Societal values (3/3)

In the east, healthy daughters are a priority, as they are expected to eventually produce children of their own. While the boys were going through the agore program, the girls are raised by their mothers or by trusted servants but, unlike in other city-states in the west, they did not learn how to spin, weave, or clean the house. Eastern girls participated in the same physical fitness routines as the boys when young, even training with them at first, and were then educated in reading, writing, and "music" a term which included singing, dance, playing a musical instrument, and composing poetry. Eastern girls also engaged in a number of sports including boxing, wrestling, discus, javelin toss, horseback riding, and foot races. They had no need to learn to sew or weave because the menial jobs in the east were taken care of by the helots.

Although an eastern woman does not have much to do with the day-to-day raising of their sons, boys are still expected to recognize and honor their mothers through displays of courage, skill, and military victory. Eastern mothers often kill their adult sons who had run from battle or in any way displayed signs of cowardice. Thinking of one's self and what one wanted is considered not only selfish and weak but treason in that one had put one's own desire above the good of the state. The understanding that one's life was not one's own to do with as one pleased but belonged to the state which had given that life was taught to women through the examples of their mothers and their tutelage and, for men, through the eastern training program of the agore.

As the women did not learn to sew or weave there of course had to be someone who did learn that. This is the helots, and whilst they are considered as slaves, they are somewhat different from other slaves in the neighboring western city-states. In Athunos, slaves did not have families and communities of their own. The Helots, by contrast, had their own families and communities. Additionally, the Helots were not privately owned, but belonged to the state. As the male citizens of the east devoted their lives to athletic and military training, war, politics, and hunting, they could not afford to spend time on agricultural activities. The task of producing food was left to the Helots. Although the Helots were, generally speaking, peasants, they may be employed for other jobs, such as servants or grooms, as well. Additionally, the Helots could be conscripted into military duties at times of war.

Although the Helots are crucial for the functioning of eastern society, the other classes have an uneasy relationship with them. Given that the Helots greatly outnumbered their eastern masters, the possibility of them revolting against their repressive rulers was ever present. There have been many helot uprisings and revolts but they have been swiftly squashed and repressed. The only major revolt, which is called the messaniah war happened decades ago.