The document compares and contrasts aspects of daily life between ancient Greek and Persian civilizations, including their clothing, food, and writing systems. Both cultures wore long tunics and cloaks as clothing and ate foods like meat, fish, and wheat products. However, the Greeks wore sandals or boots while the Persians wore pointed shoes, and the Greeks had olives while the Persians had items like pomegranates. Their writing systems also differed, as the Greeks used an alphabet while the Persians used cuneiform with logograms. While the cultures had some similarities, they also maintained distinct qualities in their attire, cuisine, and written languages.

1. Caitlin Rabuck
Period 1
March 7, 2011
Compare and Contrast Essay
The Persians vs. The Greeks
The Persians and the Greeks were around during the same time period. They were both near the
Mediterranean Sea, which allowed them to have similar qualities in their empire. The Greeks and
Persians also had differences, such as the Persians had the Royal Road. These two important empires
have similarities and differences between the clothes they wore, the food they ate, and their writing
systems.
A normal Greek citizen wore long tunics, cloaks, either sandals or boots, occasionally shawls
for the women, and hats for the men. Their clothes would usually be made out of bedding and very
colorful and decorative. A typical Persian citizen would wear long tunics, cloaks, occasionally women
wore bonnets and their shoes were pointed. Their clothes would typically be out of wool or silk.
Similarites between the two were that they wore long tunics and cloaks, and they also both wore shoes
instead of going barefoot. Differences between the two are that in Greece the shoes were sandals and
boots and the Persians had pointed shoes. Also, Women occasionally wore shawls and men wore hats in
Greece while in Persia women occasionally wore bonnets. The fabric out of which the clothes were
made was also different.
Going into food, there are also similarities and differences. The Greeks ate fish, wheat products,
and olives. Also, the Greeks did not eat meat unless killed in wild or sacrificed to gods. The empire of
Greece was not the best for trade because they had mountains and bad geographical features but they
could trade using the Mediterranean Sea. The Persians, on the other hand, had a large empire that
included a trade route called the Royal Road. When it comes to food they enjoyed eating meats, onions,
spinach, melon, garden-peas, pomegranate, and fish. The similarities between the two civilizations are

2. that they both ate meats, fish, and wheat products. The Persians and Greeks also enjoyed drinking wine.
Some differences between the two are that the Persians had pomegranate, garden-peas, melon, spinach
and oinions, while the Greeks had olives which helped make olive oil and many household supplies.
Moving into the writing systems of each civilization more alike characteristics appear and also
unlike characteristics. The Greeks, had more than one system of writing at a time. Their main writing
system was adopted from the Phoenician alphabet. The vowels had signs above or under them to better
understand how the sound should be spoken. We use a similar alphabet today. While the Greeks had
the Phoenician alphabet, the Persians utilized the Old Persian cuneiform. It consisted of thirty-six
characters and five logo-grams. A logo-gram is a character that represents common words. When
writing vowels in the Old Persian cuneiform, they would combine consonants to make the vowel.
Similarities between the two writing systems are that they each had vowels and they were both read
horizontally right to left Differences included, the way the vowels were written and the different
characters or letters.
In the end, the Persians stay the Persians and the Greeks stay the Greeks, no matter how many
similarities or difference they have with one another. Using the three topics; clothing, food, and writing
systems, simple comparisons and contrasts were made. Also, with doing the comparing and contrasting
you can see how much we have changed in time. Clothing, food, and writing systems are three topics a
person can use to compare and contrast civilizations, countries, or groups of people.