Women in Athenian Society

Paper Summary:

This paper looks how the phallocentricity of Athenian society was a set of attitudes, legislation, and behavior, which elevated the prestige, power, and place of men, while assigning women to roles that would sustain the propagation of this way of life. In particular, it examines the differences in the prescribed roles of those women most intimate with the men, namely the wife and the hetaera, and their respective roles, which manifested themselves across a broad range of attributes and circumstances.

From the Paper:

"A child fathered on a hetaera, even by a full-fledged citizen, would not be afforded citizenship in kind, which rendered the role of a mother obsolete in her. The hetaera found her place in a much different and less domestic setting, but one which was as polarizing to the wife as child-bearing was to the hetaera. The proper place for love and sex was "excluded from the family setting," given over instead to the drinking group, which was primarily set in the symposium which was found in the men's quarters, an area to which the wife was restricted from entering (Murray, 23). It was in this setting, which was forbidden territory for Athenian women that the highest expressions of love took place."

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• Persuasive Essay # 116404 : "The Role of Athenian Women"

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