Ancient Greece was the most advanced civilisation of it’s time. They came up with democracy, the Olympic Games and many scientific discoveries.

Life in Ancient Greece

Houses

Ancient Greek houses were usually very small, with all the rooms around the side of the house and a courtyard in the middle. This would keep the house cool during the hottest times of the year.

These houses were made out of hardened mud cut into bricks. There were small windows with wooden shutters closed during the hottest part of the day. The roof was covered in clay tiles.

Men and women sometimes lived in separate parts of the house. The dining room had couches and low tables where you could recline during meals.

Larger houses had many rooms spread across at least two floors. These rooms included bathrooms, a dining room as well as a kitchen.

A sketch of an Ancient Greek house | The Culture Concept

Jobs

There were many jobs for both men and women in Ancient Greece. You could become a:

Food

Most Ancient Greeks were farmers, so they just ate what they grew. But even if you weren’t a farmer, vegetables were a main part of their diet. Vegetables you could find in Ancient Greece included:

They even ate boiled dandelions and stinging nettles!

As well as vegetables, they also ate food we are familiar with today, such as apples, pears and cherries.

But you can’t talk about Ancient Greek food and forget olives! Olives were, and still are, an important part of the Greek diet. The Greek goddess Athena gave an olive tree to Athens and spread them across Greece. Olives are included in many recipes, and were even crushed and used to power oil lamps.

Ancient Greeks didn’t eat much meat, because they thought it was food of the barbarians. But they did eat fish – multiple varieties were available in the food markets.

Nearly every meal involved some kind of bread – there were at least 50 varieties of it! They also drunk wine, and they even had rules on how to drink it.

Army

The Greek army was made up of ordinary citizens who were trained as soldiers. They fought using spears and shields, which had complex patterns painted onto them.

Ancient Greece had multiple cities, each of which had their own armies, laws and customs. The Spartans are the most well-known army in Greece.

Who were the Spartans?

The Spartans were the army that protected the city of Sparta. Because of it’s highly skilled army, Sparta became the dominant city in Greece. It’s most famous victory was in the city of Troy, where a wooden horse filled with Spartan soldiers was given to the city as a present. Once inside it’s walls, the soldiers came out of the horse and destroyed the city.

A drawing of a Spartan shield