Ancient Greece

Lesson 5: Athenian Society

Women in Athens

The position of women in Athens has always come as a bit of a surprise for those who still entertain a ‘romantic’ view of Classical Greece.

In his ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ Thucydides has the great Pericles make the following statement in an important speech:

“The greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or criticising you”.

In other words, Thucydides has Pericles say that a woman belongs in the house, away from the attention of other men, and should behave in such a way that she should not be talked about in public, even if the remarks being made are complimentary.

This remark has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly debate.

Earlier classicists found it very difficult to believe that their darling enlightened Classical Greeks should have held such unenlightened views about the place of women.

Gallant attempts have been made to explain away this incongruity. Many classicists apologetically point out that relations within the household between husband and wife were, by contrast, often ‘warm and intimate’ (as though one would expect that the relations between husband and wife in ‘male chauvinist’ societies would always be cold and distant!).

One scholar has even gone to the extent of arguing that the remark was merely a reflection of an old-fashioned kind of courtesy towards women (that is, "he didnt really mean it THAT way, he was just being polite").

In order to really understand this remark, we need to rid ourselves of the ‘romantic’ notions that nineteenth century scholars have put into our heads and look at the Greeks in their actual context.

It has been effectively argued that the Ancient Greeks were an ‘Ancient Near Eastern’ civilisation, just like the Lydians, the Persians and the Babylonians. If we take this point of view, then it is hardly surprising that they should also have ‘Ancient Near Eastern’ attitudes towards their womenfolk.

(I would even hazard a guess that if such a remark had been attributed to, say, one of the Assyrian kings of the seventh century BC, it would not have excited any comment at all and would simply have been accepted as evidence of the ‘conventional Ancient Near Eastern attitude’ towards women).

Of course we would be wrong to come to such far-reaching conclusions about the position of women based on just one sentence in Thucydides.

There is a great deal of additional evidence, however, to substantiate the view that the position of women in Athens was essentially one of inferior status.

For example, the inheritance laws in Athens were blatantly sexist. A man’s property (and it was always a man’s property – women could not own any) was always divided among his sons when he passed away. His daughters were entitled to nothing.

Even in the event of a man passing away without having any sons, but only a daughter, she was still not entitled to the property. Instead she became an ‘epiklerate’.

What this meant was that she held the property with her, but it was not legally hers. What is more, she had no choice but to marry the male relative who was ‘entitled’ to her. The first claimant to the ‘epiklerate’ and to the property that went with her was her paternal uncle.

Some evidence from plays written in the late fifth century also point towards the conclusion that women were essentially of a lower status than men

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7