Topic Two (1.2): Athenian Women

Introduction Icon.png Introduction

Athenian women led lives that were much more circumscribed than those of the men. High-status women spent most of their time in the women's quarters of their houses running the household and only left the house for funerals or some festivals. They were not citizens and they had no rights as they were treated as minors (or like children) under the law.

Watch Icon.png Watch

  • Here, Dr Lucy Jackson talks about the life an Athenian woman as seen through Euripides’ tragic play, Medea. Medea seems to have quite a lot of agency in the play though the play is set in the heroic world but as the lecturer says, Medea has a long speech about the position of women and this seems to have more relationship to the life of an Athenian woman in the 5th century BCE.

WATCH – Euripides: Medea: Medea and Women (MASSOLIT) Links to an external site.

Read & Make Notes Icon.png Read and Make Notes

  • Go back through your Aristophanes plays, Lysistrata and Women at the Thesmophoria* finding examples of how women in Athens lived their lives.
    • What were they allowed to do?
    • Why were they so restricted, do you think?
  • While you are doing this, you will also see examples of men’s lives compared with women’s. Make a note of this too.

*If you took your AS exams in 2021, and therefore did not study Lysistrata and Women at the Thesmophoria as part of your AS course, you should have completed Module Zero before beginning Module One.

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N.B. From Lysistrata you could also note down how the lives of Spartan women differed from the lives of Athenian women, as this will be part of the next topic.

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Read Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.46 (page 151) which talks of the duties of Athenian women. This is part of Pericles’ Funeral Oration of which you will read more in the next module.

Read Icon.png Read

Here are three articles which describe the status of women in Athens in the 5th century BCE:

READ – The Women of Athens by Rosanna Omitowoju (PDF) Download READ – The Women of Athens by Rosanna Omitowoju (PDF)

READ – Aspasia: Athens’ First Lady by Richard Hawley (PDF) Download READ – Aspasia: Athens’ First Lady by Richard Hawley (PDF)

READ – Who Needs Liberating? by Averil Cameron (PDF) Download READ – Who Needs Liberating? by Averil Cameron (PDF)

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For more on Aspasia, listen to the following:

LISTEN – Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics: Aspasia (BBC) Links to an external site.

Reflect Icon.png Reflect

  • Spend some time reflecting on what you have learnt about the lives of Athenian men and women.
  • Consider the following:
    • How easy would it have been to be a high-status Athenian woman?
    • What rights did they have?
    • What were the rights and responsibilities of Athenian men (citizens)? Could you explain this to someone else?

Glossary Icon.png Terminology

Make sure you understand any new terminology covered in this topic. You may like to make flashcards of key terms now, to help you with revision later on.