum.org/explore/introduction.aspx
Learn more about the lives of Greek women and men
www.ancientgreece.co.uk