Transcript The Private Sphere

The Private Sphere
Athenian Women and Public Space
A Greek House
(Athens, Areopagus, 5th Century BCE)
Women Working
Wool
(Vase Painting
ca. 470 BCE)
Greek Opposition Tables
The Evaluation of the Female
The Female Principle through
Some Male Lenses
 Woman as Seducer/Enchantress (Circe, Calypso, Medea); cf.
William Congreve (1670-1729), The Mourning Bride, Act 3, scene 8:
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned/Nor hell a fury like a
woman scorned”
 The Female Principle: Wet, Unbounded, Emotional
 Aristotle, Politics, 1.13: “In the soul the difference between ruler and
ruled is that between the rational and the non-rational.... For rule of
free over slave, male over female, man over boy, are all natural, but
they are also different. Thus the deliberative faculty in the soul is
not present at all in the slave; in a female it is inoperative, in a child
undeveloped”
 Male/Public/Civic: Female/Private/Domestic
Glimpses of the Athenian Woman
and Private and Public Space
Athenian Women:
Public and Private
 Pericles’ Funeral Oration: Advice to Bereaved Women:
“Perhaps I should say a word or two on the duties of the
women to those among you who are now widowed. I can
say all I have to say in a short word of advice. Your great
glory is not to be inferior to what God has made you, and
the greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about
by men, whether they are praising you or criticizing you”
(Thuc. 2.46)
 The Gynaikonitis (see Lysias I) and the Oikos
 The Public Appearances of the Athenian Woman
 Symposia and Hetairai
Woman Grinding
Grain in Handmill
Fifth Century BCE
Terracotta, Athens
Women Working in Bakery
(Boeotian Terracotta Model)
Public Appearances of
Athenian Women
 Funerals
 Public Festivals (Thesmophoria)
 Certain Religious Offices and Ritual Roles
 Attendance at the Theater (?)
Domestic Scene
(Vase Painting ca. 450 BCE)
Symposia and Hetairai
[Demosthenes] 59.122: “We have
prostitutes [hetairai] for the sake of
pleasure, concubines for daily care of
the body, and wives for the purpose of
begetting legitimate children and
having a reliable guardian of the
contents of the house”
Theater of the Absurd?
Aristophanes’ Congresswomen
(Ecclesiazusae), 392 BCE
 Agyrrhios and Payment for Attendance at
Assembly (early 4th century BCE)
 Images of Women in Congresswomen
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Practitioners of Deception
Advocates of Communal Property
Susceptibility to Drunkenness
Unrestrained Sexual Urges
Women Gossiping
Late Classical
Terracotta
Women’s Sexuality in
Congresswomen
 Free Love Proposal Becomes Law
 Denouement:
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Horny Crone vs. Horny Harridan
Absence of Proportion and Propriety
Body over Mind (food, sex)
Revealing Excerpts
Congresswomen, lines 167-168
“It’s Epigonos’ fault. I saw him
sitting out there and I thought I was
talking to women”
Congresswomen, lines 223-228
“Just like Mother. Nag their
husbands till their dead. Hide their
lovers under the bed. Just like
Mother. Pad the grocery bill with
snacks. Take a drink or three to
relax. Prefer their pleasure on their
backs, happy nymphomaniacs”
Congresswomen, lines 385-387
“They all had that pasty complexion
that comes from indoor labor.
Congress appeared to be packed with
anemia victims”