This page includes information that may not reflect the current views and values of the Penn Museum.


Daily Life
Men's Life


Men´s activities encompassed politics, arts and crafts, construction, agriculture, sea-faring, manufacturing and trade. Agriculture, the most common male activity, is only rarely illustrated. Yet the large majority of citizens of all Greek states relied upon the land for their basic income; even the rich, who did not labor in the fields themselves, tended to oversee directly the farming of at least some of their property rather than leasing it all out. For the common people, agricultural work was the overwhelming reality of their lives.

Two characteristic aspects of men´s private lives are the time-honored pastimes of hunting and horseback riding, which took place out of doors, free of the constraints of family life. These activities and the important theme of warfare are well-illustrated in Greek vase painting.



© Copyright 2002