History

The Role of Athenian Women

The primary role of women in Athenian society was as mother and wife . As a mother she was expected to bring up healthy and able children . As wife she was expected take care of the household and keep her husband satisfied , sexually and otherwise . She was not forcefully tied down at home , through to stray beyond the domestic perimeter was seen as improper , even unchaste . We will examine the play Antigone by Sophocles and the speech On the Killing of Eratosthenes ' by Lysias to see how far

they support this thesis . This essay intends to make the further point that it is rash to judge that the Athenians treated their woman as inferior to men . It is more appropriate to say that Athenians were particularly strict in the way in which they separated gender roles

There is no evidence that Athenian women craved the sort of emancipation as enjoyed by her modern counterpart . Antigone , the heroine of Sophocles ' play , is a strong willed woman who oversteps propriety and challenges a king . She is the daughter of the ousted and deceased king Oedipus , whose two sons have just died in battle against the new claimant to the throne , Creon . He then refuses to give a proper burial to Polynices , the elder brother , whose corpse lies on the battlefield being torn by dogs . This breaks the heart of Antigone , and she resolves to violate the king 's decree and bury her brother , slipping into the battlefield in the dead of night . She is caught in the act and brought before Creon . She will not repent , and so is sentenced to death . There is nothing in the play to indicate the Antigone is making a statement on behalf of womankind . Hers is a purely moral stance , and the men who advocate on her behalf , Haemon , her lover , and Tiresias , the wise old man , make this clear

We do learn in the process , however , that the expected role of Athenian women is severely delimited . Creon is very conscious of the fact that he is being disobeyed by a woman , and even then defiant in her disobedience : Surely , then / She is the man , not I , if all unscathed / Such deeds of might are hers (Aeschylus et al 257 . Creon feels a loss of manliness if Antigone 's defiance is not punished for . When Ismene , emboldened by the defiance of her sister , chooses martyrdom with her , Creon is further outraged , even perplexed . Our women henceforth must be kept / As women - suffered not to roam abroad (Ibid 261 . He is identifying the problem as having let the women out of doors , or into the domain of men . The outstanding feature of Athenian society was the complete seclusion of women from the affairs of men . Most noble households had gynaeconitis , quarters for the womenfolk and the servants where men never entered (Zinserling 23 . The virtue of a woman was measured by how little her name crossed the lips of men , either for praise...