Heroines and Subservience in Ancient Athens
Women throughout history have played a subordinate role to men; this holds true in even ancient Athens. Though obvious through the writing of ancient poets, playwrights, and historians this subordinate role dominates religion and its practices. Through an examination of modern and ancient sources it will become apparent that women, even goddesses, played certain roles and they did not have the freedom to step outside these roles. Despite this subordinate stature, women could still receive recognition as heroic figures by achieve the status of heroine. Shrines dedicated to women who exemplify a certain trait, usually self-sacrifice, still exist, even on the Acropolis. The dual role of honored and subservient female is a complicated issue, and deserves further examination.
Greek religion permeated every pore of society. Each level of society, from the Boule to the family had its own "separate center for its religious activity" (Mikalson,
83). Tribes worshipped together at the sanctuaries of the heroes for which they were named, each deme had a patron god, and families often performed the rites of the
dead at their loved ones' tombs (83). With religion and supplication of the gods as a part of daily life, it not unusual that the gods led lives similar to their human
worshippers. Gods married, gave birth, had fights and fits of temper, and human desires for love and sex. For these reasons Greeks were able to turn to religion so often; Gods had experiences similar to those encountered in everyday life, and were therefore capable of offering guidance. By turning to the gods the Greeks justified many of their actions, including wars, colonization, and the subjugating of women.
Athenian women tended the oikos, or household. An aristocratic woman made clothes, kept the household accounts, oversaw the slaves, and made sure everything ran smoothly so her husband could concentrate on the running of the polis. "The world of the classical polis was a man's world. Only men could attend the Assembly, vote, hold office, serve on juries, appear in court in their own right, or even own property" (Demand 1996: 228). Women were allowed in public only to fetch water from the fountain houses, and during religious processions. Women functioned only as "prostitutes for the sake of pleasure, concubines for daily care of the body, and wives for the begetting of legitimate children and [as] a reliable guardian of the contents of the house" ([Dem.
The Role of Women in Greek Mythology In learning about the feminist movement, we studied the three articles, discussed and reviewed the different authors perspectives on the topic, and learned how important the role of woman in Greek mythology is. In presenting the feminist theory to the class, we analyzed the three articles, Women in Ancient Greece; Women in Antiquity: New Assessments; and Women in Greek Myth, and discussed how although the three articles provided different views on Feminism in mythology, they all essentially are aiming to teach the same basic concept. In order to understand the feminist theory, we have to understand the notion that although myths are invented and that they involve fantasy, the concept of mythology does not necessarily imply that there is no truth of history in them. Some of the humans may have lived while some of the events may have taken place. Most importantly, the social customs and the way of life depicted in the myths are a valuable representation of Greek society.
For the Greeks, Homer's Odyssey was much more than just an entertaining tale of gods, monsters, and men, it served as cultural paradigm from which every important role and relationship could be defined. This book, much more so than its counter part The Iliad, gives an eclectic view of the Achean's peacetime civilization. Through Odyssey, we gain an understanding of what is proper or improper in relationships between father and son, god and mortal, servant and master, guest and host, and--importantly--man and woman. Women play a vital role in the movement of this narrative. Unlike in The Iliad, where they are chiefly prizes to be won, bereft of identity, the women of Odyssey are unique in their personality, intentions, and relationship towards men. Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each--through her vices or virtues-- helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks.
The Ancient Greeks held their religion to be a personal experience, to be practiced by the common man on a daily basis. Thus, it comes as no surprise to read in the historical works of the period that the people also relied on religion to aid them in military matters. This paper will give historical examples of the people's reliance on
In the home, Athenian women were treated like slaves with no rights. Married women were not people under the law of the Athenians any more than a slave, as they were shifted from one male’s authority to another throughout their lives, powerless to affect anything except through the intercession of another male (To Have Power or to Not Have Power: Athenian vs. Spartan Women). Also, when other males occupied their home; women we told to evacuate the male quarters. Women lived secluded in their own quarters, kept out of the lives of their husbands, working endlessly at the loom or some other repetitive chore. They competed for their husband’s affection against prostitutes, hetairai, and slaves of both genders, including those within their own household. By contrast, Spartan girls exercised publicly alongside boys(and often in the nude) (Fleck).Thus, Spartan women were rarely confined to the home. This is because of the abundance of a workforce and male children serving in the army from seven to
Originally the Romans and the Greeks worshiped a lot of gods linked to the forces of nature. To be influenced by other people, they introduce new goods. The religious freedom is a particular side of the freedom of expression, representing the free and intellectual individual will of binding and choosing or not a religion. The particular aspect consists in that religion is not limited by its transposition in faith, but gives rise to practices ensuring the free exercise of religion. One of the most extremely felt, dominant and a significant force in civilization is religion. Religious thinking inspires human action and religious groups to put in order their shared religious expressions. The ancient Greek and Roman culture had an intensely rooted spiritual background and all the citizens were intensely spiritual. The gods and goddesses who they believed in have stories about them. The stories have helped everyone to learn on how things were created and to learn about the two cultures. Religious expressions let people to liberally express his or her knowledge through re...
Mythology was very important to the men and women of ancient Greece. They worshipped the gods and goddesses, wrote poems about them, and based a great deal of art work off of them. The people of Greece looked to the gods and goddesses for help in all aspects of their lives; including health, agriculture, and war. Reading about Greek mythology can inform people about the society of Greece itself because the Greek gods were created by the people of Greece. Three main goddesses who were worshipped by the Greeks were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. These three goddesses represent three different types of women in Greek society. Sarah Pomeroy, author of Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, believed that “the goddesses are archetypal images of human females, as envisioned by males” (8). Pomeroy understands the significance in the differences between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and what those differences meant for the women of Greece who were required to follow three important rules. The first rule was for the women to live a life of domesticity and motherhood. This was very important to the men in the society. The women were the only ones able to bear children. Also, if they were forced to stay in the house, men could keep a greater control on their wives, and not have to worry about them having affairs. The second important trait was virginity until marriage. Its importance to the Greek culture lied in the fear of a woman’s power. The men of the society felt it best that a woman remained a virgin until she was married; however this same attribute was not required of a man. Their belief can be explained by this quote written by P. Walcot in the article “Greek Attitudes Towards Women: The Mythological Evidence”: “The Greeks believed women...
Greek women, as depicted as in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of man and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was by far more impressive than what men did.
The social, physical, and mental expectations of women were very high and very strict. Women were to be married young and as virgins to their much older husbands (pg. 28). They were also expected to produce children, specifically sons, and were not allowed access to the legal system in most areas of Greece (Ian and Powell, 28-34). They could not be and were not seen as individuals outside of their homes, and ancient Greek texts held a mostly misogynous view of women during that time (Ian and Powell, 28-32). Hesiod, a famous Greek poet, even goes on to say that women were sent by Zeus as punishment to mortal men and that they are the epitome of deceit and lust (Ian and Powell 29-32). Also, women were confined to sex within their marriage, while men had the choice of seeking extramarital affairs with prostitutes or slaves that they acquired (Ian and Powell, 35). Overall the lives of the women of ancient Greece were far from glamorous, and there was not much of a difference in the treatment of women concerning their social class. The well off house wife was maybe a step or two above the “lowly” prostitute, and that was most likely due to the fact that a well off woman might have been able to receive an education because of her family’s status. Whatever the circumstances were however, it appears that women had no place or value in ancient Greece other than to have children and
The worship of gods was not just a practice for the Ancient Greeks it was a passion and they took it very seriously. Huge temples were built across the Peloponnesus and beyond that honored their respective gods in the Greek religion. Parades, sacrifices, banquets, and week long celebrations were held in honor of these gods that the Greeks based nearly their entire society off of. The Greeks would offer their lives, their family’s lives, all of their possessions to please the gods.
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
The struggle for women to play an important role in history can be traced from the ancient Mesopotamians to the 1900’s. There has been a continuous battle for women to gain equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. Women have been viewed as anything from goddesses to unwanted servants throughout history, regardless of a variety of changes in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. The Epic of Gilgamesh might lead one to consider the roles of women a small and insignificant part compared to the man's role.
Women in antiquity did not have an easy lot in life. They had few, if any, rights. Surviving early records of the civilizations of antiquity from ancient Greece, Egypt, China, and Rome suggest the diversity of women’s roles differed little from region to region. There were a few exceptions, mostly concerning women of nobility and the city-state of Sparta. Excluding the rare instances mentioned most antique women were generally limited on education, mobility, and almost all possibilities interfering with domestic or childbearing responsibilities. The limited social roles of women in antiquity suggest the perceived c...
If one reads Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” and Virgil’s “Aeneid”, he gets to realize that the ancient concept of people’s interaction with Gods is totally deprived of fear in any form. In all three masterpieces, Gods are basically described as humans, with all their strengths and weaknesses, although being immortal. Humans often revere Gods, but not out of fear – they simply respect their superiority. Many historians suggest that one of the main reasons, which enabled Greek and Roman civilizations to reach extraordinary heights in the fields of culture and science, is the fact of their religious liberalism.
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.
Reason, moderation, balance, harmony: the key ingredients to a Greek society . Greeks were known for upholding strict social virtues and values. As many people can assume from mythology, the Greeks were very invested in religion, having polytheistic roots. From these roots the Greeks seemed to adapt to other religions very well and were much more open-minded than other civilizations. Despite being open-minded regarding religion, the culture was quite restricted when it came to war. From a young age, men were expected to begin preparation for the war. If a husband or son returned from war with a loss, the family would often weep in disappointment. Men’s entire purpose was to be glorious, men dominated the Ancient Greek society. Of course being brought up with these values, men loved war and loved fighting. Conflict eventually arose between the two main cities of Greece known as Athens and Sparta, during the Peloponnesian Wars. Greek writer, Aristophanes, had a very strong critique regarding the war . Through