Nicholas Gilman - DBQ 5

1. According to Aristotle and Xenophon, what are the duties of women and by extension what is
their status in Greek society? Who created these separate roles? (Make sure you provide
examples from the selections)

The Greeks, like many other societies of ancient times, maintain a patriarchal society. A woman’s role is
to exist in subservience to her husband. Aristotle wrote that for a woman to maintain a well-ordered life
she should consider her husband’s wishes are laws appointed for her by divine will, along with the
marriage state and the fortune she shares. This reference to divine will is also reflected in the writings of
Xenophon with respect to a woman’s role in society. His summation of the aptitudes of men, imparted
on them by God, are best suited for outdoor work vice a woman’s attitudes are lent to indoor care,
therefore the duties and roles of men and woman are prescribed by God and not man. Xenophon states
that God created man’s body more capable of withstanding cold and heat, while a woman, imposed by
God with the nourishment of infants, carries more affection for newborn babies. These societal
constructs, like many other societies, are shrouded in a veil of divinity to mask the sustained patriarchal
control over women and maintain the status quo. (word count 182)

2. What is Semonides’ opinion about women? Why does he equate them with animals? Do we still
use similar categories today to classify women?

Semonides displays an abhorrent opinion on women in general, not just their social standing. He
compares women to different types of animals, nearly all with unpleasant qualities with the rare
exception of one type of woman, the bee, who is holds the qualities all men desire in a wife. It’s difficult
to imagine is if these opinions were serious, or just written as satirical rhetoric, due to the extremely
hateful stance he has taken. His disdain for women could also be derived from denial of his own
homosexual nature in a society with an ambiguous stance on homosexuality in society. Equating women
to animals dehumanizes them, making them less than, and degrading their place in society. Reflecting
on the use of similar categories today, I think they still exist but are more uniformly applied to both men
and women. We call people pigs or cows to degrade their appearance, or mouse or lion to reflect their
prowess. (word count 156)

3. Does not having women’s voices represented make a discussion of women and their place in
Ancient Greece problematic or is it still possible to determine women’s status and roles based
on the sources you were given?

Not having women’s voice represented is problematic in determining women’s roles in society. With our
sources exclusively being written by men we are only given a window into the expectations for a woman
and may not reflect the reality. Since these sources are also coming from literate and noble persons it
also stands that these expectations were more specific to the affluent class. Semonides’ description of
the different types of women, negative as they may be, does illustrate a point that not all women
followed the subservient expectations of men. It is more likely that we can understand what roles
women were allowed to fulfill in the public arena or what they were legally allowed to attain with regard
to land/business ownership. The idea that this is an accurate representation of home life is also less
likely, since child marriages allowed for the husband to educate the wife on her role within the
household. This would mean the expectations for a wife were more determinate on the individual
husband’s teachings. (word count 169)