place. The women also burn a scented substance; this serves two functions – it
changes the atmosphere within the room and it also binds together those who are
participating in the event. It marks them as a group set apart. The bodies and actions
of the women map out an area within the room. They form a boundary that describes
a temporary ritual space. Within this space Pheidias is isolated from the household
and the ritual of purification can occur.
It is difficult to be certain from this passage exactly who the women are. The
location of the ritual in the home may point to the involvement of the household
ladies. In a second fragment of Menander, servant girls are used to circle an individ-
ual: ‘‘And we were burning incense five times a day, and seven serving girls were
playing the cymbals in a circle whilst they cried the ritual chant’’ (Menander fr. 237
K-A). Here, again, the burning of a scented substance creates an atmosphere and, as
in the first fragment, women mark the space. Again, they form a circle, defining and
enclosing the sacred area and also, possibly, the location of the other participants.
Women play an essential role in purification rites as they create temporary ritual space;
they can then cross the ritual boundary to cleanse and heal. This explains why women
become visible in descriptions of purification rites. The Superstitious Man calls out a
priestess to purify him with squill and a puppy after seeing someone at the crossroads
wreathed in garlic (Theophrastus,Characters16.13). The mother of Aeschines is a
priestess who purifies individuals before they join in the private ecstatic rites of her
group (Demosthenes 18.258–61).
Conclusions
The position of citizen women in Athenian society is a paradox. Their reproductive
capacity places them at the center of the polis and the center of the household:
neither can survive without them. Yet they are also marginalized in a social and
political sense: defined by their relationships with men, inferior in status to them,
and, ideally, secluded within the house (Zeitlin 1982). The religious occasions
where women appear most vividly in our sources are at rites of transition, all-female
festivals, and in cults that required the creation or breaching of ritual, social, and
communal boundaries. Female action and movement on these occasions shows that
the home is a vital component in articulating the religious behavior of citizen women
in Athens. In public contexts, at festivals and rites of transition, women’s movement
out of the house cuts across the traditional divisions between private and public,
between house and city, and between men and women. Their actions allow the nature
of these relationships to be examined and the boundaries to be constantly redefined.
In the private sphere, while much of our evidence for private female practices
is fragmentary, we can see that it shares a common theme in highlighting the
importance of home and family in the life of a citizen wife. Menander’s mother
uses religion as a cover to meet her lost daughter (Menander,Ghost49–56). Plato’s
women set up shrines and altars in response to bad dreams or evil portents; in doing
so they act to protect themselves and their households (Plato,Laws909e–910a).
While texts may offer us incomplete views of private female behavior, the religious
actions of citizen wives constantly reinforce and reflect their ideological role in
Athenian society.
Women, Religion, and the Home 309