The Weird and The Wacky Meet |
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Where YouBetIAm comes to write…. |
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Women in the Greek and Roman Perspective |
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Greek and Roman women lived in a world where strict gender roles were prescribed, where each person was judged in terms of compliance with gender-specific standards of conduct. Generally, men were placed above women in terms of autonomy, control and overall freedom. Whereas men lived in the world at large, active in public life and free to come and go as they willed, women's lives were sheltered. They were centered around, and in the case of the Greeks, largely confined to, the house they lived in. Women were assigned the role of homemaker, where they were expected to be good wives and mothers, but not much of anything else. Moreover, a woman rarely achieved independence, being under the dominion of her father until he turned her over to her husband. Enforced gender roles extended to unequal treatment under the law. As the Livy text shows, Roman women were not allowed to vote or hold public office, and were strongly discouraged from playing any significant role outside the home. Lucius Valerius admitted, in a patronizing appeal for removing the Oppian law, that women, “[…] cannot partake of magistracies, priesthoods, triumphs, badges of office, gifts, or spoils of war.” More frankly, he adds that, “never, while her men are well, is a woman's slavery cast off”, alluding to the primary role of women as conduits for the movement of property, not holders of it. Finally, he points out that, in the end, the husband or father still controls what the woman wears. In Memorable Deeds and Sayings, Valerius Maximus writes approvingly of woman’s lack of rights in early Rome. He considers the case of the man who murdered his wife for drinking, and of divorces due to a woman showing her hair in public, apparently gossiping, and attending games without telling without telling her husband. Divorce was thus a punishment for husbands to impose upon their wives, with the mere threat existing to keep them in line. He is essentially supporting the right of a man to be a homicidal control freak, asserting that that “[…] long ago, when the misdeeds of women were thus forestalled, their minds stayed far from wrongdoing.” Of course, in placing this in the past, he admits that things were no longer quite so easy for men like him. Roman law encouraged marriage for the sake of an orderly society with plentiful offspring whose parentage was unambiguous. As Julius Paulus shows, adultery was therefore seen primarily as a crime against the father of the woman, so that he is generally permitted to kill his daughter as well as the adulterer. The husband is also somewhat wronged and has a limited right to kill the adulterer, though not his wife. However, he must divorce her or risk prosecution as a pimp. Women thus divorced forfeit “half of their dowry and the third of their goods”, and are exiled to an island. The adulterer likewise loses assets. The role of women is more clearly revealed in some of the details. For example, all of this adulterer-killing is allowed only if the couple is caught in the act while in the house of the father or husband. On the other hand, sex with a woman who is in charge of a business is not considered adultery. These wrinkles show that the laws are meant to protect men who have properly kept their women at home. Moreover, it can’t be adultery unless it makes a free man uncertain of the paternity of his woman’s children. For example, if he has sex with a slave, that’s not adultery. (Julius, Consequences) As Julius Paulus writes elsewhere, there is great concern about paternity, to the extent that a midwife who swaps babies can be put to death. The woman can gain child support even if the baby is born after a divorce, but only if she submits to physical examination by her ex-husband’s midwives. In addition, there is a complex system of laws governing whether the child of a woman has free or slave status, with the result generally leaning towards the former. It’s probably also worth nothing that “sex with a free man against his consent” – raping a man – is a capital offense, but no mention is made here of sex against a free woman’s consent. It is not clear that a wife has the right to refuse sex to her husband, and it seems unlikely. (Julius, Pregnancy) While women did not fare well under the law, they were also not generally well-regarded by male writers. It is true that in certain classic Greek tragedies, some women are portrayed as having an active, rather than secluded, role in society. Antigone, Phaedra, Electra, and Medea are examples of this, each considered to be outspoken and strong female characters. However, all of these forthright females are portrayed as scheming, crazy, meeting violent ends or all three, and are very much punished for their misdeeds and manliness. Consider the example of Euripides’ play Medea, where the title character gives a monologue that is clearly before its time. She gets to lay out many of the concerns that feminists throughout the ages have struggled with, complaining that, “What they say of us is that we have a peaceful time/Living at home, while they do they 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.” Medea speaks like an ancient feminist, clearing laying out the struggle that women have always fought in trying to be equals outside the home. However, while Euripides does correctly represent the plight of women in ancient Greece, he puts their words in the mouth of a lunatic who kills her own children in order to exact revenge. By giving these progressive ideas such a tainted mouthpiece, he only serves to endorse the traditional belief that women must stay within their role in society else be treated as outcasts. Herodotus wrote positively of the Halicarnassian ruler, Artemisia, saying that she “moved [his] special wonder” because, in addition to heading a fine army, she gave King Xerxes intelligent counsel. Typical of writers of the time, Herodotus manages to insult women in general while praising one in specific, in that all of Artemisia’s triumphs come because she has male virtues despite being only female. He even quotes her as devaluing women by saying, “[the Hellenes] are as much superior to your people in seamanship, as men to women.” If this weren’t enough, the account ends with Xerxes concluding, "My men have behaved like women, my women like men!" In this context, being called a woman is clearly intended as an insult. The Romans were not much different. Valerius Maximus asserts in Memorable Deeds and Sayings that the highest virtue a woman can possess is loyalty to her husband. He cites examples of women who forgive their husband’s adultery and even crimes against Rome, clearly standing by their men no matter what they do. This is, of course, the same Valerius Maximus who, elsewhere in that same book, praised men for killing or divorcing their wives over minor or imagined infractions. Maximus regarded women as something more easily discarded than men. He also felt that women needed harsher penalties and treatment. In short, Maximus saw women as nothing more than an extension of their husbands. Even though they were 700 years apart, the Greek writer, Semonides, and the Roman writer, Juvenal, had very similar takes on what traits women possess. Both men write of ugly, lazy, vain, stupid, and disloyal women who mistreat unsuspecting and kind males, given any opportunity. Likewise, both focus almost entirely on the flaws of women. Semonides’ poem, Women, lists different types of women, characterizing each in terms of the stereotypes associated with a particular animal. He neatly sums up his view of women by saying, “Zeus made this the greatest pain of all; Woman.” Of course, this is after casually condoning domestic violence, saying, “A man can’t stop her barking […] not […] by knocking her teeth out with a stone.” Juvenal is not much better. He recognizes that women have made some progress for their human rights, and he resents every positive step. “Poverty made Latin women chaste in the old days, hard work and a short time to sleep and hands calloused and hardened with wool-working […] kept their humble homes from being corrupted by vice.” (Juvenal). He is also very skeptical of women who are well-educated. He says, “I hate the woman […] who never breaks the rules or principles of grammar, and who quotes verses I never heard of, ancient stuff that men ought not to worry about.” This plays into the idea that women are somehow not worthy of education, because they are not worthy of the privilege of correcting a man. In the end, both Juvenal and Semonides recognize the necessity of women, but only as a means to having children, not as full human beings in their own right. Even art reflected the idea that women are good only for work inside the home. For example, a vase made in Greece around 540 B.C.E. portrays women working at a loom. (Amasis Painter) Another vase from the 4th Century B.C.E. shows a group of courtesans entertaining male guests. (Courtesans) They may be naked, but they are still hard at work for men. Eventually, portraits of women being leisurely begin to show up in Greek and Roman culture, such as the Mosaic Portrait of Roman Woman found in a tavern in Pompeii. (Mosaic) This 1st century portrait shows a fully dressed woman just posing. In contrast, Greek men are often shown pursuing activities not involving their main occupation. For example, there might be a man just sitting and thinking or a group of men voting at the polis. The male form was highly valued in Greek society, and was considered a thing of beauty, as evidenced by the many statues of naked Greek males. Fundamentally, the treatment and portrayal of women reflected broader values within Greek and Roman civilization. The nature of these is that women just weren’t seen to be as valuable as men. Both the Greeks and Romans looked at wives as an annoyance that was unavoidable. In the fourth century, the writer, Alexis, said, “We sold away our freedom of speech and our comfort and lead the life of slaves with our wives.” The idea that women were somehow less desirable to be with than men persisted into Rome society, though perhaps not as strongly as it had in Greece. In 16 B.C.E., Augustus enacted one of many laws regarding marriage which made it illegal for men to procreate without being married. He justified this, saying, “If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way without them, we must plan for our lasting preservation rather than for our temporary pleasure.” (Julius, Consequences) Clearly, the idea of having a partnership with a woman was distasteful to Greek and Roman males. So while women had value to the Greeks and Romans, they just didn’t have the same value as men. It was understood that a good mother raised good children, but women were assumed unable to contribute to society in a more meaningful way. Both Greek and Roman men feared women. Several writers refer to how bad it is for women to gossip or to talk to other women. Men generally knew that if women talked, they could share embarrassing information, compare notes, and perhaps even organize against men for better treatment. In Politics, Aristotle maintains that “the courage of a man is shown in commanding, of a woman in obeying.” Not only does this promote the Greek values of courage and manliness, but it also reflects the same justification that Greeks used for slavery. Greeks firmly believed that some people are just born with a servile nature and that’s why they were slaves. Most Greeks or Romans would ever say that all women are slaves, but they held to the concept of women being subservient to men like a good slave would be to his master. So, if the life a woman living in ancient Greece or Rome is not quite that of a slave, it is that of a second-class member of society, at best.
Works Cited
Alexis. “The Price of a Wife.” c. 4th cent. B.C.E. Dec. 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/ PrimarySourceDocs/168.htm> Amasis Painter. Lekythos: View #1 Women Working Wool On Loom. c. 550–530 B.C.E. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1931. Civilizations in the West. 5th Edition. Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary, Patricia O’Brien. Vol. 1. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational, 2003. 77.* Aristotle. “On a Good Wife.” Oikonomikos. c. 330 B.C.E. Dec. 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/170.htm> Aristotle. “Book One.” Politics. 350 B.C.E. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Knowledge Rush Book Directory. 20-21. Dec 2003 <http://www.knowledgerush.com/paginated_txt/philosophy/ aristotle-politics-89/aristotle-politics-89_s1_p1_pages.html>* Aristotle. “Book Two.” The History of Animals. 350 B.C.E. Trans. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Dec 2003 <http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.2.ii.html>* Courtesans Entertaining Guests Detail on Vase. 4th cent. B.C.E. Scala/Art Resource. New York. Civilizations in the West. 5th Edition. Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary, Patricia O’Brien. Vol. 1. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational, 2003. 52.* Euripides. Medea. c. 420 BCE. Civilizations in the West. 5th Edition. Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary, Patricia O’Brien. Vol. 1. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational, 2003. 77.* Herodotus. “Artemisia at Salamis.” The History. 480 B.C.E. Trans. George Rawlinson. Ancient History Sourcebook. Dec. 2003 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ ancient/480artemisia.html> Julius Paulus. “Pregnancy, Status and Paternity.” Opinions. c. 2nd cent. C.E. Dec. 2003 <http:// housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/175.htm> Julius Paulus. “The Consequences of Adultery” Opinions. c. 2nd cent., C.E. Dec. 2003 <http:// housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/174.htm> Mosaic Portrait of a Roman Woman. c. 1st cent. C.E. Scala/Art Resource. New York. Civilizations in the West. 5th Edition. Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary, Patricia O’Brien. Vol. 1. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational, 2003. 147.* Juvenal. “On Women in General.” c. 2nd cent., C.E. Dec. 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/176.htm> Livy. “Women Demonstrate and Obtain Repeal of the Oppian Law.” History of Rome. 195 B.C.E. Dec. 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/171.htm> Semonides of Amorgos. “Women.” c. 7th cent. B.C.E. Trans. Diane Arnson Svarlien. Dec 2003 <http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/sem_7.shtml> Valerius Maximus. “Husbands' Punishment of Wives in Early Rome.” Memorable Deeds and Sayings. c. 1st cent., C.E. Dec 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/ PrimarySourceDocs/173.htm> Valerius Maximus. “Womanly Virtue.” Memorable Deeds and Sayings. c. 1st cent., C.E. Dec 2003 <http://housatonic.net/faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/172.htm> Various. Legal Status in the Roman World. Ed. Anthony Ball. Dec. 2003 <http://housatonic.net/ faculty/ABALL/PrimarySourceDocs/177.htm> Xenophon. “On Men and Women.” Oikonomikos. c. 370 B.C.E. From: William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources, 2 Vols., (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-1913), I: 265-271. Ancient History Source Book. Dec. 2003 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/xenophon-genderroles.html> *These are sources not found at the Western Civilization I Paper Assignment website. Copyright 2004 |
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by Amanda Evans |
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Date: 12/08/03 |
