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Women in Ancient Greece

Thesis · April 2016

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Women at Athens led lives of ‘oriental exclusion’; they were denied, social, cultural, political and legal
rights. Discuss.

Most of the evidence available to us does not give a very precise image of how women lived in
ancient Greek society. There is a conflict between ideology and attitudes in some literary sources and
reality as portrayed in epigraphy and literature.1 Although women were politically and legally
disadvantaged in comparison to men, they did not lead lives of ‘oriental exclusion’. They were not
considered to be inferior and negligible members of their families and households.2 Most of the evidence
is written by men and very few by women. Some views are sympathetic toward women and some are
not. The sources I will be using are Women and Family in Athenian Law, Aristotle’s Politics,
Demosthenes Against Euboulides, and Xenophon Symposium. Interestingly we also get sympathetic
views on women from Theognis and the woman poet, Sappo.

Athenians believed in keeping women separate from the rest of society, at least among a certain
societal group, generally the upper class. Women lived in a gynaikonitis or gynaeceum: women’s
quarters where they could oversee the running of the home and have very little contact with the male
world. 3 But this was not the case with all women in society. Women did have a certain amount of
mobility and participated on equal footing with men in religious duties and in a number of other duties.
(women were not excluded) Thus women were not overall excluded, but a degree of separation from
men did exist. This category included ‘respectable’ women, wealthy enough not to be working in the
market or fields, neither slaves nor the poor nor prostitutes. 4

Apart from these wealthy women, working women formed an exception to the ideology of
female exclusion as portrayed by men. Aristophanes Lysistrata 13-19, 456-58 presented women as doing
a number of duties as market sellers and bread sellers. 5 True most working women were concerned
primarily with spinning and weaving but some were employed in the market as sellers of bread or
garlands or as innkeepers.Women worked outside the house as Aristophanes’ work Thesmophoriazousai
indicated. At an assembly of women to celebrate the festival of the Thesmophoria, Aristophanes

1
Roger Brock, “The labor of women in Classical Athens, Classical Quarterly, 44 (1994): 337, Accessed March 10, 2016,
www.jstor.org/stable/639638.
2
Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland, Ancient Greece: Social and historical documents from archaic times to the death of
Alexander the Great, (London: Routledge, 1994), 125
33
Kay O’Pry, “social and political roles of women in Athens and Sparta,” Saber and Scroll, 1 (2012): 8-9, Accessed March 14,
2016, http://digitalcommons.apus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=saberandscroll
4
Dianan Burton, “Public memorials, private virtues: women on classical Athenian grave monuments,” Mortality, 8 (2003):
23, Accessed March 14, 2016, http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4960/Public%20Memorials.pdf
5
Dillon and Garland, 153.
fantasized that they were planning revenge on the poet Euripides for supposedly revealing on stage their
secrets and behavior at the festival,

I’ve only come forward to say a few words.

This lady’s charges have covered just about everything;
I just want to tell you what I’ve been through myself.
My husband died in Cyprus,
Leaving me with five little children, and it’s with difficulty
That I’ve fed them by making garlands in the myrtle-wreath market…6

No doubt Greek society was male dominated and males had expectations of women that adhered
to their view concerning the role of women. The Greeks, who created their god in their own image,
defeminized Athena, the goddess of wisdom, a deity of war, which was a masculine endeavor. Athena
was a virgin which is the denial of her sex. Athena was born of a male and thus was subject to him. 7

Tradition dictated that a woman’s place was at home, subservient to her husband whom she does
not choose and was to take care of the household. She either had to be subservient or otherwise she was
bad. In Hesiod’s work Works and Days, he distinguishes between two types of women, a good wife who
should be Hesiod recommends to the future husband “four years past puberty…You should marry a
maiden, so you can teach her diligent habits,..” and the bad wife “A parasite, who even if her husband is
strong Singes him without a torch and brings him to a raw old age.”8

In Xenophon’s Symposium 9:9.2, Socrates argues a woman lacks judgment and physical strength
and has to be tamed,

…woman’s nature is really not a whit inferior to man’s except in its lack of judgment and physical
strength. So if any one of you has a wife, let him confidently set about teaching her whatever he would
like to have her know.’ 9 ( Xenophon, Symposium, 9: 2.9)

Ischomachus tells Socrates how a good wife should be:

She was not yet fifteen years old when she came to me, and up to that time she had lived in leading-strings, seeing,
hearing and saying as little as possible. 7.6 If when she came she knew no more than how, when given wool, to
turn out a cloak, and had seen only how the spinning is given out to the maids, is not that as much as could be

6
Ibid., 151
7
William J. O’Neal, “The status of women in Ancient Athens,” International social science review, 68 (2001), 116, Accessed
March 14, 2016, https://farrington1600.wikispaces.com/file/view/WomenInAthens.pdf.
8
Dillon and Garland, 128.
9
Xenophon, “Symposium”, trans. William Heinemann, Perseus Digital Library, accessed March 12, 2016, 9: 2.9.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.%20Sym.%202.9&lang=original.
expected? For in control of her appetite, Socrates, she had been excellently trained; and this sort of training is, in
my opinion, the most important to man and woman alike.’ (Xen. Oec. 7.10)10
There were some sympathetic voices towards women and their right to voice an opinion in marriage.
Theognis for example was concerned about the psychological state of a woman who is obliged to marry
an old man. He states,

A young wife is not suitable for an elderly husband;

For she is a boat that does not obey the rudder,
Nor do anchors hold her; and she breaks her mooring cables
Often at night to find another harbor.11

From the iconographic evidence in vases we can see that women were not socially excluded. In
vases between 460 B.C and 420 B.C women were shown to be intellectual. One example showed some
young girls from a wealthy background were educated and interacted with each other. They were
presented in a literary setting with bool scrolls.12 Such portrayals show the independent spirit of women
in seeking education. Not all women therefore were bound to what Socrates advocated that men should
be teaching her whatever they would like to have her know. The poet Sappo left forty one surviving
poems, some of which give us some glimpse about love and how women felt about it. Women
apparently were giving their ideas and impressions in ancient Greek society as Sappo relates in this
poem,

Beauty is beauty only while you gaze on it, but the good man will presently be beautiful as well. [LP 50]

But delicacy, that’s what I love, and this love has made of the sun’s brightness and beauty my fortune. [LP 58.25–
26]13

Women were not excluded from the public as Plutarch in his work, Solon 21 indicated,

He also made a law which regulated women’s appearances in public, as well as their mourning and their
festivals, and put an end to wild and disorderly behaviour. When women went out of doors, they were
not allowed to wear more than three garments, or to carry more than an obol’s worth of food or drink,
or a basket more than eighteen inches high, or to travel at night except in a wagon with a lamp in form
of it.

10
Greek texts and translation, Perseus Project Texts: PhiloLogic, July 2009, http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-
cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Xen.%20Oec.%207.10
11
Dillon and Garland, 128
12
Matthew P.J. Dillon, “Engendering the Scrolls: Girls’ and women’s literacy in Classical Greece,” in The Oxford Handbook of
Childhood and Education in Classical World, ed., Judith Evans Grubbs and Time Perkin, (London, Oxford University Press,
2013)
13
The poetry of Sappo, trans. Jim Powell, (London: Oxford University press, 2007),17 and 20, Accessed March 4, 2016,
http://www.projethomere.com/ressources/Sappho/Poetry-of-Sappho.pdf
 Women constituted an important element of the household and participated with men in rites on
(analysis that she was not excluded based on evidenc below) grave monuments. Women’s contributions
in grave inscriptions were appreciated by their menfolk. Women were not therefore excluded but were
active in social life. The evidence is clear on grave monuments which showed mothers, sisters as
depicted by their families. A stele from Eretria, shows how a mother had set up a monument for her dead
son,

Hail, passers-by; I lie here in death.

Come hither and read what man is buried here:
A foreigner from Aegina, his name Mnesitheos.
My dear mother Timaree set up this monument for me,
An imperishable stele on the top of the mound,
Which will say these words to passers-by for ever,
‘Timarete set up this up for her dear dead son.’14

Women were not denied legal rights. For example when it came to dowry, a woman was allowed
to inherit part of her father’s property, if he also had male children. If the woman’s father had no male
heirs she inherited the whole of his property and thus became an epikleros (daughter of a man with no
male heir). The law of the state intervened in that case and ordered the closest male relative of her father
in order of seniority to marry her and take control of the property that came with the woman. The
institution of the epikleros was established to protect her, and the state trusted that her father’s closest
male relative should be the most suitable man to do just that. 15 Legally women were not excluded from
inheritance.

Another evidence of women not being legally excluded from inheritance can be seen in Athenian
inheritance laws which protected the rights of heiresses and ensured the survival of the family line:

The archon shall be responsible for orphans and heiresses and families which are in danger of becoming
extinct, and for the women who remain in the households of their deceased husbands claiming that they
are pregnant. He shall be responsible for theses and not permit anyone to maltreat them. If anyone does
maltreat them or behave unlawfully towards them in any way, he shall have the authority to impose a
fine on this person up to the maximum allowed by law…16

14
Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland, Ancient Greece: Social and historical documents from archaic times to the death of
Alexander the Great, 140
15
K. Kapparis, “Women and Family in Athenian Law,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context”
(Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian
Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities
[www.stoa.org]) edition of March 22, 2003, (Accessed March 3, 2016)
http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_women_and_family?section=property&greekEncoding=
16
Dillon and Garland, 147
 From the sources, we find that women were not as prejudiced against or excluded as assumed and
that women had a citizenship status. A law was proposed at Athens to investigate everyone enrolled in
the deme registers to see whether they are genuine citizens or not. A certain Euxitheus was voted down
and he went to court to file a complaint that he was a political victim of his enemy Eubulides. He also
tried to prove that he was born of a citizen male and a citizen female, saying:

And let no one of you, men of Athens, be prejudiced against us because of this; for you will find today many
Athenian women who are serving as nurses;…( Dem. 57 35)17

If nurses were looked down on, a different view emerged by evidence of women’s tombstones on which
nursing was portrayed as the best attested occupation.18 The fact that the daughter of an isoteles is
commemorated as a nurse in her tombstone (IG 117873) gives indication that nursing was not viewed as
disgraceful. 19

After the Periclean citizenship law 451 B.C. a child would be of citizen status only if both parents
were citizens. The Periclean law formally recognized Athenian-born women as citizens in their own
right, and sanctioned their role in the continuation of the citizen body. Women until then were
participants of the polis only in the sphere of religion, where they could hold priestly offices, and
perform ceremonial duties in public gatherings. After the Periclean citizenship law Athenian women
were recognized as participants in the state, even if not fully, and this comes with certain obligations. 20
Women were not excluded politically as Aristotle indicated in his work, Politics:

…women and children must be trained by education with an eye to the constitution, if the virtues of either of them
are supposed to make any difference in the virtues of the state. And they must make a difference: for the children
grow up to be citizens, and half the free persons in a state are women. (Aristo. P. 1260b8)21
In Pericles’ Funeral Oration in which he consoled women to restrain their grief over their lost
sons or brothers and fathers who died honorably indicates that women were welcomed to participate in
public matters such as funerals rather than be excluded or denied the rights to attend funerary
obligations:

I should perhaps say something about the virtue appropriate to women, to those of you who will now be
widows, and I shall simply give one brief piece of advice. Your renown will be great if you do not
behave in an inferior way to that natural to your sex, and your glory will be to be least mentioned
amongst men concerning either your virtue or your faults. (2.45.2) 22

17
Demosthenes, “Against Eubulides”, trans. Norman W. DeWitt and Norman J. DeWitt, Perseus Digital Library, (Accessed
March 3, 2016) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Dem.+57.35&redirect=true
18
Brock, 336.
19
Ibid, 337.
20
Demosthenes, “Against Eubulides.”
21
Aristotle, “Politics,” Trans Benjamin Jowett, 1885, accessed March 13, 2016, http://www.studymore.org.uk/xari.htm
22
Dillon and Garland, 137
 Most women were not excluded from Greek society’s activities such as participation in funerary
rites and other duties outside the household. Participation was rather regulated by laws such as
concerning religious duties and certain obligations as a citizen. Yet men’s expectations from women in
the literary sources were meant to make women subservient to man. This however does not indicate that
women in society were considered inferior or negligible members of their families and households.
Other sources such as epigraphy and literature highlighted women’s activities outside the household and
thus a total exclusion of women is not supported by such evidence.
Bibliography

Aristotle. (1885) Politics. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, web edition at

http://www.studymore.org.uk/xari.htm

Burton, Diana. “Public memorials, private virtues: women on classical Athenian grave monuments.”
Mortality, 8 (2003): 20-35. Accessed March 14, 2016.
http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4960/Public%20Memorials.pdf

Brock, Roger. “The labor of women in Classical Athens.” Classical Quarterly, 44 (1994): 336-346.
Accessed March 10, 2016 www.jstor.org/stable/639638.

Demosthenes. “Against Eubulides.” Translated by Norman W. DeWitt and Norman J. DeWitt. Perseus
Digital Library. Accessed March 3, 2016
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Dem.+57.35&redirect=true

Dillon Matthew and Lynda Garland. Ancient Greece: Social and historical documents from archaic
times to the death of Alexander the Great. London: Routledge, 1994

Dillon, P.J. Matthew. “Engendering the Scrolls: Girls’ and women’s literacy in Classical Greece.” In The
Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in Classical World, Edited by Judith Evans Grubbs and
Time Perkin, London: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Greek texts and translation, Perseus Project Texts: PhiloLogic, July 2009,
http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-
cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Xen.%20Oec.%207.10

K. Kapparis, “Women and Family in Athenian Law.” In “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context”
(Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Edited by Adriaan Lanni. Republished in C.W.
Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, ed., The Stoa: a
consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 22, 2003,
(Accessed March 3, 2016)
http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_women_and_family?section=property&greekEncoding=

O’Neal, J. William. “The status of women in Ancient Athens.” International social science review, 68
(2001): 115-121. Accessed March 14, 2016,
https://farrington1600.wikispaces.com/file/view/WomenInAthens.pdf

O’Pry, Kay. “Social and political roles of women in Athens and Sparta,” Saber and Scroll, 1 (2012): 7-
14, Accessed March 14, 2016,
http://digitalcommons.apus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=saberandscroll

The poetry of Sappo. Translated by Jim Powell, London: Oxford University press, 2007. Accessed
March 4, 2016, http://www.projethomere.com/ressources/Sappho/Poetry-of-Sappho.pdf
 Xenophon. “Symposium.” Translated by William Heinemann. Perseus Digital Library. Accessed March
12, 2016.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Xen.%20Sym.%202.9&lang=original

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