Little is known about the life of women in ancient Greece, revealed
In a Greek relief from the 5th century BC, a woman is meticulously arranging her robe, placing it in a box. This relief reveals the ancient Greeks' common view of female characters, that their lives were short and secretive.
Women are excluded from the public sphere, have no citizenship status, and have no legal or political status. Their lives are also confined to the family (oikos) and can only be wives, mothers and daughters.
Dating from 340 BC to 330 BC, this amphora is an indispensable decoration for wedding ceremonies and is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum Scala, Florence.
This Greek mirror from the 5th century BC is lavishly decorated, with two statues of Eros, the goddess of love, surrounding the handle of the mirror with a dove in hand. The dove was a symbol of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in ancient Greek culture.
Most of Bridgeman ACI is based on ancient Greek texts, with Xenophon, Plato, and Thucydides all mentioning the inferiority of men and women.
In the 4th century BC, Aristotle wrote in his Politics: "The difference between the sexes is that men are essentially superior and women are inferior, men are rulers and women are subjects." ”
This view was most prevalent in Athens, where attitudes towards women were harsh. Other city-states, such as Sparta, gave women more freedom and encouraged them to exercise and train.
Just as there are differences between places, there are also differences between social classes. Poor and enslaved women were mainly employed as laundry, weavers, vendors, wet nurses and midwives.
Some decorative ceramics depict scenes of enslaved women in the market and fetching water.
On a funeral stele in Athens in the 5th century BC, we can see a warm picture of mother and child, sharing a peaceful time. Scholars have found more complexity in the realm of religion, and the Greek pantheon is filled with powerful goddesses such as Athena, the god of wisdom and war, Artemis, the god of hunting and wilderness, among others.
Archaeologists' research shows that priestesses lived far more freely and with more respect than we used to think. The role of women in ancient Greece was not singular, but diverse and complex.
Teenage girls, brides, and married women usually go through three stages: kore (young teenage girl), nymphe (bride before the birth of the first child), and gyne (married woman).
Women's adult life usually begins in their teens, when they get married and officially leave their father's house to move to their husband's. Most brides have dowries that are not available to their husbands, and if the marriage fails, the money is returned to their fathers.
A amphora Kadmos Painter from around 425 BC, depicting a festive wedding. The bride stands surrounded by attendants, crowned with a crown, and behind her stands Eros, the goddess of love.
The scene on the other side is a chase, with men and women shuttling between them. On the day of the wedding, the waitress usually prepares the bath with a double-eared long-necked high bottle, a slender container with two handles and a narrow bottleneck, which is often seen in marriage scenes.
The bride was dressed and crowned by a lady-in-waiting at the house of the bride's father, where the wedding took place, after which the custody and protection of the bride was officially transferred from the father to the groom.
The couple will receive gifts from family and friends, and the festivities will continue into the next day. Although information is limited, the case of Aspasia of Miletus makes it difficult to determine the true situation of women in ancient Greece.
She was the mother of the Athenian statesman Pericles and her son, and was not bound by the various customs that bound the Athenian women. Known for her beauty and intelligence, she was in the same circle as some of the most important figures in Athens in the 5th century BC, including Socrates and the sculptor Phidias.
Some historians believe that she ran a popular salon where the great minds of Athens frequented, but others described it as a brothel.
None of Aspasia's own works have been preserved, and her voice has been erased from the record. This absence has led to a lot of speculation about her true identity.
The sound of the loom turning is a woman's waiting for the family. In the ancient Greek epic poem "The Odyssey", Penelope holds on to her longing for her husband Odysseus with her constantly knitting hands.
Similarly, a replica of a ceramic cup from 440 BC bears witness to the hard work of women. Archaeologists have unearthed a number of thigh guards in AKG Album, which were essential tools for women when handling wool.
These semi-cylindrical pieces of wood or ceramic were placed on one leg by the women to avoid staining their clothes when combing their wool. These beautifully decorated thigh protectors are not only practical tools, but also a symbol of feminine beauty.
Many of the protective gear is also engraved with the head of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, reflecting women's pursuit and admiration for beauty. These scenes of labor show the dedication and love of ancient women to family and work, and they use their own hands to weave a warm family and their own life.
They are the guardians of the family and a part of society. Their work is inconspicuous, but indispensable.
This artifact from the 5th century BC is a thigh protector designed for women to comb wool. It is made of ceramics, and the family scene motifs adorn it, which is full of a strong sense of life.
The terracotta figurines reveal scenes of family life in ancient Greece: mothers cook, daughters learn their craft.
In the 5th century B.C., Polygonotus or his workshop made a vessel depicting a young woman playing a lyre, accompanied by a companion listening.
The women are also responsible for the care of the children in the family, the education of girls and young boys is their responsibility, and the boys are taught by teachers when they reach a certain age.
* is part of a girl's education and usually includes playing the lyre. Women also play a key role in the family's funeral rites, anointing and dressing the body as part of the funeral procession.
There are a number of women who have been educated and have made outstanding contributions in the arts and sciences. For example, in 350 BC, Axiothea of Phlius studied philosophy under Plato (some sources say that she disguised herself as a man for the sake of study).
In the 6th century BC, Themistoclea (also known as Aristoclea), a priestess of Delphi, was herself a philosopher and is said to have been a teacher of the famous philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras.
These women enjoyed life outside the family by participating in religious worship and sacred ceremonies as priestesses. Archaeologist Joan Breton Connelly's research found that in the Greek world, "religious affairs were an arena in which Greek women assumed roles equal to or comparable to those of men.""。
Young girls can also participate in religious activities, such as arrephoroi, who are young assistants, who have a variety of ritual tasks, which include weaving a long tunic dedicated to the goddess Athena every year.
Girls between the ages of 5 and adolescence can be chosen as "bears" to take on a role in the ceremony held in Broulon (located about 40 kilometers southeast of Athens). Bloomon is the sanctuary of the goddess Artemis.
Ancient Greek women played an important role in funerals, and they were responsible for disposing of the bodies of the deceased. On this 4th-century BC piece of ceramics, we see a woman putting on a shroud to lay the young Opheltes (also known as Akmoreros) to rest.
In ancient Greek society, women who served as priestesses were of high status, and they were often granted rights and honors that were difficult for many women to obtain. In Athens, for example, the priestess was perhaps the most important religious role and was even granted tax exemptions, property rights, and other rights.
The names of the priestesses became widely known and became important information to describe the background of key events**. The historian Thucydides, in recording the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, mentions the tenure of Chriss, the priestess of Hera, the goddess of Argos, while recording the ** names of Athens and Sparta at the same time.
In addition, the Pythia was also one of the most important female figures in ancient Greece, she was the priestess of Apollo in the temple of Delphi, also known as the Oracle of Delphi, and was one of the most famous characters in ancient Greece.
People would come from all over the world to consult her because they believed that the god Apollo would speak through her mouth. In general, women in ancient Greece played an indispensable role in both religion, society, etc.
Cretan Goddess The portrait of Queen Hera on a silver coin depicts the capital of the gods from 350 BC to 220 BC. The Cretan city of Gotina is known as a paradise for women's emancipation, and its 5th century BC code gave women the right to inherit and manage property, and regarded women's labor as an indispensable force for wealth creation.
In addition to being in charge of their own assets, women can also control their children's assets based on the performance of their male guardians. The preserved legislative evidence of marriage, divorce and property ownership demonstrates the influence of social class on women's lives.
Female priests occupy an important place in sacred festivals, some festivals are even held only for women, and many festivals are associated with harvesting. At the Sowing Festival, women gather to worship Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone, and on the Dionysian Festival, women are priestesses of Bacchus and celebrate the festival with great enthusiasm.
The statue complex of the temple of Hera on the island of Samos, Geneleos, is still a hotly debated topic among scholars. Many believe that these statues from the 6th century BC depict the priestesses of the Temple of Hera.
In the process of exploring the lives of women in ancient Greece, classical scholars are revealing a more comprehensive and colorful cultural picture, which will break our previous understanding of women's experiences.