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Women in the Law Courts of Classical Athens 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd i 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Intersectionality in Classical Antiquity Series Editors: Mark Masterson, Victoria University of Wellington, Fiona McHardy, University of Roehampton and Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Hamilton College This series focuses on the intersection of gender and sexuality, in the Greco- Roman world, with a range of other factors including race, ethnicity, class, ability, masculinity, femininity, transgender and post-colonial gender studies. The books in the series will be theoretically informed and will sit at the fore- front of the study of a variety of outsiders – those marginalised in relation to the ‘classical ideal’ – and how they were differently constructed in the ancient world. The series is also interested in the ways in which work in the fi eld of classical reception contributes to that study. Editorial Advisory Board Patty Baker, Alastair Blanshard, Susan Deacy, Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, Cristiana Franco, Genevieve Liveley, Amy Richlin, Carisa R. Showden Books available in the series Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World, ed. Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer Women in the Law Courts of Classical Athens, Konstantinos Kapparis Forthcoming books in the series Marginalised Populations in the Ancient Greek World: The Bioarchaeology of the Other, Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver Visit the series web page at: edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-intersectionality- in-classical-antiquity 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd iiii 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Women in the Law Courts of Classical Athens Konstantinos Kapparis 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd iiiiii 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Konstantinos Kapparis, 2021 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/13 Adobe Garamond by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 4672 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 4674 7 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 4675 4 (epub) The right of Konstantinos Kapparis to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd iivv 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Contents Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Women and the legal system of the Athenian democracy: Why is it important? 1 The intersection of the law with the lives of women 8 Sources 12 The modern literature 14 Part I Cases Involving Women Litigants 1. Lysias , To Antigenes, on the Abortion 23 2. Lysias, On the Daughter of Antiphon 26 3. Hypereides, Against Aristagora, Aprostasiou (Two Speeches) 29 4. Deinarchos, That the Daughters of Aristophon Are Not Heiresses; or, Diamartyria that the Daughter of Aristophon Is Not an Heiress 36 5. Pericles, In Defence of Aspasia, for Impiety 39 6. [Demosthenes] 40, To Boiotos on his Mother’s Dowry 43 7. Hypereides, Against Demetria, Apostasiou 46 8. Lysias 32, Against Diogeiton: A Mother’s Compelling Speech 47 9. Deinarchos, Synegoria to Hegelochos, for the Epikleros, or Against Hegelochos, Synegoria on Behalf of the Epikleros 51 10. Deinarchos, Against Hedyle, Apostasiou 52 11. Lysias, To Lais 53 12. [Deinarchos], Dispute Between the Priestess of Demeter and the Hierophant 56 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd v 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM vi WOMEN IN THE LAW COURTS OF CLASSICAL ATHENS 13. Lycurgus, On the Priestess 60 14. Deinarchos, For an Epikleros: For the Daughter of Iophon 66 15. Euboulides, Against the Sister of Lakedaimonios, for Impiety 67 16. Hypereides, In Defence of Mika 67 17. Apollodoros, Against Neaira 68 18. Lysias, For Nikomache 68 19. Menekles, Against Ninos the Priestess, for Impiety 69 20. Lysias, On the Daughter of Onomakles 73 21. Isaios 3, On the Estate of Pyrrhos 73 22. Lysias, Against Philonides for Rape 75 23. Hypereides, In Defence of Phryne 76 24. Lysias, On the Daughter of Phrynichos 82 25. Isaios, To Satyros, for the Epikleros 83 26. Antiphon 1, Against the Stepmother for Poisoning 84 27. Demosthenes, Against Theoris, for Impiety 85 28. Hypereides, To Timandra 88 Part II Women and the Athenian Justice System 1. Women’s Participation in the Athenian Justice System 105 Women’s access to the various layers of the justice system 105 Representation versus exclusion 112 Not all women are the same 117 Conclusions 120 2. Judicial Procedures Involving Women 124 An overview of processes in the Athenian justice system 124 Women and politics 129 Citizenship and immigration violations 131 Prosecutions for religious offences 136 Economic disputes 143 Violent crime 147 Personal responsibility before the law 149 3. Gender as a Factor in the Construction of the Argument 155 Gender stereotypes as a factor in trials involving both men and women: An introduction 155 The dutiful wife and mother 157 The indecent women of Athens 164 The poisoner and the witch 169 Images of the body and sexuality 172 A woman with a past 175 Conclusions 180 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd vvii 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM CONTENTS vii 4. Women’s Empowerment, Social Groups and the Justice System 187 Introduction 187 Citizen women in the Athenian polis 188 Metic women in the Athenian polis 197 The working women of Athens: Legal implications 202 Conclusions 207 5. Conclusions 217 Appendix: The Main Laws Affecting the Lives of Athenian Women 227 1. The law on marriage 227 2. The law on the epidikasia 228 3. The law on the epidikasia of a poor epikleros 229 4. The Periclean citizenship law 230 5. The laws prohibiting mixed marriages between Athenians and non-Athenians 231 6. The law on divorce 232 7. The laws on adultery affecting women 233 8. The laws on succession and inheritance directly affecting women 234 9. The social network: the laws requiring the archon to protect women, children and orphans from abuse of their person or property 237 10. All priests and priestesses are equally responsible under the law 240 Select Bibliography 242 Index of Ancient Authors 271 General Index 274 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd vviiii 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Abbreviations bbreviations for Greek authors are mostly as in the Liddell–Scott–Jones A Ancient Greek Lexicon (LSJ ), and abbreviations for Roman authors as in Lewis & Short. Following the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG ), all references to Athenaios are by book and chapter of Kaibel’s edition. A similar principle has been applied to other authors: I tend to follow the numbering of the TLG in order to make it easier for the reader to check references, as electronic databases are increasingly becoming the dominant form. For the fragments of ancient authors I indicate the editor. I am not fond of Latinising the names of Greek authors, and I tend to keep them as close to their original form as possible, but for some commonly used names in English (for example, Plato or Epicurus) one must keep the Latinised spelling. Inevitably this creates an inconsistency, but since it is not likely to cause any confusion, I fi nd it acceptable. 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd vviiiiii 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM Introduction WOMEN AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY: WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? he majority of studies on Athenian law do not have much to say about the Tinteractions of Athenian women with the legal system of the democracy in the classical period.1 The dikasteria, the two boulai and the ekklesia were the domain of men, and women simply did not belong. Narratives about the status of Athenian women often advance images of a society divided along lines of gender so impermeable that women transgressing into the world of men in any capacity or form should be viewed as aberrations, like those tragic heroines who violently crossed the boundaries of their gender and sought to take male roles, always with bad consequences, as for example Klytemestra did when she sought to rule in her husband’s place.2 Such narratives assume roles for the women of the Athenian democracy based on obedience, subservience, silence and fragility, where women did not engage with the institutions of the democracy, but relied on their fathers or husbands to take care of anything and everything that hap- pened beyond their doorstep. These narratives were sometimes infl uenced by 1980s struggles over gender equality; they were based upon the assumption that men and women have been engaged in a perpetually and intensely antithetical relationship, and in some extreme cases divided women in society along the lines of crisply defi ned roles either as respectable citizen wives and mothers, or as shady outsiders.3 However, real life rarely fi ts well into such neat normative patterns; real life is nuanced, complex and often random, chaotic and unpre- dictable, and this is where these narratives fell short. They failed to take into account shades and variable patterns between the absolute positions which they often advocated. Somewhere between the full engagement or the full exclusion of Athenian women from the justice system and public life altogether there may be shades, and more variable and fl exible patterns. Therefore, the question should not be whether women were included in the Athenian justice system on 66664_Kapparis.indd664_Kapparis.indd 1 115/12/205/12/20 112:042:04 PPMM 2 WOMEN IN THE LAW COURTS OF CLASSICAL ATHENS the same level as men, but whether there were degrees and patterns of inclusion somewhere in between equal inclusion and total exclusion.
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