Week 9 (Nov 11-15) PDF

November 11, 2024 Women and Children in Classical Athens Population estimates place a proportionally large population of Athenian and non-citizen women in ancient Athens at any given time. Women: Sources We have lots of important women in ancient literature, but almost all of our sources on wome...

November 11, 2024 Women and Children in Classical Athens Population estimates place a proportionally large population of Athenian and non-citizen women in ancient Athens at any given time. Women: Sources We have lots of important women in ancient literature, but almost all of our sources on women in the ancient world are composed by men, so the lives of women is heavily filtered through a male perspective. We do, however, have a few exceptional women poets (Sappho, Corinna, Erinna, Nossis, Sulpicia (Roman)). Some Hellenistic philosophical pamphlets are attributed to women, and we also have personal letters from women. However, many ascriptions to women are problematic, as we cannot determine whether they are the work of scribes. Women in Early Greek Myth Women are very prominent in Greek myth and tend to play well defined roles: mothers, daughters, wives, and betrayers. We see a common motif of the daughters of antagonists betraying their fathers in favour of the story’s hero. This motif reflects a set of attitudes about women, particularly anxiety about women. Mock abductions: a kind of marriage ritual where the husband stages a kidnapping of his wife. This may play on a kind of societal anxiety in the same way that the betraying daughter trope in myth does. It seems to say that to leave willingly with your husband would necessarily be a betrayal to your father. Goddesses are different from mortal women. Goddesses are more autonomous and powerful than mortal women. Sometimes, they are more closely aligned with the male gods of myth. Many are also virgin goddesses and thus, closely aligned with male principles and ideals. Women in Early Greek Literature: Hesiod Hesiod’s work is similar in key ways to the works of Homer. Relevant to our discussion are two key works composed by Hesiod: The Theogeny and Works and Days. These tell the same myth twice, but in different ways. Theogony To Hesiod, Prometheus was a problem, he cheated the gods and stole from them, bringing a punishment onto mankind from the gods. In this version of the myth, mankind’s punishment was the creation of the first woman. The myth examines the nature of women generally (heavily misogynistic). Works and Days We have the same story, but this time it talks about a specific woman which was created from clay by the gods: Pandora. She was adorned with jewellery and described as deceptive in nature. The story as Hesiod tells it is somewhat impressionistic. She was created for the brother of Prometheus: Epimetheus. Pandora was given a jar,* of the kind in which large amounts of grain were stored. Is this a hint to the earth-goddess origins of the figure of Pandora, whose name translates to “all-gift?” Hesiod does not tell us that she was told not to open the jar, but that is implied because she opens it, and evils and diseases fly out over the world, but caught on the lip of the jar, unable to escape, is Hope. This myth explains the ills of the world and is usually read as clarifying that “we still have Hope.” That reading is problematic, because what is Hope doing in a jar of evils? Some suggest that the jar had a mix of good and bad. Another reading is that Hope as a good thing is a very Christian (thus much later) convention. The Greeks tend to clarify when Hope is ‘good’ but more often than not it is a bad thing, a distracting expectation (elpis) that sharpens the point of suffering and disappointment. Thus, Hope being a good thing doesn’t feel like the best reading of Hesiod. The jar has a connotation with womb-imagery. A world with men and women means a world of birth and death. In mythic thinking, men and women together mean the world as we know it. Women in Early Greek Literature: Semonides of Amorgos Wrote an Iambos on women. States “in the beginning the god made the mind of the woman differently.” What is the difference? He lists different kinds of women made from different kinds of animals, in unfavourable comparisons, such as the sow, (lazy) the monkey (shameful), the horse (trophy wife), etc. It plays with similar themes to those of the Fables of Aesop, where there is a blur between animals and people. Is Semonides influenced by these fables? Dr. Brown believes it is more likely part of the comic tradition of the time than reflecting the influence of Aesop’s fables. Thus, it was meant to deliberately mock women for humour. It does give us valuable insights into ancient attitudes to women. An interesting feature is that all the women described in the poem are described as wise, even as they are criticized. All of the criticisms are centred around failures to contribute to the husband’s oikos. The one exception is the bee-woman, who is the only mother described in the poem, a hardworking woman who contributes to the growth of the household. This is the ideal woman. There may be more going on here, as the ancient Greeks had some weird ideas about bees. They didn’t consider bees to have reproduced sexually, but thought bees spontaneously generated in places like the skulls of bulls, and therefore did not like sex of any kind, including that between humans. Thus, our bee-woman has children, but, like the bee, shuns sex and sexuality, and therefore does not carry the risk of being an adulterer.  Thus, The poem is encoded with societal ideas about women and marital duty. Think back to last week, and the discussion about anxiety around marital fidelity and a man’s concerns about the parentage of his children. November 13 Women in Classical Athens Athenian women lacked political rights, meaning they could not participate in political life, as participation in the democracy was reserved exclusively for adult citizen men. They could, however, exert their influence through men, who were able to participate in politics. We have a large amount of testimonia about Aspasia, the non-citizen wife of Pericles, attesting to her intelligence and influence, although claims that she wrote Pericles’ speeches are probably exaggerated, comic jabs at Pericles, which are then taken up as fact by later biographers. Wider sources do speak to her intelligence and influence, however. The main societal role for Athenian women was as the bearer of legitimate, citizen children. In Pericles’ funeral oration in Thucydides 2.45, Pericles turns to the women of the polis at the very end of the speech, advising the polis’ widows on their ‘great glory*.’ A woman’s great glory is somewhat paradoxical: it is to be least talked about, as opposed to a man’s glory, which is to be the subject of praise. This speech puts the ideal woman inside the house, and women in Athens must not have a public face according to Thucydides’ Pericles. *The way one is positively received by the world, and by posterity. A concept which runs through Greek literature in a fascinating way. Euripides’ Medea Euripides’ Medea problematizes the societal role of women in a fascinating way. Medea is a figure from myth and a woman who is a familiar type: a wife, daughter, and betrayer (think to Monday’s lesson). She falls in love with the Greek hero Jason, and in fleeing her home with him betrays her father and brother. She and Jason find themselves in Corinth, married with two kids, when Jason decides to divorce her and marry a local princess, exiling Medea in a land which is not her own. Medea: “Of all creatures that have breath and intelligence, we women are the most unfortunate.” Euripides asks really interesting questions here. Most Greeks didn’t talk about marriage as slavery, in spite of some striking similarities. Both slaves and brides were welcomed into the household with a ritual conducted at the hearth. One of the differences between marriage and slavery is that in the case of slavery the master bought the slave, while in the case of marriage the bride's family bought the master. There was a prevailing idea in ancient Greece that a woman entering into a marriage ought to be a kind of ‘blank slate.’ There is a strong sense where the outside world, the marketplace, the political realm are the domains of men, while women were relegated to the home. Women in Religion “Now as for religion, we women have the greatest role” (Melanippe in a play by Euripides, fr. 494) Women played a prominent part in public religious life. Most cults of female deities were served by female rather than a male priest. These priestesses were often elite women. Athens was Athena’s city! The chief religious leader of the city, in a sense, was thus a woman. Dionysus and Maenadism: A cult for women Some male gods (e.g. Dionysus) were extensively worshipped by women. Dionysus was an incredibly prominent god. We tend to think of him as the “wine god,” but this pigeon-holes his role(s), which was quite diverse. Greek religion isn’t monolithic or corporate as we tend to think of religion. Cult practices were really quite local, and often depended on the city you were in. Maenads: female followers of Dionysus. The root for our word ‘mania.’ Dionysus was, in part, a god of madness, and was capable of driving people insane. Maenadism is an exclusively female form of worship of Dionysus, but it is not the only kind of Dionysiac cult. The maenadic worship of Dionysus takes the women out of the city to the mountains to celebrate the god’s ‘orgies*’ (orgia). *Not the modern sense of the word orgy, which takes on that meaning in the Roman era, but rather referring to ecstatic acts of devotion. What do the Maenads do? They conducted their worship every two years. The Maenads retreat to the mountains, to dance to the accompaniment of the aulos and tympanon (ancient musical instruments). They experience a communion with the god, achieving a state of ecstasy (ekstasia, meaning ‘standing outside of oneself’). We have fantastical reports of sparagmos (dismemberment) and omophagia (raw eating of flesh), which are almost certainly exaggerations. Wine was almost certainly involved in these events, Dionysus being a god of wine, after all. After these celebrations the Maenads would return to their familiar world and roles. There are myths of people resisting the rites of the Maenads, which the god Dionysus punishes. We get the sense that there was a bit of uneasiness on the part of men towards the rites of the Maenads, although it was evidently a permissible rite of controlled subversion. Dionysus is an interesting god in that he is represented in multiple forms: as a baby, a youth, as a bearded man, and, in the Roman world, a big jolly old guy. There is a lot of exotic imagery involved in the worship of Dionysus, as a way of presenting the ‘other.’ As a god of wine, he features heavily in the context of the symposium, which was an event that heavily featured drinking.  November 15 Greek Slavery One can read a lot about the ancient world without ever really contending with slavery, despite the fact it was a major part of the ancient world. One reason for this is that translators of ancient texts have often softened the language around slavery, particularly by using the word ‘servant’ in instead of ‘slave.’ Unlike today’s world, people in antiquity did not have the concept of human rights. At any given time in Athens there was a large population of slaves, and Athens practiced slavery on a larger scale than any other Greek city, however, note that slavery was prominent everywhere in the Greek world. Two generalizations regarding slavery in the Greek world: At all times and places the ancient Greek world relied on some forms (or forms) of dependent labour to meet its needs. Dependent labour is work performed under compulsions other than those of kinship or communal obligations. There were always free men (not free hired labour) who engaged in productive labour, either working on their own (or leased) land, shop, etc. A slave is defined in this context as a person who is, in the eyes of the law and of public opinion and with respect to all parties, a possession, a chattel, of another person. Slaves were reduced to the status of possessions. Slavery is a ‘given’ of Greek society. One of the first steps in setting up a Greek household and a household economy is to procure slave labour. Remember, household management is the source of economics. Greek life and thought were inextricably bound up with the ideology and practice of human servitude. Owning humans who worked for you was essential for Greek society to run. Eventually there emerged the notion that it was wrong for Greeks to enslave other Greeks. Non- Greek ‘Barbarians’ on the other hand, were appropriate to be slaves (‘natural slaves’) according to the Greeks. Keep in mind, that did not mean the practice of enslaving other Greeks disappeared (wars between Greeks produces slaves). We must also remember that ‘Slavery’ is a somewhat flexible term in that there were different kinds of slaves. For the Greeks, an ‘ideal’ slave is: A socially dead chattel Ripped forcibly from organic ties of kin and community and transported to an alien environment o This is important. Humankind is a political animal, a creature of the polis, and so they wanted slaves to be away from their kin and community. Treated merely as a piece of property (or as a factor in production) Used and abused at will with impunity by the master (no rights) An inanimate beast of burden with no sense of self other than that allowed by their master  No legal or civic personality whatsoever The vocabulary of slavery dmos: An archaic term found in Homer that falls out of use. Etymologically connected to a Greek word for house doulos: The most common term for slave andrapoda: literally means ‘man-footed,’ and has the meaning of ‘man-shaped,’ defining the slave by their distinctive feature compared to tetrapoda (‘four-footed’ animal), and thus dehumanizing them and rendering them a cattle-like being. oiketes: ‘household slave.’ Reinforces the connection between the slave and household. Slave owning societies: Athens The legal status of slaves was consistent, although there was considerable gradation: Publicly owned slaves (demosioi) o Owned by the state o A few hundred in number who seemed to act as a token police force and who served as minor functionaries in the agora and courts. o Had a bit more ‘power’ and a wider range of activity than other slaves. Privately owned slaves o ‘Who lived apart’ (choris oikountes) o Slaves who were set up by their owners in businesses and worked for their owners but had some level of independence. They were sometimes hired for various purposes or specific tasks (such as harvesting). Household slaves (oiketai) o Had slave families. o Both men and women. The men might work outside in the fields, but their primary function was maintaining the household. Agricultural slaves Mine Slaves o These slaves had the worst conditions. The state owned silver mines in Laurium where slaves were used as a highly disposable labour force of resource extraction in horrible working conditions. The Athenian model of ‘chattel slavery’ became widely diffused in the Greek world, in no other city was the scale of this practice emulated. Continuous warfare among Greek city-states ensured there was always a steady supply of slaves. Not all those labelled ‘slaves’ (douloi) were chattel-slaves: debt-bondage was another form. Debt-bondage was temporary in principle, but not always in practice, and could become hereditary. It led to political unrest causing the Athenian law-giver Solon to outlaw the practice, which was called the ‘shaking off of burdens.’ Elsewhere, the practice continued as a principal form of slavery. There were also communally enslaved populations (i.e. the helots at Sparta). They enjoyed some privileges (e.g. a family life) but could be killed at any time by their masters with impunity, were enslaved as a community, and are one of a number of examples in ancient Greece. Greek Sexuality How have classicists approached this topic? For a long time, scholars just did not talk about Greek sexuality. It wasn’t unusual for Victorian scholars presenting Greek comedy to present heavily edited versions which took out all the naughty bits. It wasn’t really until the sexual revolution of the 1960s that scholars became comfortable enough to actually talk about sexuality in the ancient world. One emboldened scholar was Kenneth Dover, whose 1978 book Greek Homosexuality is somewhat epoch-making. After this, the floodgates opened, and work on the subject of sexuality increased, becoming a sub-discipline. It is important to note that our understanding of Greek sexuality has changed over time, and even to this day, our modern perspectives have filtered our understand of Greek sexuality. One scholar, J. Davidson, has argued that sexuality is actually broader than the traditional perspective: who does what and to whom? There were certain kinds of relationships that transcended binaries of relations. The best example of this is the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad. Much has been said about the relationship between these two mythic figures. Nowhere in Homer is there any presentation of a homosexual relationship between these two figures, although there is almost indisputably a presentation of a loving relationship of some kind. Basic Points One of the challenges about thinking about sexuality is that it involves processes which we would describe as biological, but those processes are thoroughly tied up in much more fluid social constructions. When thinking about the ancient world we tend to map onto it our own sensibilities, which is inherently limiting (this is known as cultural relativism). Sexuality in the Greek world reflects ideas about social roles and an expression of power and hierarchy. Erotic Fantasy: Erotic Imagery in Greek Society Greek society had a degree of erotic imagery which is quite distinct from our own. One example of this is the herm. The Herm A bearded distinguished head (a bust of the god Hermes), set atop a pillar with an erect penis carved onto it. This was not something that was hidden away in the household. These were placed in the street outside of houses, dotting the highways through the countryside. By the late 5th century herms were everywhere. The herm was ubiquitous in the city of Athens. What are they for? One answer is that they are for promoting ‘fertility.’ That sounds plausible, but the problem is that it’s not in the bedroom, or the field, but placed by the roads. Other ithyphallic gods do turn up in cornfields, where one would expect a fertility god. The herm was a kind of innovation. 6th century tyrants started an initiative to replace ‘old herms’ with these new ones. The old ones were piles of stones which travellers would add their own stone to as they passed. Scholars posit that these old herms were reminiscent of the burial mound, and that Hermes was a suitable replacement as a psychopomp (a god who guided spirits of the dead to the underworld). Some scholars posit that the behaviour we see with these herms is reminiscent of marking territory. Why did the Peisistratids insist on penises? One can trace this back to basic primate behaviour: the exposure of an erect penis is a statement of community strength and virility. The herm has sexual imagery, no question, but of a different kind of sexuality than we are typically accustomed. Sexualised imagery was treated very differently in the ancient world.