The surviving descriptions and accounts of Aspasia are part of a much larger tradition of male commentary on Greek women. Much of this work is laced with distrust and outright hostility. Male writers made unflattering comparisons between women and animals, described women as a danger to the health and well-being of men, and considered women to be mere outlets for male sexual desire. While not all commentary was negative, even positive descriptions usually assumed a gender hierarchy. Xenophon’s account of an ideal marriage began with the narrator’s description of his wife as “not yet fifteen when she married me, and during her whole previous life trained to hear and see as little as possible.” The girl’s youth and ignorance, typical of Athenian brides, provided the much older narrator with an opportunity to shape her as he wished. While the new husband chose to educate his wife, it was his choices, desires, and goals that determined her opportunities and experiences. As you explore this collection of classical Greek descriptions of women, ask yourself what assumptions the authors make about the relationship between men and women. What do these assumptions tell you about the nature of the gender division in Greek society?

Hesiod, Theogony, ca. 700 B.C.E.

Pernicious is the race; the woman tribe

Dwells upon earth, a mighty bane to men;

No mates for wasting want but luxury;

And as within the close-roofed hive, the drones,

Helpers of sloth, are pampered by the bees;

These all the day, till sinks the ruddy sun,

Haste on the wing, “their murmuring labors ply,”

And still cement the white and waxen comb;

Those lurk within the covered hive, and reap

With glutted maw the fruits of others’ toil;

Such evil did the Thunderer send to man

In woman’s form, and so he gave the sex,

Ill helpmates of intolerable toils.

Yet more of ill instead of good he gave:

The man who shunning wedlock thinks to shun

The vexing cares that haunt the woman-state,

And lonely waxes old, shall feel the want

Of one to foster his declining years;

Though not his life be needy, yet his death

Shall scatter his possessions to strange heirs,

And aliens from his blood. Or if his lot

Be marriage and his spouse of modest fame

Congenial to his heart, e’en then shall ill

Forever struggle with the partial good,

And cling to his condition. But the man

Who gains the woman of injurious kind

Lives bearing in his secret soul and heart

Inevitable sorrow: ills so deep

As all the balms of medicine cannot cure.

Take to your house a woman for your bride

When in the ripeness of your manhood’s pride;

Thrice ten your sum of years, the nuptial prime;

Nor fall far short nor far exceed the time.

Four years the ripening virgin shall consume,

And wed the fifth of her expanding bloom.

A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste;

Chief be some neighboring maid by you embraced;

Look circumspect and long; lest you be found

The merry mock of all the dwellers round.

No better lot has Providence assigned

Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind;

Nor can a worse befall than when your fate

Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate.

She with no torch of mere material flame

Shall burn to tinder your care-wasted frame;

Shall send a fire your vigorous bones within

And age unripe in bloom of years begin.

Semonides of Amorgos, “The Types of Women,” ca. 550 B.C.E.

God made the mind of woman in the beginning of different qualities; for one he fashioned like a bristly hog, in whose house everything tumbles about in disorder, bespattered with mud, and rolls upon the ground; she, dirty, with unwashed clothes, sits and grows fat on a dungheap. The woman like mud is ignorant of everything, both good and bad; her only accomplishment is eating: cold though the winters be, she is too stupid to draw near the fire. The woman made like the sea has two minds; when she laughs and is glad, the stranger seeing her at home will give her praise—there is nothing better than this on the earth, no, nor fairer; but another day she is unbearable, not to be looked at or approached, for she is raging mad. To friend and foe she is alike implacable and odious. Thus, as the sea is often calm and innocent, a great delight to sailors in summertime, and oftentimes again is frantic, tearing along with roaring billows, so is this woman in her temper.

The woman who resembles a mare is delicate and long-haired, unfit for drudgery or toil; she would not touch the mill, or lift the sieve, or clean the house out! She bathes twice or thrice a day, and anoints herself with myrrh; then she wears her hair combed out long and wavy, dressed with flowers. It follows that this woman is a rare sight to one’s guests; but to her husband she is a curse, unless he be a tyrant who prides himself on such expensive luxuries. The ape-like wife has Zeus given as the greatest evil to men. Her face is most hateful. Such a woman goes through the city a laughing-stock to all the men. Short of neck, with narrow hips, withered of limb, she moves about with difficulty. O! wretched man, who weds such a woman! She knows every cunning art, just like an ape, nor is ridicule a concern to her. To no one would she do a kindness, but every day she schemes to this end—how she may work someone the greatest injury.

The man who gets the woman like a bee is lucky; to her alone belongs no censure; one’s household goods thrive and increase under her management; loving, with a loving spouse, she grows old, the mother of a fair and famous race. She is preeminent among all women, and a heavenly grace attends her. She cares not to sit among the women when they indulge in lascivious chatter. Such wives are the best and wisest mates Zeus grants to men. Zeus made this supreme evil—woman: even though she seem to be a blessing, when a man has wedded one she becomes a plague.

Phocylides of Miletus, Satire on Women, ca. 550 B.C.E.

The tribe of women is of these four kinds—that of a dog, that of a bee, that of a burly sow, and that of a long-maned mare. This last is manageable, quick, fond of gadding about, fine of figure; the sow kind is neither good nor bad; that of the dog is difficult and snarling; but the bee-like woman is a good housekeeper, and knows how to work. This desirable marriage, pray to obtain, dear friend.

Hipponax, On Women, ca. 580 B.C.E.

Two happy days a woman brings a man: the first, when he marries her; the second, when he bears her to the grave.

Theognis, On Marriage, ca. 550 B.C.E.

Rams and asses, Cyrnus, and horses, we choose of good breed, and wish them to have good pedigrees; but a noble man does not hesitate to wed a baseborn girl if she bring him much money; nor does a noble woman refuse to be the wife of a base but wealthy man, but she chooses the rich instead of the noble. For they honor money; and the noble weds the baseborn, and the base the highborn; wealth has mixed the race. So, do not wonder, Polypaides, that the race of the citizens deteriorates, for the bad is mixed with the good.

Anonymous, The Good Woman, ca. 400 B.C.E.

Good Women must abide within the house; those whom we meet abroad are nothing worth.

Thucydides, Pericles’s Dictum on Women, ca. 400 B.C.E.

The best wife is the one of whom the least is said, either of good or evil.

Demosthenes, On Wives and Hetaerae, ca. 350 B.C.E.

We take a hetaera for our pleasure a concubine for daily attention to our physical wants, a wife to give us legitimate children and a respected house.

Philemon, Hetaerae, ca. 350 B.C.E.

But you did well for every man, O Solon:

For they do say you were the first to see

The justice of a public-spirited measure,

The savior of the State (and it is fit

For me to utter this avowal, Solon);

You, seeing that the State was full of men,

Young, and possessed of all the natural appetites,

And wandering in their lusts where they’d no business,

Bought women and in certain spots did place them,

Common to be and ready for all comers.

They naked stood: look well at them, my youth—

Do not deceive yourself; aren’t you well off?

You’re ready, so are they: the door is open—

The price an obol: enter straight—there’s

No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery;

But do just what you like, how you like.

You’re off: wish her good-bye;

She’s no more claim on you.

Euripides, The True-Hearted Wife, ca. 420 B.C.E.

Beauty wins not love for woman

From the yokemate of her life:

Many a one by goodness wins it;

For to each true-hearted wife,

Knit in love unto her husband,

Is Discretion’s secret told.

These her gifts are:

Though her lord be all uncomely to behold,

To her heart and eyes shall he be comely,

So her wit be sound;

(’Tis not eyes that judge the man;

Within is true discernment found):

Whenso’er he speaks, or holds his peace,

Shall she his sense commend,

Prompt with sweet suggestion when with speech

He fain would please a friend:

Glad she is, if aught untoward hap,

To show she feels his care:

Joy and sorrow of the husband aye

The loyal wife will share:

Yes, if you are sick,

In spirit will your wife be sick with you,

Bear the half of all your burdens—

Naught unsweet accounts she:

For with those we love

Our duty bids us taste the cup of bliss

Not alone, the cup of sorrow also—

What is love but this?

Aristophanes, Chorus of the Women, ca. 420 B.C.E.

Come now, if we are an evil, why do you marry us, if indeed we are really an evil, and forbid any of us either to go out, or to be caught peeping out, but wish to guard the evil thing with so great diligence? And if the wife should go out anywhere, and you then discover her to be out of doors, you rage with madness, who ought to offer libations and rejoice, if indeed you really find the evil thing to be gone away from the house and do not find it at home. And if we sleep in other peoples’ houses, when we play and when we are tired, everyone searches for this evil thing, going round about the beds. And if we peep out of a window, everyone seeks to get a sight of the evil thing. And if we retire again, being ashamed, so much the more does everyone desire to see the evil thing peep out again. So manifestly are we much better than you.

Menander, Women, ca. 325 B.C.E.

Manner, not money, makes a woman’s charm.

When you fair woman see, marvel not; great beauty’s oft to countless faults allied.

Where women are, there every ill is found.

Marriage, if truth be told (of this be sure), An evil is—but one we must endure.

A good woman is the rudder of her household.

A sympathetic wife is man’s chiefest treasure.

How burdensome a wife extravagant;

Not as he would may he who’s ta’en her live.

Yet this of good she has: she bears him children;

She watches o’er his couch, if he be sick,

With tender care; she’s ever by his side

When fortune frowns; and should he chance to die,

The last sad rites with honor due she pays.

Source: Mitchell Carroll, Greek Women (Philadelphia: Rittenhouse Press, 1908), pp. 96–97, 100–103, 170–171, 210–211, 250, 256–257, 259, 260.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER