Monday, October 3, 2011
A. variation by era: Homer's Odyssey vs. classical Athens
B. variation by location: e.g., Sparta, Lesbos, Athens
C. by class and economic status: wealthy vs. poor; "citizen" (astai), free non-citizen, slave
A. most authors and artists are male, speaking to a male audience
B. mythical representations are deliberately distanced from current reality, so that goddesses, queens, princesses are not a direct reflection of position and power of actual women
C. some representations may emphasize the normative, the wished-for condition, suppressing or ignoring contradictory elements in the real social system
A. aristocratic society on Lesbos ca. 600 B.C.E.; intermarriage with other Greek cities and with Lydians (or Greeks residing in Lydia)
B. song, cult, and banquet
C. "education" of young women before marriage: compare homoerotic sentiments in Spartan girls' choruses, relations between adolescents/young men
D. Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite (#1 in reader): traditional form with personal and ironic twist; note Aphrodite again in #2
E. (#3-5, 8 in reader) separation and longing
F. (#5 in reader) alternative to male/warrior values
G. (#6 in reader) marriage-song
H. (#7 in reader) youth and age, the mortal condition
A. first woman/Pandora in Hesiod
B. blame of Helen and Clytemnestra
1. Helen by herself in Iliad, Clytemnestra by many in Odyssey
2. Alcaeus fr. 1 (reader p. 58)
3. tragedy
C. Semonides' poem on types of women
D. Tragedy: Aeschylus, Oresteia, Euripides, Hippolytus
E. Comedy: various jokes and scenes in Aristophanes
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
A. exchange of women analogous to other forms of gift-exchange; a transaction between males, not a ceremony of mutual consent and promises between bride and groom
B. Homeric "bride-price": gifts offered by suitors, establishing or solidifying xenia between males and their families
C. also gifts accompanying bride in Homer: part of reciprocity of exchange system, but also guarantees bride's status, contributes to new household's wealth, perhaps some security for bride
D. classical dowry system in Athens
1. money/property promised along with bride, intended for her maintenance and for wealth of eventual children
2. this is the daughter's form of inheritance, since only sons legally inherit; strong social pressure to provide dowry, duty falls to sons who inherit if their sisters are not yet married
3. dowry distinguishes respectable marriage from concubinage
4. dowry cannot be disposed of by husband, will owe that amount in the event of divorce or death of wife without children, or owe it to children; thus bride's family may have some leverage over husband's behavior
E. purpose of marriage is procreation
1. formula of father of bride is "I betroth [my daughter] to you for the purpose of the sowing of legitimate children"
2. Demosthenes 59.122, "this is what marriage is, when a man begets children and introduces his sons to his phratry and deme and gives his daughters in marriage to other men as being his own offspring: for we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure, and we have concubines for the daily care of our bodies, but we have wives in order to beget children legitimately and have a trustworthy guardian of our household."
3. telos for a girl is marriage and childbirth, corresponding structurally to boy's becoming a citizen-soldier
F. Athenian citizenship law and marriage:
1. from about 451, a law that mother of citizen must be daughter of a citizen
2. anxieties about status: Against Neaira speech
G. age of marriage: for males best age believed to be 30; practice for girls seems to have been shortly after menarche, 14-15 years old (Xenophon); Greeks thought best years for childbearing were 18-25, but control of sexuality led to earlier marriage for women
A. an Athenian woman always has a male kurios (legal authority) who must act for her in all public matters
B. Athenian woman cannot inherit, but may be epiklêros = "upon the estate": no male heirs, then eldest daughter must act as vehicle of estate to the next generation, must marry closely within family (uncle, cousin), following divorces if necessary; legal adjudication in cases of dispute as to which male will marry her
Friday, October 7, 2011
A. indoor/outdoor dichotomy, at least for respectable women (Xenophon)
B. restrictions on exposure to non-relative males in the house: women's quarters and men's quarters?
C. division of labor by gender: women do food preparation, storage, childcare (daughters until marriage, sons until 6-7 years old), spinning and weaving, supervision of household slaves (mostly female) [Xenophon]
D. exceptions: religious festivals, funerals, woman-to-woman visits, fetching water if no interior well and no slaves; fewer restrictions on women past menopause
E. seclusion not enforceable for poorest families and for many non-citizen women: selling in marketplace, food production (such as bread-sellers), hired help; courtesans, prostitutes, and entertainers
A. marriage, children, and mutual trust
B. wife within house, husband outside and often out of town (farming in country)
C. domestic architecture: upstairs and downstairs
D. supplication, by slave and by adulterer
E. choice of personal negotiation vs. following legal remedies
F. argument from maintaining force of law, not giving example of impunity (cf. argument of Furies in Aesch. Eumenides)
G. arguments from probability in answer to prosecution’s theories of his motives
A. brothers’ responsibility to sisters for dowries
B. dowry as evidence of valid marriage rather than concubinage
C. marriage of young girl to much older man
D. making a living through military service
E. divorce by mutual consent, to allow remarriage of young woman
F. role of phratry and ritual groups in attesting kinship
G. argument from what opponent would presumably have done in same situation (25)
H. family squabble over property: arbitration rather than court case (30)
I. family rituals (36)
J. defense of litigiousness (41-43)