Women in Ancient Greece

DBQ- Women in Ancient Greece 1. According to Aristotle and Xenophon, what are the duties of women and by extension what is their status in Greek society? Who created these separate roles? (Make sure you provide examples from the selections) Women are to obey their husbands, and agree with their husbands all the time, no matter their opinion. Aristotle writes, “Therefore, she will serve him more assiduously than if she had been a slave bought and taken home.” Through this excerpt, it is clear that women are treated much lesser than men, and perhaps barely even above slaves. To compare a woman with a slave shows that women are not valued very little and for very few things in Greek society. Women are to stay indoors, and assign tasks from the inside of the home. Men are fit for working outdoors, but women are not, as Xenophon shows when he says, “To the woman, since he has made her body less capable of such endurance, I take it that God has assigned the indoor tasks.” After reading these two pieces, it is quite obvious that Greek society not only feels like women should not have as much value as men, but they actually think that women cannot. They believe that women were created by God to be fragile creatures, taking care of the home, and sending the servants to do the work that needs to be done outdoors. It makes me wonder if there were women servants, if they could work outside, or if they had to tend to the things that needed to be done indoors. 2. What is Semonides’ opinion about women? Why does he equate them with animals? Do we still use similar categories today to classify women? Semonide clearly does not have a very high opinion of women in the least. He spends nearly the entire poem talking about how women are horrible and how it is nearly impossible to find a good one. He compares women to all these different animals in an attempt to dehumanize them. When someone is compared to an animal, especially when it is in the extremely negative way that Semonide was comparing them, it is extremely dehumanizing. It takes away a woman’s humanity, and basically tells her that she is no more important to life, the world, society than an ape. Semonide also talks a lot about how he feels bad for the men, for having to kind of “put up” with the women, like when he says, “ I pity the poor man who holds this horrid woman in his arms.” Well, what about the woman who is being called hideous and being compared to an ape? Why is it okay to pity the man who chose to marry her but it’s not okay to pity the woman who is being treated terribly? Because men are better. Or, at least, that’s what Greek society, and Semonide, show. I don’t think that we use nearly as harsh of categories today, but we definitely do hold some of those same beliefs. It was hard to be a woman in Greek society, but it’s also still hard to be a woman. Semonide says in one line, “Zeus made this the greatest pain of all: Woman.” People today still hold that same belief. The belief that women are so extremely difficult to handle, and that for some reason they need to be handled. Women are so much better off than they used to be, men and women have equal rights now, and, at least in America, women are not oppressed. But in some places, they are. Overall, though, the way people perceive women has gotten so much better, but even though we may not use those exact categories that Semonide used, some people do still use similar categories, not to that extent, though, to classify women today. 3. Does not having women’s voices represented make a discussion of women and their place in Ancient Greece problematic or is it still possible to determine women’s status and roles based on the sources you were given? I don’t think that it is completely necessary to have a woman’s voice represented in order to get the general gist of how society was in Greece, but in order to know for sure, it is most definitely problematic that women’s voices are not heard. Everyone sees everything in life differently, depending on gender, age, race, economic status, the list goes on. In order to get a true representation of women in Ancient Greece, and what their status and roles in society really were, I think we would need to hear from people of all different genders, races, ages, status in the government, etc. The sources that we are given are thorough enough that we can have an idea on what life for women was like, but to get a complete, fully thorough representation on women in Greek society, it is most certainly necessary to hear women’s accounts, to hear what society was like through their eyes, since they are the ones we’re talking about. The fact that we didn’t read any articles written by women could mean that many women were not educated enough to read and write, showing once again how much higher men were valued. It could also mean, though, that women were okay with their position in society and did not want to ruin anything, or were scared of what might happen to them, if they were to complain, since it was stated that women are not to complain.