Women's Roles in

Ancient Civilizations
A Reference Guide

EDITED BY
Bella Vivante

Greenwood Press
Westport, Connecticut • London
 Copyright Acknowledgments

The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for the use of the
following material:
From Poems of Love and War, by A. K. Ramanujan. Three poems from pp. 84,145,
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 185. Copyright © 1985, Columbia University Press. Reprinted with the permis-
sion of the publisher and Oxford University Press.
Women's roles in ancient civilizations : a reference guide / edited by
Bella Vivante. From The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: Prom Early Times to the Thirteenth Cen-
p. cm. tury, translated by Burton Watson. One poem from pp. 74—75. Copyright © 1984,
Includes bibliographical references and index. Columbia University Press. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher.
ISBN 0-313-30127-1 (alk. paper)
1. Women-—History—To 500. 2. Sex role—History. I. Vivante, From Ancient Egyptian Literature, three volumes, by Miriam Lichtheim. Material
Bella. taken from volume 2, 3 poems from pp. 136, 141, 143. Copyright © 1973-1980,
HQ1127.W654 1999 Regents of the University of California. Reprinted with the permission of the
305.4W01—dc21 98-30496 publisher, the University of California Press.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. From The Harps That Once Were . . .: Sumerian Poetry in Translation, by Th. Jacob-
Copyright © 1999 by Bella Vivante sen. One poem from p. 140. Copyright © 1976. Reprinted with the permission
of the publisher, Yale University Press.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the From The Exaltation of Inanna, by W. W. Hallo and JJ.A. van Dijk. One poetry
express written consent of the publisher. quote from pp. 22-25. Copyright © 1968. Reprinted with the permission of the
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-30496 publisher, Yale University Press.
ISBN: 0-313-30127-1 From "The Historian and the Sumerian Gods," by Th. Jacobsen. Journal of the
First published in 1999 American Oriental Society 114 (1994): pp. 151-153. Reprinted with the permission
of the American Oriental Society.
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. From Poets of the Tamil Anthologies: Ancient Poems of Love and War, by George L.
www. green wood .com Hart III. Three poems from pp. 22, 60, 199. Copyright © 1979 by Princeton Uni-
Printed in the United States of America versity Press. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press.

•8" Cover art credits: "Makron, Greek, Red-figure Kylix (interior view)," courtesy of
the Toledo Museum of Art; "Terracotta Figurine of a Female Musician Playing
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National a Hand Drum" (Semitic Museum #1907.64.470), photograph by Carl Andrews,
Information Standards Organization (239.48-1984). courtesy of the Semitic Museum, Harvard University; "Female Votive Statue" ©
The British Museum; "Women at a Fountain House" © The British Museum.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 8
Women in
Ancient Greece
Map 8
Greece

Bella (Zweig) Vivante

TIMELINE
(dates are approximate)
7000-3500 B.C.E. Neolithic period
BRONZE AGE CIVILIZATIONS
3500-1000 B.C.E. Minoan civilizations
2000-1470 Palatial period, building of large "palace" structures:
period in which most wall paintings and female figu-
rines are found
1682 Volcanic eruption at Thera, causing part of the island
to implode and covering a Minoan city today called
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Akrotiri
-»-"'"
CRETE 3200-1000 Cycladic civilizations
1575-1000 Mycenaean civilization, proto-Greek: formative period
From The Humanistic Tradition, Vol. 1, by Gloria K. Fiero. Copyright © 1992. for Greek deities, beliefs, customs, and mythologies
Published by Brown & Benchmark. Reproduced with permission of The Mc-
Graw-Hill Companies. 1280-1270 Trojan War (date, based on archeological burn layers,
is uncertain; it may have occurred 1200-1190 B.C.E.)
HISTORICAL GREECE, THE IRON AGE
1100-776 B.C.E. Dark Ages following the collapse of the Mycenaean civ-
ilization: fewer artifacts are found and writing ceased
8th-6th cent. Archaic period: burst of poetic and artistic activity
throughout Greece; period of epic poetry—Homer; lyric
poetry—Sappho; early Pythagorean philosophers; and
kore statues
220 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 221

776 First ancient Olympian games, whose occurrence every united these communities was their common language (though with sig-
four years was the standard for Greek dating nificant dialectical differences), similar religious customs, and, in the his-
5th-4rh cent. Classical period: development of Athenian democracy torical period, an increasingly common literary, artistic, and religious
and height of Athenian artistic and literary achievements heritage. However, the economic, social, and political structures, and
even religious customs, of the individual communities varied consider-
5th cent. Athenian dramatists: tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, ably—not only over time but within the same period: Athens and Sparta
and Euripides, and comic playwright Aristophanes; phi- provide two notable examples of contrasting Greek societies throughout
losophers Socrates and Aesara; poet Korinna
historical times.
4th cent. Philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Arete The ancient communities were scattered across the rocky and coastal
landscape of the Greek mainland and numerous islands: mountains and
323 B.C.E.-31 C.E. Hellenistic period, from the death of Alexander to the sea determined modes of living; sources of food and revenue; fishing,
defeat of Cleopatra, last Ptolemaic queen in Egypt; poets shepherding, agricultural, or trade activities. In fact, these geographical
Erinna, Anyte, and Nossis; Neo-Pythagorean philoso-
phers
features figured significantly in the belief systems and cultural stories of
the Greeks. In the second millennium Greek communities began actively
146 B.C.E. Roman conquest of Greece expanding and colonizing: to the east, ancient Ionia, what is now the
western coast of Turkey, where these communities had active contact
4th cent. C.E. Hypatia, Neo-Platonist mathematician and philosopher
with the cultures of the Near East; and to the west into Sicily, southern
Italy, and France. The lands in both directions offered vast open areas
A variety of cultures inhabited the lands of ancient Greece dating back suitable for larger-scale agriculture and for cattle raising, which the
to the Neolithic period (ca. 7000-3000 B.C.E.). In the earlier periods, cul- mountainous Greek landscape did not allow. In the Hellenistic period
tures are differentiated by distinctive dwelling styles, burial customs, this expansion extended to the lands conquered by Alexander in the
artistic representations in pottery or wall paintings, and other artifacts. eastern Mediterranean and Egypt, and it included new settlements such
These early cultures also show evidence of trade and contact with other as Alexandria in northern Egypt, which became a multicultural cross-
civilizations of the ancient Near East and with Egypt, but distinguishing roads that flourished for centuries.
women's particular roles in the early record is not easy. An increasing
body of material relating to women, both archeological and documen-
tary, survives from the historical Greek era, which is conventionally bro- EARLIER PERIODS
ken down into the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods (eighth-
sixth, fifth-fourth, and third-second centuries B.C.E., respectively; see fur- Cycladic
ther below).1 One cannot, however, uncover women's roles directly from The Cycladic period (third millennium B.C.E.), from the Cyclades is-
this material but must exercise caution in using it, taking into account lands in the Aegean that form a circle (kitklos), has yielded thousands of
such factors as the conditions of manufacture and the intent and use of distinctive marble figurines ranging from a few inches to several feet in
different forms of evidence. height, the vast majority of them female. Most are carved in a frontal
This chapter looks at the roles of women in ancient Greek cultures, position, breasts high, arms folded across the chest often midway be-
examining first some of the evidence from earlier periods in the distinc- tween the breasts and belly, knees bent, and the genital area usually
tive Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean cultures. It then focuses on the marked by a triangle with or without a vertical line, or sometimes just
historical Greek era, showing broad overviews of women's roles. Finally the line by itself. The feet are pointed down so these statuettes cannot
it looks at some of women's own voices from ancient Greece in poetry stand, and those found in graves were often broken at the knees. Some
and philosophy. of the earliest Cycladic figurines were formed abstractly, resembling vi-
Throughout antiquity, ancient "Greece" was actually a collection of olin shapes. The faces were also abstractly rendered: an elongated nose
highly individual, sovereign communities whose relative importance on a curved, oval-like plane, resembling a bird's face; hence some schol-
fluctuated over time. These independent communities might periodically ars call them bird's masks.2 These pieces recall the female figurines made
form defensive leagues, but they were not united under any single rule for many thousands of years throughout ancient Europe and the eastern
until Philip II of Macedon's conquests in the fourth century B.C.E. What Mediterranean: standing nude figures with breasts and genital area
222 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 223

clearly marked, their arms across their chests or raised in the air. Very gaged. Dancing, an important ritual activity also performed by women,
few male Cycladic figurines have been found, and all are engaged in in historical Greek periods, is frequently depicted in the art. The many
musical activity, playing either a lyre or double pipes. visual representations of women seem to portray their high social or
It is difficult to deduce very much about women's actual roles from political status. Although their evidence is indirect, allusions to Crete in
these finds without other kinds of evidence. Because of their frequent later Greek literature confirm the material evidence from Minoan society
placement in graves, it is likely that female figures had some importance that suggests an active, peaceful society where women clearly held val-
in spiritual belief and ritual. Since females held important ritual roles as ued positions in their community—certainly in the religious sphere, and
goddesses or as priestesses in Greece and in the surrounding cultures, it possibly also in social and political realms.
is likely that Cycladic women held significant ritual roles as well. The
depictions of males as musicians relate to men's roles in later periods as Mycenaean
ritual musicians and singers of tales.
By about 1400 B.C.E. the Mycenaeans had conquered the Minoans.
Named after Mycenae, the principal palace site and stronghold of the
Minoan period, the Mycenaean civilization dominated the area from about 1600
The Minoan culture, named for the legendary King Minos, was cen- to 1100 B.C.E. Evident from both the archeological remains and the epic
tered on the island of Crete, with major settlements on Thera (present- poetry of 500 years later, the Mycenaeans were a militaristic, warlike
day Santorini).3 The principal site was at Knossos, in north-central Crete, culture intent on conquest, raiding, and obtaining gold. It was the king
with other settlements spread throughout the island. Agriculture and sea of Mycenae, Agamemnon, who marshalled and commanded the Greek
commerce provided their economic base: Minoan diplomats (or traders?) forces that fought at Troy, the subject of Homer's Iliad and much Greek
are represented on Egyptian tomb paintings, and centuries later the Ho- literature.
meric poems depicted them as unparalleled for their fleet and seafaring In contrast to the low-lying, undefended settlements of the Minoans,
skills. A wealth of wall paintings, statuettes, and pottery, often painted, most Mycenaean dwellings centered around a heavily fortified hilltop
has been found providing some picture of Minoan culture; but the Mi- palace. Moreover, war-related artifacts and vase paintings depicting war-
noan writing system, called Linear A, has not been deciphered. Minoan like scenes abound. At the same time that the Mycenaeans conquered
settlements were in valleys without defensive walls. Many historians be- the previous populations, they were very much influenced by them.
lieve the navy acted as a sufficient defensive force, but the lack of for- Minoan art styles and subjects characterize all Mycenaean art; these in-
tifying walls or other evidence of warfare also indicates that the various fluences are especially notable in areas that pertain to ritual. Some in-
Minoan communities did not fear warfare among themselves either. terpreters suggest that Minoan artists and craftspeople dispersed
Together with this pattern of settlement, much of the visual evidence throughout Mycenaean communities account for this continuation. At
supports a generally peaceful lifestyle for the Minoans. Wall and pottery the same time, there seems to be profound influence by the Minoans and
paintings depict various peaceful scenes: marine animals such as dol- other pre-Greek peoples on Mycenaean forms of belief.
phins, octopi, fish; coastal and river environments of plants, water, and Certainly the importance of earlier sacred sites continued: after their
birds, often showing Egyptian papyrus. One spectacular vase, carved of conquest, temples to male Mycenaean gods, such as Zeus or Apollo, were
steatite (a black stone), depicts men going to the harvest, carrying their established over the sanctuaries of the female deities worshipped there
scythes over their shoulders, their mouths open in song. They are led by before conquest. At the sites, the earlier predominance of female images
a musician holding a rattle, his head back, setting the tune for the men was increasingly replaced by male images, and later Greek stories tell of
working. these violent takeovers. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes the young
Finds at hilltop sanctuaries show female figures, a representation of male god's conquest of Pytho, apparently a female snake deity, at Delphi.
the deity called the Mountain Mother. Wall paintings and those on the He then established his oracle there with a prophetess called the Pythia.
sides of sarcophagi (coffins), as well as several statuettes, depict women Interestingly, this and other stories reveal connections with Crete sug-
performing ritual activities, including making ritual offerings and per- gesting that the Greeks perceived Crete as a source of their own religious
forming liquid or animal sacrifices; men are depicted accompanying beliefs and practices.
women's ritual activities as musicians or spectators. Some activities, such The major historian of religion, Martin P. Nilsson, documented Mi-
as the bull-leaping games, depict male and female figures equally en- noan religious influence on Mycenaean society. Belief in a powerful, ap-
224 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 225

parently principal female deity was strong in both cultures; she was distinct from the men's. Furthermore, both the literature and art portray
worshipped as the Mountain Mother at mountain peak sanctuaries, and ideal worlds rather than actual life. Nevertheless these works do provide
numerous rings and paintings depict rituals of ecstatic song and dance insight into the ideals of behavior that women were to embody, and they
in her honor. This religious influence was not an easy match, however, often reveal in the process aspects of women's actual societal roles. This
with the religious beliefs the Mycenaeans brought with them: patriarchal brief overview of the historical periods and the kinds of evidence re-
stories of sky gods of thunder analogous to those of other Indo-European maining in each provides a background for the discussion of women's
cultures, from the east in ancient India and Mesopotamia to the west in roles in ancient Greece.
Italy and among the Germanic tribes. Many stories reveal a conflict be-
tween the beliefs of the early Greeks and those of the people they con-
quered. This is vividly illustrated in the antagonisms between female and Archaic Period
male deities, especially the notorious conflicts between Zeus and Hera, Historians call the period following the collapse of the Mycenaean
the "first couple" of the Olympian pantheon. civilization the Dark Ages, because of the very few finds it has yielded.
The Mycenaean adaptation of the Minoan script, called Linear B, has This situation began to change with the Archaic period (eighth to sixth
been deciphered and emerges as a form of Greek, thus establishing the centuries B.C.E.), a time of major transition in ancient Greece when the
Mycenaeans as ancestors of the Greeks of the historical period. Women's individual Greek polls ("city-state") began to emerge and increase in
important roles as priestess are documented in these records. The priest- power. Political revolutions overturned monarchies or traditional clan
esses named were probably of the aristocratic class, owned their own structures and established new political distributions of power. Espe-
land, and apparently wielded considerable authority. Other women also cially important were (1) "tyranny," rule by a nonhereditary ruler, but
served official religious functions, often for a female deity. In addition, not necessarily a "tyrant" in the modern sense of the word; (2) oligarchy,
these tablets record a range of women's paid labor activities: most as "rule by a few," as in Sparta; and (3) democracy, "rule by the people,"
weavers or other activities connected with the manufacture of cloth; oth- most notably at Athens. The tyrants were often major promoters of the
ers as leather workers, bath or nursing attendants, or working in various arts: Peisistratos, the sixth-century tyrant in Athens, expanded the com-
stages of grain processing. Most of these appear to be women-only pro- petitions for the recital of epic poetry; he established Athenian control
fessions. Some women are identified by their ethnic origin, mostly from over the pan-Hellenic ("all Greek") rites for the goddesses Demeter and
Mycenaean colonies in Ionia (the western coast of Turkey) who may have Persephone called the Eleusinian Mysteries; and he initiated the first dra-
been refugees from the wars in eastern Greece; indeed, the relative ab- matic competitions in honor of the god Dionysos.
sence of male professions may indicate the men's absence in those wars. Writing reemerged during the Archaic period, as did the use of coins.
In any case, all records of rations show that women and men were given Both the form of writing—the Phoenician alphabet (knowledge of the
an equal amount, and that girls and boys equally received half the adult Mycenaean script had been lost)—and coinage were learned from near
ration, a distribution pattern that contrasts markedly with practices in eastern civilizations, and both brought on major cultural transformations.
the ancient Near East and in later Greece. Through use of coins, Athenians fairly quickly learned the process of
All these earlier cultures influenced the Greeks of the historical period, capitalization, that is, of making money on money through interest
even though they are recalled mostly as distant memories in the myth- (called tekos, "child"). Together with increased commercial trading and
ological tales and epic poetry. But the religious beliefs of these earlier the discovery of silver mines in the south, profitable business ventures
cultures—especially the worship of female divinities—and the ap- became a major part of economic life in Athens by the fifth century
parently important positions of women in them, seem to have continued B.C.E.—not one, however, that most women would be part of. Interest-
alongside the imposition of patriarchal belief systems. ingly, Sparta, equally aware of what coins could bring about, outlawed
the accumulation of coins in order to preserve the cultural integrity of
GREECE: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND its community. This feature of Spartan society served as the basis for
Plato's outlawing of private property for the guardian class in his ideal
A variety of evidence from ancient Greece provides insights into state (Republic 416d5^17b, end of Book III).
women's possible roles, most of which are literary, philosophical, or ar- Writing dramatically transformed the oral society of early Greece.
tistic portrayals by men. Only a few actual women's voices remain, both Whereas members of an oral society remember all its lore, history, and
in poetry and philosophy, which often depict women from perspectives values through oral transmission, writing tends to be used not only as
226 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 227

an aid for memory but as a reference tool so that memory becomes un- siod's other work, Works and Days, a pessimistic reflection of a farmer's
important. These differences in how one remembers and knows anything life, bemoans men's need of women to procreate and survive. Both works
of importance result in major shifts in thinking, often affecting such is- tell the story of the creation of Pandora, the first woman, created by Zeus
sues as personal autonomy and gender relations. Even though Greece to be an evil for men. Together with these poems, some satiric poetry
remained for many centuries primarily an oral society, this conceptual that contrasts sharply with the complex Homeric representations of
shift took root in the Archaic period with the spread of writing.4 women describes different ways women make men's lives miserable.
Remarkably, rather than temple or palace accounts, most of what has The art of the Archaic period also presents dual images of women.
been preserved is literature—epic, hymns, and lyric poetry, which burst The period is known on the one hand for idealized statues of young
onto the scene as accomplished literary forms in the Archaic period. The women called korai ("daughters" or "girls"), which may have served
works from these changing times present women from different per- both as dedications at girls' rites of transition and as funerary markers.
spectives. The epic poems of Homer, composed fully in the oral tradition However, in the monumental sculpture on temples and public buildings,
in the late eighth century B.C.E., and which sing of Mycenaean heroes of whose artwork was intended to reinforce cultural ideology, frequently
five hundred years before, show women as constrained by the social depicted are Greek men's victories over Amazons, female warriors, re-
circumstances of their society. Although some are cast as the booty or flecting and justifying the Greek male's domination of women.3 Signifi-
prize of war—Helen, Andromache, or Briseis in the Iliad—most are por- cantly, in architecture most of the early temples of the Archaic period,
trayed positively, with strength of character and as having some ability which were often models of architectural innovation and served as pro-
to make decisions affecting their lives. Notably, the characters Penelope totypes for temple building, were for female deities and spanned the
in the Odyssey and Helen in both poems are endowed with quite complex Greek world: Temples of Hera in Samos in the east and southern Italy
portrayals. Sung by rhapsodes (the professional singers of epic poetry) and Sicily in the west; Temples of Artemis at Ephesos, Aegina (as
in festival poetry competitions, the Homeric poems played a crucial role Aphaia), and Corfu.
in the process of pan-Hellenization, a movement affirming a national
Greek identity and seeking to unify the diverse Greek communities un- Classical Period
der a common cultural heritage. Hence these poems were highly influ-
ential in later Greek periods. Similarly lyric poetry (whose subject was The political, economic, religious, literary, and artistic developments
often about love; see discussion about Sappho below), choral poetry (ex- of the Archaic period continued into the Classical (fifth to fourth cen-
pressed through both song and dance, and which celebrated the civic turies), when Athens emerged as the center of increasingly recorded ac-
and ritual life of the city), and hymns to different deities tended to por- tivity. The city underwent political reforms that led to the establishment
tray women in a generally positive light. In addition, the earliest philo- of a limited democracy at the end of the sixth century. Limited to free,
sophical reflections, written in poetry and prose, and the earliest initially only land-owning Athenian males, this political experiment
mythological and historiographical accounts provide generally positive lasted (with occasional interruptions) until the second half of the fourth
views of women's roles. Some of the earliest philosophical writings have century B.C.E. While male Athenian public life became expansive and
been attributed to women in the Pythagorean school of thought of the cosmopolitan in the fifth century, women's roles underwent severe re-
sixth century B.C.E. begun by Pythagoras of Samos in Croton, southern strictions. Indeed, women's roles in ancient democratic Athens appear
Italy. Pythagoras sought to understand the moral and rational workings to have been the most restricted of any community in ancient Greece. At
of the universe by seeing numbers as comprising the basic universal the same time Sparta maintained a complex political system comprised
order. of an oligarchy ("rule by a few") and a dual monarchy (rule by two
In contrast, intensely misogynistic voices emerge in this period as well. kings). Although Spartan women apparently had no formal roles in this
Hesiod, a near-contemporary of Homer, is known in particular for two official governance, they maintained powerful, traditional roles in their
poems that portray women very negatively. The Theogony tells the cre- community.
ation story of all the gods, the hostilities between the genders and among Despite this vast difference in political systems, Athens and Sparta
the generations, a story that shows many affinities with earlier Meso- were the two principal contenders in two wars that shaped Greek life in
potamian creation tales of conflicts among the deities. These conflicts the fifth century. Allied, they led the Greek defense that successively
result in a shift of power from female to male deities that culminates in repelled the two invasions of the mighty Persian empire early in the
Greece in the reign of Zeus as an exceptionally powerful, male god. He- century. Athens, however, quickly abused its leading role in a Greek
228 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 229

defensive pact by stirring up democratic revolutions in other city-states, emy, lasted for 900 years and counted among its first students Plato's
forcing them into political alliance with Athens. Furthermore, Athens most famous pupil, Aristotle, who frequently set a philosophical course
launched its own imperialist ambitions to conquer other Greek territo- opposite to that of his teacher. Whereas Socrates may have held women
ries, notably the wealthy island of Sicily. Such Athenian actions ignited in an intellectual respect, both Plato and Aristotle expressed primarily
the almost thirty-year-long Peloponnesian War at the end of the century hostile attitudes toward women.
that pitted Sparta against Athens in a prolonged ideological hatred that
involved all other Greek city-states as well.
Much of the great literature and art that is considered the hallmark of Hellenistic Period
ancient Greek creativity comes from Athens during this period of intense Hellenistic (end of fourth to second centuries), from Hellas ("Greece"),
political and military turmoil. Athenian drama, which was closely con- refers to the period following the conquests of Alexander the Great and
nected to the life of the democratic polls, produced masterpieces of both his "Hellenizing" ("making Greek") of the vast areas of the Middle East
tragedy and comedy that influenced Roman drama, subsequent Euro- and Egypt that he subjected to Greek rule—until the Greeks were them-
pean theater, and modern film worldwide. The drama portrays power- selves conquered by the Romans in 176 B.C.E. Empire caused major
ful, publicly active female characters whose actions are often seen as changes in Greek life—first with Philip II of Macedon's conquests of the
providing a sharp contrast to women's actual roles in Athens. independent Greek city-states in the second half of the fourth century,
A good part of the tribute Athens collected from its subjected allies and more so under the empire expanded by his son Alexander, who
financed a public building program that included the Parthenon, the conquered the once-powerful states of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia and
famous temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis ("the height of extended Greek rule as far eastward as northwestern India. Upon Al-
the city"), and the monumental gold and ivory cult statue of Athena that exander's death in 331 B.C.E. the lands he had conquered were carved
stood inside the temple. These were rivaled only by the temple of Zeus into three empires. Women in the royal families often wielded great
at Olympia and the cult statue of the god within that temple, made by power, and Hellenistic queens became both famous and infamous for
the same sculptor. Artistic interest in portraying the human body in- their beneficial and nefarious deeds. The rule of the Ptolemies in Egypt
creased during this period and focused primarily on the male nude lasted over 200 years until its last queen, Cleopatra, was conquered by
figure. Women's bodies were more tentatively portrayed; with rare ex- the Roman forces of Octavian (Augustus) in 31 B.C.E.
ceptions, female figures were typically shown fully clothed, although a Empire caused another shift in Greek thinking, as people were no
tradition of using "transparent" clothing that displayed the female body longer only members of their close-knit, cohesive polls but were now
developed. Early in the fourth century a statue of Aphrodite portrayed subjects of a vast empire ruled from afar. This cosmopolitan view is
with nude torso, and with her body and arms positioned as though to reflected in new themes that emerged in this period: alienation, the desire
hide her nudity and protect herself, daringly broke the earlier artistic for an idyllic country escape from the pressures of urban living, and
tradition. For centuries of Greek (and later Roman) art, it was primarily attention to individual happiness, tranquility, or salvation that sup-
Aphrodite (Roman Venus), goddess of sexual passion, who was depicted planted an earlier focus on the common good of the whole community.
nude. Nevertheless this portrayal influenced the semi-nude, erotically Learned scholarship and museums arose in this period. New genres were
tantalizing depictions of other female figures in painting and sculpture, developed to express these new ideas: the New Comedy of Menander
and it initiated a tradition that has been a mainstay of western art—the veered sharply from the raucous Old Comedy of the fifth century and
female nude. Although there is some evidence for women artists, poets, presented a variety of stock female characters in situation comedies. Al-
and philosophers in the Classical period, few are named and the remains though it continued to have wide public appeal, New Comedy seems to
of their work are scanty. have been less intimately connected with the religious and political life
Finally, beginning in the fifth century Athens became the meeting of the polls than the drama of the fifth century. Likewise, artistic styles
ground where philosophers and other intellectuals from the Greek world moved away from the "classic serenity" seen to characterize the earlier
came to exchange ideas. Athens was home to the philosophers Socrates period to more active renditions of bodies in movement, marked by age
{a well-known figure in the ancient polls, though he left no writings of or suffering, and faces showing extremes of emotion. Written documents
his own) and his disciple Plato, who, after Socrates' death in 399 B.C.E., of other sorts emerged that provide new insights into women's roles:
wrote approximately twenty-five dialogues featuring his mentor. The courtroom speeches, medical treatises, and from Hellenistic Egypt, con-
philosophical school Plato established in the fourth century, the Acad- tracts, marriage accords, and letters. As from the Archaic period, several
230 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 231

writings by female poets—Anyte, Erinna, Nossis—and philosophers ex- Figure 8.1. Priestess Pouring Libation at Altar
ist from this period. This wide range of artistic and documentary evi-
dence from the Hellenistic period provides information about women's
daily lives that is not available in the earlier material.

WOMEN'S ROLES IN GREEK SOCIETY

Plutarch, a Greek writer of the second century C.E., relates the follow-
ing tale several tunes (Sayings of Spartan Women}: "An Athenian woman
asks a Spartan woman, 'Why are you the only women to rule your men?'
To which the Spartan woman replies, 'Because we are the only women
who give birth to men.' "6 While the meaning of this anecdote has been
variously interpreted, it unmistakably reveals a difference between
women's roles in the two ancient communities of Athens and Sparta—
differences confirmed by all documentary, artistic, and archeological ac-
counts. Both cities varied even more from other Greek communities, and
all changed over time, so that it is impossible to speak of women's roles
in ancient Greece as though they were uniform across space and time in
Greek antiquity.
Although neither Athens nor Sparta is fully representative of women's
roles generally in the ancient Greek world, they are nevertheless the most
recorded; so this study of women in ancient Greece is largely viewed
through women's highly distinct roles in these two ancient cities. As
elsewhere, women's experiences varied by their class distinctions, with
the rights and privileges of aristocratic women often not being enjoyed Makron, Greek, Red-figure Kylix (interior view), about 480 B.C.E., wheel-thrown,
by their sisters of a lower socioeconomic class; and most written evidence slip-decorated earthenware, Ht. 47/i6 in. The Toledo Museum of Art, Purchased
that pertains to women reflects only the situation for elite women. In with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey.
other cases, because women of lower economic classes had to work to
help support their families, they were exempt from some of the restric-
tions placed on upper-class women that were intended to curtail their section examines some of the major female deities, their attributes, and
powers. This overview examines women's roles in religion, the family, the principal women's rituals held for them.
and in the legal, economic, and political spheres of life. It concludes by In a wealth of ancient ritual life, women held many roles: initiatory
examining some of the ancient Greek women's own writings. rites of young girls and adolescents; as adults, mentors to other young
women and celebrants in married women's rituals; household religious
obligations; and priestesses who oversaw temples and rites, including
Women's Religious Roles libations (liquid offerings) and animal sacrifice.7 The rituals women en-
Religion played a central role in the lives of the ancient Greeks, and gaged in throughout the year, for mostly female deities, set the ritual
women's rituals held major significance for women's lives and for the cycles of the agricultural and seasonal year; they sacrally marked the
community. Women's important religious roles seem to be of ancient stages in a woman's life; and they solemnized the well-being of the com-
origin. These roles gave women mobility and independence within the munity (Fig. 8.1).
patriarchal social structure and allowed them to gather in women-only Ancient deities, male as well as female, are represented in two ways
festivals that empowered the women and their communities. Most of in the ancient Greek material: through stories in the literature and art,
women's rites were to female deities, but some were to male ones. This and through their ritual forms of worship. Sometimes these two areas
232 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 233

interconnect; but at other times they appear to be almost independent of ond major young women's rites—those marking the transition from ad-
one another. The deities that become important in the literary tradition olescence into adulthood, and which frequently coincided with
do so through the process of pan-Hellenization, which accorded highest marriage—were often celebrated by adolescent girls' choruses of song
respect to the official Olympian pantheon with the male god Zeus at the and dance, and in some places included races, beauty contests, and mu-
head. He was surrounded in the heavenly court by his "wife," Hera, sical competitions. These are exuberantly illustrated in Alkman's Parthe-
who supposedly sat at his side, and by other deities, some regarded as neion ("Maidens' Song"), a choral song portraying the friendly rivalry of
Zeus' siblings, others as his offspring: Demeter, Athena, Artemis, Aph- two groups of late adolescent girls in archaic Sparta, possibly in honor
rodite, Apollo, Poseidon, Dionysos, and others. Many of these deities of the goddess Helen.8 Puberty rites seem to have been practiced only
were important in religious practice as well, and their pan-Hellenic char- for girls in ancient Greece, whereas boys also marked the latter transition
acter often incorporated similar local deities within their realm of power. stage from adolescence to adulthood.
In the stories female deities were subject to patriarchal notions of fe- Artemis was a major goddess worshipped under many different as-
male behavior: in the Odyssey, the goddess Kalypso criticizes the male pects. She had ancient affiliations with wild animals and the Potnia
gods for denying female deities the same freedom of sexuality the gods Theron ("Lady of the Animals") goddesses of the pre-Greek and Near
practice (Odyssey 5.118-120); and Demeter rages against Zeus' action of Eastern cultures, as seen in the cult statues from her sanctuary at Ephe-
marrying off their daughter Persephone without informing her (Homeric sos, where her temples testify to her importance as a goddess in the
Hymn to Demeter 1-90). In the realm of ritual, however, the rites for and eastern Mediterranean. The Archaic temple was a marvel of architectural
the worship of female deities do not show any such subjection. They innovation, and one of the largest early temples—the other equally large
reveal instead a long-standing, independent, and powerful form of fe- one was the Temple to Hera on the island of Samos. When Artemis'
male expression that held major significance for the community. Archaic temple burned in the fourth century, the new temple built in its
Both female and male deities reflected a broad spectrum of divine place came to be considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient
qualities, often sharing attributes, sacred sites, and at times the same world.
rites. In general, the worship of female deities was crucial for ensuring In Greek mythology and art Artemis became a hunter goddess. Even
material abundance, fertility, and spiritual blessedness (Gaia, Demeter, though her worship was older and independent of the god Apollo's en-
Persephone, Hera). Female deities played major roles in the transition try into this region, the Greeks made her a sister of Apollo, and their
rites of the young (Artemis, Athena, Persephone, Helen). Female deities roles became parallel in some ways. Artemis was considered the source
also oversaw major areas of adult activity: love, sexuality, and marriage of disease as well as healing for women, as Apollo was for men. Both
(Aphrodite, Hera, Hestia); creative and intellectual activities (Aphrodite, were also affiliated with music—choral song and dance—and with over-
Athena, Helen); and providing law and the basis for civilized society seeing adolescent transition rites, mostly for the young of the same gen-
(Demeter, Themis, Athena, Peitho). Some rites for male deities were com- der, but Artemis also oversaw adolescent boys' rites. A common motif
parable to those for goddesses, and parallel areas of men's concerns were in mythological stories shows Artemis leading a choral band of young
presided over by gods (Zeus, Apollo, Dionysos, Poseidon). However, women—who are also hunters—in the mountains, and this choral band
male deities became increasingly associated with public, civic activities is usually described as joyful. Many abduction tales, stories that are often
from which women were excluded. The goddesses described here rep- associated with an adolescent girl's transition into adulthood and mar-
resent female deities significant in both areas: women's rituals and the riage, tell of the young woman being abducted from Artemis' band. Fi-
stories. nally, Artemis, though a "maiden" goddess, was also affiliated with
Maiden Goddesses and Young Women's Transition Rituals. Three goddesses childbirth and was known as a kourotrophos, a "nurturer of children," an
are particularly connected with young women's transition rites, both pu- aspect usually associated with mother goddesses such as the Greek De-
berty and adolescent rites: Artemis, Athena, and Persephone. Puberty meter, the Egyptian Isis, or the Christian Madonna. Women in labor
rituals marked the first transition from girlhood into puberty, celebrating prayed to Artemis, to whom offerings were dedicated both before and
the onset of menstruation and a girl's reproductive potential. Held either after childbirth and on behalf of women who died in childbirth.
annually or every four years, these rites typically occurred prior to me- As a protector of the young, animals, and humans, Artemis was the
narche, and the girls participating in the rituals ranged from six to ten deity of childhood transitions par excellence, overseeing the two major
years of age. Puberty rites spiritually prepared the girl for the eventual stages of girls' transition rites: puberty and adolescent transitions. In the
physical changes that would signal her entry into adolescence. The sec- puberty rites performed for Artemis throughout the Greek world, girls
234 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 235

took on the aspect of Artemis' sacred animals, the bear or deer, to ritu- the cultural ideology, dramatically illustrated in Aeschylus' Eumenides,
alize their transformation from one stage to another. In Aristophanes' the final play of his Oresteia trilogy, 458 B.C.E.
comedy Lysistrata (411 B.C.E.), the chorus of Athenian women recall when A third maiden goddess was Persephone, whose significance for girls'
they "played the bear" in the puberty rites for Artemis known as the transition rites was combined with the worship of the earth goddess,
Brauronia (745). Little is known about either these puberty rites or the Demeter, into a powerful religion offering universal salvation and bless-
adolescent girls' rites held at Brauron, on the Attic coast east of Athens. edness, the Eleusinian Mysteries (see below). Her origin may be as queen
However, Artemis' importance for women's transitions is shown by the of the underworld, but the most familiar story about her portrays her as
large number of girls' votive offerings dedicated to her. In Sparta, ado- Demeter's daughter who is abducted by the god of the underworld, Ha-
lescent boys' transition rites for Artemis included endurance tests of des, as she is playing with girls her age picking flowers in a meadow—all
whipping until blood was drawn, imagery relating to adolescent girls being ready for marriage. According
In some ways Athena resembled Artemis: she too was a "maiden" to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Zeus arranges this wedding without
goddess, and she also oversaw both stages of girls' transition rites. The Demeter's knowledge.9 Consequently, in her grief and anger, Demeter
same passage from Aristophanes' Lysistrata recalls the rites for both god- withers the crops, animals, and people with infertility until her daughter
desses together. The women's chorus remembers the Brauronia for Ar- is returned to her. Hades, however, tricks Persephone into eating some
temis, and the Arrephoria, the Panathenaia, and perhaps a third pomegranate seeds, thereby requiring her to spend part of the year in
unnamed rite for Athena "at age ten": the underworld. The hymn interprets this as representing the seasons,
with Persephone's return to the upper world representing the new
growths of spring. Thus, Persephone's story carries meanings on several
When I turned seven I straightaway carried the sacred objects
levels; it represents the seasons and young girls' transitions ritually, per-
for the Arrephoria.
sonally, and socially. In many parts of the ancient Greek world, notably
Then at age ten I ground barley for Athena,
in Sicily and southern Italy, she is the goddess celebrated in adolescent
and shedding my krokotos dress I played the bear at the
girls' transition rites into marriage. However, since her story concludes
Brauronia.
with the reunion of mother and daughter, it differs from most stories
Then I came of age and carried the basket as a leader in the
accompanying this transition stage, since most girls, upon marriage, do
Panathenaia. (743-746)
not have the opportunity to return to their mothers. Consequently her
significance extends beyond girls' rites in particular, to include notions
Athena was especially significant as the patron goddess of Athens, of blessedness for all.
which held major annual rites, the Panathenaia, in her honor. These rites Mature Goddesses and Adult Women's Rituals. Many of the other god-
included city-wide processions to her central temple, the Parthenon, by desses were specifically associated with adult, married women's activi-
all members of the community, and celebrations marking the entry into ties: Hestia, goddess of the hearth, the center of the home; Hera, goddess
adulthood of both adolescent girls and boys. Moreover, every four years of marriage; Aphrodite, goddess of sexuality, acceptable and desired
the festivities were performed on a grander scale, and a robe woven in within marriage; and Demeter, goddess of agriculture, fertility, material
Athena's sanctuary by women was presented to the goddess's cult statue abundance, and spiritual blessedness. As goddess of the hearth, Hestia
in her temple. The four-year rites also featured poetry and athletic com- was central to every (married) woman's life. The bride was ritually wel-
petitions, where vases of a certain shape (amphorae) and painted with comed into her new home by being led around the hearth, thereby being
Athena's image were presented as prizes. Being the city's deity, her im- brought within Hestia's realm, and women offered prayers and small
age, or the owl that represented her, appeared on Athenian coins. As cake offerings to Hestia every morning. Representing a different aspect
goddess of crafts she was celebrated by weavers, potters, and bronze- of women's roles in marriage was Hera, who oversaw important married
workers. Both ritually and in the mythology, Athena was a goddess of women's rites of fertility, sexuality, and renewal. Although she is mock-
military victory, reflected by her epithet Nike ("Victory"). And she was ingly treated in the literature as the shrewish wife of the chief god, Zeus,
also goddess of wisdom, which she received from her mother, Metis, she also represents the social institution of marriage. Like Athena, Hera
whom Zeus had swallowed to prevent her from giving birth to a child was also a patron city deity, in Argos and on the island of Samos, where
greater than the father. Consequently, the story continues, Athena was she too showed affinities with the Near Eastern mother goddess.
born from Zeus' head, and she came to represent patriarchal ideals in These Near Eastern influences are especially evident in Aphrodite,
236 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 237

goddess of love, sexuality, and erotic desire who shared many aspects lives, and they provide a ritual sanction for these elemental human de-
with ancient Near Eastern goddesses of sexuality: Mesopotamian In- sires. Archaic art and literature—Homeric epic and lyric poetry—portray
anna/Ishtar and Semitic Astarte (see Chapters 4 and 5). Like those for a powerful Aphrodite and show appreciation for the joys of sexuality
the eastern goddesses, rites for Aphrodite reflected a fundamental as- she brings. But even as women still celebrated these aspects of their
sociation with the fertility of plants, seen in the annual mourning rites married lives in rites to Aphrodite, the restraints placed on women's
over her dead consort, Adonis, an annually dying and resurrected god sexuality in patriarchal social structures resulted in Aphrodite's power
of vegetation, similar to the mourning rites for the Near Eastern Dumuzi becoming suspect and the sexual behavior she represented as taboo. In
or Tamrnuz. Although Greek stories of her birth and parents differ, most fifth-century Athenian drama, Aphrodite's erotic power is portrayed as
portray Aphrodite as being born from the sea. According to Hesiod's dangerous, a disease that overwhelms human beings—three examples
Theogony, one consequence of the generational conflicts among the gods among many are Aeschylus' Suppliant Maidens, Sophocles' The Women of
was the birth of Aphrodite from the genitals of her father, Ouranos Trachis, and Euripides' Hippolytus. Aphrodite's gifts by this time were
("Sky"), which had been cut off and cast into the sea by his son. Her perceived as good only in moderation or as subject to the laws of mar-
major sanctuary was located on the island of Cyprus at the eastern end riage instituted by Zeus, explicitly stated in Aeschylus' Eumenides.
of the Mediterranean Sea, where she is said to have first stepped onto Demeter Worship and Rituals. Of major significance in women's rituals
land and where Near Eastern influences were strong. for female deities was the annual cycle of festivals for Demeter, which
Aphrodite was worshipped in major rites throughout the ancient were celebrated throughout the ancient Greek world and honored
Greek world. Sexuality was important because of its connection to fer- women's powers of sexuality and fertility. The major rites known from
tility, a major concern in ancient cultures. Sexuality was also considered the Athenian religious calendar were the Skira, performed near the sum-
enjoyable, and it was celebrated in ritual, literature, and art as the source mer solstice; Haloa, performed near the winter solstice; and Thesmo-
of joy and pleasure. "What is life, what is joy, without golden Aphro- phoria, a major mid-fall festival. Rites typical of vegetative, fertility
dite?" asks a seventh-century poet, Mimnermos. Many poets dedicated deities, including those for the male god Dionysos, characterize all these
their love poetry to Aphrodite, including the female poets Sappho and festivals for Demeter. The rites include: activities to ensure plant growth;
Nossis. She is an important figure in many mythological stories, includ- periods of fasting or abstinence from certain foods; aischrologia, or mock-
ing the two Homeric poems and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. The
ing ritual insults and "obscenities"; mostly same-sex rituals; open
Roman philosopher Lucretius (first century B.C.E.) dedicated his account
of the physical operation of the universe (a translation of a lost Greek displays of sexuality through ritual images of female and male genitalia,
original) to Aphrodite's Roman equivalent, Venus. through songs, dances, same-sex sexual play, and through rituals of
In mostly separate rituals, women and men celebrated the sexual and anonymous intercourse, as were practiced at the close of the winter-
erotic dimensions of their married lives in rites to Aphrodite. Before welcoming Haloa.
marriage, adolescent girls made sacrifices to Aphrodite to gain her pow- Incorporating all these rites, the Thesmophoria appears to be the old-
ers of sexuality and fertility. Aphrodite also oversaw the entertainment, est, most widespread, and possibly the most important women's festival
seductive, and sexual acrivites of hetairai ("courtesans") and prostitutes, for Demeter. In Athens, for three days, and occupying a prime, "down-
who worshipped Aphrodite at festivals separate from those held by mar- town" location—otherwise considered male, public space—women cel-
ried women. In addition to her primary association with sexuality, Aph- ebrated their own and the earth's powers of fertility, sexuality, and
rodite, like Athena and Hera, was a deity of the city, associated with abundance. The rites included rihially mixing the remains of a decayed
civic harmony and persuasion, frequently in conjunction with her atten- pig (which had been consecrated into special pits in the ground during
dant, Peitho ("Seduction" or "Persuasion"). In her capacity as protector the summer Skira festival) with the seed to be planted in the fall sowing,
of the civic entity, she was celebrated in Athens as Aphrodite Pandemos an activity intended to promote plant growth. After a day of fasting
("Of All the People"), and she was the principal deity of Corinth, with and reflection, women joyously and raucously celebrated their child-
her temple dedicated on the acropolis of Corinth, just as Athena's in producing abilities; and on the last day, known as Kalligeneia ("Fair
Athens. Birth"), their children or adolescent daughters may have joined them in
To the extent that the mythological stories were intended to affirm the celebrations. These rites strongly imbued women's life-cycle changes
patriarchal values, Aphrodite's role became problematic: her rites ac- with value, affirming the rights, privileges, and powers enjoyed by adult
knowledge the role of erotic desire and sexuality in women's and men's women in the community. This community dimension is important,
238 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 239

since most Demeter festivals, which were for women only, were financed The Chorus of Initiates in Aristophanes' Frogs (405 B.C.E.) celebrates these
and publicly supported by the men of the community. joys:
Emanating from this rich cycle of female ritual, and possibly evolving
from the rites of the Thesmophoria, Demeter's worship in the Eleusinian Forward now, to the Goddess' sacred circle-dance
Mysteries developed into the most important religious practice in the to the grove that's in blossom
ancient Greek and Roman worlds for a good two thousand years. The and play on the way for we belong to the company of the
name comes from the city where the rites were held, Eleusis, twenty- elect.
three miles northwest of Athens, and "mysteries" from muo, "to keep And I shall go where the girls go
silent," for the initiates vowed not to reveal the secrets of the rites. Con- and I shall go with the women who keep the nightlong rites
sequently little is known, and some sources, such as early Christian writ- of the Goddess and carry their sacred torch. (440—446)
ers attempting to devalue these rites, are suspect, though they may
provide clues to what occurred. Basically, mystery religions offered ini- Women's ritual life provided the source for their importance in the
tiates ecstatic and transcendent forms of religious expression that often community; it publicly sanctioned and validated women's role in the
were believed to provide salvation. In Greece the mystery religions for community. The rites discussed here, as well as many more lesser-known
other deities—Artemis, Dionysos, Orpheus, as well as Near Eastern god- and many private ones for personal and family reasons, provided
desses and gods—to some extent converged and became interwoven women numerous forms of spiritual expression. Since the ancient Greek
with Demeter's mysteries, which were the most important. These rites calendars were filled with festivals, they also gave women frequent op-
focused on the transcendent experience of worshipping Demeter and portunities to move freely and independently within their communities,
Persephone (usually referred to simply as Kore, "daughter") and on the thereby providing a balance to the restrictions placed on women's roles
states of blessedness they provide. Unlike other forms of Demeter wor- in other areas of society. The female philosopher Phintys of Sparta (fifth
ship, these rites were open to both women and men. century B.C.E.) claimed that women carried out their public, ritual activity
Although details of the Eleusinian Mysteries were to be kept secret, "on behalf of themselves, their husbands, and their entire households."10
some things are known. Following Athenian domination of the rites in
the sixth century B.C.E., they began with a ritual procession in which the Women in the Family
hiera ("sacred objects") were carried in a sacred box from Athens to Eleu-
sis. The first night of arrival was celebrated by a pannychis ("all-night Ancient Greek family structure was patriarchal, with the husband as
women's dance"). During the course of the rites there were legomena head of the family who held various degrees of control over his wife
("things said") and dromena ("things done") that may have enacted Per- and children, including in many cases control over their life and death.
sephone's story, as told in the Homeric or Orphic Hymns to Demeter. The A woman's primary role in the family was to produce children, espe-
highest stage of initiation was the epopleia ("the sacred viewing"), which cially male heirs to the father's name and possessions. Marriages were
secured for the initiate the blessings received from worshipping Demeter usually arranged for both bride and groom by the parents (mostly the
and her daughter. A great deal of controversy surrounds the epopteia: fathers) of the couple. In Athens the bride was ceremoniously escorted
some have suggested a display of the grain, representing the mystery of from her father's house to her husband's, where she was ritually brought
growth and nurturance. Early Christian sources report the sudden ex- into her husband's authority and protection. Laws dating from the sixth
plosion of a bright light in the darkness, accompanied by the words, "lo, and fifth centuries in Athens and Sparta show severe penalties, including
lo, the Goddess has given birth to a mighty child." Hence it is possible exclusion from public life, for men who did not marry or did not have
that the child conceived during the ritual sexuality of Demeter's Haloa children in their marriage.
festival nine months earlier was the ultimate sight seen as part of the Within this principal patriarchal framework the degree of power
highest stage of religious initiation. women held within their homes is debated. Many scholars acknowledge
However mysterious the particulars of Demeter's Eleusinian rites may the concept of separate spheres of influence or power held by each gen-
be, the significance of these rites is not at all in question. Greek poets der, and the fact that no gender held complete power in all realms of
sang of the blessedness that initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries society. Aristocratic women in the Archaic period appear to have enjoyed
brought, and the famed Roman orator Cicero claimed that Greece gave certain rights because of their status as wives and mothers in their
nothing to the world so wonderful as the Eleusinian Mysteries (Laws). homes: Metaneira (Hymn to Demeter), Arete and Helen (Odyssey) all wel-
240 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 241

come and entertain guests, give gifts, and make decisions affecting their worked outside the home, especially in domestic service and as wet-
households. However, the Odyssey's portrayal of Odysseus' wife, Penel- nurses, small market vendors, prostitutes, and perhaps also in small
ope, contrasts sharply with these. She is shown as a virtual prisoner in business ventures. Women also moved about to gather water (Fig. 8.2),
her home because as a woman without her husband to defend her, she do the laundry, gather or purchase vegetables, and so forth. In the case
cannot rid her house of her many suitors who have encamped there. of Sparta, women of the upper classes were not expected even to weave,
It is possible that these contrasting portrayals of aristocratic women having servants to do all basic tasks for them. Presumably this was to
are both right to some degree. Three centuries later than the Homeric free Spartan women for their truly important duties—raising and edu-
poems, in fifth-century B.C.E. Athens, women were confined to the oikos cating the children. Despite the Spartan injunction against amassing
("household"), where they displayed the dual roles seen in epic: acquir- wealth, Spartan women became very wealthy: Aristotle was upset that
ing some measure of authority in the home, dependent primarily on their two-fifths of Spartan land was owned by women.
having children, especially sons, but also excluded from participating in Another area of women's activity, one that incorporated ritual, eco-
the public life of the community. In the home women maintained im- nomic, and public dimensions, was that of mourning at funerals. Besides
portant household rituals to many deities, foremost among them Hestia, mourning for their own family members who had died, women were
goddess of the hearth, who was pivotal to a woman's role in her home. paid professional mourners. This is still practiced by women in parts of
Women also engaged in the continuous activity of weaving and directing Greece and the Middle East today. Wealthy families especially would
household servants, including the weavers, who were women. Further- hire many mourners in order to show the importance of the dead person.
more, the oikos was necessary for men's participation in the community In the early sixth century, the Athenian lawgiver Solon, considered one
at large, the polls. Thus, even if elite women were restricted to their home of the seven ancient sages, instituted social reforms intended to distribute
environments, their activities within the oikos established the foundation land and political power more equitably among men. As part of these
for men's roles in the community. social reforms Solon restricted women's public mourning practices, a
Women's familial roles in Sparta were even more extensive. Sparta had move that cut into a major area of women's public activity and power.
a different family structure that appears to have been ma trifocal, and that Despite these and other laws, mourning continued to be an important
apparently permitted both partners some degree of sexual freedom. The occasion for women to congregate publicly.
Spartan social structure sharply segregated women's and men's lives:
men, even after marriage, lived in common men's houses, and women
seem to have been in charge not only of their homes but of much land and
wealth. Women were in charge of their children's upbringing—only Legal Status
through childhood for boys, and through adolescence for girls. Since Spar- Legally, Athenian women were severely restricted. They were not con-
tan education was conducted through choral song and dance, this means sidered legal persons in their own right, but as legal minors they were
that the women of the family—mothers, aunts, grandmothers—led their required to have a male guardian, a kurios, throughout their lives: their
daughters in this musical, and apparently joyful, education. fathers as daughters, their husbands upon marriage, and return to their
fathers, sons, or other male relative if widowed or divorced. This legal
Women's Economic Roles minority status prevented a woman from initiating lawsuits or appearing
on her own behalf as a defendant, and it subjected her legally and pub-
Although elite Athenian women were not expected to work outside licly to representation by her male kurios. Ideally, elite Athenian women
the home, their work within the oikos often contributed significantly to were not to be seen or spoken of in public.
the economy of the community. Women supervised weaving and the Once again Sparta presents a strongly contrasting picture. The much
production of cloth, a major household industry that engaged the work more meager evidence remaining for Sparta does not indicate if Spartan
of numerous women in the household, both free and slave, and that women needed a kurios, but other clues suggest their independent per-
served as an item of trade, offering, or gift in the larger economy. Elite sonhood as adult women who were recognized as fully independent
women may also have managed large estates and therefore held signif- contributors to the community. In all likelihood, elite Spartan women
icant roles in the management and distribution of agricultural produce had a great deal of freedom of movement and activity in their commu-
and household crafts. Women of lower economic status of necessity nity.
 Women in Ancient Greece 243

Political Roles and Governance

All evidence from the Archaic and Classical periods suggests that
women did not formally participate in the decision-making, govern-
mental processes. In ancient Athens women were excluded from public,
political activity. Athenian women were considered citizens only to le-
gitimate the citizenship of their male offspring but not for political pur-
poses. Although fourth-century Athenian orators suggest that women
did influence their husbands' policies in the Assembly (the legislative
body where citizen men met and conducted public policy), no Greek
community shows women participating in the formal avenues of political
governance.
Even with all the legal and social restrictions, some women managed
to attain positions of influence. Two did so at the end of the fifth century
in Athens. The first, Aspasia, was a hetaira ("companion"), one of the
highly educated women from eastern Greece who entertained and ac-
companied men in many of their festivals, often including sex. As the
mistress of Perikles, a principal ruler of Athens in the mid-fifth century
B.C.E., Aspasia's influence on the Athenian leader was reputedly enor-
mous; at various times his policies and speeches were ascribed to her
(Plato's Menexemis 235-236). Less controversial was Lysimache, the
priestess of Athena Polias ("of the city") in the last quarter of the century,
at a time when not only had the war wrought its devastation, but plague,
and then the disastrous attempted conquest of Sicily, had devastated the
city. Lysimache's name means "Releaser of Battle," and she may have
served as the model for Aristophanes' Lysistrata, whose name means
"Releaser of Armies," and whose humorous peace-oriented activities in
3 the play may have been modeled on the city priestess's actual efforts.
o
X The evidence for women's political roles in ancient Sparta is compli-
cated by the fact that most of it was written by Athenian men who had
ideological motives for either idealizing Spartan customs (Plato, Plu-
tarch) or reviling them (Aristotle). Although these writers provide few
concrete details about women's roles, their references show clearly that
elite women's formal place in Spartan society differed markedly from
that of Athenian women. Spartan women were recognized as citizens
and as adult members of the community independent of their marital
status, but how these were expressed in the formal political governance
is not known.
00
Both the fourth-century B.C.E. philosopher Aristotle and the second-
V century c.E. Greek writer Plutarch note women's rulership in Sparta. In
60 H
his Politics Aristotle denounces Spartan society as a gynaikokratia, "rule
© by women," coining a word linguistically analogous to demokratia, "rule
by the people." "For," he asks, "what difference does it make if the
women rule or if the men are ruled by women?" Both Plato (Laws
244 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 245

VII.806) and Aristotle ascribe the ruined state of Spartan society to the succession of Ptolemy II. They held important public ritual roles, had
fact that the women are not under the control of men and are allowed festivals inaugurated in their honor, were benefactors of major public
to "run free." Moreover, Plutarch notes that the women refuse to abide works, were deified according to Egyptian custom, and were celebrated
by the laws the legendary lawgiver Lykurgos gave to the Spartans. This in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. The first three were murdered, victims
may reflect a situation wherein the women affirmed their own governing of the very court intrigues they actively engaged in (as was another Ber-
system separate from the men's laws, even if the latter were being writ- enike who had been married to the Hellenistic king of Syria, Antiochus
ten down. It is known, for example, that the girls also went through an II), but Arsinoe II survived murderous schemes and exile. Recognized
extensive educational system, even though Plutarch only describes the for the astuteness of her rule, after returning to Egypt in the mid-270s
boys' system. In addition, Plato's portrayal of his ideal society in the B.C.E. she married her full brother, Ptolemy II, thereby initiating a dy-
Republic is largely modeled on ancient Sparta—or at least on Plato's no- nastic precedent for brother-sister marriages. Significantly expanding her
tion of how that society functioned. Book 5 presents some apparently own role, she is credited with improving Egypt's military and political
radical notions: that women are by nature no different from men in their affairs and expanding Egyptian sea power. And the Egyptian city of
mental abilities; and that given the same education, women could also Philadelphia was named in her honor.
be rulers. Best known, and last of the Ptolemaic queens, was Cleopatra VII (69-
However indirect, and whether spoken with admiration or not, these 30 B.C.E.), who ruled mostly alone, sometimes as co-regent with younger
passages indicate that elite Spartan women enjoyed powers, privileges, brothers or sons. Virtually unknown in Egyptian annals, what is known
and status unequaled in the ancient Greek world. Although the docu- of her comes mostly from Plutarch's description in his Life of Mark
mentary evidence only shows Sparta's patriarchal political system, Ar- Antony. She was powerful in both internal and external affairs; domes-
istotle's and Plutarch's comments suggest women's powerful roles tically, she sought the backing of the Egyptian people, supported tradi-
behind the scenes of or parallel to formal public governance. In other tional Egyptian rites, and was the first Ptolemy to speak Egyptian. Expert
ways, Spartan women clearly held important decision-making roles in in numerous languages and renowned for her diplomacy, she acted as
their society. In particular, these prerogatives of Spartan women contrast her own ambassador with foreign diplomats. She used her liaisons with
sharply with the very suppressed lives of women in ancient Athens, powerful men of Rome—Julius Caesar and Mark Antony—to enlarge
whose repression was also unparalleled in other ancient Greek com- her kingdom and increase its resources. However, since these men were
munities. on the losing side of history, and Cleopatra's forces were defeated by
Octavian in 31 B.C.E., who then changed his name to Augustus ("the
Hellenistic Queens revered one") and began the Roman Empire, her fame has come down
in Western history as an exotic, luxurious foreign queen who corrupted
The social and political changes wrought by empire endowed Helle- Roman morals (see discussion of Vergil's Dido in Chapter 9 about Rome).
nistic queens, like their Macedonian forebears, with forms of power fre- Her death at her own hands in 30 B.C.E.—to avoid being paraded
quently available to royal women. As royal daughters their marriages through the streets of Rome as a conquered monarch—ended not only
were often used to cement political alliances. As king's wives they rarely her powerful reign but Ptolemaic rule and the legacy of Hellenistic
ruled in their own right but actively engaged in court intrigue and mur- queens.11
der, usually to secure their sons' succession to the throne, since their
standing was often dependent on a strong mother-son alliance. Thus,
Alexander's mother, Olympias, though in exile, was reputed to have WOMEN'S VOICES
murdered her husband for her son's sake; and while her son was away
on his conquests, she vied for power at court. Sappho and Other Female Poets
Especially notable are the Ptolemaic queens, the Hellenistic rulers in Sappho, who lived on the island of Lesbos in eastern Greece at the
Egypt, whose greater prominence may have resulted from differing end of the seventh century B.C.E., was renowned throughout Greek and
traditions for Egyptian women, both commoners and royals. Four were Roman times for her lyric love poetry. Considered the tenth Muse, she
notable at the beginning of the dynasty (third century B.C.E.), all aggres- had composed nine volumes of poetry, of which only one complete poem
sively securing their positions by murdering their rivals: Berenike I and and numerous fragments remain—largely because her lines were quoted
II, wives of the first and third Ptolemies; and Arsinoe I and II, wives in by other writers. The later Roman poets Horace and Catullus imitated
 !
246 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 247

her original verse patterns, and Catullus' translations of some of her poetry of Alkman in Sparta, her guidance was performed through lyric
poems into Latin enrich modern understanding of her work. Though songs sung by young women's choruses (frs. 27, 30). Several fragments
writers in Classical and later periods created stories about her, very little indicate a ritual setting: "The moon appeared in her fullness/and as
is actually known about her life. She was clearly a part of the aristocracy, the women took their places around the altar" (fr. 154). And the end
her mother also being a poet, and she refers to other female poets in her of fr. 94 refers to the sacred groves she and a former mentee/lover had
own verses. Even though she was probably not active in politics, she visited. Fr. 2 describes in rich sensual detail one of these sacred groves
apparently lived in exile for a time, perhaps in Sicily, as a result of her to Aphrodite:
family's political ties.
Sappho treats numerous themes in her poetry. She frequently alludes Come to me here from Crete, to this holy
to the beauty of her songs and immortality of her words, gifts granted sanctuary, where stands your lovely grove
her by the Muses. She incorporates mythological references, especially of apple trees and the altars
alluding to figures familiar from the Trojan War cycle: the marriage of smoke with fragrant incense.
Hektor and Andromache (fr. 44), and especially references to Helen (frs.
16, 23, 166).12 In the fragments concerning the welfare of her brother, Here cold water gurgles through the apple
who is living in Egypt with a woman Sappho disapproves of, Sappho branches, roses cast their shade
prays to the Nereids (female sea deities) and Aphrodite to keep him from over all, and sleep descends
harm in his travels home, to grant him all his heart desires, and to enable from the rustling leaves. (1-8)
him to let go of past mistakes and bring joy to his friends and honor to
his sister (frs. 5, 15). Other fragments speak of her deep love for her Numerous ancient writers praised the vividness of Sappho's imagery
daughter (frs. 98b, 132). Preserved as an illustration of poetic meter, fr. and its appeal to all the senses, which this fragment well illustrates. Strik-
132 reveals a tender affection: "I have a beautiful child whose beauty is ing imagery and humor are the hallmark of Sappho's poetry.
like golden flowers, beloved Kleis, for whom I would not [trade] all Most noteworthy are the dedications to Aphrodite as goddess of love
Lydia or lovely." and sexuality, who oversees these activities for both women and men: it
By far, most of her themes concern erotic love in some respect; calling is for Aphrodite that the women celebrate their love of another, and it
on deities associated with love and celebrating both love between women is to her that the young women are consecrated as they move toward
and love in marriage. The fact that much of her love poetry is homo- marriage. The one complete remaining poem is often called "The Hymn
erotic, written for women and celebrating love between women, has to Aphrodite": in typical hymnal form, the poem calls on the goddess
evoked great controversy. Her name and island have become synony- to come from her heavenly abode and help Sappho in her current love
mous with female homosexuality: "Sapphic" in nineteenth-century quest. The poem reflects the personal, intimate relationship with deities
Europe, and "lesbian" today. However, a male poet who was a contem- that the Greeks had, and it is also filled with humorous self-irony. Hav-
porary of Sappho, Alkaios, is a Lesbian since he was also from Lesbos. ing described Aphrodite's panoramic flight through the bright air drawn
Sappho clearly celebrates love for other women, as many male poets do by her swift sparrows, Sappho zooms in on Aphrodite's face and the
for other men; such homoeroticism was neither considered unusual nor goddess's questions:
did it prevent women and men from marrying and having children, since
procreation, after all, was considered the purpose of marriage. Rather Swiftly they [the sparrows] brought you. But you, o blessed
than being seen as a distinct category of social behavior, in the largely one,
sex-segregated societies of much of ancient Greece homoeroticism smiling with your immortal countenance,
formed just one aspect of the associations people had within their largely asked me what I was suffering again and why
same-sex environments. I called you this time,
Of perhaps greater importance for the ancient Greek world, Sap-
pho's homoerotic poems seem to have been written primarily within a And what did I most want to happen
ritual context. Sappho was apparently a female mentor guiding young in my maddened heart. "Whom should I persuade [or charm]
women through their period of adolescence and preparing them for into your affection? Who,
the transition into sexuality, marriage, and adulthood. Like the choral Psappho, wrongs you?
248 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 249

For if she flees, soon she will pursue you; of Korinna, a female Theban poet said to rival Pindar and to have out-
and if she does not receive your gifts, but she will give them; done him in poetic competition. Although later Greek and Roman poets
and if she does not love you, soon she will love you, express their admiration for Korinna's poetry, only a few fragments sur-
even if she is unwilling." (1.13-24) vive; these reveal the kinds of mythological themes that characterize Pin-
dar's verse. In one fragment Korinna attributes her poetic calling to the
Whereas this poem reflects a game of love in a humorous vein, other Muse of dance:
poems focus on the tender affection and memories of sensual pleasure
between the women, and one speaks of the female narrator's inability to Terpsichore summons me to sing
concentrate on her weaving because of the love for a boy Aphrodite has beautiful ancient heroic tales
inspired (fr. 102). Nor does Aphrodite alone represent the feelings of to the Tanagraean women in their white robes.
love, which are described also by the male deity Eros. In the fragments And the city rejoices greatly in my clear, sharp voice. (1-5)
that remain, he is never called on in the way Aphrodite is, but he rep-
resents the active, physical sensations of love. A second-century C.E. Ro-
man writer, in comparing Socrates' and Sappho's views of Eros, says These lines reveal the importance of the Muse who not only inspires the
that Sappho calls the love god a weaver of tales and then quotes this poet but is frequently characterized as calling the poet to her or his
fragment: "Eros shook my heart like the wind rushing upon the moun- craft—Hesiod makes the same claim at the beginning of the Theogony.
tain oaks" (fr. 47). The sounds and rhythm of the Greek accentuate this As a female poet, Korinna is equally called to her craft, a choral poet
vivid imagery of Eros' power. Finally, some fragments show other views valued by the community for her contribution. And she provides a
of Aphrodite. Sappho invokes the goddess in fr. 5 to protect her brother glimpse into the importance of the young women's chorus in their festive
and teach him the error of his ways. And fr. 140 is the earliest Greek attire.
reference to women's mourning rites over Adonis, an annual ritual per- A few fragments survive by only four of several female poets known
formed in reverence for Aphrodite. from the Hellenistic period: Anyte, Erinna, Nossis, and Moero, all writ-
Wedding poems form a major category of Sappho's poetry: some ad- ing around 300 B.C.E. Most of what remains are their epigrams (short
dress the bride, others the groom. Certain wedding fragments reveal the poems in a specific meter, usually inscriptions for dedicatory offerings
tenderness of the affection the bride or groom have for each other and or on graves), which have been preserved as part of later collections
the sweet joys of marriage they are about to enter (frs. 112, 115). Frs. 27 known as The Greek Anthology. A few fragments of longer verse by Erinna
and 103 allude to the custom of singing for the bride, and fr. 30 speaks and Moero survive. All four seem to have been highly regarded by an-
of adolescent girls singing love songs all night long for the newly mar- cient writers, with Erinna's verse often compared to Homer's. Although
ried couple. Some of these wedding poems reflect the permanently all four wrote in a similar poetic genre and often focused on women,
changed status of the bride: "Like the hyacinth which the shepherd men nevertheless their style and themes are quite distinct.
trample under foot in the mountains, and on the ground a purple The largest number are by Anyte—twenty-four poems, second only to
flower" (fr. 105b). Others intone this change with humor, such as fr. 114, Sappho in the amount of existing fragments. Several are grave inscrip-
in two voices: "Virginity, virginity, where have you gone, leaving me? I tions for both women and men, and some are written as though for an
shall never come back to you, I shall never come back." This same vein animal's death; these were probably not intended as actual grave epi-
of humor characterizes fragments about the groom, which often exag- grams. The ones for women reveal the love on the part of the girl's
gerate his stature: "Raise up the roof, hymenaon,13. . . The groom is com- parents as well as their sadness that she died before marriage:
ing in, the equal of Ares, much larger than a big man" (fr. 111).
Sappho was not the only ancient Greek female poet, though she has Often crying upon her daughter's tomb, her mother Kleina
become the most famous and there are more fragments of her poetry wails for her beloved child, who died before her time. (Gk.
than of others. Of some female poets only their names are known: Prax- Anth. 7.486.1-2)
illa, Telesilla. Though none of her poetry survives, Myrtis was reputedly
the teacher of Pindar, a fifth-century male poet from Thebes who com- Instead of a bridal bed and sacred marriage rites
posed victory odes to winners of the Olympic and other ancient games— your mother put your image on this marble tomb
four books of his poetry survive. Tradition also makes Myrtis the teacher which has your shape and beauty,
250 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 251

Thersis, so we can talk to you even though you are dead. philosophers from all periods of Greek antiquity are named, though brief
(Gk. Anth. 7.649) fragments of only a few remain. Most are by women of the Pythagorean
school established in southern Italy by Pythagoras of Samos in the sixth
Anyte is credited with creating themes, such as the animal epitaph and century B.C.E. The school was equally open to both sexes; one source
pastoral landscape poetry, that influenced later male poets. In particular names sixteen women of the school. Known for his work with numbers
her pastoral poetry depicts an idyllic, peaceful, safe landscape peopled and the Pythagorean theorem in geometry, Pythagoras is said to have
with rustic, erotic deities, such as Pan and Dionysos as well as Aphrodite, derived his ideas from a woman, Themistoklea, much as Socrates claims
and for which the region of Arcadia has become famous. in Plato's Symposium to have been taught by the wise woman Diotima.14
In contrast, Nossis, from Locri in southern Italy, focuses on the theme Though none of Themistoklea's works survive, some writings attributed
of love as supreme of all delights. She is regarded as a poetic heir to to Pythagoras' wife, Theano, or to their three daughters do, including
Sappho, as she herself declares in one poem (Gk. Anth. 7.718). Especially one of the "sacred discourses." Hence, among the earliest remaining
interesting are her descriptions of women's portraits in her surviving Greek philosophical writings are those attributed to women.
epigrams, which praise the faithful likenesses and which may have been Several brief fragments attributed to these early Pythagorean women
intended to accompany these dedicatory paintings: "The essence of Me- concern the importance of number as the foundation of the harmony of
linna has been captured; look how gentle her face is. / She seems to look the universe, a principal tenet of Pythagorean philosophy. But most of
back at us graciously" (Gk. Anth. 6.353.1-2). The epigrams of both Anyte the writings concern women's appropriate roles in the home and in re-
and Nossis had a great influence on H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) and other ligion. These include (1) various treatises and letters by Theano and her
poets of the early twentieth century.
daughter Myia, and by Hellenistic women, and (2) fragments of two
Although Moero's two surviving epigrams appear to be dedicatory,
books by fifth-century Pythagorean philosophers, On the Moderation of
the ten lines preserved from a longer poem concern a mythological
Women by Phintys of Sparta, and On the Harmony of'Women by Perictione,
theme typical of the genre, in this case the birth of Zeus on Crete. Better
possibly the mother of Plato.
known and more widely famed in antiquity for both epigrams and
Key to these ethical discussions is the concept of harmonia, "balance,"
longer verse was Erinna, who was admired by later poets for having
a principle that underlies universal order, social order, and the harmony
composed such great poetry before her death at the young age of nine-
teen. The few remaining fragments of a longer poem called "The Dis- between women's and men's respective roles in society. Women and men
taff," praised in antiquity, and two of her epigrams lament the death of are seen to share fundamental virtues, such as courage, moderation, wis-
her close friend, Baukis, who also died at age nineteen, perhaps shortly dom, and justice. At the same time they are believed to have different
after marriage. "The Distaff" is of particular interest because of its ref- natures and distinctive areas of activity; harmony is established when
erence to the games young girls play that they put aside upon marriage, they express their virtues in their particular realms—men in battle and
and it may also refer to the homoerotic associations between the two in public, political activities; and women in the home. Women show their
adolescent girls. Altogether, these few fragments of women's poetry from virtues by maintaining harmony in the home: through moderation in
Archaic through Hellenistic times, together with the praise of their po- their habits; care for their bodies, clothing, and in child rearing; by re-
etry and references to other female poets, show that poetry was an area vering the gods, fulfilling household and civic religious rites, but ab-
of creative endeavor widely open to women and for which they received staining from ecstatic mystery rites; by being respectful and obedient to
great praise and influence. The increasing hostility of later ages denied one's parents; and by being faithful to one's husband while acknowl-
women's creative abilities—women's works were not recopied and were edging his right to extramartial sexual affairs, fully loving him and her
often actively destroyed. Very few works by women survived, resulting children. For example, a letter by Theano advises a friend not to be upset
in a collection of poetry largely written by and oriented toward men. by her husband's affair. Rather, using the analogy that the ear likes to
hear different musical instruments for a change, her friend should rec-
ognize a man's need for extramartial sexual pleasure as part of his na-
Female Philosophers
ture, and thus merely as part of the balance between the sexes. In the
. In addition to poetry, some writings are attributed to practical advice the Pythagorean women philosophers are giving to other
female philosophers, although many modern scholars have denied that women, they acknowledge certain social inequities between women and
they were written by women. Just as for the female poets, many female men in society, but they make no attempt to change them, advising ac-
252 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 253

ceptance instead and attempting to empower women to be strong in their women were equally welcome. Only one female follower of the Cynics
own roles. is known by name, for her conduct rather than for her writings: Hip-
Whereas these excerpts provide mostly practical ethical advice, a parchia excited amazement in later writers for sharing the anti-social,
fragment of the Book on Human Nature by Aesara of Lucania, also pos- free love ways of her husband, Krates who challenged accepted social
sibly of the fifth century B.C.E., presents the theoretical basis for the con- customs by going around nude, urinating, defecating, and having sex in
cepts of balance that underlie the practical writings. Aesara presents a public as the mood struck him.
theory of natural law: through introspection into the nature of the human Hypatia. Daughter of an Alexandrian mathematician and philosopher,
soul, one will recognize the natural philosophic foundation of all laws the late fourth-century c.E. Neo-Platonist Hypatia was renowned for her
governing human relations that are evident at individual, familial, and work in mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and Platonic philosophy.
social levels. She also divides the soul into three parts: mind, spirited- Her commentaries were famous for contributing to Ptolemy's mathe-
ness, and desire. Each of these elements in Aesara's fragment parallels matical and astronomical theories, and to the algebraic and geometric
elements of Plato's ideas: the importance of understanding the human theories of others. One letter by a pupil asks her to build him a hydrom-
soul, through which one gains knowledge; the same tripartite division eter to measure the density of water, providing her the instructions for
of the soul; and the analogy between the tripartite balance of the ele- doing so. Although little of her own work survives, she became better
ments of the soul and those of the city. Given this close relationship known for the manner of her death than for her learning, for she was
between their ideas, it would be very welcome to be more certain of brutally skinned alive and killed by a mob of antipagan Christians in
Aesara's date. If she is indeed from the fifth century, she may well have 415 c.E. Although the names of other female philosophers are known
provided a basis for the ideas that became attached to the historically from the third to fifth centuries c.E., some of whom were Christian or
famed male philosopher Plato. Altogether, despite the social inequities, discussed Christian ethical theory, Hypatia's murder may symbolize
the writings by these Pythagorean women philosophers reflect no de- what happened to all ancient Greek women's writings during the sub-
valuation of women's roles. On the contrary, they affirm the utmost sequent development of Christian Europe.
value and importance of women's roles to their home, family, and so-
ciety, as they stress the importance of women properly carrying out their CONCLUSION
appointed roles.
Other Philosophic Traditions. Although women were not welcome in the The evidence for women's roles in ancient Greece is diverse and varies
well-known philosophical schools established in the fourth century by considerably over time. From the pre-Greek through the changing Greek
Plato and Aristotle, like the Pythagoreans, other philosophical traditions periods, it is clear that women held some important, valued, and pow-
seem to have both accepted and encouraged women among their follow- erful roles in society, especially in the home and the religious realm.
ers. A contemporary of Plato, Arete of Cyrene, headed the school of These gave women a culturally validated place that supported their
hedonistic philosophy founded by her father; it held that the search for sense of self and identity in the community and that may have offset to
happiness was the most important intellectual activity, and that pleasure, some extent women's restrictions in legal, economic, and political
as a philosophical concept, was the only true basis for human morality. spheres. The importance of women's roles in religious practices and be-
This focus on individual happiness and tranquility, marking a shift liefs, a sphere of vital importance to the community, and the value ac-
from an earlier concern for the good of the whole community, comes to corded to women's roles in the home demonstrate the concept of balance
characterize Hellenistic philosophies. The movements that began in the in women's and men's roles in the society.
third century, Epicureanism and Cynicism, stressed notions of individual In the literature, male Greek authors projected onto women a variety
autonomy and attainment of happiness. Women and slaves were equally of images: positive, complex, and idealizing portrayals of Homer; the
admitted to Epicurus' school in Athens, known as the Garden; seven misogynistic views of Hesiod and later poets; representations of often
women members are named, all having names common for hetairai. One, powerful yet destructive female characters in Athenian drama; and the
Leontion, is grudgingly admired by the Roman orator Cicero for her fine portrayal of stock, bourgeois characters in Hellenistic drama. Though
writing style, although he condemns her for daring to write an article highly fragmentary, nevertheless the extensive array of poetic and phil-
against a famous disciple of Aristotle's. And in the countercultural, anti- osophic writings by women provide distinctive insight into their creative
authoritarian views of Diogenes the Cynic, who stressed self-sufficiency, and intellectual thinking. The poetry includes lyric, choral, epic, and ep-
igrammatic genres and shows an interest in themes of love and friend-
254 THE MEDITERRANEAN Women in Ancient Greece 255

ship among women; in marriage, rituals, mythological stories, pastoral prised to learn that prior to these stories, and still long after they became popular,
landscapes, dedications, and eulogies. Likewise, women philosophers re- Helen was revered as a goddess—primarily in Sparta but also elsewhere in the
flect a broad range of interests from theories of the nature of the soul ancient Greek world.
and the universe, to moral philosophies on women's proper activities, to 9. Both Homeric and Orphic Hymns to Demeter exist, and Euripides presents
sharing the views of countercultural freethinkers, to excelling in mathe- yet another version in one choral ode of his play Helen, lines 1301-1368 (see
matical and astronomical investigations. Although one might expect to Helene Foley, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter [Princeton: Pricenton University
find writings by female medical practitioners or other documents, the Press, 1994]).
poetic and philosophic fragments testify to the wide range of women's 10. Mary Ellen Waithe, ed., A History of Women Philosophers: Ancient Women
interests and abilities. They further show that at least through much of Philosophers, 600 B.c.-SOQ A.D., vol. 1 (Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster: Martinus Ni-
jhoff, 1987), p. 30.
the ancient Greek period women were valued and honored for their
11. Afro-centrist theorists (that is, those approaching history from an African-
roles, an estimation that was lost in the later course of European history.
centered rather than a European-centered perspective) have claimed a (black)
African origin for Cleopatra VII. Given the spottiness of the historical record and
the fact that her mother and grandmother are not named, this could be possible.
NOTES However, no ancient testimony, including portraits on vases and coins or literary
1. Social historians are not entirely satisfied with these standard designations allusions, refers to her as of African (that is, of Egyptian, Ethiopian, or Libyan)
for the historical time periods. The term Classical, in particular, has been chal- background. This may mean either that she was fully a Ptolemy (that is, Greek)
lenged for seeming to perpetuate an elitist, exclusionary perspective on the an- or that her possibly different racial or ethnic background was not a matter of
cient material. I use this language as convenient historical markers, not as concern to the ancients, which generally seems to be the case.
evaluative terminology. 12. Fragment numbers refer to those in the Greek and English edition by Da-
2. See especially Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe vid A. Campbell, Sappho and Alcaeus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974). 1982).
3. The Theran town of Akrotiri, destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1682 13. Hymenaios was the god of marriage, and hymenaon was a joyous excla-
B.C.E. and extensively excavated in recent years, has yielded a wealth of finds. mation at weddings. The Greeks did not seem to speak of the protective
Dendrochronology, or dating by tree-ring evidence, has permitted very precise membrane in a girl's vagina called a "hymen" in modern times.
dating of the volcanic eruption that caused part of the island to explode and sink 14. Most scholars believe that Diotima was a fictional construct, but Waithe,
into the sea, so that modern-day Santorini is crescent shaped, its center still a A History of Women Philosophers, argues for her actual existence.
hot, smoldering volcano.
4. Even after written literature was introduced, it was known because it was
read aloud publicly. In both ancient Greece and Rome, private, silent reading FURTHER READING
was not yet done. See Eric A. Havelock, The Muse Learns to Write: Reflections on
Arthur, M. 1973. "Early Greece: The Origins of the Western Attitude towards
Orality and Literacy from Antiquity to the Present (New Haven and London: Yale
Women." Arethusa 6: 7-58.
University Press, 1986); or Rosalind Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). Campbell, David A. 1982. Sappho and Alcaeus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
5. Page du Bois, Centaurs and Amazons (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan sity Press.
Press, 1982), shows the cultural importance of three typical battle-type scenes Dover, Kenneth J. 1978. Greek Homosexuality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
depicted on temples and public monuments: battles of Greeks against Trojans, sity Press.
against the centaurs, and against the Amazons. Each battle type represents one Ehrenberg, Margaret. 1989. Women in Prehistory. Norman: University of
aspect of Greek male self-definition: superiority over foreigners, animals, and Oklahoma Press.
women. Foley, Helene P., ed. 1981. Reflections of Women in Antiquity. New York, London,
6. Translations are my own unless otherwise noted. Paris: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers.
7. Animal sacrifice provided a ritual setting for killing an animal to be eaten. , trans. & ed. 1994. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Princeton: Princeton
Although a part of the animal was dedicated to the deity, the purpose was to University Press.
provide meat (a barbecue) for the celebrants. Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. 1996. The Oxford Classical
8. Because of the familiarity of ancient stories about Helen, a mortal woman Dictionary: The Ultimate Reference Work on the Classical World, 3rd ed. Ox-
who was said to be the cause of the Trojan War, modern readers may be sur- ford: Oxford University Press.
256 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Kraemer, Ross S. 1992. Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions among Pagans,
Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World. New York and Oxford: Ox-
ford University Press.
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant, eds. 1992. Women's Life in Greece and
Rome: A Source Book in Translation, 2nd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
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. 1993. "The Primal Mind: Using Native American Models for the Study
of Women in Ancient Greece." In Feminist Theory and the Classics, ed. by 753 Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus, first of the
Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and Amy Richlin, 145-180. New York: Rout- city's seven kings
ledge. 509 Overthrow of Rome's monarchy and the establishment
of a representative, republican form of government—
which happened, according to legend, after the rape of
Lucreria by the son of Rome's seventh king
263-146 Rome's conquest of Carthage in North Africa in the three
Punic Wars, and of the Greek world in the eastern Med-
iterranean
133, 121 Assassinations of Roman political leaders and land re-
formers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, sons of Cornelia
59^4 Julius Caesar's rise to supreme power, until his assassi-
nation by pro-republican conspirators
31 Defeat of Mark Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra at
the Battle of Actium by Octavian, Julius Caesar's great-
nephew and adopted son
27 B.C.E.-14 C.E. Octavian begins the Roman empire, changing his name
to Augustus ("the revered one"); Vergil writes epic
poem, the Aeneid; Sulpicia, Propertius, and Tibullus write
love poetry