The Mistreatment of Women in Ancient Greece Essay Example

Discussion

Thesis

This paper aims to show that women were seen as second class citizens in Ancient Greece, and were treated as such. The reason for this view and treatment is certainly cultural in nature, tied up to the various elements of culture such as religion, literature, and even politics and sports.

Women in Ancient Greek Literature

The period known as the Classical Period in Ancient Greek history lasted from about 480 to 323 B.C. This was known as the period of the rise of the classical Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, and the classical Greek literary champions such as Euripides and Aeschylus. While the status of the non-slave male was one of virtual enjoyment and the pursuits of the pleasures in life, the average Greek woman was one whose movements were limited to the home and hearth. Ancient classical Greek society looked down on women when it came to civil and social rights. In fact, Euripides wrote:

Terrible is the force of the waves of the sea; Terrible the rush of the river and the blasts of hot fire; Terrible is poverty; Terrible are a thousand other things; But none is such a terrible evil as a woman(Donaldson, 2005, 361).

However negative this may have been, Euripedes may have thought that women were rather maltreated in Ancient Greek society. In his play Medea, he wrote:

Of all creatures who live and have intelligence, we women are the most miserable. People say that we women live a life without danger inside our homes, while men fight in war, but they are wrong. I would rather serve three times in battle than give birth once
(Medea's Complaint, Medea 230-251).

This could be seen as poetic justice in its earliest form, with Euripedes first being very critical of women, then sending an acknowledgment for all to read that women were indeed being unfairly treated in their time. Medea seems to yearn to be a man and to fight a war rather than take on the role of a mother and a homemaker.

From the above, it is one can infer that the status of the woman in Greece at this point in time was something definitely unenviable. This painful treatment of women is further evidenced in the ancient laws. In Inscr. Creticae, one finds:

If a woman is divorced and later on has a child with her husband, the child is brought to the house of the husband. If he does not receive the child, the woman must raise the child at her own expense (Inscr. Creticae 4.72, cols ii 3-27, ii 45 and iv 54).

Today's feminist would certainly have been incensed by this "inhuman" treatment of women. The literary pieces of the day also demanded that it was praiseworthy when a woman kept her silence. Pericles in his classic Thucydides calls on women to stop thinking of how to be talked about whether for praise or for blame:

If it is necessary for me to mention the true virtue of wives, with respect to those of you who will now be widows, I will make all of my advice brief. Your great reputation is not to become worse than your original nature. For your glory is not to be talked about for good or evil among men (Thuc 2.45.2).

Not even the educated or the scholarly woman could thus voice out her own opinion and views of the events of the day, or make suggestions that would greatly improve the lives of the Ancient Greeks. She was considered better off if she kept her mouth shut, which perhaps may have contributed to the subsequent centuries’ view and treatment of women as well.

Not only was the woman required to refrain from talking, but in Ancient Greek literature, a woman who was not shy about voicing what she thought and felt was deemed to be an adulterous woman. In Aeschylus’ Trilogy, we are made aware of the fact that Clytemnestra’s cunning and her boldness is equated to her taking on a lover in the form of Aegisthus (McClure, 1999, 26).

Women in Ancient Greek Society and Mythology

The woman during this era was strictly confined to the home. The main goddess Hera, was the goddess of the hearth and the home, and therefore all women had to adhere to and live out this belief by being mothers and homemakers. Women spent their entire lifetimes perfecting the art of being wife and mother, and of efficiently running a household (Robinson, 1933, 82-83). Women, no matter if they were born patrician, could not take on a challenging role such as that of a lawmaker. She could not even participate nor even watch the Olympic Games (Pantziara, 2003, 28).

Even in ancient Greek mythology, the woman is a hapless and helpless person. It is said that Hera was immediately engaged by Zeus in the sexual act during their gamos and Hera was powerless to resist him. She is then portrayed in the Iliad as a cunning woman who uses her charms to continue to hold on to Zeus, as he is often attracted to other goddesses and mortals. Hera is often thus presented as a vindictive woman who would throw thunderbolts at Zeus if she had the power to do so (Blundell and Williamson, 1995, 15).

Pandora was also the woman who brought chaos to the world. The impression is therefore such that a woman does not act, but rather she "meddles", and it would do a lot of good for all those concerned if the woman does not ‘meddle’ into anything at all, but rather quietly spend her time at home with her chores and with her children (Blundell and Williamson, 1995, 14).

One other glaring concept in Greek mythology is that most of the monsters were women – Medusa, Skylla, and Echidna, just to name a few. Maybe Medusa's snaky hair and deadly glance that turns one to stone is but a metaphor (to say the least) for the ability of women to cause men so much pain and suffering? Echidna’s equally vile description in the Theogony of Hesiod is as follows:

he goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days (Theogony, 295-305).

Thus the poor ancient Greek woman was attacked from all fronts – on the traits front, as well as on the physical front! She did not only have deplorable traits and characteristics in her personality, she also was monstrous in appearance! The attachment of the concept of femininity to being a monster is one thought that may be said to be beyond time and space.

Thus, in the case of Hera, to worship such a woman was to emulate her, and thus women at that time were simply left at home and have a ‘career’ there, and be compliant to her husband at all times. This simply makes one think that the Women’s Lib movement in the 1960s and 1970s was truly a long time in coming! This movement had to work against what were thought of as norms for and about women for thousands of years already, and these norms were deeply embedded in the elements of culture such as religion and worship in this case.

Conclusion

Women were viewed as ‘lesser mortals’ in Ancient Greece. They did not enjoy the same rights as men did, such as the right to participate in politics, the right to have a formal education, or even the right to select one’s groom for a lifetime partnership. This concept was deeply embedded in Ancient Greek society, and among the reasons for this occurring were how women were presented in Ancient Greek culture – specifically in literature, mythology and religion.

Works Cited

• Blundell, Sue, and Williamson, Margaret (1995), "The Sacred and Feminine in Ancient Greece" New York: Routledge.
• Donaldson, James, (2005), "Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece", NY: Adamant Media.
• McClure, Laura, (1999), "Spoken Like a True Woman", NJ: University of Princeton Press.
• Pantziarra, Nicoletta, (2003), "From Ancient to Modern: Greek Women's Struggle for Equality", Social Education, Vol. 67, Issue 1.
• Robinson, C.E., (1933), "Everyday Life in Ancient Greece", Oxford: Clarendon Press.