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Contents:
Introduction to the Historical Overview in PerseusGeographical and Historical IntroductionThe Early Greek Dark Age and Revival in the Near EastRemaking Greek CivilizationThe Archaic AgeThe Late Archaic City-StateIntroduction to the Fifth CenturyClash Between Greeks and PersiansAthenian Empire in the Golden AgeAthenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden AgeContinuity and Change in Athenian Social and Intellectual HistoryThe Peloponnesian War and Athenian LifeIntroduction to the Fourth CenturyThe Aftermath of the Peloponnesian WarNew Directions in Philosophy and EducationThe Creation of Macedonian Power |
Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander
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11. Continuity and Change in Athenian Social and Intellectual History
A complex interweaving of contintuity and change characterized the social and intellectual history of Athens in the Golden Age. The lives of Athenian women during most of the fifth century largely continued the patterns established in Athenian society in earlier times. The loss of many husbands, fathers, and brothers in the prolonged struggle of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431-404 B.C.), however, forced many citizen women to look for work outside the home for the first time. The traditional character of education for wealthy young men also experienced a major change when professional teachers called sophists began to offer new views on subjects as diverse as oratory and physics in the second half of the century. The friendships that developed between prominent, controversial sophists and political leaders such as Pericles only heightened the concern that many people felt about the possibly deleterious effects on society of these new intellectual trends. 11.1. Property, Social Freedom, and Athenian Women
Athenian women exercised power and earned status both in private life and public, through their roles in the family and religion respectively. Their absence from politics, however, meant that their contributions to the city-state might well be overlooked by men. One heroine in a fragmentary tragedy by Euripides, Melanippe, vigorously expresses this judgment in a famous speech denouncing men who denigrate women: “Empty is the slanderous blame men place on women; it is no more than the twanging of a bowstring without an arrow; women are better than men, and I will prove it: women make agreements without having to have witnesses to guarantee their honesty ... Women manage the household and preserve its valuable property. Without a wife, no household is clean or happily prosperous. And in matters pertaining to the gods--this is our most important contribution--we have the greatest share. In the oracle at Delphi we propound the will of Apollo, and at the oracle of Zeus at Dodona we reveal the will of Zeus to any Greek who wishes to know it.” Euripides portrays his heroine Medea as insisting that women who bear children are due respect at least commensurate with that granted men who fight as hoplites: “People say that we women lead a safe life at home, while men have to go to war. What fools they are! I would much rather fight in the phalanx three times than give birth to a child only once.”
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OCLC: 33900145
ISBN: 0300069561
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