The Lives of Athenian Women

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Women in classical Athens could not have had an extremely enjoyable experience, if we rely on literary sources concerning the roles of women within the Greek polis. The so-called Athenian democracy only benefited a fraction of the entire population. At least half of this population was female, yet women seem to have had very little influence and few official civic rights. `The position of women...is a subject which has provoked much controversy.'

(Lacey: 1968, 151).

Studies concerning the lives of women in classical Athens have sparked much controversy because, despite the apparent fascination with femininity manifested in art and drama, we have no evidence voicing the opinions of the actual women themselves. This presents a paradox between an Athenian woman's everyday life and her prominence in art and literature. (Just: 1989; Gomme: 1925, Gould: 1980; Pomeroy: 1976).

The sources that we do have regarding women are invariably from the perspective of men. `Women of Athens have kept a prudent silence' (Just: 1989, 1), therefore, all our knowledge pertaining to women is relative to a male conception of society. `The study of women is furthermore complicated by the fact that we have to study them almost exclusively through statements made by men' (Humphrey: 1983). In my essay I shall discuss the possible reasons why, and the extent to which the female voice was repressed.

Our evidence concerning the roles of women within the Athenian state comes through a variety of media; historiography discussing aspects of Athenian law and customs, orators, and imaginative literature such as comic and tragic theatre. Scholars in the past have selectively manipulated these different sources in order to support their predetermined arg...

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... private. Therefore, I think that there were enough women in classical Athens capable of representing themselves, and the fact that they did not shows that on the whole, they must have been content to allow men to represent them on their behalf.

Bibliography

Gomme, A. W. (1925) 'The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C.' Classical Philology 20: 1-25

Gould, J. (1980), `Law, Custom and Myth: aspects of the social position of women in classical Athens', Journal of Hellenic Studies 100.

Humphreys, S.C. (1983), `Family, Women and Death.' London : Routledge & Paul

Just, R. (1989), `Women in Athenian Law and Life.' London : Routledge

Lacey, W.K. (1968), `The Family in Classical Greece.' London: Thames and Hudson

Pomeroy, S.B. (1976) `Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity.' New York : Schocken.

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