greek women in the home Flashcards
(23 cards)
what does the grave stele of hegeso depict?
a rich Athenian woman and her slave who is holding a jewellery box for her
what does the grave stele of ampharete depict?
a wealthy mother holding a baby and small bird toy. she is a grandmother
what was the ideal athenian woman?
a woman who gets married and produces healthy preferably male babies
what is a parthenos?
an unmarried virgin greek girl
what is a nymphe?
a married Athenian woman who has not yet given birth to a child
what is a gyne?
a married athenian woman who has given birth to a child
what was the importance of male heirs?
if a male hair wasn’t produced the kyria’s property would transfer to the closest male relative and his household would cease to exist
what were the dangers of childbirth?
many women and children died in childbirth
what were issues with infertility?
miscarriages were common and a lack of understanding / medicine meant they couldn’t do anything
what were black market babies?
when nothing worked to produce children they would fake pregnancy and trade for a baby
what were five of the duties of a kyria?
- stay indoors
- run the household e.g. assign tasks to slaves
- divvy up food
- training other young women in skills
- increase wealth of the household
what were three things a kyria couldn’t do?
buy/sell land
sign contracts
go out without an escort
a spartan woman was only given a grave marker if she had done what?
had children
what was it usual for healthy women to have several of in Sparta?
sexual partners
why was having multiple sexual partners not seen as adultery in sparta?
it was their duty to the state to bear healthy children
give two reasons why legitimate offspring was not an issue in sparta?
- they didn’t care about lineage
- the main importance was bearing healthy kids
what was a spartan woman not expected to do?
- work wool
- stay indoors
what were spartan women expected to do?
- physical training
- bear children
- managing household
- upholding spartan ethos
- contribute food to spartan cysition
why did spartan women continue to train after they were married?
so they could continue to bear children
what were spartan women allowed to do that most other greeks werent?
inherit property including land
how much property was owned by women in sparta?
2/5
what would female domestic slaves do?
work alongside free women producing textiles
chores e.g. running errands, cooking cleaning etc.
what were three rights Athenian slaves had?
- they couldn’t be beaten by anyone outside their family.
- they could live with partner ( with permission from their master)
- they could take asylum at the shrine of theseus
