Classic Greek Culture: The Role of Woman - Essay Example

IC GREEK CULTURE “THE ROLE OF WOMAN” ic Greek Culture “The Role of Woman” One of the outstanding characters of the Greek world was its highly patriarchal culture which other than few parches of territories within the larger Greece was consistent the entire Greek territory. During the Greek classical period, women had little if any political role or responsibility. It was only in Sparta where women enjoyed a semblance of equality with their male counterpart as can be manifested by the fact that they could own properties at the time in this particular area within the Greek territory. Although courtiers had the sole responsibility of entertaining men and were more freerer in attending to other things making up their public life, women almost lived to assist men in almost all their other responsibility. This is probably the reason why they were not given equal access to education as their male counterpart because the men in the patriarchal society reasoned that their responsibility required no formal education. The lack of education for women is bests depicted in Marrous’ (1956) book “A History of Education in Antiquity,” which though dedicates a large section of this tome on boy education there is no mention of girl education in the entire publication. In fact, it was only after the Macedonians conquered Athens that the status of women got a boast while the girl child started getting formal education in Athens during the Classical Period which is quiet understandable especially bearing in mind the elevated status of women in Macedonia and the inclusivity of their educational system at the time which prepared girls with skills to play a more active role both in the political and social spheres. Even the age at which the girls used to get married is a clear testimony of their place in society and the inability to pursue formal education. Reading from Xenophon’s (1996)”On the Household Management,” one can hear Ischomachus telling Socrates how he married his wife at Fifteen with just the “right” skills for a wife that she had gotten from her mother, skills that included; food preparation, knowledge of spinning, wool and sewing (Xenophon, 1996). These coupled with the ability to prepare food and raise children were arguably the most important skills that a woman was expected to have been taught by her mother before she could be considered for marriage. This is essentially the sort of education that a women was supposed to possess, in fact the better she was equipped in this area the better her chances of getting a husband. While the society expected girls to get married immediately they attained puberty men on the other hand were supposed to marry in their early thirties after they were through with formal education, something that clearly demonstrate that the patriarchal society did not expect women to go through any formal training probably because of their subsequent roles that they were supposed to play (Pomeroy, 1975). This shows that while girls were giving birth to future soldiers to protect the territory, boys of their age were being prepared in the military training and other formal educational institutions on how to build the state and protect the integrity of its border. Women were also more or less servant of their male counterpart although they indirectly influenced men’s political and social decisions in a number of ways as can be seen in the Aristophanes comedies. For example, the character Lysistrata in the comedy by a similar name was actively involved in politics (Schaps, 1979). Clytemnestra, another character in another comedy was obviously into politics when she murdered her husband. The same can be said of Penelope who killed her husband, which was another demonstration of women at the Greece Classical period involvement in politics. However, this depiction of Penelope might have been designed to deter Greek girls and women in general from becoming like harsh or even challenging the men authority and instead be loyal, submissive and faithful to their male counterpart. Despite the fact that attaining citizenship of Athens and particularly after the 6th century BC democratic reforms was deemed desirable vis-a-viz that of other neighboring territories, women had no much to celebrate those reforms because they still remained disadvantaged by denying them a right to not only own land but also hold political office just as it did to their male counterpart after attaining the age of thirty. By so doing the state excluded women from mainstream Athens thereby pushing them to the periphery of this society where their roles were reduced to just serving men at the domestic level. It is this state of affair that prompted Roger (Roger, 1989) in his book “Women in Athens Law and Life,” to state that the Democratic Athens made the male citizenship more desirable while rendering that of women as just mere objects that were destined to be subservient to their male counterpart. Women were also considered properties of men if a number of practices of the time are anything to go by. For instance, a man who for some reason could not make her wife pregnant had the option of seeking the services of another man to do it for him. It was also not possible for a woman to divorce a man in classical Greece. In fact women role was mostly confined to bearing and raising children although they also actively participated in religious rituals (Marrou, 1956). They also actively participated in several religious ceremonies like the oikoi, polis, gene and even Thesmophoria whose female participation was however confined to the female spouses of Athens citizens (Marrou, 1956). There is no doubt that there are women who wished that they could have a say in their sons’, husbands’ and brothers’ decision to join the army in any military endeavor. However, it is foolhardy to assume that women never exercised “soft power” to shape politics and decisions being made touching on important issues (Verena, 1972). This is because for them to reach into an agreement on siring babies for their men, then it was incumbent upon men to reciprocate by for instance, allowing them to have their way in a number of issues. Therefore, though the legal system placed women in a lower status than men, they perfected a mechanism of making their voices to be heard, a mechanism that was not supported by the legal system of the day. Women mostly exercised their authority in the family which was, and still is, the basic element of government. Unlike today, women could exercise more power in the family because of the extended nature of the family at the time. At the apex of the family then, as is the case now, was the elder man of the family. The wife on the other hand would be an older woman with myriads of children and possibly grand children behind her. She could also have had a pool of daughters and maidservants as a command infrastructure if it was an abomination for her to give order to men including her own sons and grandsons. The elder man would possibly have the ultimate authority but still the wife would still wield significant authority over a number of areas and particularly the household that nobody could question. It is within the household where the wife could exercise immense power over the sons and maidservant without the males seeking any legal recourse which gave men an advantage over women as far as power was concerned (Leflowitz, & Fant, 1992). There were also myriads other industries that had to be pursued by both genders, chief among them perhaps being the vineyard. In this regards, the sons and all the male servants worked outside the house while the entire womenfolk in the house performed various household chores that ensured the success of the mainstream work. First, women slaves were expected to assist in kitchen chores like grinding grains, fetching and carrying water, house drudgery, doing any shopping needed at the agora for the family and also disposing waste to name but a few (Verena, 1972). Wives of the family son together with the daughters were allocated more crucial tasks like cooking while their mother was tasked with supervising the rest of the womenfolk as they go about their work. In a nutshell, just like majority of societies at the time, women had little say in political, financial and personal lives in Classical Greece. Even the marriage union was designed by the patriarchal society in such a way that women who harbored a burning desire to leave an abusive marriage had no alternative but to stay in it. Otherwise, the option of divorce had to be endorsed by her family which was unlike to sanction such a separation because of the dignity of the family. Another bottleneck that stood in their way of making such a crucial decision had to do with the fact that they would have been expected to leave the kids with their father upon divorcing. Therefore a perfect woman was supposed to take care of her husband, household and children. In fact, these are the three areas where a woman life oscillated from, which was totally different from his male counterpart. This probably was the reason why women folk at the time were even allocated separate living quarters which went by the name gynaeconitis, a section which was normally located in the upper section of the main house away from the men’s glare. There is however enough evidence to suggest that women despite their seclusion from the mainstream Greek society attended the various outdoor activities that characterized the Greek society such as plays and the various religious festival and ritual. Evidence of this can be found in Thucydides statement to the effect that women were in attendance on that material day when Pericles made the speech in 431 BC that still electrify the people up to date (Leflowitz, & Fant, 1992). Other outdoor ceremonies where women played a prominent role were the weddings and funerals ceremonies which is not surprising especially bearing in mind that they were the one who took care of the bodies. References: Leflowitz, R., M., & Fant, B., M. (1992). Women’s Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Marrou, H., I. (1956). A History of Education in Antiquity. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Pomeroy, B., S. (1975). Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves. New York: Schocken Books. Roger, J. (1989). Women in Athenian Law and Life. London: Routledge. Schaps, M., D. (1979). Economic Rights of Women in Ancient Greece. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press. Verena, Z. (1972). Women in Greece and Rome. New York: Abner Schram. Xenophon, (1996). Classic and Medieval Literature Criticism. New York: Cengage Read More