In the early times, when ancient Greece was the dominant power in military, economic, and cultural influence, the male gender was the dominating voice. Women were not allowed to vote, hold public office or work in court as juries as these positions were persevered for men. The city state of Greece that was a bit more advance in matters of public life was Athens, though the legal status of Athenian women was that of minorities. Moreover, management of the family property or money was bestowed in men. Other issues affecting women involved discussions relating to marriage, their status in the society, legal capacity, matters relating to children, slave and free women among others. There was also the issue relating to citizenship of women in Greece that will also be covered in this paper.
Henderson (2010), while explaining the Lysistrata play, brings out the clear picture of the women of Ancient Greece. Even though the play itself is about struggle of the minority in bringing about the much needed peace and tranquility between Athens and Sparta, from it, one can clearly picture the lives and position occupied by women in the society. For instance, one is able to tell that in ordinary circumstances, Greek women were subordinate to men. Their role was highly restricted to private domestic lives, and had no direct contribution to public life. It is also clear see that it was men who would decide on all matters relating to the day to day running of the Greek society as a whole.
The Spartan society tended to be somehow similar to the Athenian society, with the only exception being that Spartans allowed women to establish utmost dominance in the household than the Athenians. In Sparta, men were only allowed to settle in their homes at the age of thirty, even though they married in their twenties. Boys were trained in public affairs, and which included military training, policy making and politics. On the other hand, domestic matters was the realm of the girls, (Blundell, 1995). In general, those matters affecting the nation were not to be solved by women, but the men.
Regarding marriage, girls were married off by their fathers and did not have a right to choose the man to marry them. Basically, they had no freedom of choice in determining with whom they would wish to spend the rest of their lives. A girl’s father together with the male relatives of the groom carried out all the marriage arrangements in Athenian society. Athenian girls were married of at a young age of about fourteen years. Moreover, the Athenian culture allowed cousin-marriages and in such cases, a girl would have an opportunity to know her spouse early. However, in an instance were a girl was to be married to a non-relative, she only got to know him during marriage ceremonies, (Henderson, 2010). Sparta was no different from Athens, only that the girls got married while mature enough to take over their domestic role. The girl did not have a right to choose a spouse, and instead her male relatives did it for her (Blundell, 1995). In some way, unlike the woman, the Athenian man could reject the proposed marriage partner on the basis of being ill-mannered.
According to Lefkowitz and Fant (2016), the court document on Neaera hints on the citizenship status of Greek women. From this document, children could only be considered citizens of Athens, according to Athenian law, if only their mother was born to Athenian parents. Children born to alien mothers were considered illegitimate, hence not citizens. A citizen woman was one whose both parents were Athenian citizens. Any woman born to parents who were not Athenian citizens was considered a noncitizen. In addition, according to Athenian law, noncitizens were groups of people like resident aliens and slaves. Noncitizen women had absolutely no civic right or authority. Slaves had practically no rights of their own, and were always expected to be at the service of their master. On the other hand, residing aliens only enjoyed some rights to the extent that is allowed by the law of the polis (Henderson, 2010). To further understand the position of female slaves, the document on the murder of Eratosthenes hinted on the fact that a female slave was to do as required by her master, or she would be severely punished. At times, it is expected of them to satisfy their masters sexually as seen from Euphiletus’s wife joke, (Lefkowitz & Fant, 2016). Female slaves also acted as a source of sexual satisfaction for unmarried men. The Greek culture demanded of their women to be subservient to men, restricting them to domestic life and affairs.
The most interesting of these was the Spartan culture of wife-sharing. At one point, women were owned by the whole community, while men practiced monogamy. It is meant that those women were treated as commodities that could be exchange. They did not have any dignity of their own. Lefkowitz and Fant (2016) explained that an older man with a younger wife would choose a younger man of good character and physique for his wife. In other instances, whenever a man felt like he had had enough children with a woman, as an acceptable custom, he passed his wife to another man. Moreover, men who needed children but did not desire to marry also sought the consent of a friend to let him have children with the wife. In Sparta, sex was majorly meant for having children. Just like wives, children were communally owned due to the wife-sharing practice.
Education was also a distinguishing aspect of life in Sparta. While boys were conscripted into the military, girls joined choirs and were divided according to age-groups. Women were also required to join physical games like gymnastics. It is further noted that women underwent compulsory education in arts, (Blundell, 1995).
The Greek society in Athens was full of social stereotypes aimed at keeping women as household keepers. Women who were frequently seen in public would be shamed and seen as neglecting their duties. Such conduct had the effect of lowering the husband’s public standing, hence men tended to be stricter on their women to ensure that all the household management was in order. The definition of what was public in the life of Athenian women varied widely depending on the circumstances. In some cases, a household became a public place whenever men from outside the household visited for parties, to debate and discuss matters not related to family issues. During such instances, men would be in the company of mistresses and, therefore, the household women were expected to keep off such places in light of the fact that this was considered a public affair (Henderson, 2010).
The Gortyn culture was not any different, just that women owned their own property. Members of the Serf class could marry, but upon divorcing, the woman was allowed to leave with her property which was movable and inform of livestock. In terms of citizenship, there was no difference with the Athenian law. In the instance that a man did not have male children and died, his daughter would be married off at the age of twelve years just to have children for the purpose of inheritance of the father’s property (Lefkowitz & Fant, 2016).
References
Blundell, S. (1995). Women in ancient Greece. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Henderson, J. (2010). Three Plays by Aristophanes: Staging Women 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon (UK): Routledge.
Lefkowitz, M. & Fant, M. (2016). Women's life in Greece & Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
