Greek women in Ancient Greece

[MarinaEllas]

Greek Women in Ancient Greece

Greek women had virtually no political rights of any kind and were controlled by men at nearly every stage of their lives. The most important duties for a city-dwelling woman were to bear children--preferably male--and to run the household. Duties of a rural woman included some of the agricultural work: the harvesting of olives and fruit was their responsibility, as may have been the gathering of vegetables.

Since men spent most of their time away from their houses, Greek home life was dominated by women. The wife was in charge of raising the children, spinning, weaving and sewing the family´s clothes. She supervised the daily running of the household. In a totally slave-based economy, plentiful numbers of female slaves were available to cook, clean, and carry water from the fountain. Only in the poorest homes was the wife expected to carry out all these duties by herself. A male slave´s responsibilities were for the most part limited to being door-keeper and tutor to the male children. Click here for women's dress.

Custom dictated that a Greek woman limit her time outside the house to visiting with her nearest female neighbors. Exceptions to this rigid social convention were weddings, funerals and state religious festivals in which women were expected to play prominent public roles. Click here for women and goddesses.

Vase scenes portraying women inside their houses tend to be sparing in specific details. The common presence of columns suggests that women spent much of their time in the courtyard of the house, the one place where they could regularly enjoy fresh air. Greek cooking equipment was small and light and could easily be set up there. In sunny weather, women probably sat in the roofed-over areas of the courtyard, for the ideal in female beauty was a pale complexion.

Dress and Toilet Articles

Women´s clothes underwent relatively few changes in style in the course of antiquity. Clothes were normally made at home from locally available wool or flax (used to make linen). The two most commonly worn garments were the chiton or tunic and the himation or cloak. The chiton came in two styles. Its earlier Doric version, preferred by Athenian women until the end of the 6th century BC, was called the peplos and was made of wool. Cut into a simple rectangle measuring half again the height of the person wearing it, it was folded over, wrapped around the body, and pinned at the shoulders and side. It was sleeveless, with large arm openings. Expensive versions were decorated with elaborate woven figures or designs. The Ionian chiton was made of linen that fell into more elaborate vertical folds than its heavier wool counterpart. The sides were sewn up to create a long cylinder which was then caught by a girdle or cord at the waist or just below the breasts. Short sleeves were added to the sides.

[Prokomenos]

Great post Marina we always tend to think of the men when regarding ancient Greece but we forget that our beautiful Greek women where around in those times to and not much is said about them.

[AlmightyGreek]

Greek women really didnt play so much of a big role thats the reason. The famous Greek women that I know of is Helen of troy, and the Greek goddesess such as Athena , Aphrodite ect...

[pankration]

The toughest, meanest character in my book is a woman. All Greeks know how much control Greek women have always had BEHIND the scenes. From peasants to kings, our women have been right there.

[Apollyon]

As for the political rights of women in ancient Hellas , read that in the very distand past women in Athens had political rights , but during a voting for a City Leader they vote the most handsome man... after that he took over the leadership and became more than a dictator....
when Atheneans recovered democracy , removed those rights from women in order not to happen similar things in the future

( I dont want a handsome longhair general , i want a crippled one-eyed general ---- Someone said it in Ancient Athens )