WOMEN AND DOMESTIC LIFE

WOMEN AND DOMESTIC LIFE

For the respectable women, the home was the center of private life and the focus of daily activity. To run the household was her foremost responsibility, second only to her duty to bear children. Upper-class Athenian wives lived in near seclusion in the "women's quarters" of their husbands' homes. They had next to no contact with the outside world. Their responsibilities were those of motherhood, spinning, weaving, and sewing for the making of the family's clothing, the gathering of vegetables, the harvesting of fruit, preparing and serving food, the supervision of the slaves and bathing and tending to guests. Sexual and emotional intimacy between husband and wife was minimal.(Archer et al 1994)

Because ancient Greece was a slave-based society (most homes had at least one), only if the family was very poor did the women do all the chores.

Middle and lower class Athenian women led a less confined life. Their husbands had higher expectations of productivity for them because of the inability to afford idleness. This sector of women had a wider circle of friends and acquaintances.(Blundell 1995)

Women of lesser moral standing lived in a world of intense erotic relationships.

Female slaves cooked and cleaned, went to the local well to fetch water, while the male slave served mainly as a doorman or a tutor.

With time, the private lives of Greek women began to change in relation to the political and economic status of the state, urban versus rural residence and geographic location.

Women had two major duties in Greek society. The first and foremost was to bear children, preferably male, and to raise them. Because of the overwhelming desire for sons and the need for an heir, couples rarely kept more than one daughter. The practice of exposing unwanted children was common to both cultures. The discarded babies were often picked up and raised as slaves or prostitutes. Later, laws were passed which rewarded women with three or more children in hopes of discouraging the exposure of babies. (Pomeroy 1991)

Pregnancy would present a serious threat to the livelihood of slaves, hetairai, entertainers and prostitutes. They often sought the primitive alternative of abortion. Primitive because it was described in one account as a woman being asked to jump up and down until she aborted.(Katz 1998)

Although boys were formally taught in school from approximately age six, female children began their education along side the boys but were largely taught to read and write informally, in their homes and usually by their mothers or by slaves who acted as tutors. Curiously, it turned out that many women were in fact better educated than their husbands because they had more time for their studies.(Casey's Website for Ancient Athenian Women)

Higher education for Greek females did not emerge until the end of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. In the 6th century B.C. a woman by the name of Sappho established a school for girls only. Here they learned to dance, sing and were taught of a woman's duties after marriage. Enrollment was voluntary and international. After marriage, a woman would never return to the camaraderie or the circle of friends she'd known within Sappho's school.(The ancient Greek World 1996)

According to custom, women were limited to the outside world. They were allowed to visit only with their closest female neighbor. The only exceptions to this rule were weddings, funerals and state religious festivals. At these festivals women played prominent and pubic roles in the festivities.

In Xenophon's Oeconomicas, a famous writing of household matters, the duty of a wife was to manage the internal affairs of the household, while that of the man was to deal with matters outside of the home. The seclusion of women made it impossible for women to pursue a profession or even interests outside the home. In fact, in Athens, it was frowned upon to mention a "respectable" woman's name in public.(Blundell 1995)

Women from a lower class of society or old women worked outside of the home. They held jobs such as street vending, midwifery, matchmaking, or child-care. These women were considered inferior because they worked along side slaves. It was actually sometimes scandalous that a woman worked beside a man since Greek men kept women confined in their homes with the primary purpose being the avoidance of women.

Whores, slaves and poor women were not confined within the house. Like poor women everywhere and at every time, they went out to work. They sold goods in the marketplace, ran inns and cafes and worked with wool. They were vulnerable to charges of prostitution whether they practiced it or not. Many of them were in fact entertainers, courtesans and prostitutes who worked the all-male dinner party and orgy circuit. Some of these women became rich and were able to buy their freedom or establish themselves in business.(Lefkowitz, Fant 1992)

A Quote given to Medea by Sophocles:

Of all things that are living and can form a judgment we women are the most fortunate creatures. Firstly, with an excess of wealth it is required for us to buy a husband and take for our bodies a master; for not to take one is even worse. And now the question is serious whether we take a good or bad one; for there is no easy escape for a woman, nor can she say no to her marriage. She arrives among new modes of behavior and manners, and needs prophetic power, unless she has learned at home, how best to manage him who shares the bed with her. And if we work this out well and carefully, and the husband lives with us and lightly bears his yoke, then life is enviable. If not, I'd rather die. A man, when he's tired of the company in his home, goes out of the house and puts an end to his boredom and turns to a friend or companion of his own age. But we are forced to keep our eyes on one alone. What they say of us is that we have a peaceful time living at home, while they do the fighting in war. How wrong they are. I would very much rather stand three times in the front of battle than bear one child.