The position of women in classical Greece, at first glance, seems marked by contradictions and paradoxes: powerful goddesses inhabit the Olympus of the polis, in which mortal women do not enjoy political rights. This phenomenon was a popular subject of studies by philosophers. One should mention the texts transmitted by three ancient authors: Antiphanes, Euripides, and others, also anonymous. There is an issue of the role of women in Ancient Greece, which will be presented later.
Semonides of Amorgos described types of women as early as 550 BC. He gives examples of such types as a woman, like dirt, like a sea, and others (Carroll 97). In each of the descriptions, there is an emphasis on the appearance and life position of a woman. From this paragraph, it can be seen that the activities of a woman in Ancient Greece were limited to housekeeping and children, as well as pleasing her husband. Since the wife played almost no role in public, it was not in the public interest to give her special training (Rawlinson 38). For this reason, girls did not go to school but were educated at home and were encouraged from an early age to do household chores.
The ideal young bride of the ancient Greeks is a girl who lives in such care that she sees, hears, and asks for as little as possible. Circa 400 BC, an unknown author described a good woman as one who is at home, and those who are met outside are not worth any attention (Thucydides 11). One can argue about the devotion of men to women, but this also limits them, and if a girl is free not to be at home, she becomes unworthy. Thus, a woman in ancient Greece was considered property, limited by her husband and household, and a demographic society was not formed immediately.
Works Cited
Carroll, Mitchell. Greek Women. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
Rawlinson, George, translator. The Histories of Herodotus. 5th ed., Scribe Publishing, 2018.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by Benjamin Jowett, Prometheus Books, 1998.