Clay Figures Of A Woman Kneading Bread And A Cook Working At A Grill. Fifth century B.C. There are several of these Classical
studies of work in the kitchen, mainly from Boeotia.
There are two different strands in the Athenian attitude to women. The first is the effect of democracy on the status of women.
Aristocratic women at least had been freer in earlier times, but the coming of democracy meant the imposition of the social norms of
the majority. Many peasant societies combine a high value placed on women with mistrust of them. Semonides of Amorgos in the
sixth century described the appalling varieties of women that the gods had made to be a burden on men, in terms of their animal
characteristics; only one type is any good, and she is like the bee: 'She causes his property to grow and increase, and she grows old
with a husband whom she loves and who loves her, the mother of a handsome and reputable family. She stands out among all
women, and a godlike beauty plays around her. She takes no pleasure in sitting among woman in places where they tell stories about
love' (83-93). Such attitudes compound fear of the irrational and passionate nature of women with an exaggerated belief in their
value and the importance of protecting them from the public eye. In agrarian societies these attitudes are held in check by the need
for women's labour in the fields; with the advent of urban life the woman is confined to the house, and increased wealth brings with
it aspirations to liberate her even from domestic duties. In a dialogue of Xenophon, Socrates confronts the problem of a friend "who,
because of the political turmoil, finds himself with fourteen female relatives living in his house, all well brought up and therefore
unused to any form of work: Socrates persuades him that he should nevertheless provide them with suitable work such as spinning;
their tempers are much improved, and the only problem is that they now complain of the idleness of their protector- but, says
Socrates, his duty is to protect, as the sheepdog cares for the sheep (Xenophon, Memorabilia 2. 7).