Classical Studies: Greek & Roman History
2018-SPRING
June 12, 2018
The lives of the women in Athens contrasted to that of the women in Sparta are drastically different in comparison, as each of the Ancient cities differs with regards to the functions of their women and what their roles were in their respective societies. Athens, on one hand, divided its women into three separate classes; the slaves, the citizen class, and the “hetaerae” with limited access to the world outside the home, while the Spartan women were educated as young girls and had to participate in the athletics mandated by the state. Sparta was the only state in the Ancient Greek World that mandated the physical activity of its female population in the instruction of the public education of Spartan youth, including during what they deemed the ideal birth-giving years after the girls schooling was completed. Because of this upbringing, Spartan women spent a majority of their time outdoors and were able to speak freely to men, while Athenian women ideally were meant to stay indoors and seldom spoke to their husbands or other males they might have had contact with in their home, such as the slaves or friends to her husband or father. The “best woman”, as said by T.G. Tucker in Life in Ancient Athens: the social and public life of a classical Athenian from day to day regarding Athenian women, “is she of whom least is said for either good or harm”, in other words, the seclusion of the woman and her silence, made for her place in the home as educator, mother, housewife, allocator of duties to her slaves, and weaver or supervisor of the weaving of garments. This varied from the lives of the Spartan women (and men) who were forbidden to engage in mundane, or profitable occupations as they were to acquire their nourishment from the plots of land given to the Spartan citizens at birth, that were cultivated by the lower classes, rather than the Athenians who were avid traders, albeit restricted with their limited technology, obtained their supplies from elsewhere along the trade routes. Athenians were willing to work hard, and yet they insisted on setting aside time for the arts, and culture, especially conversations regarding philosophy and other topics of discussion. Unlike the Athenians, Spartans devoted a vast majority of their energy to the fortification of their military regime, which were designed to prevent rebellions from occurring within their borders as well as to prepare them for the wars that were inevitable at this time, due to their ever-expanding borders. Religious worship in Athens, as a community affair and not a personal matter, highlighted the involvement of women in the religious festivals, not only demonstrating that they were an essential part of society, but it gave them an opportunity be seen and exist in the world well beyond the garrisons of the household, or oikos. Spartan women and girls, as participators in athletic competitions and festival activities, which may have also been recognized as a religious practice, were similar to the Athenians in relation to festival rituals as they shared in the common Greek religious identity of the Attic Peninsula. Each society, with their many differences as well as their similarities, allows for the unique elements of each culture to form essential components of the foundation of Western Civilization and distinguish between the varying forms of behaviours towards women in Ancient Athens and Sparta.
Athenian women as young girls often were exposed to relationships equivalent to that of the men and boys of the time, although the desired results differed. Poets from the Ancient world illustrated a relationship between the young women on the verge of marriage, and the more mature women who served as mentors, and often as lovers to the initiates. “While the young men were prepared for war, leadership, and diplomacy, the young women were prepared through dancing, singing, and other religious events for marriage and motherhood” In the poetry of Sappho, the relationships between the older and younger women is indicated by the sympathetic dialogue and the mutual feelings of the generations in the elegance and beauty of consolation offered during or after a painful separation from the circle of women that followed her in one of her fragmentary poems, 94.
94
……………………………………
“Honestly, I wish I were dead!”
Weeping many tears she left me,
Saying this as well:
“Oh, what dreadful things have happened to us,
Sappho! I don’t want to leave you!”
I answered her:
“Go with my blessings and remember me,
for you know how we cherished you.
“But if you have [forgotten], I want
to remind you . . .
of the beautiful things that happened to us:
“Close by my side you put around yourself
[many wreaths] of violets and roses and saffron…
“And many woven garlands
made from flowers . . .
around your tender neck,
“And . . . with costly royal
myrrh . . .
you anointed . . .
“And on a soft bed
. . . tender . . .
you satisfied your desire . . .
“Nor was there any . . .
nor any holy . . .
from which we were away,
. . . nor grove …”
The relationship between these intergenerational women as illustrated in Sappho’s poetry not only emphasizes the desirability of the women and the pleasures and erotic sufferings of time spent in their company, but the pain of such a separation felt over the retreat of a member of the circle. It is unknown as to why women joined or departed from Sappho’s circle, however, the most likely explanation for their departure is that the girls were leaving for marriage.
Marriage, for Athenians, was universally understood to be a burden and an embarrassment in their culture. However, the purpose of the marriage was not only for the usual Ancient motives, such as the creation of an heir to the family name and inheritor of his possessions, but, above all it was of upmost importance that there would be someone to bury him and pay due honours to his body and his tomb when he died as an Athenian citizen. The concept of marriage in the Ancient world was that of a contract between those entitled to do so, which meant that as a woman, she had no standing on the matters of her future. The Athenian marriageable age for females was between fifteen to twenty and their husbands were generally quite older than them, typically in their thirties. According to historians, “a dowry [would be] agreed upon, and a “solemn pledging” [was] performed in the presence of witnesses. Without this “giving away,” […] an Athenian marriage [was] invalid”. The sole ceremony after the pledging took place at a later date and was called the “fetching home” in Athenian culture. This ceremony allowed the families of the couple to come together to celebrate the festivities of the union and preform sacrifices to the gods of marriage. Women were able to participate in these events as either guests or as a chorus, where the women of any age would gather together to narrate, through song and dance, the myths and legends surrounding the lives of the gods and goddesses they believed in. Weddings, funerals, and other family gatherings, were hardly recognized as public affairs, however these events gave Athenian women the opportunity to be seen and admired by others, men and women included.
girls wove, ground grain, carried burdens, and danced in ritual contexts (choruses of girls danced at the Greater Panathenaia and perhaps at other festivals). In this passage the girl is probably meant to be understood as grinding grain and carrying figs (a symbol of fertility) for Athena:
Once I was seven I became an arrêphoros.
Then at ten I became a grain grinder for the goddess (lit . the Archegetis or “first leader”).
After that, wearing a saffron robe, I was a bear at Brauron.
And as a lovely young girl I once served as a basket bearer, wearing
a string of figs.
Athenian women were kept in what is called “Oriental Seclusion” during Ancient times, a term that suggests that women were confined to specific rooms in their homes and were not permitted to have contact with anyone, particularly male, who was not a part of her immediate family.
The phrase was probably first used to show a sharp distinction between the treatment of women in Athens and the other elements of Athenian culture that form part of the foundation of Western Civilization.
But the education and life of an Athenian woman was centered in the family, while that of a Spartan woman was heavily impressed by the state. In time of war, it was Sparta that produced the heroines who died for their country.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Aristophanes, Lysistrata 641-47 [412 B.C.E.]. Translated by Helene P . Foley.
Sappho, Fragment 94. Translated by Anne Carson. http://thespineanditstingle.tumblr.com/ post/105773562643/sappho-fragment-94-trans-anne-carson
Secondary Sources:
Fantham, Elaine. Women in the Classical World: Image and Text. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost. Accessed June 10, 2018.
Gould, John. “Law, Custom and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980): 38–59. doi:10.2307/630731.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Spartan Women. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Schaps, David. “The Women of Greece in Wartime.” Classical Philology 77, no. 3 (July 1982). Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 193-213. Accessed June 10, 2018. https://www- jstor-org.ezproxy.acsmc.talonline.ca/stable/pdf/270245.pdfrefreqid=excelsior%3A 4540c56f2737cac8cc9f8520ce813349
Thompson, James C. WOMEN IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: The Status, Role and Daily Life of Women in the Ancient Civilizations of Egypt, Rome, Athens, Israel and Babylonia. Virginia: Commonwealth Book Publishers. 2010. Accessed June 11, 2018. http:// www.womenintheancientworld.comprostitutesandhetaeraeinancientathens.htm.
Tucker, T.G. Life in Ancient Athens: the social and public life of a classical Athenian from day to day. London: Macmillan. 1912.