Male Child

You will spend at least some time in school. If you are from a wealthy
family, you will attend school for many years. In school, you receive
training in athletics, reading, arithmetic and literature. One day, you will
be a citizen.

Metic
You are a person, usually a male who was born in another city. The
citizens of Athens allow you to live in their city-state. You are free to run
your own affairs, but you have absolutely no say in the government. Many
metics became quite wealthy running businesses in the city-state of
Athens, but had to pay taxes to the Athenian government. You will never
become a citizen no matter how much of a contribution you make or how
successful you become. You always have the option of moving back to
your own home city.

Female Child
You are not valued in Athenian society at all. As a matter of fact, girls are
so unwanted that many infant girls are abandoned at the city gates because
their fathers dont wantAdapted
the burden of raising
from Ancient Greece girls. Sometimes other
Thematic Unit

families take the infants into their homes or they starve to death. Girls in
Athens are not educated. You spend most of your time in the house helping
and learning from your mother about household chores. Female children
must prepare to run the house and to raise children.
 Slave
You may be a male or a female, a child or an adult, but you have
absolutely no rights. You are likely a member of another city-state that lost
in battle to Athens. The kind of life you live depends on the kind of person
who owns you because you are at the mercy of your master. You need your
masters permission to marry or to have children. If your master is kind, he
may allow you to work for money and if you are a male, though this is
rare, he may let you purchase your freedom. It is not common, but
possible. Some slaves are not so lucky. They are worked to death in the
silver mines near Athens. The only protection you have is the law prevents

Adult Male Citizen

You are a male, and your father was also an Athenian citizen. At the age of
18 you were required to serve in the army for two years. Even though you
are no longer in the military, if Athens goes to war, you are required to
serve in the army. Every citizen has the right to vote and take part in the
Assembly, which is the law making body in Athens. You may serve on
juries and even in the Council of Five Hundred, which reviews ideas
before the Assembly votes on them. You may also work as a farmer, a
craftsman, or a merchant.
Citizens Wife
You have none of the rights of your husband. You are considered by law to
be his property. For most of the time, you work in the house, doing chores
such as weaving cloth and overseeing the work of the household servants.
You are usually not seen outside of the house. As a matter of fact, even
when your husband brings guests for dinner, you do not participate in the
festivities. They eat in a separate room. The only time you join your
husband in public is for religious festivals and plays in the citys theater.