Overview

This lecture examines the roles, rights, and social status of women in ancient Greece, focusing on Athens and Sparta. It highlights the significant restrictions women faced in daily life, contrasts these with the more prominent roles of women in mythology and religion, and discusses notable exceptions to societal norms.

Women’s Lives in Athens

• Athenian girls were often married at 13 or 14, while men typically married around age 30.
• Marriages were arranged by a male guardian, called a kurios, usually the father or another male relative. Love was not a consideration.
• Women were expected to remain at home, manage the household, and raise children. Wealthier families had slaves to assist with domestic work.
• Education for girls included reading, writing, mathematics, music, poetry, and gymnastics, but was intended to prepare them for motherhood and running a home, not for intellectual development.
• Social interactions with unrelated men were discouraged. Women mostly engaged in quiet indoor activities like weaving, could visit friends’ homes, and participated in some religious ceremonies and festivals.
• Women could not attend assemblies, had no political rights, and married women were under the complete authority of their husbands.
• Inheritance laws were designed to keep property within the male line. If a woman’s father died, inheritance went to her brothers or, if she was an only child, to her husband or guardian. If she inherited, she was required to marry her closest male relative to keep property in the family.
• Women could own personal items like jewelry and clothing, but could not make a will; their property went to their husband upon death.
• Marriage could end in three ways: repudiation by the husband (who had to return the dowry), the wife leaving (rare and damaging to her reputation), or the bride’s father reclaiming his daughter (only if she had no children).
• Women were expected to be faithful to their husbands to protect the legitimacy of the male line, but men were not held to the same standard and could freely visit prostitutes, concubines, and courtesans.

Women’s Status in Sparta

• Spartan women had significantly more autonomy and rights than Athenian women. They could inherit land, own property, make business transactions, and were better educated.
• Girls received the same physical fitness training as boys (except for combat) and were educated at home to a similar level as boys in public school.
• Motherhood was highly valued, and women were proud of their children. While men were away at war, women managed finances, ran farms and estates, and operated businesses.
• Women could take male lovers to ensure strong children if necessary and participated in much of the city’s political and social life.
• Domestic tasks such as weaving, cleaning, and child-rearing were performed by female helots (serfs), not by Spartan women themselves.
• Spartan society valued equality between men and women, and prostitution was considered demeaning for both sexes.

Female Professions and Social Roles

• Some women worked as craftswomen, bakers, or merchants, but evidence for these roles is limited.
• Women seen outside the home were typically slaves, foreigners, or prostitutes.
• Two main sex work roles in Athens:
  • Pornē: Common prostitutes, often slaves or former slaves, who worked in taverns, brothels, on the streets, or at private parties. They earned low wages (set by law), faced social stigma, and their children were not considered citizens. Daughters often continued in the same profession; sons could be sold or abandoned.
  • Hetaira: Educated, upper-class courtesans who provided companionship, cultural engagement, and sometimes sexual services. They had more freedom, financial independence, and social mobility, and could be hired to accompany wealthy clients to events. Being a hetaira was sometimes a chosen profession that allowed for greater autonomy.
• Lower-class women may have worked as potters or craft workers, but documentation is scarce.

Women in Religion and Mythology

• Women played important roles in religious life as priestesses and participants in rituals and festivals.
• Greek mythology featured many powerful female figures, such as Athena (wisdom, war, crafts), Artemis (the hunt), Demeter (grain, harvest), Persephone (spring), Hera, Aphrodite, Medea, Circe, the Sirens, the Amazons, the Muses, and Penelope.
• Despite their limited real-life rights, women were central in religious stories and practices.
• The Thesmophoria was a major fertility festival honoring Demeter, attended only by married women, with some ceremonies performed by maidens.
• The cult of Athena offered women positions of power and autonomy, allowing them to participate in city life from a young age. Some women served as Athena’s clergy, while others left religious service upon marriage but continued to participate in festivals.
• The Pythia, priestess of the Oracle at Delphi, was a highly respected religious position for women.
• Women could serve as priestesses for deities like Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus, and participate in rituals and ceremonies, but were denied similar authority in their personal lives.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Kurios: A male guardian responsible for arranging a woman’s marriage in Athens.
• Pornē: A prostitute, usually of lower social status and often a slave.
• Hetaira: An educated courtesan who provided companionship and cultural engagement, not just sex.
• Helot: A serf in Sparta who performed labor for citizens.
• Thesmophoria: A major female religious festival honoring Demeter.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Reflect: Why did Greek mythology feature so many powerful and intelligent women, while real-life opportunities for women were so limited?
• Review class readings on Athenian and Spartan society for additional context and examples.

Artemesia

polyaenus 2nd century ce said: that artemesia would carry other flags so she could aviod getitng chased by greeks or barbarians, also said she got given a greek suit of armour.

the king said “ O zeus, surely, you have formed women out of man’s material, and men out of women”

justinus said artemisa queen of herculanum “ so that you might have seen womanish fear among men, and manly boldness among the foremost leader.

Herodotus; mentions how she was very bold telling to king not to go into battle but also states that she was incredibly wise and the fact that in thi instance she was right and the battle was unsuccessful and causes losses artemisa became more

photius basically said she was a lvoe struck insane women driven to suicide

calcite jar given to her from king of persia