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| Introduction. What can be known or said
about Athenian women comes to us almost exclusively from evidence provided
by Greek men. So when we try to discuss ‘Women in Athenian Society’,
we are usually discussing ‘the evidence for masculine opinions’.
That might seem from the outset to give us a one-sided picture, and from
the standpoint of modern beliefs and assumptions about social and sexual
roles in society, Athenian ideas may seem wrong. For example: we think
that women should have the vote, and the right to sit in Parliament if
they are properly elected; whereas no Greek state with a constitutional
order, whether aristocratic, oligarchic or democratic, ever assigned political
rights or public functions to women, except in the domain of religion.
There are however two countervailing points. First, women were and are
an integral part of all human society, and however limited women may have
been their public role or opportunities in Athens, it was socially and
legally acknowledged that they were entitled to male protection, legally
speaking, ‘Guardianship’ - this was constraining for women,
for
(a) they had to have a Guardian whether they liked it or not;
(b) they could not legally choose who their Guardian might be;
(c) he might be sympathetic and helpful, but equally might not. Nevertheless
a majority of Athenian men accepted their responsibilities as Guardians,
and would take on the care of
Secondly, however enlightened we in 21st-century Britain may feel ourselves
to be, we should remember that in many societies to this day, women have
a politically inferior status, and that it is only in living memory (literally,
in the case of some people, very old but still alive today) that adult
women were given the vote or equal opportunities in education, let alone
the professions, in the UK; and some women would claim, rightly or wrongly,
that there are still significant barriers to their progress in professional
careers. So we should approach the ancient societies with open minds,
prepared to criticise, certainly, but from the point of view of one with,
as the Bible says, ‘a mote’ in our own eye.
For a short statement (suitable for revision purposes at least) of the
place of women in Athenian society, see RS’ note, ‘Athenian
Women’. What I mean to do here is present some of the most valid
primary evidence, and some hints on how we should interpret it, with an
eye particularly to the techniques involved in tackling Practical Analysis
exercises of the kind you will face in Paper II. |
1. Some (male) opinions
Perikles’ speech in honour of the Athenian dead at the end of the
first year of the Peloponnesian War (431/0), as recorded a few years later
by the historian Thucydides, makes a good starting-point, since
(a) Thucydides knew Perikles personally and admired him as a wise statesman;
(b) was probably present when the speech was delivered;
(c) was also a highly conscientious and thoughtful historian with an
unusual concern for accuracy; and
(d) consistently used the speeches in his work to make serious points.
This extract is therefore the nearest thing there is to a formal and official
statement of Athenian public ideology—observe the word
‘nature’ here and how it is used, for this will crop up later
in several contexts.
‘If I must say anything on the subject of female virtue to those
of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be summarised in this brief
exhortation. Greatest will be your glory if you do not fall short of
what nature made you; and the greatest will be hers who is least talked
about among men, whether for praise or blame.’
THUCYDIDES 2.45
Opinions like this are often expressed elsewhere in Athenian literature,
though seldom through such careful or thoughtful mouthpieces. For instance,
Sophokles makes the Trojan War hero Ajax address his wife Tekmessa thus:
‘Woman! Silence is your sex’s best ornament’.
SOPHOCLES, Ajax 293
Sophokles, of course, was thoughtful enough; but this exemplifies a vital
critical principle that you should always bear in mind when constructing
essays in any subject involving drama: the views spoken by characters
in plays can NEVER be simply taken as the views of the playwrights themselves,
or their audiences.
To resume. The principle that women should ideally be ‘least spoken
of’ is shown in practice by the fact that from all our sources the
names of few Athenian women are known. We observe too, in the relatively
plentiful literature of fourth-century legal speeches, many of which deal
with disputed inheritances or other family matters where women are often
mentioned, that reference is usually to specific women as ‘the daughter
of Sostratos’, ‘the sister of Menekleides’, ‘the
aunt/cousin/mother of Hermippos’ and the like, rather than being
given her own name. A couple of exceptions prove the rule. Perikles was
properly married to an aristocratic Athenian lady, but had a long-standing
affair with a foreign courtesan called Aspasia (see final Section), who
in practice was his real partner. We know her name —but not his
legitimate Athenian wife’s. Secondly Demosthenes’ 59th speech,
‘Against Neaira’, an important document for understanding
several aspects of Athenian family- and citizenship law, is directed against
a foreign defendant. |
2. Male chauvinist attitudes—we can find plenty of them!
Hephaestus, at the will of Zeus, moulded of earth the image of a modest
girl... And when he had made this lovely evil thing as the price of
fire, he led her to a place where gods and men were gathered... And
immortal gods and mortal men were amazed when they saw how deep was
the trap from which there was no escape for men. For from her the whole
female sex is descended, a great curse to mortal men with whom they
live, no help in accursed poverty and ready enough to share wealth.
They are like drones which are fed by the bees in their hives and are
their partners in crime. For the bees are busy all day till the sun
goes down and build white honey-combs, while the drones stay at home
in the shelter of the hive and fill their bellies with the toil of others.
High-thundering Zeus made woman to be a similar curse to mortal men,
and partner in vexation.
HESIOD, Theogony 507ff.
In the beginning the god made the female mind separately. One he made
from a long-bristled sow: in her house everything lies in disorder.
Another he made from a wicked vixen : a woman who knows everything.
Another he made from a bitch, vicious, own daughter of her mother, who
wants to hear everything and know everything. Another he made from the
sea: she has two characters - like the ocean, she has a changeable nature.
Another is from a monkey: hard luck on the poor man who holds such a
misery in his arms! She knows every trick and twist, just like a monkey...
Yes, this is the worst plague Zeus has made - women!
SEMONIDES, On Women
The two best days in a woman’s life are when someone marries
her and when he carries her dead body to the grave.
HIPPONAX, Frg. 68
I wish the second man who took a wife would die an awful death. I don’t
blame the first man: he had no experience of that evil. But the second
man should know what kind of evil a wife was! Oh Zeus, am I always to
say unkind things about women? By Zeus, may I then perish! They are
the best possessions one can have. Medea was evil, but Penelope was
a good thing; one may criticise Clytaemnestra, but then there was Alcestis.
By Zeus there must be another good wife? Alas for me, I’ve run
out of good women, and I have still so many bad ones to talk about.
EURIPIDES, Hippolytus 616ff
For women who are wise, it is right to do everything through men.
EURIPIDES, Supplices 40
Alas, poor men! We trade away freedom of speech and comfort, and live
as slaves with our wives. We are free no more. We have to pay for the
dowries they bring us: rancour and female anger! Men are sweet in comparison,
for they forgive another’s trespasses against them, while women
not only wrong you, but then keep nagging and criticising.
ALEXIS Frg. 146
Everyone can look at Crobyle’s face and see that she is that
famous woman, my wife and ruler. That face of hers: ‘a jackass
among apes’, as the saying goes. Marrying her was the origin of
all my troubles. She may have brought me ten talents [in dowry - LGHH],
but her nose is a yard long! And how can anyone live with someone so
overbearing?
MENANDER Frg. 333
Living together means producing children, enrolling sons in their phratries
and demes, and giving away daughters of one’s own to husbands.
Courtesans we have for pleasure and concubines to satisfy our everyday
needs, but wives to produce true-born children and to be trustworthy
guardians of the household.
DEMOSTHENES 59.122
Now (male) playwrights, writing lines for female characters:
Often I have looked on women’s nature in this way, that we [women]
are but nothing. Young women have the sweetest life known to mortals,
in their fathers’ house where innocence keeps children safe and
happy. But when we reach maturity in body and mind, we are thrown out
and merchanted away from our household gods and parents. Some of us
go to the homes of men we do not know, some to those of foreigners,
indeed; some to homes where there is no joy, or even outright hostility.
And once the first night is done, we are yoked and forced to say we
think it is all great.
SOPHOCLES, Frg. 585 (Tereus)
Electra: For if you die, what shall I do, how shall I survive, a woman
alone without brother, father or friend?
EURIPIDES, Orestes 308ff.
Clytaemnestra: Women are fools: I don’t deny it, but
even so, when the husband goes elsewhere, spurning his marriage, and
the wife wishes to imitate the man and find another love, then the full
glare of scandal falls on us, but the men who were the cause receive
no blame.
EURIPIDES, Electra, 1035ff.
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2. A real-life Athenian husband (we should not regard
the situation as typical, for it was not every day that an Athenian
man had to defend himself for the homicide of his wife’s alleged
lover, but his attitudes and opinions are meant to appeal to, and therefore
reflect, the sympathies of a jury of ordinary citizens):
When I married, my first thoughts were not to cause her undue trouble,
but also not to give her too much of her own way. I guarded and looked
after her as was proper. And when a child was born to me, I had then
as ever total confidence in her, thinking that this was the greatest
sign of closeness between us. At this early stage, men of Athens,
she was the best of women; she was a clever housewife and meticulous
in all her dealings.
But then my mother died, and this was when everything began to go
wrong for me, for it was at the funeral that my wife was seen by that
man [Eratosthenes, whose relatives are suing Lysias’ client
for homicide - LGHH]. Through our maidservant, for whom he looked
out and chatted up as she was on the way to the market, he corrupted
my wife.
I must explain, men, that I have a two-storey maisonette, with equal
spaces for the men’s room (downstairs) and the women (upstairs).
When our baby was born, his mother looked after him, and, so that
when for instance the baby might need to be bathed, I occupied the
upper floor, leaving the ground floor for the women. It became a habit
for us that she would go to sleep and give the child the breast to
shut him up [note that the German verb for breast-feeding is stillen,
= ‘to quieten’ - LGHH].
Time passed... One day, when I had come home earlier than usual from
our plot, the child was bawling and making a racket (the maid had
been pinching him to make him behave) - and That Man was in the house.
I told the wife to go and feed the child, to stop him crying. But
at first, pretending that she was pleased to see me, she refused.
In due course I became annoyed, and insisted:
‘Fine well’, she says, ‘so that you can carry on
your own with the maid up here; you’ve already groped her enough
when you’ve been drunk.’
I thought this was funny. She got up and went out, closing the door
and locking it. I thought no harm was done, and suspecting nothing
went to sleep, following hard labour in the fields.
Then I asked why the doors had creaked during the night, and she said
that the kid’s night-light had gone out, and she had had to
get a fresh light from the neighbours.
I said no more... [for the time being - LGHH], thinking it was so;
though is seemed to me that she had done her face up with cosmetics,
although her brother had died only a month before...
After this, time went by... then one day I was approached by an oldish
woman approached me, sent (it later turned out) by Eratosthenes’
previous mistress, who was indignant at being abandoned by him, and
kept a look-out until she discovered the reason. The old woman waited
for me near my house, and said,
“Euphiletos, please do not think I am meddling. The man who
is wronging you and your wife is our enemy. Now if you take the serving-woman
who goes to the market for your shopping and works for you, you will
learn everything. Eratosthenes from Oea is the man who is doing this,
and your wife is not the only woman he has seduced - there are lots
more, for he has this skill.” Then she left....
I went home again and told the servant to come with me to the market,
but took her instead to a friend’s house, where I told her I
had learned about what all that was going on. “You can choose”,
I said, either to be flogged and sent to the treadmill for unremitting
misery; or you can tell me the whole truth and suffer no punishment.
Don’t lie to me: I want the whole truth.”
At first she denied all knowledge... but when I named Eratosthenes
as the man who had been courting my wife, she was flabbergasted, thinking
that I knew everything. Then at last she denounced the scoundrel.,
describing how he had first approached her after the funeral, then
persuaded her to act as a go-between until my wife was persuaded.
When she had confessed all, I told her to see to it that no-one else
should get to know, for I wanted clear proof, and she agreed....
Four or five days later, after dining with a friend upstairs, I went
to bed. Then, members of the jury, Eratosthenes entered, and the maid
woke me to say that he was in the house. I told her to watch the door,
and, going down in silence, I slipped out and went round one man’s
house after another, and gathering together as many as were there,
I returned, with torches from the nearby shop.
When we forced open the bedroom door, those who entered first saw
him still lying beside my wife; while those who followed saw him standing
naked on the bed. I knocked him down, got him in an armlock and tied
his hands behind him. I asked why he was doing me wrong in this way,
and breaking into my house.
He answered by admitting his guilt, and begged and entreated me not
to kill him, but to accept financial damages instead. But I replied,
“It is not I who shall kill you, but the laws of the state,
which you have broken, thereby showing that they mean less to you
than your own pleasure. You have preferred to commit this crime against
my wife and children, rather than to obey the law and behave decently.”
Thus, men of the jury, this man met the fate which the laws prescribe
for wrongdoers like him...
[Later there follows a reading extracted from a law of Solon, and
the speech continues:]
You hear, gentlemen, how it is expressly decreed by the Court of the
Areopagus itself [Athens’ homicide court - LGHH]... that no-one
shall be found guilty of murder who catches an adulterer with his
wife and inflicts this punishment...
LYSIAS 1, extracts
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An ideal wife. In Euripides’ Women of Troy,
produced in 415 BC, the female survivors from the sack of Troy await their
allocation as slaves to the victorious Greek heroes. The emotions and
fears of four of them in particular are dramatically developed: of the
ageing Queen Hekabe, who after a life of royal luxury and witnessing the
deaths of her husband and sons in battle must habituate herself to being
a mere menial; of her wild, perhaps mad, daughter Cassandra, whom the
Greek king Agamemnon will make his concubine, but (she gleefully foresees)
by doing so will sow the seeds of his own destruction; of Helen, whose
elopement with the Trojan prince Paris had led to the whole war, and who
is keen to defend and justify herself (‘it was not my fault - the
goddess of Love turned my head, so she should take the blame’);
and of Andromache, wife of the Trojan hero Hector, who slew Achilles’
best friend Patroklos and was in turn slain by Achilles. In contrast to
the others, Andromache is the model of female goodness. Here she sets
out her moral agenda:
As for me, I aimed at high repute...
All that in a woman counts for noble virtue,
All that I obtained as Hector’s wife.
As women must, if their good name shall stand,
I stayed in my own house, for slander damns
A wife who fails in this.
And within those walls I let no idle gossip,
Content with higher conversation
To suit my proper temper.
I met my husband with a quiet tongue
And seemly gaze; and knew wherein to guide him,
Where accept my lord’s command.
EURIPIDES, Women of Troy, 645ff.
In similar vein, though more succinctly:
Macaria: Strangers, before all else, I hope you won’t
think it was brazen of me to come out. I know a woman should be quiet
and discreet, and that her place is in the home.
EURIPIDES, Children of Heracles 474ff.
Notice that in the Women of Troy passage, Andromache’s
wifely virtues include knowing ‘wherein to guide him’ (this
detail tends to get forgotten in simplistic treatments of Athens’
culture as male-orientated and uncivilised towards women): sometimes,
provided she chose her moments, it was proper for a wife to tell her husband
off.
In the light of certain other passages, we should regard this as an
aristocratic ideal (to which other women may have aspired, but
which they could not in practice reach) rather than a fact of life for
all (see Section 6, on Occupations, for examples of women whom poverty
obliged to make a living in public, and for whom this was socially demeaning). |
In contrast, incidentally, Athenians tended to look down on other Greeks
whose womenfolk were believed not to conform to ‘proper’ standards
of feminine behaviour:
Not even if she wished
Could any Spartan maiden grow up chaste;
They run out in public with young men,
Bare-thighed, and with their garments loose,
To join in athletic contests; it is intolerable.
EURIPIDES, Andromache 595ff.
And here is some allegedly real, rather than mythological or dramatized,
female misbehaviour:
That the woman whom this man says he betrothed to our uncle was the
mistress of anyone who wanted her and no wife of our uncle, has been
testified by the rest of the household and the neighbours; they confirm
that whenever this man’s sister was with my uncle, she was accompanied
by fights and revels and much licentious behaviour. I need hardly tell
you that no-one would have the nerve to engage in revels with a married
woman, nor do nor do married women accompany the men at banquets or
dine with strangers... and casual strangers at that.
ISAEUS 3.13f.
A model wife’s practical duties (in a relatively well-to-do household)
are indicated by this extract from Xenophon’s Economicus,
a discussion in dialogue form of household-management, in which Sokrates
questions the youngish Ischomachos about his domestic affairs; Ischomachos
intersperses his responses with some homespun philosophical theories about
the respective natures of men and women:
‘Tell me, Ischomachos, did you train your wife yourself to be
as you wanted her, or did she come from her parents already able to
manage her proper duties?’
‘She was not yet 15 when she came to me, and all her life until
then she had been very carefully looked after, so that she might hear,
see and say as little as possible. So what could she have known? Don’t
you think it enough if when she came to me she just knew how to produce
a cloak from the wool given to her, and seen the spinning given to the
maids?
‘God made the heart and body of men better able to endure cold
and heat and long journeys and campaigns. So He enjoined outdoor activities
upon man. But upon woman he apparently enjoined indoor tasks because
He made her less physically able to stand up to such things. Then, aware
of having given women the task of looking after new-born children, He
gave her a larger share than the man of love for new-born infants. Then
because He had given her the additional task of guarding the domestic
stores, God consciously made woman more careful than man, knowing that
it is no bad thing for a custodian to have an apprehensive disposition.
[Now directly to his wife, Ischomachos says:] ‘You will have to
stay inside and help in sending out the servants with outdoor duties;
you must supervise the indoor servants, and receive any income; from
these you must meet our necessary expenses, and look after the surplus
wisely, so that you don’t spend the whole year’s budget
in a month. When wool is brought to you, you must see that the right
clothes are made for those who need them. And you must see that the
dried corn remains fit for consumption. There is also one duty that
may not appeal to you much—looking after any servant who falls
ill.’ ‘Oh no,’ she said’, ‘that will be
a great pleasure.’
‘But what will give you the greatest pleasure will be to show
yourself better than I, and make me your servant; you need not worry
that will be less respected in the household as the years pass, for
you can be confident that as you get older and become a better guardian
of the household and a partner for me and the children, you will be
held in ever higher regard.’
XENOPHON, Economicus 7, extracts
And on the business of women’s duty to stay at home, here is a
revealing titbit from a wise and well-informed source:
Superintendents of children or women and officers with similar responsibilities
are characteristic of aristocracies. They are not democratic, for how
in a democracy can one prevent the women of the poor from leaving their
houses? Nor oligarchic (the women of oligarchs would not stand for it).
ARISTOTLE, Politics 1300a
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4. Some epitaphs (i.e. tomb-inscriptions) which indicate
some of the qualities thought virtuous or admirable in girls and women:
Because of your true and sweet friendship, your companion Euthylla
placed this tablet on your grave, Biote, for she keeps your memory with
her tears, and weeps for her lost youth.
‘Farewell, o tomb of Melite; a good woman lies here. You loved
your husband Onesimus; he loved you in return. You were the best, and
so he laments your death, for you were a good woman.’
‘And to you farewell too, dearest of men; love my children.’
Leaving behind two young girls, Xenoclea, daughter of Nikarchos, lies
here dead; she mourned the sad end of her son Phoenix, who died at sea
when he was eight years old.
There is no-one so ignorant of grief, Xenoclea, that he does not pity
your fate. You left behind two young girls and died of grief for your
son, who has a pitiless tomb where he lies in the dark sea.
I worked with my hands; I was a thrifty woman, I Nikarete, who lie
here.
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5. Legal and testamentary arrangements
Exclusion from business dealings:
The law expressly says that no child or woman shall have the right
to make any contract above the value of a medimnus of barley.
ISAEUS 10.1
Agnatic succession and inheritance of property through the
male line
[Quotation of Law] If a man dies intestate and without
sons, his property shall pass to the following, as well as (if they
exist) to any surviving daughters. First to brothers from the same father,
second to true-born sons of such brothers; if these do not exist, to
their sons. Male issue and relationship to the father shall prevail,
even if the relationship is more remote, as far as cousins: but if there
are no male cousins on the father’s side, males on the mother’s
side shall inherit on the same principles. If no male relation survives
under any of these heads, the nearest surviving relation on the father’s
side shall inherit.
DEMOSTHENES 43.51
A (man’s) will:
I, Pasion of Acharnae, have made the following provisions: I leave
my wife Archippe to Phormios [Pasion’s freedman - LGHH], and further
I leave as Archippe’s dowry a talent from my property in Peparethos,
and another talent from here, a household worth one hundred minae, its
maidservants and gold, and everything else therein.
DEMOSTHENES 45.28
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6. Betrothal and other marital arrangements
When, and whom, to wed (if you are a man):
You are at the right age to bring a wife home when you are in your
late twenties, and not much more. Your wife should be four years past
puberty and married to you in the fifth. Marry a virgin, so that you
can teach her thrifty habits [compare Ischomachos]. The best one to
marry is the girl who lives near you; look her over in detail, so you
don’t marry one who will bring laughter to your neighbours [because
of her infidelity - LGHH]. For a man can win nothing better than a good
wife, and nothing more painful than a bad one, who scorches her husband
(however strong he may be) without fire, and makes him old before his
time.
HESIOD, Works and Days 695ff
Contract and dowry:
‘I betroth my daughter to you for the procreation of legitimate
children and I give you a dowry of 30 minae with her’.
MENANDER, The Bad-Tempered Man 843f.
Polyeuktos was from Teithras... not having any male issue, he adopted
Leokrates’ wife’s brother. He had two daughters by Leokrates’
sister, the elder of whom he gave to me with a diary of 40 minas and
the younger to Leokrates.
DEMOSTHENES 41.3
After giving away our sisters, being ourselves of military age we went
abroad on campaign in Thrace with Iphikrates. After acquiring some capital
there which improved our standing, we returned to Athens and found that
our elder sister now had two children but the younger, Menekles’
wife, was still childless. One or two months later, Menekles, after
singing our sister’s praises, made proposals to us, saying that
he was conscious of his age and childlessness, and that she deserved
a better reward for her goodness than to grow old with him without a
child: his own misfortune was enough. He asked us to please him by giving
her, with his approval, to another man. We said he must get her approval,
and we would do whatever she thought best. At first she would not even
listen to the suggestion, but in time she reluctantly gave way. This
is how we came to give her to Elios of Sphettos, and Menekles gave back
her dowry, and the dresses she had when she came to him and the bits
of gold she possessed.
ISAEUS 2.6-9
My mother first bore a daughter to Protomachos, to whom her full brother
had given her: then by my father she gave birth to me. I will explain
now how she came to live with my father...: Protomachos was poor, but
then inheriting an heiress of comfortable means and wanting to give
away my mother [to marry the heiress - LGHH], he persuaded my father
Thoukritos, an acquaintance of his, to take her. My father had my mother
betrothed to him by her brother Timokrates, and the betrothal was witnessed
by both his uncles and ours.
DEMOSTHENES 57.40-41
Marriage feasts (one for intimates, the other for members of the phratry,
a male club)
When our father took this woman in marriage, he gave a marriage feast
and invited three of his friends along with his relatives. He also gave
a marriage banquet to members of his phratry, according to their rules.
ISAEUS 8.18
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6. Occupations
My husband died in Cyprus, leaving me with five children, whom I brought
up with difficulty, weaving chaplets in the myrtle-market. For a while
we got by—pretty poorly, it is true; but now this man’s
[Euripides’—LGHH] tragedies have persuaded people that there
are no gods, so we can’t sell even half as much. So I support
you all, and agree that there are many reasons for punishing him...
But I must be off to the agora: I’ve got an order for twenty chaplets
to see to for my customers.
ARISTOPHANES, Women at the Thesmophoria 443ff.
My mother was a wet-nurse [an occupation usually given to slave women
only—LGHH]. But even if being a wet-nurse is demeaning, I will
admit it... Poverty forces free citizens to take up many slavish and
humiliating occupations, which should prompt pity rather than further
hardship. I hear that, because of the fluctuating fortunes of the city
in those days [he refers back to the days of the Peloponnesian War],
many female citizens have become wet-nurses or weavers or grape-pickers...
DEMOSTHENES 57.44
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7. Philosophic rationalisation of women’s position:
here Aristotle sets out his conclusions about the social relations between
the human sexes, based on observation and reasoning from the whole gamut
of nature and political theory:
We may observe in living creatures both a despotical and a constitutional
rule: for the soul rules the body with a despotical rule, whereas the
intellect rules the appetites with a constitutional and royal rule.
The rule of the soul over the body, and of the mind and the rational
element over the passionate is natural and expedient, whereas the equality
of the two or the rule of the inferior is always damaging. This is true
for animals as well as for humankind: for domesticated animals have
a better nature than the wild, and are better off when they are ruled
by man, for then they are looked after. Then the male is superior to
the female, and he rules, while she is ruled, and this principle extends
to all humanity...
Of household management there are three parts: one is the rule of master
over slave, another of a father, the third of a husband. A husband and
father rules over wife and children, but the nature of the rule differs,
the rule over his children being a royal, over his wife a constitutional,
rule. For although there may be exceptions to the order of nature, the
male is by nature fitter for command than the female, just as the older
and the fully grown is superior to the younger and more immature.
ARISTOTLE, Politics 1254b3ff.
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8. Religious Activities
This was the one main area where women could perform a public role and
function as, so to speak, ‘full’ members of the community,
particularly in connexion with the cults of Athena, Artemis, Demeter (all
goddesses, of course) and Dionysus. There were both permanent priestesses
in some cults, and specific occasions at festival times. The priestess
of Athena Polias (patron goddess of the city) enjoyed considerable prestige.
Herodotos tells us of an episode in 511 BC:
For Kleomenes [king of Sparta] climbed up to the Acropolis, intending
to seize it, and approached the shrine of Athena as if to pray. The
priestess rose from her throne before he could enter, and said, ‘Spartan
stranger, go back! Do not enter the temple! Dorians are forbidden to
go inside.’ He replied, ‘Madam, I am Achaean, not a Dorian,’
and ignoring the warning, made his attempt, and then was flung out along
with the Spartans.
HERODOTOS 5.72
The priestess also had a number of girl assistants, as the geographer
Pausanias tells us:
Two girls live not far from the temple of Polias; the Athenians call
them arrephoroi. These girls live with the goddess for a set time [compare
the Vestals in Rome] and when the [annual] festival comes round they
perform the following rites by night. They place on their heads what
the priestess gives them to carry... [he goes on to describe in more
detail their festival activities]
PAUSANIAS 1.27.3
Here are a couple of inscriptions, the first recording a decree of the
Assembly from about 440, for the appointment of a priestess for the temple
of Athena Nike at the south-west corner of the Acropolis and related matters;
the second recording offerings made by individual women to the goddess
Artemis at her temple at Brauron:
Glaukos proposed: for Athena Nike a priestess who... shall be [appointed]
from all Athenian women, and the sanctuary is to be equipped with doors
as Kallikrates; the Poletai [= public accountants] shall let
out the contract... Payment to the priestess shall be fifty drachmas
[per year], and the legs and hides from public [sacrifices]. A temple
shall be constructed and a stone altar.
IG I2 24
Archippe [dedicated] a dotted, sleeved tunic in a box during the year
of Kallimachos’ archonship [349/8 BC]; Kallipe a short tunic,
scalloped and embroidered, with letters woven in. Chairippe and Eukoline,
a dotted tunic in a box. Philoumene a silken tunic, in the year of Theophilos’
archonship [348/7 BC].... [further similar dedications are catalogued]
IG II2 1514
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9. Aspasia and Politics
They say that Aspasia was highly regarded by Perikles for her political
wisdom [compare Augustus’ Livia?]; for Socrates used to come and
see her with his disciples and his friends brought their wives to listen
to her although she presided over the most unrespectable establishment
and trained young hetairai.
PLUTARCH, Pericles 24.3
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