Women in Ancient Greece

Research Paper # 99784

Anthropology > Cultural
History > Greek and Roman
Religion and Theology > Other

This paper examines the role of women in ancient Greece, with a special focus on the women's festival of Thesmophoria.

2,060 words () | 17 sources | APA | 2006 Ireland

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the limited information about women's lives in Ancient Greece comes mainly from the poems, plays and illustrations depicting women, which were written by men because few women were literate. The author points out that, while women were excluded from many religious rites outside the home, archaeological and literary evidence indicates that there were several festivals and ceremonies, which were exclusively for the women. The paper concludes that, although the women of Ancient Greece were marginalized and had no real voice in society, they most certainly did have a great influence on the men as witnesses by the belief of men that, if the men interfered with the Thesmophoria festival, the harvest would be bad. The paper includes images of ancient Greek art depicting women.

From the Paper:

"Religion in Ancient Greece was very important, although not in the way we now know religion. In Ancient Greece, religion was not presided over by theologians, priests or prophets, as most modern religions are, but rather by the artists, poets and philosophers of the time, according to Hamilton however, define is perhaps the wrong word to use, instead they "express[ed] or suggest[ed] it". The goal of religion was not to achieve a pleasant afterlife, the Greeks believed that the underworld (Hades) was a place of unhappiness, but rather to achieve "Excellence" in this life."

Sample of Sources Used:

Aristophanes. (411 B.C.E.) The Thesmophorizusae. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/thesmoph.html (University of Adelaide.)
Aristophanes & Sommerstein, A.H. (Translator) (2003) Lysistrata and Other Plays Penguin Classics
Burkert, W. (1985) Greek Religion. Havard University Press. Oxford.
Bury, J.B. & Meigs, R. (1978) A History Of Greece, To the Death Of Alexander The Great. Macmillan. Hong Kong.
Hamilton, E. (1993) The Greek Way. Norton & Co. NY.