Women in Egypt

Women in the Hellenistic world

Women in the Hellenistic World Women’s lives were improved and expanded in the Hellenistic age more so than at any other time prior Greek history. Papyri from Egypt and Coele-Syria have led to the discovery of documents on marriage contracts, inscriptions of philanthropy, and the daily lives of the women in that period. The Hellenistic woman changed in many ways. She became more educated, more cultured, and she received domestic freedom and her new legal and occupational advancements and a whole other myriad of news liberations. The ideal of the Classical obedient Greek wife was turned upside down. She no longer had to be escorted to places outside her home and to issue legal documents. She also could now have contracts drawn up to secure her position in a marriage contracts that would cover adultery and her right to divorce. Before the Hellenistic age Greek wives were looked down upon. They were seen as a means to produce kin, take care of the domestic duties, and be subordinate to their husbands. In a speech by King Eteocles in 467 BCE to some Theban women who have thrown themselves to his feet in a desperate attempt to lift his besiegement of Thebes, he says: “I ask you, you intolerable creatures, if you think that your behavior will be helpful to the state and will bring salvation, or support the army that is besieged, if you fall on the statues of the gods who protect the state, and wail and scream – to the disgust of sensible people?” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 28) He uses the term intolerable creatures to characterize these women. He here practices the common Greco-chauvinistic idea of male dominance over female. He even goes as far as reducing them to a less than human state by using the word creatures. He goes on to say to the Thebans: “I would not choose to live with the female sex either in bad times nor during a welcome peace… The outside is a man’s concern – a woman should not consider it; she should stay inside and not cause damage. Have you heard me or not? Or am I talking to a deaf woman?” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 28) This was furthered by Euripides in the Worthlessness of Women, 428 BCE. Euripides went beyond Eteocles. He said: “I hate clever women. I don’t want a woman in my house thinking more than a woman ought to think…” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 29). Euripides here degrades women as was the custom of Greek men of that...

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...long way. Leaving marks on the arts and poetry especially. Cleopatra VII found that her beauty and cleverness could help to secure the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt for years. She even had a child with the famous Roman emperor Caesar. Showing her strength and intelligence in the political sphere as well. And the occupations of Greek women in this time were expanded. Now women could leave the house and pursue other jobs of interest. And at least earn an income on her own. Women in the Hellenistic age were allowed to enter all of the above fields. They became smarter, legally freer and economically stronger. But what was the real zeal that made these ideas reality? In a quote form Fantham it is made clear: “In the Classical period, respectable women – at least those of Athens – had been able to look forward to only two journeys: the first from their fathers house to heir husband’s, the next from their husband’s house to the grave. But in the Hellenistic period both women and men migrated to the newly conquered territories and forged new lives for themselves in the frontier outpost of Hellenism.” (Fantham, 140) A rebellion against the classic ideal of the Greek woman became inevitable.