CLA /GWS 206: Women in the Ancient World

Women in Archaic Greece Plan for Today

• Partheneia • korai • Homeric Hymn to Demeter • Sappho • Archaic misogyny • Discussion • Marriage • what makes a good wife? a bad wife? • Homework for Monday TIMELINE OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Greece ANCIEN LATE BRONZE AGE IRON AGE ARCHAIC CLASSICAL HELLENISTIC ROMAN T 1200 BCE 700 BCE 480 BCE 323 BCE 31 BCE 330 CE

ANCIEN LATE BRONZE AGE Rome T 1650 – 1200 BCE MONARCHY REPUBLIC EMPIRE EARLY IRON AGE 1100 – 700 BCE 510 BCE 27 BCE 476 CE

ARCHAIC PERIOD MONARCHY 700 – 500 BCE 753 - 510 BCE

CLASSICAL PERIOD REPUBLIC 500 – 323 BCE 510-27 BCE

HELLENISTIC PERIOD EMPIRE 323 – 31 BCE 27 BCE– 476 CE

ROMAN PERIOD 31 BCE – 330 CE Terms

• Parthenos (parthenoi pl.): unmarried woman, virgin • Partheneia: the period of time in which girls are parthenoi • Gyne (gynaikes pl.): married woman • Oikos (oikoi pl.): house or home in a broad range of senses, including that of “family” or “family property” Korai

• Kore (korai pl.): girl, daughter, virgin; cult name for Persephone; term used for the statue depictions of young women (either as dedications to a goddess or as a funerary marker) • Phrasicleia, c. 530 BCE • “The grave of Phrasicleia: I shall be called girl [kore] forever; for instead of marriage, I received this name from the gods.” Korai

• Phrasicleia, c. 530 BCE • “The grave of Phrasicleia: I shall be called girl [kore] forever; for instead of marriage, I received this name from the gods.” • Hestia • “…she swore a great oath, which is what came to pass, touching the head of her father Zeus, the aegis-bearer, that she would remain a virgin for all her days, most noble goddess, and to her father Zeus gave this beautiful honor instead of marriage.” (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 26-29) Transition to marriage: Homeric Hymn to Demeter • Composed in later 7th or early 6th c. BCE • Emphasizes the “problematic side of marriage” • Abduction and transition • Pinakes in Magna Graecia • Eleusinian Mysteries

Persephone and Hades, pinax, Locri, c 500-450 BCE Transition to marriage: Sappho

“Honestly, I wish I were dead!” Weeping many tears she left me,

Saying this as well: “Oh, what dreadful things have happened to us, Sappho! I don’t want to leave you!”

I answered her: “Go with my blessings and remember me, for you know how we cherished you.

“Sappho and Erinna in a Gardenat Mytilene,” Simeon Solomon, 1864 “But if you have [forgotten], I want to remind you… of the beautiful things that happened to us: Transition to marriage: Sappho “And many woven garlands made from flowers… around your tender neck,

“And…with costly royal myrrh… you anointed…

“And on a soft bed …tender… you satisfy your desire… “Sappho and Erinna in a Gardenat Mytilene,” Simeon Solomon, 1864

“Nor was there any… nor any holy… From which we were away, …nor grove…” (fr. 94, trans. Snyder) Sappho

• Born c. 612 BCE • Lesbos • Aristocratic family • Question of her sexuality and social role • Poetry public or private? Alcman

• Poet from Sparta in the 7th c BCE • Partheneia, songs sung by choruses of parthenoi • Displays of emotion and physical appreciation • “…and the desire that looses the limbs, but she looks glances more melting than sleep and death…” (fr. 3P) • Cf. Sappho fr. 130: “limb-loosening love makes me tremble— bittersweet, irresistible, surreptitious” Fragmentary body of Clazomenian neck-amphora, London, c. 550-540 BCE Male Lyric Poets

• Hesiod • From Boeotia, c. 750-650 • didactic poetry: Works & Days • epic poetry: Theogony (birth of the gods) • Archilochus • From Paros, c. 687-652 • Known for iambic invective • Cologne Epode • Semonides • From Amorgos, c. 7th c. • Iambic poetry: On Women Archaic Misogyny Discussion Groups

• 1-3: Hesiod • Compare and contrast how Hesiod tells the story of Pandora in the Theogony (WLGR 68…but see longer selection online, lines 535- 615) and Works and Days (WLGR 68). • What ideas about women does Pandora relate in each poem? • 4-5: Archilochus • WLGR 277: What activity is being represented? Who are the people involved in this poem and how do they relate to one another? • What activities or characteristics of women are objects of approval? Of disapproval? • 6-7: Semonides • WLGR 69: Note the different “types” of women Semonides identifies. To what does he relate them? How do the qualities relate? • What activities or characteristics of women are objects of approval? Of disapproval? For Next Week Archaic Women & Classical Women • Monday: Archaic Women, intro to the Classical Period, private life • Required Reading: • WCW pp. 68-83, 96-106 • WLGR 319 (Xenophon) • Fill out (and bring to class) SQ3R for WLGR 319 • Questions: What is the ideal relationship between husband and wife? What does the ideal wife do? What is she like? • Look through: paper assignment; paper due 3/1 • Friday: Classical women: private life