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Colete Hemingway Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Women in Classical Greece

In Classical Greece, young girls usually grew up in the care of a nurse (25.78.26) and spent most of their time in thegynaikon, the women's quarters of the house located on an upper floor. The gynaikon was where mothers nursed their children and engaged in spinning thread and weaving (31.11.10). In addition to childbearing, the weaving of fabric and managing the household were the principal responsibilities of a Greek woman. Young women, however, had some mobility in antiquity. For example, retrieving water from the local fountain house was considered not only a woman's task, but it also offered a woman the opportunity to socialize with other women outside of the house. It was also the responsibility of women to visit the tombs of family members. Typically, they brought offerings and tied sashes around the grave stelai, a custom that is well attested on a number of white-ground Greek lekythoi. Women could attend public speeches and visit certain sanctuaries, such as those of Artemis at Brauron and the Sanctuary of the Nymph at the foot of the Akropolis. However, during any occasion outside of the house, a young woman was expected to be inconspicuous and to be covered around the head to obscure most of her face and neck.

In addition to childbearing, the weaving of fabric and managing the household were the principal responsibilities of a Greek woman.

Women of various ages also took part in specific religious festivals, some of which even included men—the Panathenaia in honor of the goddess Athena, the Eleusinian Mysteries that honored Demeter and Persephone, and the Anthesteria sacred to Dionysos (17.190.73). Other festivals were restricted to women, such as the Thesmophorian, the Haloa, and the Skira, all of which emphasized the correlation of a woman's generative capabilities with the renewal of vegetation and, thus, the survival of society. Religious rituals reserved for young girls probably had the most significant impact on young unmarried women. For example, young girls between the ages of five and puberty were selected to serve the goddess Artemis in her sanctuary at Brauron. As "little bears," they acted out the role of untamed animals that eventually would be domesticated through marriage. Thus, the self-perception of a young girl in Classical Greece was manipulated through behavioral instruction in the home, through the myths that reiterated social values, and through their participation in rituals that educated them in the values and mores of their community.

The culmination of a young woman's socialization was her marriage (56.11.1), which usually took place at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Marriage did not require a young bride's consent, as she was simply passed from the protection of her father to that of her husband. A young woman in Classical Athens lacked any rights of citizenship, and could only be described as the wife of an Athenian citizen. However, a bride brought to her marriage a dowry that was not available for the husband to spend. In fact, on the rare occasion that the marriage failed, the dowry was returned to the wife's father. The consummation of marriage signaled the end of a young woman's status as a kore, or young maiden, as she was then classified as a nymphe, or bride, until the birth of her first child, when she became a gyne, or woman. The life expectancy of the average woman was about forty years old.

Despite the extreme social restraint on women in classical antiquity, it is interesting that they had a number of powerful female goddesses of the type that were never available to Christian women. Demeter was able to retrieve her daughter Persephone, Artemis could send a fatal arrow, and Athena had the ability to resist marriage and motherhood, and to provide advice to respected Greek heroes. Aphrodite, Hera, Hestia, and Hekate were also powerful goddesses, intensely honored and greatly admired by women and men alike.

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|Colette Hemingway |

|Independent Scholar |

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Citation

Hemingway, Colette. "Women in Classical Greece". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004)

Further Reading

Blundell, Sue. Women in Ancient Greece. London: British Museum Press, 1995.

Cook, R. M. Greek Painted Pottery. 3d ed. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Grant, Michael, and John Hazel. Who's Who in Classical Mythology. London: Dent, 1993.

Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture: Background Book. Joint Association of Classical Teachers' Greek Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Pomeroy, Sarah B., et al. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Ferrari, Gloria. "The End of Aponia." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 30 (1995).

Directions: Choose 2 of the following quotes to respond. Based on the previous background reading interpret what Aristotle is saying in these quotes. Identify what his viewpoints are and how it is a reflection of his historical and cultural background. Please write at least five sentences per quote. Also, look over the discussion questions for next class. Think about them, and be prepared to answer these in class.

Further, the relation of male to female is by nature a relation of superior to inferior and ruler to ruled.” (41)

A husband should, “rule a wife and children as free persons, though in not the same mode of rule in each case, the wife being ruled in political, the children in a kingly fashion.” (52)

“Household management differs for a man and a woman as well, for it is the work of the man to acquire and of the woman to guard.” (92)

“there is an alteration of ruler and ruled, since they tend by nature to be on equal footing and differ in nothing; all the same, when one rules and the other is ruled, [the ruler] seeks to establish the differences in external appearance, forms of address, and prerogatives, as in the story Amasis told about his footpan. The man always stands thus in relation to the female.” (52) *footpan reference transforms something low into something higher than it is. Man taking himself in equal (maybe even lower standing) than women and attempts to place himself higher.

“The parts of the soul are present in [slaves, women, and children], but they are present in a different way. The slave is wholly lacking the deliberative element; the female has it but it lacks authority; the child has it but it is incomplete.” (53)

Discussion Questions for class:

1. Where does Aristotle suggest gender roles come from?

2. What main social construct makes women submit more in Grecian society?

3. Are Aristotle’s ideas of a woman and their roles similar to modern traditional roles? Are modern women trying to replace the place of male dominance now?

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