Athenian Women in the Classical Period
Student Paper for Credit in HIST 2210, LC
Written by: E. Papakostas
The study of women in Classical Athens is challenging, as the majority of ancient sources, artifacts, and records that have survived are written, or have been created, by wealthy upper-class Athenian men. These records reflect their views, attitudes, and beliefs towards women. They wrote about women who were wealthy, upper-class Athenians who were socially restricted, poorly educated, and held negligible power, and women who were prostitutes and entertainers of Athens. There is a considerable body of evidence, in the form of law-court speeches, that have enabled modern-day historians to reconstruct women's position within the social, legal, political, and economic structures of the Athenian polis.
In the fifth century BC, Athens encountered the emergence of brilliant philosophers, first historians, dramatists, sculptors, painters, architects, and it gave birth to a democratic government, an institution unique to the ancient world. Of all the cultures, Greece has had an immeasurable impact on western civilization and civilization as a whole within politics, economical, medical, and educational institutions. However, with all these achievements, the majority was achieved by males, as males disregarded women in terms of their ownership and equality. Women's opinions were not recognized as valuable if they dared to express themselves.
The ways in which women were treated in the Athenian culture are evident in the manner in which they were treated as second-class citizens. A woman's worth was measured only by her contribution to the home's smooth functioning and raising her family. A respectable woman’s place was at home (oikos), where she managed the household, assigned duties to her servants, weaved cloth and birthed children, especially sons for the husband. Evidence of a woman’s work can be understood in the defense speech of Eratosthenes' death, attributed to Lysias in approximately 390 B.C. The quote, “my dwelling is on two floors, the upper being equal in space to the lower, with the women’s quarters (Gynaeceum) and the men’s below (Andron)” (Lysias, trans.1930, Sec.9). It Illustrates that women had gender assigned rooms in their homes to undertake roles and tasks.
A second important role was childbearing as it affected future generations, and it was the primary purpose of marriage. Evidence of this can be seen from Lysistrata, as Calonice stated that “there's so much to do; husbands to be patted and put in good tempers: servants to be poked out: children washed or soothed with lullaby’s or fed with mouthfuls of pap” (Aristophanes, trans. 1926, lines 1-45). These are daily tasks an Athenian woman would have to fulfill, or else the family’s reputation would be at stake. Understanding Athenian women's role in antiquity, specifically in the oikos, reveals the hidden gender imbalance that recurs throughout history.
The one exception to the classes of women was the priestesses. Priestesses organized religious events that took place in Athens throughout the year. These women remained unmarried, had a relative amount of freedom, and were considered high status. Furthermore, these women did have the freedom to participate in religion and played an important role in rituals and social practices that were a central part of public life in the state. Evidence of some of these complimentary views is presented on pottery where women were depicted on a diverse number of shaped pots that were exported to other lands. When performing rituals, women were the centerpiece of the polis. Even though they had no relevance in the public or political sphere, their roles in the traditions and festivals gave them positions and importance in society.
During the fifth century, society was patrilineal and patriarchal that supported a social system where the father (Kyrios) is the supreme authority figure and men exclusively held political power. To understand the lives of women and why they were excluded from the structure of power, the belief of the dominant masculine ideology of the time needs to be considered: that women were too soft and weak. Furthermore, the well-known philosopher Aristotle viewed the male and female dynamic as "the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject” (Aristotle, trans. 1944, sec.1254b). For instance, “newborn Athenian girls were abandoned…at the local garbage dump”, when they were evaluated by their Kyrios as they were believed to be a burden to the family. (Pomeroy et al., 2020, p.181).
Women in Athens did not have the same privilege or access to property and land ownership. However, they contributed to transactions because of their crucial position within the oikos. They often participated with significant informal power over property compared to the formal, legal rights men possessed. They were prohibited from “legally pursuing their interests on their behalf, and free Athenian women had to trust their Kyrios (their legal representative or guardian, usually their father, brother, husband, or son) to do this for them” (Johnstone, 2003, p. 248). This meant that Athenian women had to maintain a good relationship with her kyrios in order for him to trust her in making a transaction.
Additionally, dowries were given to a daughter to make her more attractive to her potential husband and for the husband to not divorce his wife as he would have to return the dowry. Yet, the wife could not utilize the dowry for her independence and interests. Unlike men who could trust a range of other men, women had to rely on only one man, her kyrios, and had to invest themselves in maintaining relationships with male relatives.
In 451 B.C, the Pericles Citizenship Law passed by the ekklesia revised the citizenship of an Athenian from citizenship given to offspring of Athenian men and non-Athenian women to citizenship given to offspring of an Athenian mother and father. This dramatically reduced the number of actual citizens that could benefit from the Athenian empire. Moreover, Athenian citizenship was considered extremely coveted. Until then, women were "participants of the polis only in the sphere of religion…and performed ceremonial duties in a public gathering" (Kapparis, 2003, sec.5). This law acknowledged and recognized Athenian-born as citizens in their rights and as active participants in the state.
One of the first literary views comes from the misogynist Hesiod in the eighth century B.C. Hesiod was one of the earliest Greek poets, who wrote the poem “Theogony," where he connects how the Gods were coordinated and how they ingrained permanent control over the cosmos.
Hesiod's outlook was that a man's suffering was due to the existence of women. This emphasizes the widely held belief during the Classical Period: that women should only exist to serve men. In his poem, he states that "Zeus who thunders on high made women be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age” (Hesiod, trans. 1914, lines 600-604). This illustrates that Zeus considered women a necessary evil for men. If a man chose not to get married, he would be lucky as he would retain all his wealth and encounter no problems in his life. Simultaneously, an unmarried man is unlucky because, without a woman, no one else will take care of him when he becomes elderly, as that is a woman's duty.
(C) The British Museum
When women reached the stage of puberty, they were married off to men who were three times older. The painting (Fig.6) represents a scene where a young woman is being transferred from one household to another during her wedding day, symbolizing the change from her youth to adulthood. The institution of marriage did not consider a bride’s opinion, as she was given from her father's protection to that of her husband. Fathers were more interested in growing and creating a business or forging an alliance between families than finding a kind and loving mate for their daughters. The end of a marriage ceremony signalled the end of a young woman's status as a young maiden (kore), as she was then labelled as a nymphe or bride until the birth of her first child when she became a gyne, or woman.
Though the strength of Athenian women was disregarded, in the fifth century B.C, some women were successful despite the patriarchal society. For example, Agnodice of Athens became the first female medical doctor. She disguised herself as a man by cutting off her hair and covering her body in order to be accepted into the University at Alexandria. She had a successful practice in Athens with many female patients. Although she was charged with breaking the law of practicing medicine as a female, the case was overturned, and she continued her career. Agnodice was not the only accomplished woman, as others existed. Yet, no historical records documented their existence because males did not want to be looked upon as equal to women.
To conclude, historians, and archeologists, who study Greek women in antiquity, believe that females were not as invisible as philosophers, playwriters, and poets regarded them. Nevertheless, the comparison between ancient women and modern-day women cannot be equated because of the different time periods. Women today still face discrimination, oppression, and persecution, depending on the country they live in. In the year 2020, equality between men and women would be enforced and protected under the law. Unfortunately, this is not the case for developed and developing countries around the world. Yet, women continue to evolve and excel in their chosen field despite the many obstacles they face.
References
Aristophanes. (1926). Lysistrata. (J. Lindsay. Ed.). Fanfrolico Press. http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0019.tlg007.perseus-eng1 (Original work published ca. 411 B.C.E.)
Aristotle. (1944). Politics. (H. Rackham, Ed.). Harvard University Press. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg035.perseus-eng1:1.1254b (Original work published ca. 350 B.C.E.)
Hesiod. (n.d.) Lapham's Quarterly. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/contributors/hesiod
Hesiod. (1914). Theogony (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Trans.). Harvard University Press. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0130 (Original work published ca. 700 B.C.E.)
Johnstone, S. (2003). Women, property, and surveillance in Classical Athens. Classical Antiquity, 22(2), 247-274.
Kapparis, K. (2003, March 22). Women and family in Athenian law. Demos. http://www.stoa.org/demos/article_women_and_family@page=all&greekEncoding=UnicodeC.html
Lysias. (1930). On the murder of Eratosthenes (W.R.M. Lamb, Trans.). Harvard University Press. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0540.tlg001.perseus-eng1:9.
Mark, J. J. (2014, August 20). Ten noble and notorious women of Ancient Greece. Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/article/737/ten-noble-and-notorious-women-of-ancient-greece/
Padgett, J.M. (2009). No silent in church: Athenian women and religion. American Journal of Archaeology, 113(4), 643-650.
Pomeroy, S.B., Burnstein, S.M., Donlan, W., Tobert Roberts, J., Tandy, D., & Tsouvala, G. (2020). A brief history of Ancient Greece: Politics, society, and culture (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.
