Notably, these training activities are not the military skills of traditional Greek hoplite warriors, who fought on foot with shields and swords. This, and other passages cited here from Plato’s Laws, can be most conveniently read here. The Athenian suggests that at age six, boys “should have lessons in horse riding, archery, javelin-throwing, and slinging – and the girls, too, may attend the lessons, especially in the use of the weapons.” On religious and public occasions, both should be “always equipped with arms and horses” (794c, 796c). Plato’s Athenian notes that the Spartan system only goes halfway in equality: girls participate in strenuous athletics but do not share in military service (7.805e–806c). In this last dialogue of Plato, an unnamed Athenian, Spartan, and Cretan debate the best ways to raise citizens in an ideal state to be well prepared for both peace and war. An Amazon gaining the upper hand against a Greek warrior (detail from one of 92 metopes sculpted for the Athenian Parthenon in the 440s BC now in the British Museum, London)
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