Against Neaera

CLA /GWS 206: Women in the Ancient World

Classical Greece Women & the Law Plan for Today

• On the Murder of Eratosthenes • Adultery & Rape • Against Neaera • The Case • Citizenship • Prostitution • Adultery, again • Homework for Friday On the Murder of Eratosthenes: law on moicheia? [a law is read] He made no denial, members of the jury. He admitted his guilt, and begged and implored that he should not be put to death, offering to pay compensation. But I would not accept his estimate. I preferred to accord a higher authority to the law of the state, and I took that satisfaction which you, because you thought it the most just, have decreed for those who commit such offenses. (29)

Cf. For what cloak-snatcher or thief or adulterer doing such an act secretly will be punished? For whereas those who are caught in the act are instantly put to death if they acknowledge their crime, those who have done the act secretly and deny their guilt are tried in the courts (Aeschines 1.91) On the Murder of Eratosthenes: justifiable homicide [a law recorded on pillar of Areopagus is read] You hear, members of the jury, how it is expressly decreed by the Court of the Areopagus itself, which both traditionally and in your own day has been granted the right to try cases of murder, that no person shall be found guilty of murder who catches an adulterer with his wife and inflicts this punishment. (30)

If a man kills another unintentionally in an athletic contest, or overcoming him in a fight on the highway, or unwittingly in battle, or with his wife, or mother, or sister, or daughter, or concubine [pallakē] kept for procreation of free children, he shall not go into exile as a manslayer on that account. (Law quoted in Demosthenes 23.53) On the Murder of Eratosthenes: punishment of adulterer

…if a man unlawfully imprisons another on a charge of adultery, the person in question may indict him before the Thesmothetae on a charge of illegal imprisonment; and if he shall convict the one who imprisoned him and prove that he was the victim of an unlawful plot, he shall be let off scot free, and his sureties shall be released from their engagement; but if it shall appear that he was an adulterer, the law bids his sureties give him over to the one who caught him in the act, and he in the court room may inflict upon him, as upon one guilty of adultery, whatever treatment he pleases, provided he use no knife. (Against Neaera 66) • Customary not to kill adulterer • Payments • Abuse and humiliation On the Murder of Eratosthenes: punishment for wife Law on Mocheia: If the husband catch the adulterer in the act, he (the husband) shall not be permitted to continue cohabitation with the wife. If he continues cohabitation, he shall be disenfranchised. It shall not be lawful for the woman to be admitted to the public sacrifices, if she has been caught with an adulterer. If she gains entrance, she shall be liable to suffer any ill-treatment whatsoever, short of death, and with impunity. (Against Neaera 87) * Solon, the most illustrious of lawgivers, prescribed—with the gravity appropriate to this earlier period—regulations for the proper conduct of women. He forbade all adornment for a woman caught in adultery, and she was not to attend public sacrifices, lest in mingling with proper women she corrupt them. And if she attended these, or dressed herself up, he ordered someone who come across her to tear her clothes and remove her jewelry and to beat her. He forbade them to murder her, or to leave her maimed, rather dishonoring her and setting her up for a life that was intolerable. (Aeschines, Against Timarchus 183) On the Murder of Eratosthenes: Adultery worse than rape? [a law is read] Thus, members of the jury, the law-giver considered violators deserving of a lesser penalty than seducers: for the latter he provided the death penalty; for the former the doubled fine. His idea was that those who use force are loathed by the persons violated, whereas those who have got their way by persuasion corrupt women’s minds, in such a way to make other men’s wives more attached to themselves than to their husbands, so that the whole house is in their power, and it is uncertain who is the children’s father, the husband or the lover… Rape

• Rape as hybris • An act of violence that brought dishonor to the victim • Rape referred to with verbs meaning disgrace or dishonor • Graphē hybreos • Possible death penalty • “If anyone commits hybris against anyone, whether a child, a woman, or a man, free or slave, or commits any unlawful act against any of these, any Athenian who wishes may bring a public indictment.” (Demosthenes 21.47) Against Neaera: background • Type of Evidence • 4th century court speech • Apollodorus (394- after 343 BCE) • Speeches preserved with speeches of Demosthenes

• Main Characters • Neaera – a metic and former hetaira, now living with Stephanos, 52-60 years old • Stephanos – Athenian citizen, Neaera’s partner and defender • Phano – allegedly a daughter of Neaera Against Neaera: the accusation …I wish to prove this to you clearly, that Neaera is a foreigner and that she lives in marriage with Stephanos, contrary to the laws. (16) * If a foreigner shall live as husband with an Athenian woman in any way or manner whatsoever, he may be indicted before the Thesmothetai by anyone who chooses to do so from among the Athenians having the right to bring charges. And if he be convicted, he shall be sold, himself and his property, and the third part shall belong to the one securing his conviction. The same principle shall hold also if a foreign woman shall live as wife with an Athenian, and the Athenian who lives as husband with the alien woman so convicted shall be fined one thousand drachmae. (16) Against Neaera: the prosecution and the defense

• Prosecution: first prove she is a foreigner by recounting her life, then prove she is living in marriage with Stephanos and passing off her children as citizens. • No indication that Stephanos planned to argue that Neaera was a citizen. • Defense: Children were Stephanos’ from a citizen woman • Contention: not really whether Neaera is/was a prostitute, but whether the children are hers or not.

I for my part wonder what in the world they will say to you in their defense. Will it be that this woman Neaera is of Athenian birth, and that she lives as his wife with Stephanus in accordance with the laws? But testimony has been offered, showing that she is a courtesan, and has been the slave of Nicarete. Or will they claim that she is not his wife, but that he keeps her in his house as a concubine? Yet the woman's sons, by having been introduced to the clansmen by Stephanus, and her daughter, by having been given in marriage to an Athenian husband, prove beyond question that he keeps her as his wife. (117) Against Neaera: Sex Work in Ancient Greece • Terminology • Pornē (pl. pornai) from pernanai “to sell” • “earth-beaters”; brothels • Flute-girls • Hetaira (pl. hetairai) from hetairein “to be a companion” “Tell me, Theodote,” he said, “have you a farm?” “Not I,” she answered. “Or a house, perhaps, that brings in money?” “No, nor a house.” “Some craftsmen, possibly?” “No, none.” “Then where do you get your livelihood from?” “If someone has become my friend and wants to treat me well, he is my livelihood.” (Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.11.4) Ludovisi Cnidian Aphrodite, Roman copy, Rome Against Neaera: Sex Work in Ancient Greece • Famous hetairai: Aspasia, Phryne, Neaera • Neaera’s life as a sex worker • Slave of Nikarete in Corinth • Purchased by two customers (376 BCE, Neaera 19-24 years old) • Purchased freedom with help from lover Phrynion, an Athenian citizen (374 BCE, 21-26 years old) • Mistreated by Phrynion in Athens and leaves for Megara (372 BCE, 22-27 years old) • Taken back to Athens by Stephanos, who offered protection from Phrynion (371 BCE, 24-29 years old) Against Neaera: courtesans, concubines, and wives This is matrimony: when a man begets children and presents his sons to his phratry and deme, and gives his daughters, as being his own, in marriage to their husbands.

Hetaerai we keep for pleasure, concubines (pallakai) for daily attendance upon our person, but wives for the procreation of legitimate children and to be the faithful guardians of our household. (122) Against Neaera: Phano’s first marriage • Prosecution: Phano’s first husband divorced her because he discovered she was not an Athenian citizen

Phrastor observed that she was not well-behaved nor willing to be guided by him, and at the same time he found out for certain that she was not the daughter of Stephanos, but only of Neaera, so that he had been deceived on the first occasion when he was betrothed to her…he turned the young woman out of his house after having lived with her for a year and when she was pregnant; and he refused to return her dowry. (51)

If anyone shall give an alien woman in marriage to an Athenian man, representing her as being related to himself, he shall lose his civic rights and his property shall be confiscated, and a third part of it shall belong to the one who secures his conviction. And anyone entitled to do so may indict such a person before the Thesmothetae, just as in the case of usurpation of citizenship.(52)

• Defense (presumably): Phano’s first marriage failed because of character differences, but the son born to that marriage was legitimate and registered as a citizen, meaning his mother was a citizen • But whose daughter is Phano? Against Neaera: Phano and a moichos Epaenetus, of Andros, an old lover of Neaera, who had spent large sums of money upon her, used to lodge with these people whenever he came to Athens on account of his affection for Neaera. Against him this man Stephanus laid a plot. He sent for him to come to the country under presence of a sacrifice and then, having surprised him in adultery with the daughter of this Neaera, intimidated him and extorted from him thirty minae. As sureties for this sum he accepted Aristomachus, who had served as Thesmothete, and Nausiphilus, the son of Nausinicus, who had served as archon, and then released him under pledge that he would pay the money.

Epaenetus, however, when he got out and was again his own master preferred before the Thesmothetae an indictment for unlawful imprisonment against this Stephanus in accordance with the law which enacts that, if a man unlawfully imprisons another on a charge of adultery, the person in question may indict him before the Thesmothetae on a charge of illegal imprisonment; and if he shall convict the one who imprisoned him and prove that he was the victim of an unlawful plot, he shall be let off scot free, and his sureties shall be released from their engagement; but if it shall appear that he was an adulterer, the law bids his sureties give him over to the one who caught him in the act, and he in the court room may inflict upon him, as upon one guilty of adultery, whatever treatment he pleases, provided he use no knife. (65-66) Against Neaera: Phano and a moichos He admitted having intercourse with the woman, but denied that he was an adulterer; for, he said, she was not the daughter of Stephanus, but of Neaera, and the mother knew that the girl was having intercourse with him, and he had spent large sums of money upon them, and whenever he came to Athens he supported the entire household. In addition to this he brought forward the law which does not permit one to be taken as an adulterer who has to do with women who sit professionally in a brothel or who openly offer themselves for hire; for this, he said, is what the house of Stephanus is, a house of prostitution; this is their trade, and they get their living chiefly by this means.

When Epaenetus had made these statements and had preferred the indictment, this Stephanus, knowing that he would be convicted of keeping a brothel and extorting blackmail, submitted his dispute with Epaenetus for arbitration to the very men who were the latter's sureties on the terms that they should be released from their engagement and that Epaenetus should withdraw the indictment. (67- 68) Against Neaera: Phano’s second marriage • Prosecution: Phano’s second husband divorced her because he found out she was not a citizen.

[the Athenians] established a law that his wife should be of Athenian birth, and that he should marry a virgin who had never known another man, to the end that after the custom of our fathers the sacred rites that none may name may be celebrated on the city's behalf, and that the approved sacrifices may be made to the gods as piety demands, without omission or innovation. (65-66) • Defense (presumably): Her second marriage failed because she married the archon basileus, who by law had to marry a virgin. The archon basilinna (wife of the archon basileus) played a significant role in the Anthesteria, and for that reason her status mattered to the state. Against Neaera: What will your wives say?!

And when each one of you goes home, what will he find to say to his own wife or his daughter or his mother, if he has acquitted this woman?—when the question is asked you, “Where were you?” and you answer, “We sat as jury.” “Trying whom?” it will at once be asked, “Neaera,” you will say, of course, will you not? “because she, an alien woman, is living as wife with an Athenian contrary to law, and because she gave her daughter, who had lived as a harlot, in marriage to Theogenes, the king, and this daughter performed on the city's behalf the rites that none may name, and was given as wife to Dionysus.” … And the women, when they have heard, will say, “Well, what did you do?” And you will say, “We acquitted her.” At this point the most virtuous of the women will be angry at you for having deemed it right that this woman should share in like manner with themselves in the public ceremonials and religious rites; and to those who are not women of discretion you point out clearly that they may do as they please, for they have nothing to fear from you or the laws. For if you treat the matter with indifference or toleration, you will yourselves seem to approve of this woman's conduct. (110-111) For Friday Classical Women • Papers due • Leave hard-copies in the box outside my office (Blaustein 304) no later than 4:00 pm • Required Reading: • WCW pp. 118-124 • No lecture on Friday BUT group discussion with a Moodle post: • Each group will meet during class-time and make one post on the Moodle forum addressing the following: • Compare and contrast what Plato and Aristotle have to say about women and their abilities. • What is different about men and women? What is the same? What evidence does each acknowledge? • Compare and contrast with what you know (cite evidence!) of how Athenians typically understood male and female capacity. • Prof. Papathanasopoulou’s talk on Medea • “Serpent Heart: Animality, Jealousy, and Transgression in Martha Graham's Medea” • 2:45-4pm Chu Room in Shain Library • Extra credit