Fragment 16

interesting tid bits on the ancient world from a uni student

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PSA - this is not an academic writing service, if you copy stuff and put it in your own assessments, you'll probably be done for plagiarism. Just be careful about it x

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A confusing family tree…

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Sappho. Fragment 16. trans. Rayor, D. J. (2014) Sappho: A new translation of the complete works. Cambridge University Press

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How different were the lives of Athenian and Spartan Women? part two - motherhood & education & society

In part one of this series, I discussed the differences between Spartan and Athenian women when it came to the marriage customs of their polis. I will now continue the discussion of their differences in their roles in society - more specifically, motherhood & education.

Motherhood & Education

The value of women in these two societies can be highlighted by how the individual polis educated and prepared its female citizens for motherhood.

The methods Athens used to prepare its female population differ significantly from the process Spartan women passed through. Athens' stance on the involvement of women in the production of children is explained in this extract from Aeschylus' Eumenides:

'I shall explain this- and speak quite bluntly, so note.

She who is called the mother is not her offspring's

Parent, but nurse to the newly sown embryo.

The male - who mounts- begets. The female is a stranger.

Guards a stranger's child if no god bring it harm.

I shall present you evidence that proves my point. There may be a father, and no mother.'

In this description of impregnation, the woman is but a vessel to house an embryo. The Athenian perception is that the role of the mother is passive. She is but a host for all the efforts of men.

Pomeroy explains that women are but a 'fertile field' when it comes to childbearing: a tool for men to create male heirs. (Pomeroy. 1975: 65) This is then reflected in the treatment of women in society. There is no need for physical education or literacy for a girl - in the years that boys pass through schooling, young girls are already married and having children. Women are also barred from many workplaces involving reading and writing, such as political offices.

Due to this, any education a girl is likely to receive in Athens would be domestic, with instruction from their mothers in the practice of weaving and housekeeping.

This is very unlike the girls who were raised in Sparta. While there is no significant amount of evidence recording the learning of reading or writing by Spartan girls - Herodotus recounts the tale of Gorgo, the daughter of Kleomenes I and wife of Leonidas. (Her. Histories. 7.239.4; Milender. 2017: 503) In Herodotus' work, the Spartan princess is responsible for decoding a secret message concerning Xerxes' plan to invade Hellas (Greece). This extract shows Gorgo's ability to comprehend wooden writing tables, and problem-solving at a level equal to the men in this scene, implying a degree of literacy - for at least - noble Spartan women.

The Spartan approach to motherhood stands apart from the Athenian ideas; the woman is more than just a house for the embryo. In Sparta, it is understood that a woman's well-being affects her child's well-being. When looking at Spartan law regarding women, the aim was singular - developing maidens into mothers. (Carroll. 2004. 133)

As explained by Xenophon, the Lycurgan laws demanded a similar level of physical fitness between men and women to produce 'vigorous offspring'. (Xen. Lac. 1.4; Milender. 2017: 506) For women to have time to adhere to this firm regimen, the tasks of maintaining the household would fall to enslaved people (this is not to say Athens didn't also enslave people, their women just worked more in the home). The lady of the house might still have a delegating role, but slave women would complete the many menial tasks. (Xen. Lac. 1.4)

In this instance, Sparta demonstrates care for their female citizens that Athens does not possess; as Plutarch recounts, Spartans believed that their women were the only women who mothered real men. (Plutarch. Sayings of the Spartan Women. 240.5) Because of this view, Spartan mothers were given the circumstances where they might be best able to focus on their most important role: childbearing.

Society

The attitudes perpetuated by Athens' and Sparta's view on motherhood trickled down into other aspects of these women's lives.

In Athens, the household's responsibilities kept a woman confined to her home, fulfilling the demands of her husband, infant, and home. For the wealthier woman, there would be no need to leave her home daily as she would have a collection of enslaved people to send errands on. (Pomeroy. 1975: 80)

An Athenian with little money and therefore fewer enslaved people would find a company with other women in completing small chores outside the home: fetching water, washing clothes, and borrowing utensils. (Pomeroy. 1975: 80)

Other than festivals and funerals, Athens' separation of the sexes was very apparent. The genders were kept separate in public and within the home through private architecture. Men and women inhabited different house sectors, usually with the wife and female slaves occupying the same space. (Pomeroy. 1975: 80) Pomeroy explains the best qualities admired in Athenian girls and women are 'silent, submissive, and abstinent for men's pleasures. (Pomeroy. 1975: 74) The only way an Athenian could fulfil this standard for women would be to keep herself out of public spaces and stay in the household, completing tasks set for them by their husbands or keeping in the company of other women.

However, even the gathering of women was discouraged by Athenian husbands as it was thought gossiping would lead to marital discontent. (Carroll. 2004: 171) So, Athenian women were left with little other than to attend to their children and keep the household in order.

On the other hand, as I have previously mentioned, Spartan women were deterred from extensive housework as they had a much more critical role in maintaining physical fitness and raising children. Unlike segregated Athens, some sources describe the interaction of Spartan men and women in the gymnasium.

'They leave their houses in the company of young men, thighs showing bare through their revealing garments, and in a manner, I cannot endure, they share the same running tracks and wrestling places'. (Eur. Andr. 595-601)

In this extract from Euripides' Andromache, Peleus - King of Pythia - expresses great dislike for Spartan girls being permitted to share the same running tracks and wrestling places as Spartan boys.

The only aspects of training girls and women were kept from were those which would be more beneficial to a soldier, sword fighting or spear throwing.

Another way Spartan women were able to participate in society was through economics. Land ownership in both Athens and Sparta was a privilege of being male. Inheritance passed through the male line, so land and wealth would go from father to son.

However, Sparta provides many examples of wealthy heiresses that either were provided large dowries or were patrouchos (a fatherless and brotherless woman who, by default, gets to inherit her father's property).

In Euripides' Andromache, we are given the characterisation of Hermione (daughter of Helen and Menelaus); through her we get a glimpse of a Spartan woman who has maintained control over the property she was given as a marriage settlement from her father. (Eur. Andr. 147-53, 873-2; Milender. 2017: 511) Hermione uses her inherited wealth to 'speak her mind'.

Later in Spartan history, the ownership of land by women became more commonplace as the male population declined due to military losses. (Martin. 1947: 6.13) Because of this, women with land grew in power and influence, especially in the marriage market.

When a man died, his land was not divided between his sons; it would be inherited by the eldest. So, younger brothers would seek out women with property to avoid poverty - giving landowning women great leverage when finding a husband.

Bibliography

Aeschylus. Eumenides, trans. J. Peller Hallett. [Perseus Digital Library]

Euripides. Andromache, David Kovacs, Ed. [Perseus Digital Library]

Euripides. Iphigenia in Aulis, trans. F. Melian Stawell, [G. Bell] (London, 1929)

Herodotus. The Histories, trans. Aubrey De Sélincourt, [The Penguin Group] (London, 1954)

Plutarch. Lacaenarum Apophthegmata. [Loeb Classical Library edition] (1931)

Xenophon. Constitution of the Lacedaimonians, E. C. Marchant, G. W. Bowersock, tr. Constitution of the Athenians., Ed. Perseus Digital Library.

Carroll, M. Greek Women, [University Press of the Pacifiic] (Honolulu, 2004)

Martin, T.R. An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander. [Perseus Digital Library] (1947)

Millender, E.G. ‘Spartan Woman’, in Powell, Anton. Ed. A Companion to Sparta, [John Wiley & Sons, Inc] (New Jersey, 2018)

Pomeroy, S.B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives & Slaves, [Schocken Books Inc] (USA, 1975)

Wells, O. 2021. Love, Sex, & Marriage in Ancient Greece, World History Encyclopaedia. worldhistory.org/article/1713/love-sex—marriage-in-ancient-greece/, 20 November 2021

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How different were the lives of Athenian and Spartan women? part one - marriage

When contemplating the lives of women in Athens and Sparta, we are presented with two contrasting yet similar lifestyles.

Women in antiquity rarely held as much power as their male counterparts, being hidden away and kept out of the public spheres (political and military). Existing under the patriarchal rule of their husbands was universal for both Spartan and Athenian women. However, due to the two poleis' (city-states) different cultural practices and norms, the female citizens of Athens and Sparta were given different liberties and responsibilities.

Marriage

Marriage was a universal state of being for both Athenian and Spartan women. The transition from girl to woman was facilitated by marriage, as the girl leaves her father's household and a woman enters her husband's. Marriages for upper-class families were almost always politically motivated to create allyship through familial ties.

However, the marriage traditions of each polis are quite different. Most information we have comes from literary and material accounts of marriage amongst the upper class. It, therefore, may not give us an informed recount of the marital process amongst the everyday Athenian or Spartan woman. (Wells. 2021)

Let's look at Euripides' tragedy Iphigenia in Aulis, where he describes the stages of preparation before the marriage of Iphigenia (the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra) to Achilles. The marriage in the play is a front for human sacrifice, however, Euripides still gives us descriptions of common wedding preparations. Such as musical processions and sacrifices of animals and food to the Goddesses Hera and Artemis.

For Athenians, the wedding day would focus on the bride's transfer of residence from her father's house to her husband's. Aspects of the ceremony would occur at both venues with a big feast at the father's house to her husband's and then a torch-lit procession to her husband's house in the evening. The wedding of an Athenian bride was a large family affair that was very PUBLIC for others to witness. (See a depiction of this process on this 6th century BCE lekythos https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254843)

This is unlike Spartan traditions wherein a more secretive ceremony of marriage by capture would occur. (Pomeroy. 1975: 37) The most common Spartan tradition would have the groom carry the bride off in secret; however, it is not a show of force but a 'symbolic enactment of a previous engagement'.

This difference can be attributed to the motivations of each polis. A marriage in Athens was public because they believed in devout monogamy, as this secured citizenship for future Athenians. Sparta's priority was childrearing, and so secret weddings were beneficial. A Spartan couple would spend the first 12 years of their marriage living separately, therefore for all intents and purposes, the public would not know they were married. Therefore, if the couple were not successfully producing any children, they might discreetly divorce so the bride may prove her fertility with another man (removing shame from both parties). (Pomeroy. 1975: 38)

Divorce in Athens was less likely to occur due to infertility. Husbands could divorce their wives on the grounds of adultery; however, the process would be just as much of a spectacle as their wedding, bringing shame to all involved parties. This is again due to Athenian monogamy, which is routed in the inheritance of citizenship for future children - society need to know who had fathered the child for it to be an Athenian.

In the instance of marriage, we can see a clear difference in the lives of the women in these two city-states. In Athens, the bride is a bargaining chip for her father to use as a political tool, and she is passed between houses like property. Whereas in Sparta, marriage's purpose is to deliver a stable base to raise children, so there is less significance placed on ownership and politics, leaving women with the ability to separate from their husbands discreetly in their quest to produce children.

Bibliography:

Euripides. Iphigenia in Aulis, trans. F. Melian Stawell, [G. Bell] (London, 1929)

Pomeroy, S.B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives & Slaves, [Schocken Books Inc] (USA, 1975)

Wells, O. 2021. Love, Sex, & Marriage in Ancient Greece, World History Encyclopaedia (https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1713/love-sex--marriage-in-ancient-greece/)