8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
1/8
Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in Social Sciences
The Status of Women in Ancient AthensAuthor(s): William J. O'NealSource: International Social Science Review, Vol. 68, No. 3 (SUMMER 1993), pp. 115-121Published by: Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41882108 .
Accessed: 21/06/2014 06:50
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to International Social Science Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=pigammamuhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/41882108?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/41882108?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=pigammamu
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
2/8
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
3/8
1
16
SUMMER
1993,
VOLUME
68,
NUMBER 3
whatever
direction nd
atwhatever ime
they
were
patriarchal
nd their
rimary
deity
was a
sky god.
The
new
people
blended withtheold and
produced
a
society
in which thelanguage and thereligionof the new predominated.The resulting
language
was an
Indo-European
language
with
traces of the old
language,
particularly
n the
names of
places.
The
resulting eligion
was not a blend of the
two,
but n unbalanced
combination n which
themale
aspects
of thenew
religion
gained
dominance
over the female
aspects
of
the
old. The
same fate befell
the
Greek
people
-
the
patriarchal
ociety
of
thenew
people predominated,
while the
matriarchal
ociety struggled
o maintain ome
identity.
n the
resulting
iviliza-
tion,
the matriarchal
nd the
patriarchal spects
remained at
war,
as is
easily
discernible in the
religion.
Although
Zeus and Hera were brother nd
sister,
husband
and
wife,
and
king
and
queen,
they
were neither riendsnor overs. In
fact, n themythoreligious tories, heywere usuallyhostileopponents.
One
of thefirst
iterary
iews of thisnew
religion
nd
society
comes from he
misogynist
Hesiod in the
eighth century
B.C.
According
to Hesiod
in the
Theogony,
Ge,
the earth
goddess, produced
children who were deifications
of
features
f the
physical
world.
Some
of her childrenwere
monsters,
nd
others,
who
were sired
by
her on
Ouranos,
were hated
by
their ather.Ge
persuaded
one
of her
sons, Cronus,
to castratehis father nd this
particular
ct was
repeated
n
the
ucceeding
generation
f
Cronus
and his son Zeus. Itwas
Zeus,
the
stablisher
of law
and order and
justice,
who
prohibited
women from n active role in the
society
of all Greece
-
except
for the role of
childbearing,
and even this he
qualified.
It was Zeus who established the
patriarchal overnment
n
Olympus.
He also introducedmoral
order nd culture.He denied
power
to
females;
he even
took
away
their ole claim as bearers of children
by producing
Athena fromhis
head and
Dionysus
fromhis
thigh.
In
the
Olympian pantheon,
the
Greeks,
who created their
god
in their
wn
image
and
likeness,
defeminized hemost
mportant
f the
goddesses.
Athena,
the
goddess
of
wisdom,
was a
deity
f
war,
which was a masculine endeavor. Athena
was a
virgin
which is thedenial of her sex. Athena was bom of a male and
thus
was
subject
to him. Artemiswas a
virgin,
huntress,
nd a warrior.
Hestia,
acking
anthropomorphic ttributes ndmythological tories,was envisionedonlyas an
old
maid,
again
a
denial of her sex.
Aphrodite,
bom
of a
male,
also was the
only
goddess
to commit
adultery,
s the male did.
She
was
also motivated
by
sexual
love,
again
like themale.
Hera,
who was dominated
by
Zeus,
constantly pposed
him and lived in a state of eternalwatchfulness nd a state of
permanent
war-
marriage.
The tenets f this
godly society
embraced human
society,
n it s
against
this
general
background
that he
society
of Athens
developed.
A
comprehensive
and
unbiased view of the role of women in Athens
during
thefifth nd fourth enturiesB.C.
is
difficult
o ascertain.There were no Athenian
women writers n that
period.
There is
very
little iterature f
any
kind
which
comes from hemiddle or ower classes ofsociety.The view of women in Athens
in the iterature
omes from he
writings
f males from
he
upper
economic class.
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
4/8
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE
REVIEW
117
Thus,
formodem
scholars,
thewomen of Athens are as
much of an
enigma
as the
Greeks themselves.
n
Athens,
forthe most
part,
women were
legal
nonentities
whom the Greek male excluded from any participationin the political or
intellectual ifeof the
ity.Generally,
hewomen did not ttend chool and did
not
leam to read and write.
According
to one
scholarly
view,
they
were uneducated
except
for
domestic
training; hey
were
virtually mprisoned
n theirhomes. The
principal
pokesmen
offifth
century
thens,
or
example,
Pericles and
Thucydides,
disdained Athenianwomen. Other
cholars,
ike
Lacey
and
Ehrenberg,
ake a less
sanguine position.
Yet,
as A. W.
Gomme
pointed
out,
There
is,
in
fact,
no
literature,
o art of
any country,
n which
women are more
prominent,
more
carefully
tudied
and
withmore
interest,
han n
tragedy, culpture,
nd
painting
of fifth
entury
Athens. 1
Actually,
n
classical
Athens,
women fulfilled arious
roles nsocietywhich themale Atheniansviewed as either good or bad. The
two
primary ood
roles
played
by
women were those of wives and of mothers.
Among
the
bad roles were those of
lovers, rebels,
and witches.
The ideal
wife
for
the Athenian male
appears
first,
ot n real
life,
but in the
primary
iterature
f the Westernworld. In the first ook of the
Odyssey,
Homer
depicts
Penelope
as the
epitome
of the Greek wife. As she enters the
epic,
she
descends the
stairway
not
along
but
accompanied by
two servants.
Then,
weeping,
she
addresses Phemios the
singer
with an order to
sing
of
the deeds of
men
and
gods
-
a
happy
tune not the sorrowful
ones.
She
states that she is
affected y
an
unforgettable rief,
nd that s because
Odysseus
is
gone (1,
330-
359).
She
ultimately
etreats ithin hehouse
and
then ries
herself o
sleep (360-
364).
In Book
XIX,
the
prudent enelope
encounters
Odysseus
-
at this
point
a
stranger
but
again
she is not
alone,
for
Eurynome,
her
housekeeper,
s withher.
In lines
124-163,
Penelope
details here
constancy
and faithfulness o
Odysseus
and relates
her
hree-year
use and ultimate
iscovery.
She has finished herobe
unwillingly
nd underduress.At
the
beginning
f Book
XXI(2), Penelope
is
again
the
prudent
wife
accompanied by
her
erving
women. She
wept
aloud forher ost
husband
in line
56;
again,
in line
330,
it
s the
prudent
Penelope
who
weeps
for
her dear husband.
Even in Book XXIII it s the
prudent
Penelope
who is slow to
acceptthereturn f that ame dear husband. n therecognition cene of that ame
book,
she
weeps
for
joy
and is most
eager
to
respond
to the invitationof her
husband,
Let us
go
to
bed,
my
wife,
so
that
now we
may
lie down and take
pleasure
beneath sweet
sleep
(254-255).
The ultimatemodel Athenian
wife and
husband
reveal themselves
n the
persons
of
Penelope
and
Odysseus
in
ines
299-
373.
In
theconversationbetween
husband and
wife,
Penelope
assertsthat he has
remained
chaste, unviolated,
and faithful o her husband.
Odysseus
has
warred,
adventured,
nd has
enjoyed
the ntimate
ompany
of both Circe
and
Calypso.
The
dutifulwife
accepts
the absence
and
adultery
s her husband
drifts ff nto
sleep.
She,
Penelope,
was themodel and
ideal for ll Athenian
women and for
ll
Greekwomen toemulate. She was the
perfect
wife.
The
Athenians,
nce
there xisted
a role
model,
trained r
hoped
to train
heir
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
5/8
118
SUMMER
1993,
VOLUME
68,
NUMBER 3
wives. And so itwas that
Xenophon
in the
Oeconomicus,
Books
VII-X,
outlined
the
way
to train new bride.
According
to
Xenophon,
the
proper
age
for the
Athenian bridewas 15 ora little ess. She was expectedto be a personwho knew
and saw and said as little s
possible.
The most
important
irtuewhich she was
to
bring
nto her
marriage
was the
ability
o controlher
appetite.
The translation
of the word
appetite,
which
appears
in the Loeb
edition,
s a
little
mbiguous
(VII,
6).
The word
employed by Xenophon properly
means stomach
or
belly.
Moderation, hen,
n and control
f
the ntake f
food was mostdesirable. t seems
that,
even in
antiquity,
bese wives were not in favor with
husbands,
either
because of estheticsor
perhaps
because of the
expense.
The
province
of the
wife-
according
to
Xenophon
-
is the
house,
and her
training
must be in
respect
o the ndoors and thecare of the
household.
She
must
bearchildren, earchildren, e discreet,practiceself-control,manage thehouse,
supervise
the
slaves,
and be able
to weave and to teach the slaves
the art of
weaving.
She must take care of the ll in the
house,
keep
an
orderly
home,
show
total nd immediateobedience to her
husband,
and
get
her
daily
exercise
through
work n
thehouse. Two observationsmade
by
Xenophon
are
especially
notewor-
thy.
He states: The better
artner ou prove
to
me and thebetter
uard
ofthehouse
to our
children,
he
greater
will be the honor
paid
to
you
in our home
(VII,
42).
He
continues,
For it is not
through
utward comeliness that he
sum of
things
good
and beautiful s increased in the
world,
but the
daily practice
of the
virtues
(VII, 43).
The Athenian woman must be
the
perfectPenelope
-
a
partner
o
the
husband,
a
guard
of the
house,
and one who
practices
the virtuesdefined
by
her
husband.
Physical
beauty
was not to be a
goal,
nor was it even a
primary
alued
attribute. otal dedication to
thewelfareof
husband,
children,
nd
household was
the ultimate
virtue.
Three additional wives from
iteraturellustrate he
virtues nd vices
of the
Athenian matron.
Alcestis,
the one
of
Euripides,
is the
epitome
of the
self-
sacrificing
wife who
possesses
the
virtues and the
training
of a
good
wife.
Euripides
depicts throughout
heAlcestis a
woman who is
strong,
dutiful,
nd
pious
in the
eyes
of her
servants.
She
is a woman
who
prays
for her
children,
honorshergods,and s almostincapable ofdeparting rom hemarriage edwhere
her
maidenhood was
undressed
177).
She is so
dedicated to her
husband that he
alone offers o
give up
her ife so thather husband
may
live.
Phaedra,
quite
another kind of wife in the
Hippolytus,
demonstrates
the
concerns of a
proper
mate.
Reputation
must
be
preserved
above
all,
as Phaedra
teaches in her shame
speech
(373-430).
When
Phaedra fell in love
with
Hippolytus,
he decided that
ilence and concealment
were the best
plan.
Then,
discretion nd
good
sense followed.
Ultimately,
he
final olution was
death,
nd
she
says,
It would
always
be
my
choice to have
my
virtuesknown and
honored
(402-403).
She
continues,
I cannot bear that
should be discovered a
traitor o
myhusband and mychildren.God grant hemrich and glorious lives inAthens
. . . and fromtheirmother n
honorable name
(420-423). Reputation
s
what
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
6/8
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW
119
Euripides
makes most
mportant
or he
woman,
and
ifthis s
lost,
then heresult
should be like the end of Phaedra.
Clytemnestra,s characterizedby Aeschylus, embodies whata wife should
not be- a
totally
ebellious and
fear-inspiring
ife.
Throughout
h
eAgamemnon,
Gytemnestra
s thewife of the
king,
hemother f
Orestes,
and
exactly
what she
should
notbe
-
as the horusreveals n ine 35 1
My lady, you speak
like a
man.
She
describes herself n lines
606-609:
as faithful s he
left,
watchdog
at
his
door,
knowing
one
loyalty,
o enemies
implacable,
in
all
ways unchanged.
She
calls herself in
Greek
domatori
cyna.
The word
cyon
has
possible
been
mistranslated r misunderstood
s a
watchdog.
The
primarymeaning
of the
word
is
bitch,
nd in Homer
it s a word of
reproach
forwomen a word which
denotes
shamelessness and
audacity.
n
the
liad
(VI,
344,
356),
Helen
applies
thisword
toherself; risapplies it to Athena inVIII, 423, and Hera applies it toArtemis n
XXI,
481. This
speech
of
Gytemnestra
an be
given
two distinct
interpretations.
Not
only
does she
depict
herself s
faithful,
nowing
one
loyalty, mplacable
to
her
enemies,
and
watchdog
of
the
house;
she also embodies the
negative
aspects
of each
of these in her sentiments toward
Agamemnon.
She is
masculine,
rebellious,
and fear
nspiring,
true
domatori
yon
The second
role forwomen in Athens
was
that f mother. To the
Athenian,
as
Xenophon pointed
out in the
Oeconomicus,
the
primary uty
of an Athenian
wife was to
produce
Athenian
children.
Soranus,
though
he
practiced
medicine
some centuries after he Golden
Age
of
Athens,
states in the
Gynecology
that
women are
marriedfor the sake of children and
succession,
and not formere
enjoyment 34).
Women are
fit o
conceive,
according
to
Soranus,
between the
ages
of 15 and
40,
if
hey
re not
mannish,
ompact,
and
oversturdy,
r too
flabby
and
very
moist.
Thus,
the
primary
uty
of
Athenian
women of
childbearing ge
was to
produce
little
Athenians with or without
pleasure.
The worst mother f
all,
magnificently
epicted by Euripides
in
the
Medea,
clearly
demonstrated o theAthenians
what a mother hould not be. Medea and
Jason went
to
Corinth
with children.At the
opening
of the
play (112),
Medea
expresses
her attitude
oward herchildren: You accursed sons of a motherwho
knowsnothing uthate,damnyou, yourfather,ndyouwhole house. Although
she was
a mother nd at one time
evidently
oved her
children,
Jason's
rejection
of
her
clearly
changed everything
ntohate. She
murdersherchildrenbecause of
that
rejection;
she
prefers
herself o her husband
and
children
nd theirwelfare.
The
negative
roles of women in Athens
during
he fifth nd fourth
enturies
B.C. included
the
adulteress,
the
rebel,
and
the witch. All three of these
roles
confronted
the
superiority
f
the man and
endangered
his dominance. The
Athenian
men
operated
under double
standard.Marriedmen
were ike
Odysseus,
free nd even
expected
to
be
sexually
active outside
marriage.Again,
in
iterature,
this
ppears
in the
epic poem
of
the blind
poet
of
Chios(?).
Homer
statesthathis
Iliad concerned thewrathof Achilles and thewar againstTroy.He could have
stated
that he
cause
was a woman
or
possibly
the
possession
of a
woman. Helen
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
7/8
120
SUMMER
1993,
VOLUME
68,
NUMBER 3
and her
adultery
were the causes
of the
Trojan
War,
but the role of Paris and his
responsibility
re not
stated so
strongly.
As the liad
continues,
t is
again
the
possession of a woman that caused the conflict between Agamemnon and
Achilles. It is the
right
of
Agamemnon
and of all the
Greek
heroes to have
company
n their ents ven if
echnically
he ct s an adulterous
ne.
Agamemnon
pushes
the
right
o the
limit,
for he
returnshome to
Greece with his
traveling
companion
Cassandra,
who was selected not
necessarily
because of her
jovial
personality
nd
grasp
of the
present.
n
contrast,
lytemnestra
eceived condem-
nation from he outset
of
the
Agamemnon
by Aeschylus
forher association with
Aegisthus.
But
Agamemnon
acts in the
tradition
f
the Greek
world,
following
in the
footsteps
f Zeus and
Odysseus.
This
practice
was established n the
divine
world and itcarriedover into
theheroic world fromwhere
t
finally
made its
way
into real life and received
legal
sanction.
Diogenes
Laertius (II,
26) reports
n
Athenian aw which
permitted
thenian
men to
marry
ne Athenianwoman and
have children
by
another.He
states: For
they ay
the
Athenians,
because of the
scarcity
of
men,
wished to increase the
population,
and
passed
a vote that man
mightmarry
ne Athenianwoman and have children
by
another. arah
Pomeroy
points
ut that
allias, Socrates,
and
Euripides
each had two
wives,
and that
Myrto
was the mother f the two sons of
Socrates,
who were
still children n
399 B.C.2
The law stated
nothing
about
Athenian women
having
two husbands
or the
legitimacy
f an Athenianwoman
being
married o
one Athenianmale and
having
children y
another.
mplicit
n this s
themistaken onceptionthat ackofchildren
must be the fault of the female. The double standard
permitted
he male to do
whatever he
desired,
while the female had to remain
forever aithful.
Although
therewere as
many
reasons for heAthenianwoman to
commit
dultery
s existed
for he
male,
thewife could
legally
be
punished,
whereas thehusband did
not
get
the attention f the aw.
Aristophanes,Aeschylus,
and
Euripides
createdwomen who
rebelled
against
their
powerless position.
n the
Lysistrata,
the women
are faced with a war that
drags
on
eternally.They
have neither
olitical
power
nor nfluence.There is
but
one
weapon
in their control and that
is their own
sexuality. Lysistrata,
an
Athenian, nd herfriends rom ther ity-statesre rebelsand,althoughthis s a
comedy,
it is a caricature of real life.
Otherwise,
there would be no humor.
Aeschylus
createdthe
archenemy
f the
husband,
Clytemnestra,
ho was in
open
rebellion.
Euripides
created his
Medea,
and
she took her rebellion to thefurthest
extent themurder f herchildren.
Lysistrata
nd
herfriendswithdrew rom he
marriage
ct, and,
although
thiswas a
serious
transgression
o theminds of
their
husbands,
tdid not
injure nyone. Clytemnestra
ontemplated
nd
accomplished
the death of her husband. Without consideration
of
motivation,
the act was
murder,
ut,
ike
everything
lse,
therewere
degrees
of murder.The murder f a
husband
was
not
the
murder f
a
blood relative.To the
Greeks
of
antiquity,
he
takingof a blood relative's life exceeded the murder f anyone else. The most
horrendous rimes were those committed
by
Medea.
She
murderedher
brother
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
8/18/2019 Woman in Ancient Athens
8/8
INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW
121
and her children. She must have
represented
he
most rebellious and the
most
criminal
of women. These three Athenians
wrote for their time and for
their
audiences. They dealt with the problems of theirday. These problems of the
Athenians,
as
depicted
in the
Lysistrata,
the
Oresteia,
and the
Medea,
all
concerned women and women in rebellion.
Athens was the
nlightened ity
f classical times. n this
democracy,
the
city
of almost
500,000
souls at its
height
had fewer than
15
percent
of
its
people
as
citizens
with
equal
and full
rights.
he slaves were
powerless
and not
part
of the
citizen
body.
The
metics,
though
n Athens for
generations,
had
only
limited
rights.
hildrenwere n the
power
of
their
arents.
ven
among
children herewas
a serious
distinction;
boy
child was considered of much more value than
girl.
And
women
-
thewives and mothers f theAthenians were
necessary
but
only
as tools and instruments.
Hipponax
of
Ephesus (sixth century
B.C.)
wrote,
The two best
days
in a
woman's life
are
when someone
marriesher and
when
he
carries her dead
body
to the
grave (Fragment
68,
West). Sophocles,
an Athenian male of the fifth
century
B.C.,
more
succinctly
states the condition of women in
his
city.
In a
fragment
f the Tereus
583),
he wrote: But now outside
my
father's
house,
I am
nothing,yet
oftenhave I looked on women's nature n this
regard,
hat
we are
nothing.Young
women,
in
my opinion,
have
the sweetest existence known to
mortals n their athers
homes,
for heir nnocence
always keeps
children afe and
happy.But when we reachpuberty nd can understand,we are thrust ut andsold
away
fromour ancestral
gods
and fromour
parents.
Some
go
to
strange
men's
homes,
others
o
foreigners,
ome to
oyless
homes,
some to hostile.
And
all
this
once thefirst
ight
has
yoked
us to
our
husbands,
we are forcedto
praise
and
say
that ll is well.
NOTES
1.
A.
Gomme,
The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth nd Fourth
Centuries,
Classical
Philology, January-October
925,
p.
4.
2. Sarah
Pomeroy,
Goddesses, Whores, Wives,
and
Slaves,
New York:
Schocken,
1975,
p.
67.
This content downloaded from 41.129.66.68 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 06:50:18 AM
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jspTop Related