Greeks believed that women had different natures from men and that both genders were capable of excellence, but in their own ways (Excerpts 1 and 2). Marriage was supposed to bring these natures together in a partnership of complementary strengths and obligations to each other (Excerpt 3). Marriage contracts (Excerpt 4), similar to modern prenuptial agreements, became common to define the partnership’s terms. In reading these passages, consider whether you think they would have been different if they had been written by women instead of men.
1. Pericles Addresses the Athenians in the First Year of the Peloponnesian War (431–430 B.C.E.)
According to Thucydides, Pericles concluded his Funeral Oration, a solemn public occasion commemorating the valor of soldiers killed in battle and the excellences expected of citizens, with these terse remarks to the women in the audience. His comments reveal not only the assumption that women had a different nature from men but also the assumption that women best served social harmony by not becoming subjects of gossip. He kept these comments to a bare minimum in his long speech.
If it is also appropriate now for me to say something about what excellence means for women, I will signal all my thinking with this short piece of advice to those of you present who are now widows of the war dead: your reputation will be great if you don’t fall short of your innate nature and men talk about you the least whether in praise of your excellence or blaming your faults.
Source: Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2.45. Translation by Thomas R. Martin.
2. Melanippe Explains Why Men’s Criticism of Women Is Baseless (late fifth century B.C.E.)
The Athenian playwright Euripides often portrayed female characters denouncing men for misunderstanding and criticizing women. The heroine of his tragedy Melanippe the Captive is a mother who overcomes hardship and treachery to save her family. Preserved only on damaged papyrus scraps, Melanippe’s speech unfortunately breaks off before finishing.
Men’s blame and criticism of women are empty, like the twanging sound a bow string makes without an arrow. Women are superior to men, and I’ll demonstrate it. They make contracts with no need of witnesses [to swear they are honest]. They manage their households and keep safe the valuable possessions, shipped from abroad, that they have inside their homes. Without a woman, no household is elegant or happy. And then in the matter of people’s relationship with the gods—this I judge to be most important of all—there we have the greatest role. For women prophesy the will of Apollo in his oracles [at Delphi], and at the hallowed oracle of Dodona by the sacred oak tree a woman reveals the will of Zeus to all Greeks who seek it. And then there are the sacred rites of initiation performed for the Fates and the Goddesses Without Names: these can’t be done with holiness by men, but women make them flourish in every way. In this way women’s role in religion is right and proper.
Therefore, should anyone put down women? Won’t those men stop their empty fault-finding, the ones who strongly believe that all women should be blamed if a single one is found to be bad? I will make a distinction with the following argument: nothing is worse than a bad woman, but nothing is more surpassingly superior than a worthy one.
Source: Euripides, Melanippe the Captive, fragment 660 Mette. Translation by Thomas R. Martin.
3. Socrates Discusses Gender Roles in Marriage (late fifth century B.C.E.)
In this passage written by his follower and famous soldier Xenophon, Socrates discusses family life because it reveals the qualities of women as well as men. His analysis is part of his quest to discover the nature of human excellence. Socrates’s upper-class friend Ischomachus has, as was common, married a young woman (whose name is not given), and the philosopher is quizzing him about their marriage. The new husband explains that it was a partnership based on the complementary natures of male and female.
Ischomachus: I said to her: . . . I for my sake and your parents for your sake [arranged our marriage] by considering who would be the best partner for forming a household and having children. I chose you, and your parents chose me as the best they could find. If God should give us children, we will then plan how to raise them in the best possible way. For our partnership provides us this good: the best mutual support and the best maintenance in our old age. We have this sharing now in our household, because I’ve contributed all that I own to the common resources of the household, and so have you. We’re not going to count up who brought more property, because the one who turns out to be the better partner in a marriage has made the greater contribution.
Ischomachus’s wife: But how will I be able to partner you? What ability do I have? Everything rests on you. My mother told me my job was to behave with thoughtful moderation.
Ischomachus: Well, my father told me the same thing. Thoughtful moderation for a man, as for a woman, means behaving in such a way that their possessions will be in the best possible condition and will increase as much as possible by good and just means. . . . So, you must do what the gods made you naturally capable of and what our law requires. . . . With great forethought the gods have yoked together male and female so that they can form the most beneficial partnership. This yoking together keeps living creatures from disappearing by producing children, and it provides offspring to look after parents in their old age, at least for people. [He then explains that human survival requires outdoor work—to raise crops and livestock—and indoor work—to preserve food, raise infants, and manufacture clothing.] . . . And since the work both outside and inside required effort and care, God, it seems to me, from the start fashioned women’s nature for indoor work and men’s for outdoor. Therefore he made men’s bodies and spirits more able to endure cold and heat and travel and marches, giving them the outside jobs, while assigning indoor tasks to women, it seems, because their bodies are less hardy. . . .
But since both men and women have to manage things, [God] gave them equal shares in memory and attentiveness; you can’t tell which gender has more of these qualities. And God gave both an equal ability to practice self-control, with the power to benefit the most from this quality going to whoever is better at it—whether man or woman. Precisely because they have different natures, they have greater need of each other and their yoking together is the most beneficial, with the one being capable where the other one is lacking. And as God has made them partners for their children, the law makes them partners for the household.
Source: Xenophon, Oeconomicus 7.10–30. Translation by Thomas R. Martin.
4. Greek Marriage Contract from Egypt (311–310 B.C.E.)
Greeks living abroad customarily drew up written contracts to define the duties of each partner in a marriage because they wanted their traditional expectations to remain legally binding regardless of the local laws. The earliest surviving such contract comes from Elephantine, the site of a Greek military garrison far up the Nile.
Marriage contract of Heraclides and Demetria. Heraclides [of Temnos] takes as his lawful wife Demetria of Cos from her father Leptines of Cos and her mother Philotis. He is a free person; she is a free person. She brings a dowry of clothing and jewelry worth 1,000 drachmas. Heraclides must provide Demetria with everything appropriate for a freeborn wife. We will live together in whatever location Leptines and Heraclides together decide is best.
If Demetria is apprehended doing anything bad that shames her husband, she will forfeit all her dowry. Heraclides will have to prove any allegations against her in the presence of three men, whom they both must approve. It will be illegal for Heraclides to bring home another wife to Demetria’s harm, or to father children by another woman, or to do anything bad to Demetria for any reason. If he is caught doing any of these things and Demetria proves it in the presence of three men whom they both approve, Heraclides must return her dowry in full and pay her 1,000 drachmas additional. Demetria and those who help her in getting this payment will have legal standing to act against Heraclides and all his property on land and sea. . . . Each shall have the right to keep a personal copy of this contract. [A list of witnesses follows.]
Source: O. Rubensohn, ed., Elephantine Papyri (Berlin: 1907), no. 1. Translation by Thomas R. Martin.
Questions to Consider