Example Of Contrast The Position Of Women In Ancient Crete And Greece Essay

The position of women in past societies is an issue that has long preoccupied researchers. When one is dealing with the remote past, antiquity things become more perplexed as our knowledge is fragmented and we rely mainly on works of art that have survived, or documents when these exist.
There are few things we know about Minoan Crete. Archaeologists however believe that the role of women in this culture was significantly better than that of women in Ancient Greece and indeed other cultures of the area. Women appear constantly in the art of the Minoans, engaging in social, religious and ritual circumstances. Women were most probably respected for their ability to create life and figurines like the famous Snake Goddess could be interpreted as symbols of fertility, thus stressing the importance of women in the society. Women also probably played an important role in the religious life of the Minoans, while the primary deity worshipped by the inhabitants of Crete at that time was also probably female: the Mother Goddess.
On the contrary, women in ancient Greece did not have a public role. They were expected to spend the majority of their lives in the homes of their fathers, first, and their husbands, later, not involving themselves with the outside world, which was the domain of men. Indeed, they were considered inferior and were denied any political rights or property. The ancient Greek world was one of male dominance. Men’s qualities were stressed and idealized in art and writing, while women were confined to the household, the procreation of children and the satisfaction of male desires and were not considered to possess many great qualities. On the contrary, they were often attributed negative characteristics.