Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Women were here divided into two categories. The first and perhaps most common was the brothel prostitute (pornē). The second type was the higher-class prostitute (hetaira). These latter women were educated in music (especially the flute) and culture and often formed lasting relationships with married men.
Classical scholars uncover more and more complexities about the lives of women in Ancient Greece. Click and learn more about the diverse life of Greek women.
Although most women lacked political and equal rights in Ancient Greece, they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement until the Archaic age. [7] Records also exist of women in ancient Delphi, Gortyn, Thessaly, Megara and Sparta owning land, the most prestigious form of private property at the time. [8]
Women in Ancient Greece lived within a fairly limited and defined set of roles. As a general rule, women were expected to marry (there was very little provision in Greek society for unwed women), have children and maintain the home.
Women in ancient Greece, outside of Sparta, had almost no rights and no political or legal power. Even so, some women broke through the social and cultural restrictions to make their mark on history. All of the women did so at great personal risk and in defiance of the cultural norms of the time.
In Classical Greece, young girls usually grew up in the care of a nurse (25.78.26) and spent most of their time in the gynaikon, the women’s quarters of the house located on an upper floor. The gynaikon was where mothers nursed their children and engaged in spinning thread and weaving (31.11.10).
As a result, women lived in a state of constant dependence on the male figures in their lives. Because citizenship was the foundation of Athenian democracy and extended only to men, women were excluded from political and legal participation. Citizenship granted the right to vote, hold office, and participate in the Assembly, all privileges ...
Historians have traditionally considered that ancient Greek women, particularly in Classical Athens, lacked economic influence. [146] Athenian women were forbidden from entering a contract worth more than a medimnos of barley, enough to feed an average family for six days. [ 147 ]
Women in Ancient Greece had very few rights compared to men and, due to our lack of specific information on most Greek city -states, we know most about women and their lives in Athens and Sparta, the two city-states best-chronicled overall, Athens and Sparta.
While women were being named and shamed in Athens, winning Olympic victories in Sparta and cursing to their heart’s content in mainland Greece, across the Aegean sea, on the coast of Asia Minor (western Turkey), some women were in positions of actual power.