‘I also told her that, where our property was concerned, she shouldn’t be
annoyed at my giving her more jobs to do than I gave to the servants; I pointed
out that the servants’ involvement in their master’s assets was limited to fetching,
looking after and protecting, but unless their master lets them, they don’t have
the right actually to make use of any of the assets – it is only the master’s right to
make use of anything he wants.’
(Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 7, 5–6, 20; 9, 17)The age difference between husband and wife puts the wife at a disadvantage and so
does her upbringing. There is no sign that girls had any education other than that
which might equip them for the role of housekeeper. The expectation here is that the
wife will stay at home and superintend the servants in the management of the house
and in the spinning and weaving of cloth. This may be representative of the wealthy
upper class but how far down the social scale such expectations about the role and
conduct of wives are applicable it is difficult to know. There is evidence that women,
presumably from poorer classes, could sell food and clothing in the markets. Most of
these must have been foreign women but there is no evidence that citizen women
were forbidden such activities. In the plays of Aristophanes women are shown in
various occupations: selling bread in the market, and ribbons and myrtle wreathes
used at sacrifices and drinking parties. Euripides is much mocked for having a mother
who used to sell vegetables.
Alongside these expectations about the role and behaviour of Athenian wives
may be put the famous advice given to widows at the end of Pericles’ funeral oration.
Perhaps I should say a word or two on the duties of women to those among you
who are now widowed. I can say all I have to say in a short word of advice. Your
great glory is not to be inferior to what God has made you, and the greater glory
of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or
criticising you.
(Thucydides, 2, 46)Women are certainly not talked about by Thucydides; his history does not mention
a single woman by name either in praise or blame. Pericles’ advice to the widows of
the fallen is phrased in such a way that it is difficult not to see it in the light of more
general restrictions on the role of women in Classical Athens.
Wives, however, are not the only women on the Athenian scene:
Hetairas we keep for pleasure, concubines for attending day to day to the body, and
wives for producing heirs, and for standing trusty guard on our household property.
(Apollodorus, Against Neaera, Psuedo-Demosthenes 59.122)130 THE GREEKS