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The Private Sphere

The Private Sphere. Athenian Women and Public Space. A Greek House (Athens, Areopagus, 5 th Century BCE ). Women Working Wool (Vase Painting ca. 470 BCE). Greek Opposition Tables. The Evaluation of the Female. The Female Principle through Some Male Lenses.

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The Private Sphere

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  1. The Private Sphere Athenian Women and Public Space

  2. A Greek House (Athens, Areopagus, 5th Century BCE)

  3. Women Working Wool (Vase Painting ca. 470 BCE)

  4. Greek Opposition Tables The Evaluation of the Female

  5. The Female Principle throughSome Male Lenses • Woman as Seducer/Enchantress (Circe, Calypso, Medea); cf. William Congreve (1670-1729), The Mourning Bride, Act 3, scene 8: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned/Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned” • The Female Principle: Wet, Unbounded, Emotional • Aristotle, Politics, 1.13: “In the soul the difference between ruler and ruled is that between the rational and the non-rational.... For rule of free over slave, male over female, man over boy, are all natural, but they are also different. Thus the deliberative faculty in the soul is not present at all in the slave; in a female it is inoperative, in a child undeveloped” • Male/Public/Civic: Female/Private/Domestic

  6. Glimpses of the Athenian Woman and Private and Public Space

  7. Athenian Women: Public and Private • Pericles’ Funeral Oration: Advice to Bereaved Women: “Perhaps I should say a word or two on the duties of the women to those among you who are now widowed. I can say all I have to say in a short word of advice. Your great glory is not to be inferior to what God has made you, and the greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or criticizing you” (Thuc. 2.46) • The Gynaikonitis (see Lysias I) and the Oikos • The Public Appearances of the Athenian Woman • Symposia and Hetairai

  8. Woman Grinding Grain in Handmill Fifth Century BCE Terracotta, Athens

  9. Women Working in Bakery(Boeotian Terracotta Model)

  10. Public Appearances of Athenian Women • Funerals • Public Festivals (Thesmophoria) • Certain Religious Offices and Ritual Roles • Attendance at the Theater (?)

  11. Domestic Scene(Vase Painting ca. 450 BCE)

  12. Symposia and Hetairai [Demosthenes] 59.122: “We have prostitutes [hetairai] for the sake of pleasure, concubines for daily care of the body, and wives for the purpose of begetting legitimate children and having a reliable guardian of the contents of the house”

  13. Theater of the Absurd?Aristophanes’ Congresswomen (Ecclesiazusae), 392 BCE • Agyrrhios and Payment for Attendance at Assembly (early 4th century BCE) • Images of Women in Congresswomen • Practitioners of Deception • Advocates of Communal Property • Susceptibility to Drunkenness • Unrestrained Sexual Urges

  14. Women Gossiping Late Classical Terracotta

  15. Women’s Sexuality in Congresswomen • Free Love Proposal Becomes Law • Denouement: • Horny Crone vs. Horny Harridan • Absence of Proportion and Propriety • Body over Mind (food, sex)

  16. Revealing Excerpts

  17. Congresswomen, lines 167-168 “It’s Epigonos’ fault. I saw him sitting out there and I thought I was talking to women”

  18. Congresswomen, lines 223-228 “Just like Mother. Nag their husbands till their dead. Hide their lovers under the bed. Just like Mother. Pad the grocery bill with snacks. Take a drink or three to relax. Prefer their pleasure on their backs, happy nymphomaniacs”

  19. Congresswomen, lines 385-387 “They all had that pasty complexion that comes from indoor labor. Congress appeared to be packed with anemia victims”

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