women in ancient_greece
TRANSCRIPT
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Patriarchy in most cultures,
Greece no exception
• Women were not allowed to do anything, generally speaking, except tend to homes and raise children. No education, no career.
• Sexual relationships with boys (“pederasty”). How does this differ from pedophilia?
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Aristotle on Women
• Believed women inferior, weaker. He got this idea from his notion that sperm contained the whole human, and that the woman merely “grew” it into a baby.
• “females [are] incomplete males… [But] human communities could be successful and happy only if they included the contributions of both women and men. Aristotle argued that marriage was meant to provide mutual help and comfort but that the husband should rule.” (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0009%3Achapter%3D15%3Asection%3D14)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Aristotle on Women
• “Since it was a fundamental principle for him that, of the two factors or components in every being, ‘form’ is superior to ‘matter’, sexual reproduction was considered beneficial, because it demanded that the one who gives the ‘form’ (the male) be separate from the one who supplies the ‘matter’ (the female).” (http://www.womenpriests.org/traditio/infe_gre.asp)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Aristotle on Women
• ‘It is the best for all tame animals to be ruled by human beings. For this is how they are kept alive. In the same way, the relationship between the male and the female is by nature such that the male is higher, the female lower, that the male rules and the female is ruled.’ — Aristotle, Politics.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Aristotle on Slaves
• ‘‘That person is by nature a slave who can belong to another person and who only takes part in thinking by recognising it, but not by possessing it. Other living beings (animals) cannot recognise thinking; they just obey feelings. However, there is little difference between using slaves and using tame animals: both provide bodily help to do necessary things… That is why the poets say: ‘It is correct that Greeks rule Barbarians’; for by nature what is barbarian and what is slave are the same.” — Aristotle, Physics.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Plato on Women
• ‘‘It is only males who are created directly by the gods and are given souls. Those who live rightly return to the stars, but those who are ‘cowards or [lead unrighteous lives] may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation. This downward progress may continue through successive reincarnations unless reversed. In this situation, obviously it is only men who are complete human beings and can hope for ultimate fulfilment; the best a woman can hope for is to become a man” — Plato, Timaeus.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Plato on Women
• However, in the Republic, he allows women to have status and receive education with men. (Book V, 449a-472a). See also http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/republic/section5.rhtml
• Annas claims that of most philosophers to the present day, certainly in the western canon, only Plato and Mill come close to being feminists. See http://www.jstor.org/stable/3749607
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hetaira
• Hetaira (companions) basically mistresses and/or escorts, mostly former slaves
• They were allowed to go out by themselves, study, pay taxes on their earnings, educated, allowed at Symposia (men’s parties), etc.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Aspasia, the hetaira of Pericles, said to
be a philosopher (depicted)
• Archeanassa, hetaira of Plato
• Thaïs, a concubine of Alexander's general Ptolemy, later king of Egypt
• Lais of Hyccara (Diogenes’ hetaira)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Prostitutes (πόρναι pornai)
• Mistresses (παλλακίδες pallakides)
• Wives (γυναῖκες gynaikes)
“We have hetaira for pleasure, pallakides to care for our daily body’s needs and gynaikes to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households.” — Demosthenes, Against Neaera
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Famous Greek women philosophers.
• Some counts up to 65 of them (Wider, K., 1986)
• Almost no surviving work of any of them; mostly citations or quotes from them in men’s work
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hypatia probably the most famous (c.
AD 350 – 370; died 415), based in Alexandria (Egypt).
• Neoplatonist (taught Plato and accepted some of his doctrines)
• Did a lot of work on mathematics, cones, ellipses, astronomy. Credited with inventing some scientific instruments but evidence suggests the instruments pre-existed.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hypatia stayed single (unusual for
a woman in that time)
• “Murdered by a Christian mob after being accused of exacerbating a conflict between two prominent figures in Alexandria: the governor Orestes and the Bishop of Alexandria.” - Wikipedia
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Arignote Ἀριγνώτη
• Pythagorean (most women philosophers of the time seem to be, due to the Pythagoreans’ admitting them to the school)
• We only have this: “The eternal essence of number is the most providential cause of the whole heaven, earth and the region in between. Likewise it is the root of the continued existence of the gods and daimones, as well as that of divine men.” (in Mary Ellen Waithe, A History of Women Philosophers. Volume 1, 600 BC-500 AD, page 12. Springer)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Diotima of Mantinea Διοτίμα
• Priestess
• Mentioned by Plato
• Gave Plato his theory of love discussed in the Symposium
• Possibly a pseudonym for Aspasia
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hipparchia of Maroneia Ἱππαρχία; ca. 350-280 BC
• Cynic
• Partner of Crates (Kratis), a cynic. Married him out of love (not arranged). Threatened suicide to her parents if she were not permitted.
• Adhered to cynic lifestyle (rejection of all worldly goods, rejection of social mores anaideia, shamelessness, e.g. had sex with husband in public)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hipparchia of Maroneia Ἱππαρχία; ca. 350-280
BC
• “That which if Theodoros did, he would not be said to do wrong, neither should Hipparchia be said to do wrong if she does it. Theodoros hitting himself does not do wrong, nor does Hipparchia do wrong hitting Theodoros.” Apparently Theodoros responded by lifting her skirt, and she did not get ashamed by this.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Hipparchia of Maroneia Ἱππαρχία; ca. 350-280 BC
• Crates wrote to her: “Our philosophy is called Cynic not because we are indifferent to everything, but because we aggressively endure what others, due to being soft or general opinion find unbearable. So it is for this reason and not the former that they have called us Cynics. Stay, therefore, and continue as a Cynic - for you are not by nature worse than we [men] are, for neither are female dogs worse than male - in order that you might be freed from Nature, as all [people] either because of law or due to vices, live as slaves.” (in Wimbush, L., (1990), Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook.)
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Perictione Περικτιόνη 5th century BC
• Plato’s mother
• Wrote on women’s duties (traditionalist) and on wisdom.
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Themistoclea Θεμιστόκλεια, Aristoclea, Theoclea. 6th century BC
• Priestess at the oracle (soothsayer) at Delphi
• Pythagoras’ teacher
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE• Aisara of Lucania Αἰσάρα. 4th or 3rd century BC
• Wrote a treatise On Human Nature, of which only fragments survive
• “Human nature seems to me to provide a standard of law and justice both for the home and for the city.”
• “Being threefold, it [the soul] is organized in accordance with triple functions: that which effects judgment and thoughtfulness is [the mind], that which effects strength and ability is [high spirit], and that which effects love and kindliness is desire.”
• Further reading:
• Plato’s Symposium
• Women Philosophers in the Ancient Greek World: Donning the Mantle by: Kathleen Wider. Source: Hypatia, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 21-62. Published by: Wiley on behalf of Hypatia, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810062
• Plato's "Republic" and Feminism. Julia Annas. Philosophy. Vol. 51, No. 197 (Jul., 1976), pp. 307-321. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3749607
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE
• Thank you!
WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE