CLA 015 Terms (Midterm Review)

Patriarchy

a social system in which men ‘rule’

Matriarchy

a social system in which women ‘rule’.

Patrilineal

descent is reckoned in the male line. What family group one belongs to is primarily a function of which group one’s father belonged to

Matrilineal

descent reckoned in the female line. Some patriarchal societies may have been organized around a matrilineal conception of the family

Mother Goddess

mistress (of the animals)

Amazons

a legendary, all-female tribe of warriors and hunters renowned for their exceptional archery, riding skills, and physical strength; In ancient Greece, as in other patriarchal societies, men used myths of the ‘evil’ ______ matriarchy to justify patriarchy. These myths serve to support the existing patriarchal order by positing an earlier era or alternative place in which women rule, do evil things, and are overthrown.

Pandora (name and myth)

all gifts, created as sorrows for hard-working men

Misogyny

having hatred towards women

Hesiod on Pandora/women

In Theogony, Hesiod give the impression that he believes that women are inferior and subordinate to men. Hesiod is effectively stating that women are the root of all evil. So according to Hesiod, before women arrived, men lived happy lives. There were no real problems. But when Pandora opened the box, she unleashes all these problems upon them.

Semonides on women

From the start, the gods made women different.

• pig, fox, dog, earth, sea, ass, weasel, horse, ape

• bee: Good luck in finding such a woman!

• Zeus made this the greatest pain of all: Woman

Thinks all women have bad traits and that good women (bee characteristics) are rare to find.

Oikos

family, household, estate/property

Epikleros

heiress (attached to the estate), does not inherit properly, but ‘carry’ the estate to preserve the order of inheritance had she not existed

Symposium

a conference or meeting to discuss a particular subject.

Hetaera

companion, knows that a man must be bought by her attentions, or she will need to go and find another

Erinna’s Distaff

a poem written in sorrow for the death of Baucis, a friend of her girlhood. Talks about how after Baucis got married, she forgot about her childhood, and love (aphrodite) caused her to change. Erinna wasn’t able to attend the funeral or mourn openly.

kore/pl. korai

another word for maiden, used for a type of clothed statue of adolescence

Alcman's parthéneia

maiden songs

homosocial

same-gender groups; men socialized with men; women socialized with women; genders are separated except in family

homoerotic

portraying love and sexual desire for a person of the same gender

Demeter

Greek goddess in charge of fertility in crops.

Persephone

daughter of the agricultural goddess, Demeter, who was a victim of bride kidnapping in the form of Hades’ abduction and rape.

Sappho

a renowned lyric poet from Lesbos, celebrated for her musical verses on love and desire, often sung with a lyre. Her association with the island of Lesbos led to the term "lesbian" and "sapphic," referring to female homosexuality.

Helen

a polarizing and problematic character in Greek myth. Mostly vilified for having caused the Trojan War, yet also pitied for this burden and even absolved of guilt, her shifting caused the Trojan War, yet also pitied for this burden and even absolved of guilt, her shifting image seems to move across a large spectrum of male representations of women in Archaic image Greek literature, from evil agency to Greek literature, from beguiling monster to passive appendix of men, from evil agency to powerless victim of fate or divinity, from an adulterous heartless mother to an obedient.

Penelope

the loyal, clever wife of Odysseus, Queen of Ithaca, who skillfully delays over a hundred persistent suitors for twenty years while awaiting her husband's return by weaving and unweaving a funeral shroud for his father, Laertes, symbolizing her fidelity and patience until Odysseus's return and revenge.

Andromache

the devoted wife of the Trojan hero Hector, known for her tragic loyalty and foresight as she pleads with him to stay from battle, knowing his death will leave her a widow with their son, Astyanax.

Xenophon, Oeconomicus (Household Economy)

In Oeconomicus, Xenophon uses Socratic dialogue to show how Athenian households were organized and controlled. Socrates highlights a contradiction: men entrust their wives with major responsibilities while barely speaking to them and marrying them very young, with no experience of the world. Through Ischomachus, Xenophon describes the ideal wife as carefully sheltered, trained by her husband to manage the household, supervise slaves, and care for the sick. The passage reflects strict gender roles, limited female education, and the expectation that wives serve as obedient managers of the domestic sphere under male authority.

Lysias 32, Against Diogeiton

A forensic speech by Lysias involving a dispute where Diogeiton is accused of embezzling the inheritance of his grandchildren. It is notable for featuring a rare instance of a woman's voice in Athenian legal record, as the mother of the children directly confronts her father to protect her children's rights and the oikos.

Lysias 1, On the Murder of Eratosthenes

A speech by Lysias defending a man accused of murdering Eratosthenes, where the speaker argues self-defense and provocation, highlighting the details of Athenian law where it states that a man may kill a man caught in adultery with his wife. The speech examines themes of honor, justice, and the emotional turmoil surrounding the act.

hysteria

lack of intercourse → womb light & dry

→ moves around attracted by moister organs

Aspasia

The most famous concubine of the classical era, mistress of the great Athenian statesman, Pericles. Little is known of her background other than that she was born in Miletus, a Greek coastal town in Asia Minor, probably to a wealthy family, around 470 BCE, and eventually made her way to Athens. She might have originally been a brothel owner and a hetaera rather than a concubine and she may have lived with Pericles simply as his mistress. Whatever the case, her status as a foreigner entitled her to legal freedoms unavailable to respectable wives, such as the ability to participate in public life. Highly educated, she entertained many important intellectuals in her home, purportedly even instructing the philosopher, Socrates, in rhetoric. When Pericles divorced his wife in 445 BCE, she lived with him as his consort and bore him a child, Pericles the Younger, who, despite his foreign mother, was made an Athenian citizen by special decree around 430 BCE. Pericles was so enamored of her that he kissed her when he left for work and when he came home each day, apparently quite odd behavior for a married couple in classical Athens. Around 438 BCE, she was prosecuted for impiety, probably for political reasons. Several comedies attack her for her political influence over Pericles, comparing her to notorious mythic figures such as Helen and Deianira.

Neaera

a hetaera who was accused of unlawfully marrying an Athenian citizen

Sparta

In this area, women had more rights and enjoyed greater autonomy than women in any other Greek city-state of the Classical Period (5th-4th centuries BCE). Women could inherit property, own land, make business transactions, and were better educated than women in ancient Greece in general. Unlike Athens, where women were considered second-class citizens, women from this area were said to rule their men.

gynaikokratia/gynaecocracy/gynecocracy

literally means "rule by women" (from Greek gynē, woman, and kratos, power).

Thesmophoria

a women-only festival in honor of Demeter Thesmophoros

Hellenistic/Hellenistic Period

the spread and blending of Greek culture, language, and ideas (Hellenism) throughout Alexander the Great's vast empire after his conquests; the time span from the death of Alexander in 323 BCE to the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BCE, marking the transition from the small, contained world of the Greek polis to large urban centers such as Alexandria, Pergamon, and Antioch;

Nossis

a Hellenistic poet from Epizephyrian Locris in Magna Graecia. Probably well-educated and from a noble family, Nossis was influenced by and claimed to rival Sappho. Eleven or twelve of her epigrams, mostly religious dedications and epitaphs, survive in the Greek Anthology.

Hipparchia

a female philosopher who adopts a Cynic way of life. She challenges common societal norms in women. Her achievements are more double than the average woman.