It is the purpose of this volume to give a simple sketch of the history
of Greek womanhood from the Heroic Age down to Roman times, so far as it
can be gathered from ancient Greek literature and from other available
sources for a knowledge of antique life. Greek civilization was
essentially a masculine one; and it is really remarkable how scant are
the references to feminine life in Greek writers, and how few books have
been written by modern scholars on this subject. In the preparation of
this work, the author has consulted all the authorities bearing on old
Greek life, acknowledgment of which can only be made in general terms.
He feels, however, particularly indebted to the following works: Mlle.
Clarisse Bader, _La Femme Grecque_, Paris, 1872; Jos.
Cal. Poestion,
_Griechische Philosophinnen_, Norden, 1885; ibid., _Griechische
Dichterinnen_, Leipzig, 1876; E. Notor, _La Femme dans l'Antiquite
Grecque_, Paris, 1901; R. Lallier, _De la Condition de la Femme
Athenienne au Veme et au IVeme Siecle_, Paris, 1875; Ivo Bruns,
_Frauenemancipation in Athen_, Kiel, 1900; Walter Copeland Perry, _The
Women of Homer_, New York, 1898; Albert Galloway Keller, _Homeric
Society_, London, 1902; and Mahaffy's various works, especially _Social
Life in Greece from Homer to Menander_, and _Greek Life and Thought_. In
making quotations from Greek authors, standard translations have been
used, of which especial acknowledgment cannot always be given, but Lang,
Leaf and Myers' _Iliad_, Butcher's and Lang's _Odyssey_, Wharton's
_Sappho_, and Way's _Euripides_, call for particular mention.
In the spelling of Greek proper names the author has endeavored to adapt
himself to the convenience of his readers by being consistently Roman,
and has used in most cases the Latin forms. He has retained, however,
the Greek forms where usage has made them current, as Poseidon, Lesbos,
Samos, etc., and has invariably adopted forms, neither Greek nor Latin,
which have become universal, as Athens, Constantinople, Rhodes, and the
like. The Greek names of Greek divinities have been preferred to their
Roman equivalents.
To conclude, my thanks are due to the publishers for their uniform
courtesy and help, and to Mr. J.A. Burgan for the careful reading of the
proof; nor could I have undertaken and carried through the work without
the sympathetic aid and encouragement of my wife.
MITCHELL CARROLL.
_The George Washington University_.
I
GREEK WOMEN
Whenever culture or art or beauty is theme for thought, the fancy at
once wanders back to the Ancient Greeks, whom we regard as the ultimate
source of all the aesthetic influences which surround us. To them we look
for instruction in philosophy, in poetry, in oratory, in many of the
problems of science. But it is in their arts that the Greeks have left
us their richest and most beneficent legacy; and when we consider how
much they have contributed to the world's civilization, we wonder what
manner of men and women they must have been to attain such achievements.
Though woman's influence is exercised silently and unobtrusively, it is
none the less potent in determining the character and destiny of a
people. Historians do not take note of it, men overlook and undervalue
it, and yet it is ever present; and in a civilization like that of the
Greeks, where the feminine element manifests itself in all its higher
activities,--in its literature, its art, its religion,--
it becomes an
interesting problem to inquire into the character and status of woman
among the Greek peoples. We do not desire to know merely the purely
external features of feminine life among the Greeks, such as their
dress, their ornaments, their home surroundings; we would, above all,
investigate the subjective side of their life--how they regarded
themselves, and were regarded by men; how they reasoned, and felt, and
loved; how they experienced the joys and sorrows of life; what part they
took in the social life of the times; how their conduct influenced the
actions of men and determined the course of history; what were their
moral and spiritual endowments;--in short, we should like to know the
Greek woman in all those phases of life which make the modern woman
interesting and influential and the conserving force in human society.
Yet, when we estimate our sources of information, we find that there is
no problem in the whole range of Greek life so difficult of solution as
that concerning the status and character of Greek women.
The first condition of a successful study of Greek women is to
familiarize one's self with the _milieu_ in which they lived and moved.
To do this we must adapt ourselves to a manner of life and to
conceptions and feelings widely different from our own.
The Greek spirit
of the fifth century before the Christian era has but little in common
with the spirit of the twentieth century; and unless we gain some
insight into the spirit of the Greeks, we cannot understand the
fundamental differences between the life of the Greek woman and that of
the modern woman. Let us note a few respects in which this difference
shows itself.
The Greek attitude toward nature was that of reverent children who saw
everywhere therein manifestations of the divine. To them everything was
what we call supernatural. If wine gladdened the heart of man, it was
the influence of a god. If love stirred the breast, a god was inspiring
man with a sweet influence, and the divine power must not be resisted.
The gods themselves yielded to the impulses of love; why should not men?
Furthermore, Greek thought conceived of the human being as the noblest
creation of nature. Christian theology conceives of the body as the
prison house of the soul, from which the soul must escape to attain its
highest development; the Greeks, on the other hand, regarded body and
soul as forming a complete, inseparable, and harmonious unit. There was
no impulse toward distinguishing between the two, no restless reaching
out toward something regarded as higher and nobler; seeing infinite
possibilities in man as man, the Greek sought only the idealization of
the human being as such, the completion and realization of the highest
type of humanity, physical and spiritual. Because of this peculiar
conception of man, the gods of the Greeks rose out of nature and did not
transcend it. Some of them were personifications of the forces of
nature; others were merely, according to Greek ideas, the highest
conceptions of what was admirable in man and woman. When we consider the
goddesses of the Olympian Pantheon, we see that this conception of the
ideal in woman must have been very high, manifesting itself in the
characters of Hera, the goddess of marriage and of the birth of
children; Athena, "intellect unmoved by fleshly lust, the perfection of
serene, unclouded wisdom;" Demeter, goddess of agriculture and of the
domestic life; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty and the
idealization of feminine graces and charm; Artemis, the maiden divinity
never conquered by love, and the protectress of maidens; and Hestia,
goddess of the hearth and preserver of the sanctity of the home.
It is difficult for us to appreciate the passionate love of beauty which
animated the Greeks.
"What is good and fair
Shall ever be our care.
That shall never be our care
Which is neither good nor fair."
This immortal burden from the stanzas of Theognis, sung by the Muses and
Graces at the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia, "strikes,"
says Symonds,
"the keynote to the music of the Greek genius." This innate love of
beauty, fostered by natural surroundings and held in restraint by a
sense of measure, was the most salient characteristic of the Greek
people. It is impossible for us to realize the intensity of the Greek
feeling for beauty; and to them the human body was the noblest form of
earthly loveliness. To illustrate, we may recall the incident of
Phryne's trial before the judges. Hyperides, her advocate, failing in
his other arguments, drew aside her tunic and revealed to them a bosom
perfectly marvellous in its beauty. Phryne was at once acquitted, not
from any prurient motives, but because "the judges beheld in such an
exquisite form not an ordinary mortal, but a priestess and prophetess of
the divine Aphrodite. They were inspired with awe, and would have deemed
it sacrilege to mar or destroy such a perfect masterpiece of creative
power." Nor was the Greek conception of beauty purely sensual. Through
the perfection of human loveliness they had glimpses of divine beauty,
and "the fleshly vehicle was but the means to lead on the soul to what
is eternally and imperishably beautiful." Thus the lesson of the
_Phaedrus_ and _Symposium_ of Plato is that "the passion which grovels in
the filth of sensual grossness may be transformed into a glorious
enthusiasm, a winged splendor, capable of rising to the contemplation of
eternal verities and reuniting the soul of man to God."
This last reflection leads us to the most important difference between
ancient and modern conceptions, that in regard to the relations between
the sexes. We of the Christian era have a clear doctrine of right and
wrong to guide us, a law given from without ourselves, the result of
revelation. The Greeks, on the other hand, "had to interrogate nature
and their own hearts for the mode of action to be pursued. They did not
feel or think that one definite course of action was right and the
others wrong; but they had to judge in each case whether the action was
becoming, whether it was in harmony with the nobler side of human
nature, whether it was beautiful or useful. Utility, appropriateness,
and the sense of the beautiful were the only guides which the Greeks
could find to direct them in the relations of the sexes to each other."
Hence we find that the Greeks deemed permissible much which offends the
modern sense of propriety; for example, when maidens captured in war
became for a time the concubines of the victors, as Chryseis in the
Iliad, and were afterward restored to their homes, they were not thought
in the least disgraced by their misfortune; "for if such a stain happen
to a woman by force of circumstances," says Xenophon,
"men honor her
none the less if her affection seems to them to remain untainted."
How, then, are we to bridge over the gulf which separates us from the
Greeks? What are our sources of knowledge of Greek woman and her manner
of life?
We must first of all know the country of the Greeks. The influence of
country and climate on the Greek nationality has been frequently
emphasized, and the physical phenomena which moulded the characters of
the men must also have affected the women. A climate so mild that, as
Euripides says, "the cold of winter is without rigor, and the shafts of
Phoebus do not wound;" a soil midway between harsh sterility and
luxurious vegetation; a system of fertile plains and rugged plateaus and
varied mountain chains; a coast indented with innumerable inlets and
gulfs and bays--these were the physical characteristics which moulded
the destinies of Greek women. Furthermore, the modern Greek people trace
the threads of their history unbroken back to ancient times, in spite
of the incursions of alien peoples and years of subjugation to the Turk.
Many ancient customs survive, such as the giving of a dowry and the
bathing of the bride before the wedding ceremony. On the islands of the
AEgean, where there has been but little intercourse with foreigners, the
type of features so familiar to us from Greek sculpture still prevails,
and the visitor can see beautiful maidens who might have served as
models for Phidias and Praxiteles. The configuration of the land led to
the Greek conception of the city-state--the feature of internal polity
which had most to do with the seclusion of women.
Greek literature, however, is our chief source of knowledge in this
regard, yet even the information afforded by that literature is
inadequate and unsatisfactory in the glimpses it gives of the life of
woman. All that we know about Greek women, with the exception of the
fragments of Sappho's poems, is derived from chronicles written by men.
Now, men never write dispassionately about women. They either love or
hate them; they either idealize or caricature them.
Furthermore, Greek
literature was not only written by men, but also by men for men. The
Greek reading public, the audience at the theatre, the gathering in the
Assembly and in the law courts, were almost exclusively masculine.
Remarks indicating the inferiority of the frailer but more fascinating
sex are even in our day not altogether displeasing to the average man,
and constitute one of the stock _motifs_ of humor; hence it is not to be
taken too seriously that on the Greek stage there was much abuse of
woman--though this is offset by passages in which the sex is
extravagantly praised. Euripides was once called a woman hater in the
presence of Sophocles. "Yes," was the clever response,
"in his
tragedies."
Then, aside from the point of view of the writer, only meagre facts can
be gleaned here and there from Greek literature regarding the life of
Greek women. Only by gathering and comparing disparate passages
collected from writers of different views, of different States, and of
different periods, can we get anything like a systematic presentation of
the outward aspect of feminine life. We are more fortunate, however,
when we consider the subjective side; for the Greek epos and drama
present feminine portraitures which necessarily reflect, more or less
clearly, the thought and feelings of woman in the age in which the poet
flourished. Homer gives an accurate portrayal of the Heroic Age, on the
borderland of which his own life was passed, while memories of it were
still fresh in the minds of men. The Athenian tragedians also locate
their plots in the Heroic Age, but they endow their characters with a
depth of thought, with a power of reflection, with an insight into the
problems of life, which were altogether foreign to men and women in the
childhood of the world, and were characteristic of Athens in its
brilliant intellectual epoch. Hence a history of Greek womanhood must
draw largely from the works of the poets, and must endeavor to give a
picture of the women who figure in the Iliad and the Odyssey and in the
dramas of AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The lyric poets of Greece
are also of unique importance in the study of ancient humanity, for they
reveal the hearts of men and women and make known the conflicts of the
soul. The historical women of Hellas are few in number, and are known to
us only through meagre passages in the historians, orators, and
philosophers.
A third source of information is Greek art. When woman figures so
largely in the few relics of antiquity which have come down to us
intact, what a commentary on ancient womanhood must the art of the
Greeks have been, before the ruthless hands of Romans and barbarians and
the tooth of time effaced her most precious treasures!
The vase
paintings of the Greeks illustrate every phase of private life, and
abound in representations of the maiden and the matron, in the home, at
the loom, in the bridal procession, at the wedding. And Greek sculpture
presents ideal types of woman, perfect physically and highly endowed
with every intellectual and sensuous charm. From these works of plastic
art, abounding in the museums of Europe, we know that the Greek woman
was beautiful, the peer of man in physical excellence.
In form, the
Greek woman was so perfect as to be still taken as the type of her sex.
"Her beauty, from whatever cause, bordered closely upon the ideal, or
rather was that which, because now only found in works of art, we call
the ideal. But our conceptions of form never transcend what is found in
nature. She bounds our ideas by a circle over which we cannot step. The
sculptors of Greece represented nothing but what they saw; and even when
the cunning of their hand was most felicitous, even when love and grace
and all the poetry of womanhood appeared to breathe from their marbles,
the inferiority of their imitation to the creations of God, in
properties belonging to form, in mere contour, in the grouping and
development of features, must have sufficed to impress even upon
Phidias, that high priest of art, how childish it was to rise above
nature." But it is not merely physical perfection which appeals to us in
these masterpieces of plastic art. Love and tenderness and every womanly
charm find expression in every feature of the countenance; and there is,
above all, a moral dignity, an elevation of soul, a spiritual fervor,
which lift us from things of earth and impart aspirations toward the
eternal. The women who gave insight and inspiration to the sculptor in
his portrayal of Hera and of Athena and of Aphrodite must have possessed
in some measure the qualities imparted by the artist to his works. The
status of woman among the Greeks differs according to the period, tribe,
and form of government, and all the various phases of life and
civilization arising from these must be taken into consideration in
reaching our conclusions. Greek history falls into certain well-defined
periods which are distinct in culture and civilization.
There is first
the Heroic Age, portrayed in Greek mythology and in the Homeric poems,
the age of demigods and valiant warriors and noble women. This is the
monarchical period in Greek history. Kings presided over the destinies
of men, and about them were gathered the nobles. Society was
aristocratic; the life portrayed was the life of courts.
A court made a
queen necessary; and where there is a queen, woman is always a source of
influence and power for good or evil, and wins either the deference and
regard, or the fear and resentment of men. Succeeding the Heroic Age,
there followed the "storm and stress" period in Greek life, when
monarchies were overturned and gave place to oligarchies, and they, in
turn, to tyrannies; when commerce was developing, colonies were being
sent out to distant parts of the Mediterranean, and the aristocratic
classes were enjoying the results of wealth and travel and the
interchange of social courtesies. In this period, epic poetry declined,
and lyric poetry took its place in the three forms of elegiac, iambic,
and melic; the arts, too, were beginning to be cultivated. This is the
Transition Age of Greece. In aristocratic circles, among the families of
the oligarchs and in the courts of tyrants, woman continued to hold a
prominent place; but among the poorer classes, who were ground down by
the aristocrats, life was hard and bitter, and woman was censured as
the source of many of the ills of mankind.
The Transition Age constitutes the portal admitting to Historical Greece
proper. In most communities, the levelling process has gone on, and
democracies have taken the place of oligarchies and tyrannies. The
people have asserted themselves and are regnant. It is a noteworthy fact
in Greek history that where democracy prevailed woman was least highly
regarded and had fewest privileges. In Athens, where democracy was
all-controlling, feminine activities were confined largely to the
women's apartments of the house. In other cities, oligarchies continued
to have power, and an aristocracy was still recognized, as at Sparta;
and here the privileges and freedom of woman were very great.
The early tribal divisions among the Greeks must also be taken into
consideration. The Achaeans are closely identified with the Heroic Age;
they built up the powerful States in the Peloponnesus, and undertook the
first great national expedition of Hellas. Thus the Achaeans are the
representative Homeric people, with its monarchical life and the
prominent social status of its women. The Achaean civilization gave way
before the Dorian migration, and ceased to be a factor in Greek history.
Of the three remaining divisions, the AEolians inhabited parts of
Thessaly, Boeotia, and especially the island of Lesbos, and the Greek
colonies of Asia Minor along the shores of the North AEgean. Their most
brilliant period was during the Transition Age, when Lesbos was ruled by
a wealthy and powerful aristocracy and later by a tyranny, and when
lyric poetry reached its perfect bloom in the verses of Sappho. AEolian
culture was marked by its devotion to music and poetry and by its
richness and voluptuousness. At no other time and place in the whole
history of Hellas did woman possess so much freedom and enjoy all the
benefits of wealth and culture in so marked a degree as among the AEolian
people of Lesbos.
The Dorian and the Ionian peoples occupied the arena during the
historical period; and, representing as they did opposing tendencies,
they were continually in conflict. The Dorians mainly occupied the
Southern and Western Peloponnesus, Argos, Corinth, Megara, AEgina, Magna
Graecia, and the southern coast of Asia Minor; the Ionians inhabited
Attica, Euboea, most of the islands of the AEgean, and the famous twelve
Ionian cities along the coast of Asia Minor. The chief city of the
Dorians was Sparta; but Sparta had a form of government peculiar to
itself, which must not be taken as representing all the Dorian States.
Yet among the Dorian States in general there was much the same degree of
freedom enjoyed by women as in Sparta, though they were not subjected to
the same harsh discipline.
The Ionian cities of Asia Minor were greatly influenced by Asiatic love
of ease and luxury, and they introduced into Greece many aspects of the
civilization and art of Asia. There is a tradition that when the Ionians
migrated from Hellas to Asia Minor they did not take their wives with
them, as did the Dorians and AEolians, and, consequently, they were
compelled to wed the native women of the conquered districts. As they
looked upon the wives thus acquired as inferior, they were glad to shut
them up in the women's apartments, following the Oriental custom, and to
treat them as domestics rather than as companions. Thus is supposed to
have arisen the custom of secluding the women of the household, which
rapidly spread among Ionian peoples, even in Continental Greece.
Athens was the chief city among the Ionian peoples, but it developed a
civilization peculiarly its own, known as the Attic-Ionian, combining
much of the rugged strength and vigor of the Dorians with the
refinement, delicacy, and versatility of the Ionians.
Yet the status of
woman in the city of the violet crown was a reproach to its otherwise
unapproachable preeminence. Nowhere else in entire Hellas were Greek
women in like measure repressed and excluded from the higher life of the
men as among the Athenians. Consequently, the name of no great Athenian
woman is known to us. But the Ionian repression of women of honorable
station led to the rise of a class of "emancipated"
women, who threw off
the shackles that had bound their sex and united their fortunes with men
in unlawful relations as hetaerae, or "companions."