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Women in the Ancient World > Young women and Women in the home > Flashcards

Young women and Women in the home Flashcards

1
Q

Who were the Kyrios and Kyria?

A
  • Kyrios was the male head of a Greek household, who had responsibility and authority over the whole household
  • Kyria was a Kyrios’ wife
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2
Q

What is a stele?

A
  • Stone slab with sculptural decoration, used as funerary monuments
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3
Q

What is a kleros?

A
  • The plot of farmland loaned by the Spartan state to every adult male citizen
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4
Q

Who is the paterfamilias?

A
  • Male head of a Roman family
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5
Q

What is patria potestas?

A
  • The power of authority held by the paterfamilias over the rest of the household
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6
Q

Who is a litterator?

A
  • A Roman teacher who focused on reading, writing and arithmetic
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7
Q

Who is a pronuba?

A
  • A Roman woman, married only once, and still married to that man
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8
Q

What is a Vilica?

A
  • The head female slave of a Roman estate
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9
Q

What is the Oikos and what did it include?

A
  • OIkos means household
  • Included a whole extended family unit, including elderly relatives, unmarried female relatives and slaves
  • Every Athenian Oikos strived to achieve self-sufficiency
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10
Q

Where were most Athenian girls educated and what would they learn?

A
  • They’d be educated at home, by their mothers
  • They’d learn practical skills such as spinning wool, cooking, managing household finances and managing household slaves
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11
Q

What was an Athenian quote that suggests that a girls education was frowned upon?

A

‘A man who teaches a woman to write should recognise he is providing poison to an asp’
- Menander

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12
Q

Who arranged Athenian marriages and for what purpose?

A
  • Arranged by the Kyrios
  • Almost never because of romantic love
  • They’d normally be because two families wanted to solidify an alliance
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13
Q

When would an Athenian couple be considered married?

A
  • From the moment of engagement (betrothal)
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14
Q

What was an Athenian wedding’s purpose, and what was it important that it had?

A
  • Wedding ceremony had no legal function
  • Witnesses were needed as they were important in Athenian law, because they could be called upon in court
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15
Q

What was an Athenian betrothal ceremony like?

A
  • Dowry would be agreed
  • Oath sworn in front of witnesses
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16
Q

What was an Athenian dowry like and why was it important?

A
  • A dowry could have been between 5%-20% of a Kyrios’ wealth
  • Important as it would compensate the groom’s family for providing for the bride
  • It was also helpful to the bride, as if a husband wanted to divorce his wife, he’d have to return the dowry, which would encourage men to not mistreat their wives or seek divorce without a good reason
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17
Q

What would happen on Day 1 of an Athenian wedding?

A
  • The Bride shares a feast with her female family and friends
  • She makes sacrifices to Artemis, Hera and Aphrodite
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18
Q

What would happen on day 2 of an Athenian wedding?

A
  • The Bride took a ritual bath
  • The bride dresses in her finest clothes and jewellery, as well as a veil
  • The bride and groom’s families shared a feast at the bride’s kyrios’ house
  • The groom dragged the bride away from her mother in a pretend show of force
  • The couple would travel from the bride’s house to the groom’s, in a torchlight procession. The guests would follow, singing wedding songs, and throwing flowers and small fruits
  • The axle of the cart would be burned at the end of the procession, to represent that the bride couldn’t return to her childhood home
  • The bride was taken to the hearth of the groom’s house
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19
Q

What happened on day 3 of an Athenian wedding?

A
  • The bride and groom would spend the night together and consummate the marriage whilst family and friends waited outside, singing songs and banging on the door
  • The couple would come out of their bedroom and the guests would sing wedding songs and give the bride gifts
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20
Q

What is said in Pericles’ funeral oration and what does it show us about expectations for Athenian women?

A

‘The greatest glory will be hers who is least talked of’
- Thucydides

  • It was good for a woman to be unremarkable
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21
Q

Who is the first prescribed grave stele of?

A
  • Ampharete
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22
Q

What does Ampharete’s grave stele depict?

A
  • Ampharete holding up a toy bird for her grandchild
  • Wearing fancy clothing with lots of excess fabric
  • Exposed breasts
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23
Q

What do the features on Ampharete’s grave stele show us?

A
  • Excess fabric on clothes conveys wealth and shows modesty
  • Exposed breasts shows maternal role, but also goes against previous modesty of dress
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24
Q

Where was Ampharete’s grave stele located?

A
  • The Kerameikos graveyard, just outside Athens
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25
Q

Who is the second prescribed grave stele of?

A
  • Hegeso
  • Also shows a household slave
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26
Q

What is depicted on Hegeso’s grave stele?

A
  • Hegeso is possibly examining jewelery from a box held by a servant
  • Servant has plain, simple hair and is also shorter than Hegeso
  • Hegeso has styled and ornate hair and has a dress with excess fabric
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27
Q

What were unmarried and married girls called in Athens?

A
  • An unmarried girl was called a Parthenos
  • A married girl was a Nymphe
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28
Q

What was a fully grown woman called in Athens, and how would a girl become one?

A
  • Called a Gyne
  • Wouldn’t be considered one until she had had her first child
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29
Q

How would Athenian women have tried to treat infertility?

A
  • Taking herbal remedies
  • Spending a night in the sanctuary of the God Asclepius
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30
Q

What happened in Aristophanes’ comedy play about a woman faking a pregnancy?

A
  • A woman faked a pregnancy
  • She then pretended to be in labour whilst a friend brought a male baby they had purchased from someone
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31
Q

What would the duties of a Kyria be?

A
  • Preserve food stores
  • Decorate the andron for Symposiums
  • Bear children
  • Train household slaves
  • Educate daughters
  • Care for sick relatives
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32
Q

What were the Athenian laws surrounding adultery in women?

A
  • If a man caught his wife having an affair, he could kill her lover or make him pay a large fine and be publicly humiliated
  • The husband could divorce the woman and keep the dowry
  • The woman would be banned from joining in religious festivals
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33
Q

What were the Athenian laws surrounding adultery in men?

A
  • Men were allowed to engage in sexual activity outside of their marriages, as long as it wasn’t with a married woman, or the unmarried daughter of an Athenian citizen
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34
Q

How did Spartan civilisation start and where?

A
  • Sparta started as a small village
  • Eurostas Valley, in the region of Laconia
35
Q

What ideas were the Spartan system based around?

A
  • If Messenian Helots rose up again, it would be a disaster
  • The Helots should be kept down and prevented from rising up
  • Spartans should all be highly trained soldiers
  • The system was perfect, so shouldn’t be questioned or changed at all
36
Q

What was a key duty for adult Spartan women?

A
  • Support the Spartan system by encouraging their menfolk
  • They would praise strong warriors and criticise cowards and slackers
37
Q

What did the education of Spartan girls include?

A
  • Numeracy so they could manage household finances
  • Farm management (tending to crops and managing livestock)
38
Q

How did marriage work in Sparta?

A
  • Spartan brides would probably know their grooms
  • They wouldn’t marry until they were in their late teens to early 20
  • No financial aspect
39
Q

What would the Spartan bride do on her wedding night, and what would the groom be doing?

A
  • The bride would cut her hair short, to look like a man
  • She would dress in a man’s clothes and sandals
  • She would lie on the floor of the bedroom in the house that she and her husband would share together
  • The groom would be having dinner with his syssition
  • He would go to sleep in the military barracks, but would sneak out to the house
40
Q

In a Spartan wedding, what would happen once the bride and groom were together?

A
  • The groom would enter the bedroom and consummate the marriage
  • The groom would then leave and return to his barracks
  • The couple were then considered to be married, with no witnesses needed
40
Q

How often would a Spartan married couple see each other?

A
  • They wouldn’t live together until the groom retired from the military
  • They would only see each other at night
40
Q

What were the duties of a Spartan wife?

A
  • Produce healthy children and provide boys aged 7 to be trained
  • Encourage devotion to state in their children
  • Encouraging Spartan men to try hard in their training
  • Manage household finances
  • Manage the family farm to feed the family and to contribute to husbands syssition
41
Q

What were some freedoms enjoyed by Spartan women?

A
  • Could own property
  • Didn’t need to be escorted when they left the house
  • Expected to train in sports
42
Q

What was a Roman Bulla?

A
  • A locket worn by Roman children to give them good luck and keep them safe from evil spirits
43
Q

What ritual was meant to grant a female baby Juno’s protection?

A
  • They would put a couch out for her, which they believed would invite Juno into their house and she could watch over the baby when it was at its weakness
44
Q

Where was the Sappho Fresco located and when was it made?

A
  • A villa in Pompeii
  • Middle of the first century CE
45
Q

What does the Sappho Fresco depict?

A
  • A Roman girl holding a wax tablet and stylus
  • Clothes use lots of fabric
  • Nicely put together hair, but its not ostentatious
46
Q

How were Roman girls educated?

A
  • INstructed in domestic tasks such as spinning wool and cooking by their mother or a female slave
  • They’d also learn basic literacy and numeracy
  • Poorer girls would often learn a trade so they could earn money
47
Q

What were Roman betrothal customs?

A
  • MArriage matches made by Paterfamilias to benefit family
  • Might be made to solidify a political or business alliance between two families, or to improve the social standing of families, or for financial gain
  • Paterfamilias of each household would agree to the match and agree to the dowry, and the couple would be engaged
  • Both the bridge and groom had to agree to be betrothed
  • Families would often throw a party to celebrate betrothal- but the couple was not considered married yet
48
Q

What was Cum Manu marriage?

A
  • ‘with hand’
  • Wife legally transferred to her husband’s family
  • The wife could inherit from her husband, but not her father
  • Required a dowry to be paid
49
Q

What was Sine Manu marriage?

A
  • ‘without hand’
  • More common in wealthy families who wanted to keep wealth within their own family
  • The wife remained a legal part of her old household, and could inherit from her father but not her husband
  • No dowry required
  • CHildren would be part of the father’s family
  • The wife would have to move out the house for 3 consecutive days each year otherwise the marriage became cum manu
50
Q

What were the 3 different types of Roman wedding ceremony?

A
  • Coemptio
  • Confarreation
  • Usus
51
Q

What were Coemptio weddings?

A
  • For Cum Manu marriages
  • The bride would be ‘sold’ by her paterfamilias
  • He would place a coin in a set of banking sclaes, which symbolised her dowry
52
Q

What were Confarreatio weddings?

A
  • For Cum Manu marriages
  • Only Patricians had them
  • The Pontifex Maximus (head Priest) was present and a Pronuba (women who had been married only once) would preside
  • Offerings of salt cake were made to Jupiter
53
Q

What were Usus weddings?

A
  • Could be for Cum or Sine Manu marriages
  • The couple declared they were married in front of witnesses
  • The most common form of wedding
54
Q

What happened the day before a Roman wedding?

A
  • Bride sacrificed her bulla and childhood toys to the Lares of the house
55
Q

What would a Roman bride wear?

A
  • A wedding dress
  • Knotted woolen belt, that would remain tied until her husband untied it that night
  • A flame coloured veil, with her hair in six locks, like a Vestal Virgin
56
Q

What would happen on the day of a Roman wedding?

A
  • Ceremony would take place in the bride’s father’s house
  • A lavish wedding feast took place there
  • The groom would make a show of force and pretend to steal the bride from her mother, reenacting the rape of the Sabine women
  • A procession took place to the groom’s house- guests would sing hymns, women would hold spindles and the groom would throw nuts and dried fruits to the crows
57
Q

What happened once a Roman bride reached her groom’s house?

A
  • The bride would wrap wool around the doorposts
  • The bride would be carried over the threshold of the house by her husband, as it was seen to be unlucky if she tripped
  • The couple would visit the family’s hearth, which the bride would light with a torch from the procession, and the couple would reitre to their bedroom
58
Q

What would a Roman bride have during her wedding?

A
  • Three coins
  • One dropped during the procession for Janus, the god of transitions
  • One given to her husband
  • One given as a sacrifice to the Lares of her new home
59
Q

What would the duties of a Roman matrona be?

A
  • Conceive and bear children
  • Rear children
  • Oversee day-to-day running of household
  • Have a job (POOR ONLY)
  • Manage household slaves (RICHER ONLY)
  • Organise and attend dinner parties
  • Lead the household in the absence of her husband
60
Q

Why was it expected for Matronae to rear children?

A
  • Matronae who took an active role in rearing their children would be well respected, leading to a good public image for the family
61
Q

Why were Matronae expected to organise and attend dinner parties?

A
  • She’d be able to boost her family’s reputation by attending dinners, which could lead to many beneficial opportunities such as business partnerships, marriage offers etc.
62
Q

What freedoms would a Roman matrona have?

A
  • Not restricted from leaving the house
  • Could attend public games, festivals and the theatre
  • Could occasionally take a leading role in managing the household when her husband was away
63
Q

What is the Laudautio Turiae and when was it written?

A
  • A funerary inscription
  • ‘In Praise of Turia’
  • Made in the first century BC
64
Q

What happened to Turia before she was married?

A
  • Her parents were murdered
  • The murderers were prosecuted and punished, meaning Turia must have gotten a male relative to help her
  • During this time, she went to live with her mother in law to protect her modesty
65
Q

What happened to Turia after her parents were murdered?

A
  • The relatives of Turia’s father made a claim to his inheritance
  • Turia spoke in defence of her claim to the inheritance herself, which suggested she was educated in the law as well as public speaking
66
Q

What domestic virtues of Turia were listed, and how long did the marriage last?

A
  • 40 years
  • Described as loyal and obedient
  • Wove wool to make into textiles for the household
  • Modest appearance
67
Q

How was Turia generous?

A
  • She helped to provide dowries for women in her family who couldn’t afford a big enough dowry to attract a suitable husband
68
Q

How did Turia help her husband during the 1st Century BC?

A
  • He was forced to flee Rome during political power changes in Rome
  • Turia looked after the household affairs and ensured he lived comfortably by sending him her jewelry to sell, money and provisions
  • She also went to a politician, and begged for mercy for her husband
69
Q

How did Turia save her husband’s life?

A
  • She prepared a hiding place for him when thugs came to their house
  • Repelled thugs from their house when it had been seized
  • Begged another politician for mercy for her husband, and was dragged away and beaten like a slave, but still managed to win the safety of her husband
70
Q

What unforeseen disaster affected Turia and her husband?

A
  • They were unable to conceive
  • Turia offered to divorce her husband and find him a new wife so he could have children
71
Q

What was slavery like in the Ancient Mediterranean?

A
  • Greece and Rome were both slave societies
  • The most common way for someone to be enslaved was by being captured in war, kidnapped by pirates or being born into slavery
72
Q

What were the duties of slaves in Athens?

A
  • Managed by Kyria
  • Typically work alongside free women in producing textiles
  • Do chores such as answering the door, cooking, cleaning, supervising children, collecting water or going to the market
  • She might be put to work outside the household, such as by renting herself as a wetnurse or helping in the family business
73
Q

What were the rights of slaves in Athens?

A
  • Thought of as property
  • Allowed to be beaten, but not by someone outside of the family they were owned by
  • They could have a family, but only with permission
  • A master who excessively mistreated a slave could be taken to court
  • A slave could take asylum at the shrine of Theseus near the Acropolis
  • There was a holiday especially for slaves where they dined with their masters
74
Q

What were the restrictions on Athenian slaves?

A
  • Under the total authority of the Kyrios
  • Their treatment was entirely dependent on the temperament of their masters
  • Their family could be broken up by their master at any time
  • Athenian law didn’t recognise marriage between slaves
  • If slaves were required to give evidence in a law suit, it would have to be obtained under torture
75
Q

How were Athenian slaves welcomed to a family?

A
  • Welcomed with nuts and fruits like a newly-wed wife
76
Q

What was manumission like in Athens?

A
  • Could only be freed by theur master- this might happen if their master was very old, or in his will after his death
  • Slaves could sometimes buy their own freedom
  • Not as common as in Rome
  • Freed slaves didn’t become citizens, but Metics (resident aliens)
77
Q

What were the duties of female domestic slaves in Rome?

A
  • Do chores such as answering the door, cooking, cleaning, supervising children, collecting water or going to the market
  • Could be made to work outside the household
  • Commonly required to do skilled tasks such as managing household finances- so might have been given a limited education
  • Weave to produce textiles
  • Conceive and bear children
78
Q

Who was the most important female slave, and what would she do?

A
  • Vilica
  • Managed other female slaves
  • Tend to the family’s hearth and shrine
  • Grind flour for bread
  • Preserve food for winter
  • Cook meals for the household
79
Q

What were the rights of Roman slaves?

A
  • May have been hierarchies within slaves- certain women may have been able to exercise authority
  • Couldn’t officially marry, but they were allowed to form partnerships known as Contuberniam
80
Q

What were the restrictions on Roman slaves?

A
  • Couldn’t leave the house without permission, couldn’t own property or make decisions about their own life
  • Treatment dependent on temperament of masters
  • Roman law didn’t recognise marriage between slaves
81
Q

What was manumission like in Rome?

A
  • Fairly common for an owner to grant freedom
  • Some masters would grant a female slave freedom once she had borne three children, who would remain enslaved
  • Once freed, they’d be called a freedman
  • They wouldn’t have full citizenship rights
  • Remained connected to their master for life, as they became their Patron

Women in the Ancient World (8 decks)

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