Existing comment:
Women:
"An Athenian woman asks a Spartan woman, 'Why are you the only women to rule your men?' To which the Spartan woman replies, 'Because we are the only women who give birth to men.' "
-- Plutarch
Greeks expressed their notions of the female in both art and literature. Women were intended to be wives and mothers and, in most city-states, had little contact with men outside their families. Women are known to have worked as wet nurses and in a limited number of trades, but also as singers, dancers, and musicians. Many female entertainers were hetairai (courtesans), the most famous of whom, Aspasia, was the mistress of the Athenian statesman Perikles, taught rhetoric, and discussed philosophy with Socrates. Women also served as priestesses, some in cults that excluded all men.
Among the immortals, Hera, queen of the gods, was patroness of marriage while Aphrodite, goddess of love, is often shown beautifying herself. Artemis was goddess of childbirth and the hunt, Demeter of fertility and agriculture. Athens was named for Athena, goddess of war and wisdom -- but also of handcrafts such as spinning and weaving. There were also frightening images of women, like the snake-haired gorgons who turned all who beheld them into stone or the mythical tribe of warrior women called Amazons. |