2. Sources
■ Literary evidence is almost devoid of female voices and tend to focus on queens,
princesses and goddesses: a non-representative elite.
■ The few works that focus on middle- and lower-class women (plays of Menander and
Xenophon’s Oeconomicus) present passive women.
■ Little value placed on domestic archaeology.
■ Economic historians largely ignore the contributions of women and social historians
tend to focus on the economic limitations, rather than the capabilities, of women.
3. Basics:Athenian Economy
■ Ideal: autarkeia (self-sufficiency). Reality: generally
unattainable (esp. in urban areas).
■ 5th century ideal: schole (leisure) and political life
■ 4th century reality: ‘we are un-leisurely (ascholia) in order to
have leisure (schole)’ (Arist. Pol. 1134a11).
■ PeloponnesianWar (431-404BCE): severely depleted
manpower.
4. ‘Many women have become nurses
and labourers at the loom or in the
vineyards owing to the misfortune of
the city in those days. But many of
those women have risen from
poverty and are now wealthy.’
Demosthenes, 31.34
5. Women in ClassicalAthens
■ 5th and 4th centuries BCE
■ Women of different classes, citizenship status, and ages were expected
to undertake different duties. And these duties changed throughout the
Period.
■ Major questions:
– Did women play an active role in the economy?
– Did the ideals portrayed in literary sources, vase paintings and
epigraphy, reflect reality?
6. The Athenian Household
■ Ideally, women should work and live within the confines of the house.
■ Ideally, women should have no business or social interactions with men who are not
family members.
■ Reality: within the oikos women had greater freedoms and significant responsibilities:
– Management of the household
– Overseeing slaves
– Controlling the finances
– Handling the production of textiles
– Food preparation
– Care of children
■ Elite women: managerial in nature, with slaves performing most of the work.
■ Poorer women: undertook these duties themselves.
8. Under Athenian Law
■ Women were unable to buy or sell land and were restricted to
contracts worth less than a medimnos of barley.
■ This would have been enough to feed a family for 2 weeks,
thus, a woman was able to carry out daily transactions of her
family.
9. You must stay indoors and send out the slaves who
work the land, and manage those who work
inside… whenever wool is brought into the house
you must arrange that the necessary clothing is
made. And it is your duty to ensure that the dried
grain is made fit for consumption… it is also your
responsibility to care for all the members of the
household, should they fall ill.
Xen. Oec. 7.35-37
10. ‘Each member of the pair is the more useful
to the other, the one being competent
where the other is deficient.’
Xenophon, Oec. 7.23
By how much men are expert of propelling
a swift ship on the sea, by this much are
women skilled at the looms.
Homer, Od. 7.108-111
11. The traditional
demarcation of the roles
of men and women
attests neither to the
servitude nor the liberty
of women, merely that
each has their separate
responsibilities. And both
of whom contribute to
the functioning of the
community.
12. Segregated Space?
■ Privacy was coveted: Athenian houses faced inward to a courtyard and had a
staggered system of interior walls to prevent people on the main street seeing in.
■ Commonly held that strict separation existed between men an women.
– Lysias and Xenophon speak of a gynaikonitis and an andronitis.
■ Women, children and slaves in all probability would have worked wherever there was
good light, ventilation, privacy, and protection from the elements. Most likely in small
rooms adjoining the courtyard or in the courtyard itself.
■ Aristotle notes that it is impossible to keep the wives of the poor from leaving the
house (Arist. Pol. 1300a4-8): they are required to work outside to support their
households.
– Fetching water
– Buying supplies from the market
14. First, as we wash the wool in a bath to rid the
fleece of burrs, so we drive out from the city
the parasites and wretched fellows; we card
them out and pick them off…Then we gather
the wool together and make a large ball
ready for spinning. From this ball, we weave
a strong cloak for the state.
Ar. Lys. 574-586
15. Value ofTextile Production
■ Slaves were forced to engage in the monotonous and
time consuming labour by their masters
■ For women of the elite, weaving was seen as an
honourable task.
■ ‘Average’ citizen woman, weaving was simultaneously
the mark of a good wife, a religious duty, a domestic
responsibility, her traditional role, and a contribution to
the oikos.
■ Tasks such as cooking food and spinning and weaving were
well suited to, and compatible with, child rearing.
– Interruptible
– Not dangerous
16. Archaeological
Evidence
■ Drop spindles use spindle
whorls
■ Upright loom uses loom
weights
– Very common find
■ Very little cloth has survived
from the period
– Early excavations labelled
textile fragments as ‘rags’
and discarded them.
18. Midwives
■ Women preferred to be assisted during
pregnancy and labour by another woman,
usually a relative, friend or neighbour
rather than a male doctor (Eur. Hipp. 293-
4; Ar. Ec. 526-34).
■ The dying Alcestis bemoans the thought
that she will be unable to provide
encouragement to her daughter when she
gives birth (Eur. Al. 318).
■ And in AssemblyWomen the husband does
not think it out of place that his wife
tended a friend who was giving birth in the
night, but he resents that she took his
cloak to do so (Arist. Ec. 526-34).
Grave stele of the midwife Phanostrate,
Athens, National Museum 993.
‘she caused pain to no
one and all lamented
her death’
19. Trained Professionals: Midwives,
Doctors and Gynecologists
■ Performed by female metics,
freedwomen and citizens alike
■ Well-respected
■ Socrates’ mother Phainarete is one
example of a citizen midwife. She is
described by her son, according to
Plato, as a ‘good, sturdy midwife’
(Plato, Theaetetus, 149a).
■ Socrates also extols the abilities of
midwives to induce labour and
relieve pains by using chants and
various drugs, as well as aiding
women in difficult births (Pl. Tht.
149c-d).
■ Socrates explains that ‘no woman
practices midwifery while she is still
of an age to get pregnant and give
birth herself. It’s only those who are
past childbearing’ (Pl. Tht. 149b).
■ The work of a midwife and doctor
entailed leaving the house during the
day and night to attend to women
during labour.
20. Education
■ It seems likely that girls learned the
specialised skills of their mothers and
received further on the job training.
■ Although there is no specific evidence
for mothers teaching their daughters
such skills as midwifery or nursing, we
can assume that the situation was
similar to a father teaching his trade to
his son (Plato, Protagoras, 328a).
■ And similar to a child learning how to
cook from their mother(?) (right).
Terracotta figurine, Boiotian, 5th century.
21. Wet Nurses
■ Nurses were generally lower class freeborn women
or slaves (Plato, Laws, 790a).
■ Nurses are often commemorated onAttic grave
stelai.
■ They are generally not depicted caring for children
but sitting alone or with another figure.They wear a
chiton and mantle (Fig. 5.2).
■ This costume is that of a citizen woman; it indicates
that some nurses may have been citizens.
■ Demosthenes, speaking of his mother, tells how,
although she was an Athenian citizen, the family’s
poverty forced her to work as a nurse (57.45).
– He describes this as ‘both necessary and fitting’
(57.43)
Grave stele of the
nurse Pyraichme.
Athens, National
Museum 3935.
22. He has also said of my mother that she worked as a wet nurse. We
do not deny that this happened, at a time when the city was
suffering misfortune, and everyone was in a bad way; but I will
make clear to you the manner in which she worked as a nurse and
the reasons why she did so. Let none of you interpret it
unfavourably, men of Athens; for indeed, you will find that
many citizen women work as nurses, and, if you wish, I will
mention them by name. … For, as I am informed, many women
have become nurses and laborers at the loom or in the vineyards
owing to the misfortunes of the city in those days, women of civic
birth, too; and many who were poor then are now rich.
Dem. 57.35, 45
23. Small-scale Producers andVendors
■ Both men and women are commemorated as
professional merchants and manufacturers on
gravestones and dedications at sanctuaries list a
wide variety of occupations held by women.
■ Scenes of women selling their wares, such as
perfumed oil or wine, are quite common on vase
paintings.
■ Both female, maybe in the women’s market,
importantly: nothing to indicate that the vendor is
held in lower esteem than the customer
– the vendor is much bigger than the buyer and
sits while the buyer stands.
Attic red-figure pelike, Berne
12227, 470-460 BCE (drawing)
24. Products
■ Female bakers, likeAristophanes’
baker who had her kneading bowl
stolen by Philocleon (Ar. Wasps. 238).
The baker states ‘It shall not be said
that you have with impunity spoilt the
wares of Myrtia, the daughter of
Ancylion and Sostrates. … I shall
summons you before the market
inspectors for damage done to my
business. Chaerephon here shall be my
witness’ (Ar.Wasps. 1388-1414).
This statement suggests that Myrtia
is a citizen, (lists her parents/asks
another citizen to be her witness).
■ Euripides' mother was, according to
Aristophanes, the most famous
Athenian vegetable-seller (Eur. Ach.
478. See also: Ar.Wasps 497-9; Lys.
457).
■ Other foods that women sold were
– Porridge: Ar. Lys. 457, 562.
– Seed: Ar. Lys. 457; Poll. 6.37.
– Garlic: Ar. Lys. 458.
– Figs: Ar. Lys. 564, Poll. 7.198.
– Sesame: IG II2 1561.27.
– Salt: IG II2 12073.
– Honey: Ar. Poll. 7.198.
25. More Products
■ As well as exploiting their domestic
activities for profit, women also
manufactured goods at home
purely for sale elsewhere.
– ribbons and garlands
– luxury items made for events
like the symposium.
■ The widow inAristophanes’ Women
at theThesmophoria sells garlands
in the myrtle market after the
death of her husband in order to
support her family (Ar. Thesm. 446-
58).
■ A cup painted by Makron shows a
woman who is offering a garland to
a man while another man stands
behind her with a money pouch. Attic red-figure cup, London, British Museum E61, c.480 BCE.
26. Even More Products
■ There is also very interesting, but limited, evidence for women working as
– shoe-makers (IG II2 1578.5),
– cooks (Ar.Wasps 496-9),
– innkeepers (Ar. Lys. 457)
– washerwomen (IG I2 473, IG II2 2934).
27. Pornai
■ Pornai: Common prostitutes who operated both on the streets of
Athens and in brothels.
■ Female (and male) prostitution was a common trade in Classical
Athens.
■ A maximum fee for streetwalkers was set at two drachmas and was
policed by the astynomoi, a board of ten Athenians charged with the
responsibility of keeping public order (Arist. Ath. Pol. 50.2).
■ Wore transparent saffron-dyed clothing (Ath. Pol. 12.521b).
■ Metics or freedwomen became prostitutes in order to support
themselves but slaves were forced to work in the trade by their
owners.
28. Hetairai
■ Hetairai Spent their time escorting men to
symposia.
■ Earned their income through gifts and favours
offered by the men with whom they met.
■ AthenianTheodote stated that her source of
income is not a farm, or a house, or a trade but
her ‘friends’ (Xen. Mem. 3.11.4).
■ Theodote explains that ‘if someone develops
an affection for me and wishes to do me a good
turn, I by this means find my livelihood’ (Xen.
Mem. 3.11.2).
■ Socrates observed thatTheodote and her
mother were beautifully dressed and her house
was expensively furnished (Xen. Mem. 3 11. 1-
4).
“Hetairai had become
a permanent feature
of Greek society.”
- Schuller, 2008. 75.
29. Musicians and Performers
■ In Xenophon’s Symposium musicians, dancers and acrobats, who were all slaves, were
hired to perform during the evening (Xen. Sym. 2.1).
■ It is made clear that the Syracusan owner of these performers ‘made money by exhibiting
their performances as a spectacle’ and not from offering them as pornai.
■ Most professional musicians probably belonged to the lower class.
