Wife Household and Marketplace

Collana di Studi di Filologia, Archeologia, Storia, Scienza e Società delmondo Antico, Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara

DONNE CHE CONTANO NELLA STORIA GRECAa cura di Umberto Bultrighini Elisabetta Dimauro

KOINOS LOGOS

Collana di studi di Filologia, Archeologia, Storia, Scienza e Società del mondo anticoUniversità degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara

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Collana diretta daUmberto Bultrighini - Giulio Lucchetta

Comitato Scientifi coCinzia Bearzot - Lucio Bertelli - Enrico Berti

Maurizio Bettini - Roger W. Brock - Silvio CataldiAlessandra Coppola - Elisabetta Dimauro - Giulio FirpoEmilio Galvagno - Giovanni Giorgini - Manuel Knoll

Jean-Louis Labarrière - François Prost - Wolfgang Schuller - Michael Segre

Volume pubblicato con il contributo del Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali dell’Università “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara

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Collana: KOINOS LOGOSAutore: (a cura di) Umberto Bultrighini - Elisabetta DimauroTitolo: Donne che contano nella Storia grecaISBN: 978-88-6344-367-7

In copertina, Elena e Paride (1995), opera di Bruno Di Pietro

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DONNE CHE CONTANO NELLA STORIA GRECA

a cura di

Umberto BultrighiniElisabetta Dimauro

CARABBA

Edward M. Harris

Wife, Household, and MarketplaceTh e Role of Women in the Economy of Classical Athens

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In Book 2 of the Odyssey Telemachus summons the people of Ithaca to a meeting and complains about the conduct of the suitors of his mother Penelope. He says that they spend their days feasting in his house, eating his food and drinking his wine, and demands that they leave. Antinoos replies to his complaints by reminding Telemachus that Penelope promised to marry one of them as soon as she fi nished weaving a shroud for Laertes, but she tried to deceive them by unraveling during the night what she had woven during the day (Od. II 93-110). Although he blames her for misusing her skills, he praises her talent for making very beautiful products, an obvious allusion to her weaving (Od. II 116-19. Cf. I 357-8)

Th e contribution of women like Penelope to the productive capacity of their households and its role in the ancient economy is the subject of my essay. One might think that women like Penelope, Helen, and Andromache wove this clothing mainly for use in the household, to provide clothing for their families. But these goods played an important role in the gift economy of the Homeric world. Wealthy men in the Iliad and Odyssey often win friends and allies by giving gifts to people in their own community or guest friends (xénoi) who come from abroad.1 For instance, when Telemachus is

1 For the exchange of valuables in xenia see Herman 1987, pp. 88-97. For the role of textiles in xenia in the Homeric world see Wagner-Hasel 1988.

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about to leave Sparta, Menelaus gives him a two-handled cup, mixing bowl of silver, and embroidered robe made by Helen (Od. XV 101-8). When Priam attempts to persuade Achilles to return the body of his son Hector, he gives him - twelve robes, twelve cloaks, twelve coverlets, twelve mantles, twelve tunics, ten talents, two tripods, four cauldrons, and a large cup (Il. XXIV 229-35). Th e woven items were no doubt produced by the women in his household.2 We recall that when Andromache hears the cries of those mourning the death of her husband Hector, she is weaving at her loom (Iliad XXII 437-41). As these two examples show, the textiles produced by women and slaves working under their supervision are exchanged by their male relatives with men outside the household and thus help to increase the power and prestige of their households in the community at large. Th e networks of xenoi created by gift-exchange enabled the warriors of the Homeric world to gain friends and allies who could prove very useful both at home and abroad. In Classical Athens, the goods produced by women could be sold in the agora for cash and thus helped to increase the wealth of the household. In recent studies of women in Greek History much has been written about the restrictions placed on women, which confi ned them to the household and placed them under the control of their male relatives, and their exclusion from public life.3 What I would like to discuss is their contribution to the economy beyond the household and their active role in promoting the economic position of heir families. In eff ect, I shall argue that donne che contano soldi sono donne che contano.

Before examining the role of women in the household and in the economy, it is crucial to place our discussion in the broader context of a general understanding of the place of the household in economic activity. In particular, we need to look at the organization of production and the relationship between production and

2 Note that Agamemnon says Chryseis will join him in bed and also weave for him (Il. I 31). 3 de Ste. Croix 1970; Schaps 1979. For diff erent approaches, which stress the active role of women in the economy, see Foxhall 1989 and Harris 2006, pp. 333-54 (= Harris 1992 and Harris 2000).

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Wife, Household, and Marketplace.Th e Role of Women in the Economy of Classical Athens

consumption in the Greek household. It will be helpful to start by contrasting the ancient economy with the modern economy. In the traditional bourgeois household of the United States and Europe in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries the two spheres of household and workplace are clearly diff erentiated. Normally the husband worked in an offi ce or a factory away from the house.

Even if the husband owned his own business, from a legal point of view the household and the business were often separate. Th is division between business and household marked the separation between production and consumption. Th e business produced goods and services for sale in the market and provided the owners of the business with income to pay themselves, their employees, and if the business had gone public, dividends to its stock-holders.

Th e owners, employees and stockholders then brought this money back to the household where it was spent. Even today gross national product is determined by looking at the statements of profi ts and losses in annual reports of corporations (and we all know how reliable they are) while consumer indices measure spending by households. Women who adhered to their traditional gender role stayed at home raising children and looking after the household thus did not enter into the world of production but were viewed primarily as consumers - they spent the money their husbands earned. In contrast to the business or workplace the household was the locus of consumption. If a woman’s place was at home - the traditional German triad of Kinder, Küche, Kirche - it was also tied to the world of consumption. Men therefore went to the offi ce or factory while women went shopping. Of course, this stereotype was mainly confi ned to the urban bourgeoisie (it was less applicable in farming communities) and the upper levels of the working class, but it exerted a powerful infl uence on social attitudes and public policy.

Th is division between business and workplace as a sphere of production and household as a sphere of consumption was entirely absent from Classical Athens. Th e main reason for the absence of the division lay in the low level of technology. Modern industry requires a high level of vertical specialization, the organization of large numbers of workers and

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managers, and extensive capital formation. Although there were dozens of occupations in Classical Athens, goods and services in this economy were produced mainly by individuals working by themselves or in small groups.4 Nor did economic activity require much capital investment - the largest investments attested in our sources are for mining enterprises and total about three talents, a sum not beyond the reach of the wealthiest households. Very revealing in this regard is the inventory given by Demosthenes (XXVII 9-11) of the estate left by his father at his death.5

Productive (ejnergav) Assets

Workshop of Knife-Makers32 or 33 slaves worth 5 or 6 mnai, none worth less than 3 mnai (32 or 33 x 5 mnai = 160-65 mnai) 160-65 mnaiRevenue per annum: 30 mnai or 18-19% return on assets

Workshop of Furniture-Makers20 slaves pledged as security for a loan of 40 mnaiAverage value 2-2 1/2 mnai = 65-70 mnai [65-70 mnai]

Revenue per annum: 12 mnai or 17-18% return on assets(If one takes 40 mnai as the value, the return is 30%)

Talent Lent out at 12% interest 60 mnaiRevenue per annum: 7 mnai, 20 dr.

TOTAL VALUE OF PRODUCTIVE ASSETS 290 mnai

(kefavlaion tevttara tavlanta kai; pentakiscivliai)If one takes Finley’s value of 40 mnai for the Furniture Workshop the fi gures do not add up. TOTAL REVENUE PER ANNUM: 49 mnai, 20 dr. rounded up to 50 mnai

4 For the relative absence of vertical specialization in the Athenian economy see Harris 2002. 5 Th is analysis of the inventory is taken from Harris 2002, pp. 81-82.

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(penthvkonta mnai tou ejniautou eJJkavstou)For other examples of rounding, see Dem. XXVII 17, 37

Other Assets

Ivory and Iron for Knives, Wood for Furniture 80 mnaiCopper and Gall 70 mnai Family House 30 mnaiPersonal Items of Mrs. Demosthenes 100 mnaiSilver (unminted) 80 mnaiMaritime Loan to Xuthus 70 mnaiMoney Deposited in the Bank of Pasion 24 mnaiMoney Deposited in the Bank of Pylades 6 mnaiMoney Entrusted to Demomeles 16 mnai

TOTAL OF OTHER ASSETS 8 tal. 50 mnai rounded down from 536 mnai SUM TOTAL OF ALL ASSETS 14 tal. rounded up from 826 mnai

What is striking for our topic is how Demosthenes does not separate the two workshops from the rest of his father’s estate. Th e assets in the workshop are divided into productive and “passive” (not producing revenue). Demosthenes does not list all the assets in one workshop separately from those belonging to the other workshop and rest of the oîkos. Th e raw materials in the furniture shop are instead combined mingled in with the family house, the personal belongings of his mother, silver and various loans owed to his father and unrelated to the business of the workshops. Business and personal assets are thrown together and viewed as parts of a single entity. Furthermore the household is viewed not only as a unit of consumption, but as a unit of production that provides revenues6. Money is not earned outside the household and brought there to be spent on consumption.

6 Cf. Cox (1998) 131: «In Xenophon’s account, therefore, the oikos is viewed as a unit of production, a unit of consumption and as a unit of reproduction».

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Production occurs within the household and manufactures goods sold in the marketplace to gain cash.

Th e combination of consumption and production is refl ected in the physical layout of house and workshop. Instead of lying at a distance from one another, they might be adjacent. A lease dated to the late fourth century BCE (IG II2 2496, lines 1-17) shows how the activities of consumption and production could be in close proximity:

To Good Fortune. In the priesthood of Philippides. Antimachos, son of Mnesichares, Demaretos the son of Leosthenes, Ctesias, the son of Ctesiphon, Ctesichares, the son of Ctesiphon, Ctesias, the son of Timocrates, Chaereas, the son of Mnesichares, the meritai of the Cytheria (?) have leased on the following conditions the workshop in the Piraeus, the dwelling adjacent to it, and the small building at the dung-heap for all time to Eukrates, the son of Exekios, from Aphidna for 54 drachmas each year free of all charges on the condition that he give 30 drachmas in Hekatombaeon 24 in Poseideon, and repair what is necessary in the workshop and the dwelling in the fi rst year.

Th e results of several excavations reveals how the Greeks did not keep production and consumption separate, but carried out both activities in the same domestic space.7 Two houses excavated at Olynthus and dated to the fi rst half of the fourth century BCE illustrate the combination very well. In House A viii 7 were found 247 loom weights in the pastas area, and another 50 in North Room B.8 On the basis of evidence from vase painting it is estimated that a single loom required anywhere from twenty to forty loom weights.9 Th e number found in this house would therefore have been suffi cient for seven to sixteen looms, which would have produced far beyond the needs of the household. Th e clothing made on these looms must have been sold on the local market. Yet at the same time there was evidence for domestic activity: “fi ve storage amphoras;

7 For some examples from Athens see Jones 1975, pp. 68-75.8 Cahill 2002, pp. 250-52. 9 Cahill 2002, p. 173.

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seven plain and black-glazed vases, at least four thymiateria, three terracotta females masks, and two plastic vases; a fi bula; a lead astragalos; and various objects of bronze, lead or stone.”10 Another dwelling, House A xi 10 also appears to have combined craft production for market with domestic activities. Th e construction of the rooms with cement fl oors and platforms and pithoi suggest that the building was used for pressing olives or grapes. It also contained a kitchen-complex in which were found “terracottas, vases, and fi fty seven-loom weights” and in the pastas were found more household terracottas, vases, and a fi ne bronze brazier.11

Th e same combination of household and craft activities in one dwelling can be seen in the House of the Coroplast at New Halos. Th is was excavated by the Dutch School at Athens during 1978 and 1979.12 Numismatic evidence indicates that the house was occupied in the late fourth century BCE and abandoned around 260 BCE.13 Th e house has nine rooms and measures 13.75 m by 15 m.14 Th ere is a small porch in front of the sole entry to the house, which is marked by a threshold measuring 2.92 m long by .63 m wide. Rooms 1 and 2 appear to have been unroofed and contain few fi nds.15 Room 3 by contrast contained many nails for roof beams and roof tiles indicating that it was covered by a roof. Th is room yielded evidence of craft activity in the form of several molds and clay fi gurines. Although there was no kiln found, there were remains of ash and charcoal.16 Th e contents of Room 4 do not allow a secure identifi cation of its purpose, but Room 5 appears to have served as a kitchen.17 Here there was pottery of household and cooking ware: a krater-like pot, a lekane and storage vessel, lopas and chytra. Several shells from mollusks were also found in this room. Th e

10 Cahill 2002, pp. 251. 11 Cahill 2002, pp. 239-41.12 Reinders (1988). For the results of subsequent excavations see Reinders and Prummel 2003, pp. 47-49, 109-11. 13 Reinders 1988, pp. 132-34.14 Reinders 1988, p. 117. 15 Reinders 1988, p. 123. 16 Reinders 1988, pp. 123-26.17 Reinders 1988, pp. 126-27.

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other rooms produced fewer fi nds and appear to have served as living quarters. Room 7 contained a kantharos, jug and amphora and may have been a dining area.18 It has been suggested that Room 9, which had access to Room 1 and was close to the street, was a shop on the basis of its location.19 In several rooms there are also loom weights but the small number suggests that the weaving was on a small scale and only for domestic needs.20 In this case too we fi nd evidence for craft-production side by side with fi nds indicating activities at domestic consumption like food preparation, dining, and weaving.21

Th e evidence examined so far shows that craft activities in the oikos were often aimed at producing a surplus for sale in the market. Some modern scholars have argued that the aim of the oikos was self-suffi ciency (autárkeia), the ideal of economic independence. According to this view, the Greek household sought only to produce enough for its own needs and to avoid dependence on others and viewed chrematistiké, the art of acquisition without limit, as unnatural.22 Th e main text cited in support of this view is a passage from Aristotle’s Politics (I 7, 1256a 1-1258b 8),23 but the passage needs to be read carefully and in context.

Aristotle begins the chapter by asking whether chrematistiké is the same as oikonomía or part of it or subordinate to it (I 7, 1256a 4-6). Without giving the opinions of others, Aristotle quickly declares that oikonomike is not the same as chrematistike because the aim of the latter is to acquire or produce, the aim of the former is to use (I 7, 1256a 12-11-14). Th is would appear to identify chrematistiké with production, oikonomiké with consumption. Aristotle then slightly alters the question and asks whether chrematistiké is part of oikonomiké or a diff erent kind

18 Reinders 1988, pp. 128-29.19 Reinders 1988, p. 129. 20 Reinders 1988, pp. 254-62. 21 For Morgantina see Tsakirgis 1984, p. 396: “All of the small shops are archi-tecturally part of the building of a house, but only in one case, the house of the Palmento, does the shop communicate with the house.”22 For autarkeia as the Greek ideal see Austin and Vidal-Naquet 1977, pp. 13, 15-7, 41-42, 46, 90, 108, 132, 191, 203-4, 292, 295, 334, 377-78. 23 Austin and Vidal-Naquet 1977, pp. 162-68; Finley 1974, pp. 40-44.

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of skill. Here he admits that there is some debate though he does not say who lines up on each side of the debate (I 7, 1256a 14-15).

Aristotle next launches into an analysis of the diff erent ways that men acquire their food, enumerating the ways men acquire what they need: some men live from raising animals, other from hunting, and most from agriculture. Th is leads him to the conclusion that nature provides plants for consumption by animals, animals for consumption by men because nature make nothing without purpose or in vain (I 7, 1256b 15-23). Aristotle then says that one type of acquisition in accordance with nature forms a part of oikonomiké. Th is type either ensures that there is (or provides that there will be) a supply of goods that are necessary for life and useful either for the community or for the household. Aristotle here seems to have changed slightly his use of the term oikonomía because previously he said that it applied only to the use of goods, not to their acquisition. Here he seems implicitly to recognize two aspects to oikonomia, acquisition of goods and the use of goods. In this form of acquisition a limit has been fi xed because riches are a set of tools for the household and the statesman to use and no tool is without a limit (I 7, 1256b 30-39). What is relevant for our discussion is that Aristotle disagrees with Solon, who said that there was no limit set for riches. Th is shows that Aristotle’s view was not the only one. In fact, it may have been a minority opinion or a philosophical idea, which was at odds with popular conceptions of wealth. Th e next section confi rms this. Aristotle says that there is another type of acquisition, chrematistike, whose aim is wealth without limit, and concedes that most people think that it is identical with oikonomike (I 7, 1256b 40-1-1257a 3)24. Aristotle fi nds this view mistaken because the latter is in accordance with nature, but the former is not. Here it is clear that the distinction is that of Aristotle made on the basis of his philosophical notions of what is natural and what is not. Further on in the same chapter, he refers to those who believe that it is the function of oikonomike either to maintain one’s fi nancial assets (nomísmatos ousían) or to increase it to infi nity (I 3, 1257b 38-41). Once

24 Aristotle appears to allude to popular views here, but it is worth noting that Plato used the terms oikonomia and chrematistiké interchangeably (Republic 415e and 417a). Aristotle himself in the Ethics (1094a 9) says that the goal of oiknomía is wealth. Cf. Faraguna 1994.

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again, it is clear that Aristotle’s views about the acquisition of wealth should not be taken as representative of Greek attitudes. If one reads the text of the Politics carefully, one discovers that the science of oikonomía, managing a household, was on the traditional view aimed at increasing one’s assets, which implies production for sale in the market.

Th e popular attitudes that Aristotle refers to are more fully expressed in Xenophon’s Oikonomikos, or Th e Estate-Manager. Th e aim of the dialogue is to understand the nature of oikonomía, that is, the skill of managing the oîkos, one’s property.25 When the dialogue opens, Critoboulos is looking for someone who can teach him to manage his property (X. Oec. 1, 1-3). Th e person who possess this skill can “by taking over the estate of someone else pay all necessary taxes and by making a surplus, increase his assets” (X. Oec. 1, 4). Socrates has a moralistic view of what constitutes an asset; for him anything that does damage to the moral character of its owner does not count as asset (X. Oec. 1, 7-20). Assuming that the owner is morally good, however, his aim will still be to increase their property (X. Oec. 2, 1). Th is skill does not just enable men to provide for their needs; it makes them capable of increasing their assets if they work (X. Oec. 1, 16). Critobulus asks for Socrates’ advice because “I see that you understand one aspect of creating wealth: making a surplus. So I hope that someone who makes a surplus out of little can very easily make a large surplus out of much” (X. Oec. 2, 10). After some discussion Socrates says, “We concluded that estate management (oikonomía) is the name of a certain type of knowledge, and this knowledge was clearly that by which men increase their property, and that their property was the total amount of what they acquire.” (X. Oec. 6, 4). Ischomachus says that his father would buy uncultivated plots of land, make improvements on it, then sell it for a profi t (X. Oec. 20, 26). Socrates compares his father to a merchant who buys grain, then sells it wherever he can fi nd the highest price. Despite the diff erence in social status, the merchant and the gentleman farmer are united in their pursuit of profi t. Socrates therefore concludes

25 For the meaning of oikos (“one’s assets”) see MacDowell 1989. It should not be translated as “family.” Th is is certainly the defi nition Xenophon has Socrates follow (1, 6).

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that “all men love by nature those things that they think will bring them benefi ts.” (X. Oec. 20, 29).

Th ere is no talk in the dialogue of limiting one’s acquisitions to one’s natural needs or to achieve autárkeia. Critobulus requires a large amount of cash because he has many civic and social obligations. Socrates reminds him:

I see that you must give many lavish sacrifi ces or I think neither gods nor men would tolerate you. Next, you are obligated to entertain many guests from abroad, and to do so generously. Next, you must provide meals for citizens and do them favors or you will fi nd yourself bereft of allies. Furthermore, I see that the city also orders you to pay much money to keep horses, to train choruses, to run athletic competitions, and to provide leadership. Should a war break out, I know that they will order you to serve as captain of a trireme and to pay war-taxes, duties which you will have a hard time fulfi lling. And if they think you are falling short in performing your duty, I know that the Athenians will punish you no less than if they caught you stealing their own money. (X. Oec. 2, 5-6).

Critobulus cannot retreat into the leisured isolation of self-suffi ciency. He is enmeshed in a web of civic and social obligations, which compel him to look for ways to extract as much surplus as he can from his household. Th e head of an Athenian household could not aff ord to think like a rentier, content to draw a fi xed income from his property. If he wished to maintain his position in society, he had to think constantly about ways to increase his income to pay for the expenses imposed on him by his political and social duties. Ischomachus tells Socrates that he prays to the gods that he may obtain health, physical strength, respect in the city, good will from his friends, honorable safety in war, and wealth increased in an honest way (X. Oec. 11, 8). When Socrates asks him if he cares about gaining wealth when it causes him so much trouble to manage it, Ischomachus replies that he takes pleasure in honoring the gods, helping his friends, and adorning the city (X. Oec. 11, 9). Socrates observes that he can pursue these aims only by acquiring a surplus (X. Oec. 11, 10).

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Since the household was locus of production as well as consumption, staying at home meant something very diff erent for a woman in Classical Athens than it does for a woman in the modern economy. For us “staying at home” gives the impression that one is not working at a job and earning an income. But that is not the way Ischomachus views the role of his wife. When she says that her mother taught her self-control (sophrosýne), Ischomachus says that his father also taught him this virtue, but for him this virtue means behaving in such a way that their property will be as good as possible and that they will increase it in an honest and just manner (X. Oec. 7, 15). In fact, she asks Ichomachus what she can do to help him increase their estate (X. Oec. 7, 16). He sees his marriage as a partnership, in which both contribute to increasing the wealth of the household, each in a way suited to his or her natural abilities. His body is suited to work outside the house, hers to work inside (X. Oec. 7, 20-25, 30). He compares the duties of his wife to the role of queen bee in the hive. Just as the queen bee supervises the work of other bees, his wife will manage the work of their slaves (X. Oec. 7, 33-34). She will send slaves to work outdoors and direct the work of those who remain inside. She takes an active role in planning what is to be stored and to ensure that provisions are not consumed too quickly (X. Oec. 7, 35-6). She understands that her role has a direct impact on the profi tability of the household: if she does not kept careful track of the distribution of goods brought in by her husband, the advantage gained by his labor will be lost (X. Oec. 7, 38-40). By keeping expenses down, she ensures that there will be a surplus that can be sold in the marketplace.

Th e wife of Ischomachus not only looks after the stores and distributes them to the slaves. She is also responsible for increasing their productivity. Ischomachus advises his wife to take a slave who does not know how to spin wool and to teach her this skill so that she will be worth twice as much for her. If there is another who does not know how to manage the stores or to serve, his wife should instruct her so that she learns these skills (X. Oec. 7, 41-42). Th e reason for doing this is to increase the value (axía) of their slaves. Th is can be taken in two senses. On the one hand, the slave will be able to produce more and bring in more cash to the household. On the other, the slave will fetch a higher price when sold on the market. When slaves become ill, it is her job to look after them

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(X. Oec. 7, 37-38). Th is sounds very humane, but it is unlikely that Ischomachus’ primary motive is the well being of the slave. A slave who was ill was one who did not produce. His wife also sees this as a way of keeping them grateful and loyal, in other words, motivated to work and discouraged from running away.

One of the wife’s most important duties is to ensure that all the stores are arranged in order (kósmos). Ischomachus places much emphasis on the need for order and prefaces his instructions to his wife with a lecture on the importance of order in warfare (X. Oec. 8, 4-9). He thereby compares her own role in the household to that of a general in an army or a captain of a trireme. Next he compares her role to that of a pilot’s assistant on a merchant ship, who knows where all the ship’s equipment is stored (X. Oec. 8, 11-16). Th ere is clearly an aesthetic side to this task, but it also contributes to the effi cient management of the household’s resources. A well-organized household is a profi table household.

Th e wife is also responsible for maintaining labor discipline. Ischomachus appoints her as guardian of the laws of the household and gives her the power to enforce these laws with rewards and punishments (X. Oec. 9, 15). Xenophon does not have Ischomachus specify what these punishments might be. In the Memoirs of Socrates (II 1,16), however, he states explicitly what he has in mind:

No one wants to keep in this household a man who does not want to do any work but enjoys an expensive lifestyle. Let us consider how masters behave towards slaves of this sort. Is it not true that they repress any inclinations towards lechery by starving them? And prevent them from stealing by locking up the places from which they might take things? Stop them from running away by putting them in chains? Force the laziness out of them with beatings?

Ischomachus does not wish his spouse to be a trophy wife, a woman who indulges in conspicuous consumption to maintain his social status. He wants her to take an active role in exploiting slave labor. To use a modern analogy, Ischomachus expects his wife to play the same role in the household that Harry Bennett played in the Ford Motor

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Company during the 1930s. In the Estate-Manager, Xenophon makes the task of imposing the law sound innocuous, but the reality must have been rather grim. To get some idea of what it might entail, one should read Th e History of May Prince. Mary Prince was born a slave at Brackish-Pond in Bermuda and published a short narrative of her life at London in 1831.

Th e next morning my mistress set about instructing me in my tasks. She taught me to do all sorts of household work; to wash and bake, pick cotton and wool, and wash fl oors, and cook. And she taught me (how can I ever forget it!) more things than these; she caused me to know the exact diff erence between the smart of the rope, the cart-whip, and the cow-skin, when applied to my naked body by her own cruel hand. And there was scarcely any punishment more dreadful than the blows I received on my face and head from her hard heavy fi st. She was a fearful woman, and a savage mistress to her slaves26.

All the experience a wife gained in running a household put her in a position to manage the household in her husband’s absence. Ischomachus in a candid moment admits “my wife is perfectly capable of managing everything inside the house by herself” (X. Oec. 7, 3). In fact, wives would have had to learn how to manage a household on their own since the odds that they would become widows were very high. Ischomachus married his wife when she was not yet fi fteen (X. Oec. 7, 5), near the age recommended by Hesiod (WD 695-98). If he was about thirty, the age recommended by Hesiod for men at the time of marriage and he died at forty-fi ve, probably the average life expectancy for men, she would have become a widow at thirty and had to run her household on her own until her sons (if she had any) came of age. Death in battle might have made her a widow even earlier. Although we have no statistics, it is very likely that many households in Athens were in the control of widows.27 Aeschines (I 170-72) says that his rival Demosthenes went around preying on young

26 Gates 1987, p. 194. 27 For widows managing households see Hunter 1994, pp. 29-33.

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men who came from households in the hands of women who were foolish and had big ideas - this suggests that there were many such households. Aeschines maliciously implies that the women who managed these were incapable of keeping them in order, but Xenophon’s treatise gives a more positive account of a woman’s abilities.

De iure the property of the household belonged to the husband, and women were barred from conducting transactions for sums worth more than a medimnus of barley (Is. X 10).28 Th ese restrictions did not however prevent a wife from managing the fi nances and even making loans to family members. Evidence for a wife’s role in fi nancial matters comes from Demosthenes’ speech Against Spudias (XLI 9). Th e litigant who delivered the speech was married to a daughter of Polyeuctus and was trying to recover money from Spudias, who was married to Polyeuctus’ other daughter. He made several claims; one was in regard to a loan of 1,800 drachmas, which Spudias obtained from his mother-in-law, the wife of Polyeuctus. Some scholars have thought that this passage indicates that Athenian women might own large sums of money, but one must study the passage in context. In the previous sentence, the speaker explains that money for this loan belonged to Polyeuctus and that after his death the loan was owing to his estate (Dem. XLI 8).29 As I have written elsewhere, «Th ere is no contradiction between the two statements. Each represents one side of a complex reality. De facto the loan was made by Polyeuctus’ wife. It was she who obviously handed over the money and recorded the transaction in her papers. De iure the loan was made from Polyeuctus’ property and upon his death was owed to his estate. Th is reveals that even though the money in a household legally

28 On this law see Kuenen-Janssens 1941. 29 Recent scholars who have commented on Dem. 41.9 have not paid attention to the information contained in the previous sentence. Hunter 1994, p. 301 («1,800 drachmai which the widow herself loaned to Spudias»), 302 («older wom-an carry out fi nancial transactions far in excess of the limit specifi ed in Isaeus 10.10»); Foxhall 1989, p. 42 n. 104 («Polyeuktos’ wife loaned her son-in-law a large amount of money» and «she seems to have left behind at her death carefully prepared accounts of her fi nancial aff airs, apparently separate from those of Poly-euktos»); Schaps 1979, p. 65.

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belonged to the husband, the wife might still administer the household’s fi nances and make important decisions about how to manage large sums of money»30. Th e passage is also valuable for revealing that Ischomachus’ trust in his wife and his reliance on her to keep the family fi nances in order was not unusual or unconventional.

So far we have examined the contribution of a free woman in the upper class to the economy. Even though the wife of Ischomachus did not work outside the house or sell products made at home in the marketplace, her skills clearly helped her husband to create a surplus which could be sold in the agora to bring in a cash income. Th e relationship of lower class women with the agora was more direct.31 Many of the items made by women for domestic use might also be sold in the marketplace for cash to support their households. Like Penelope in the Odyssey, women in Classical Athens might spin wool to make clothes for the family, but they might take this to the market for sale (Ar. Ran. 1349-51). Th e most frequently attested occupation in the dedications of phialai made by freedwomen is the talasiourgos, the wool-worker. Socrates tells a story about Aristarchus who lost his fortune during the Peloponnesian War and set his female relatives to work making cloth to raise cash (X. Mem. II 7). A woman called Th ettale is recorded in the building records for Eleusis for selling felt caps for slaves to wear (IG II2 1672, lines 70-71). We also fi nd the occupation of seamstress (IG II2 1556.27-9).

Th e skills gained from rearing children could also be put to work. Many tombstones commemorate wet-nurses.32 Some of these were slaves, but many appear to have been freed and to have continued this line of work. Washing clothes is another domestic task, but several women made a paid profession out of this work.33 One earned enough money to make a dedication to the Athenian Acropolis.34 Women

30 Harris 2006, pp. 344-45. 31 My discussion draws heavily on an excellent study by Brock 1994. 32 IG II2 10843, 11647, 12177, 12242, 12387, 12559, 12632, 12812-4, 12815-6, 12996, 13065. 33 Ar. Pl. 166, 514. IG II2 2934. 34 IG I3 794 (= Raubitschek 1949, no. 380).

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appear to have had a monopoly on the profession of midwife. Th is was not an occupation confi ned to non-Athenians; Socrates’ mother Phainerete was a midwife (Pl. Th t. 149a-50b). House-keeping might also train women in the skills needed to run the numerous inns found in the city of Athens (Ar. Lys. 458, Ran. 114, 549-78).

Women also appear to been active in the marketplace selling items produced at home. Th e term kapelís (sales-woman) is found several times in the records for dedications of phiálai by freedwomen (see Appendix). Women are attested as selling a wide variety of wares: ribbons (Dem. LVII 31, 35), perfume (SEG XXV 180.34), garlands (Ar. Th em. 446-58), sesame (IG II2 1554.40-43), bread (IG I3 546), cloaks (IG II2 11254) vegetables (Ar. Ach. 478, Th esm. 387, 456, Ran. 84), porridge (Ar. Lys. 457, 562), and myrrh (Ar. Ec. 841) are just a few of the items attested. Th ere is also some evidence for women working as hired laborers in the fi elds (Dem. LVII 45).

Despite their exclusion from the political sphere, women were very active in the agora. Th is should come as no surprise. While access to the courts was limited to men of free birth and participation as magistrates or in the Council and Assembly was restricted to male citizens, the agora was a space open to all people regardless of status. Egyptians, Corinthians, Syrians, metics and slaves moved freely about the agora and conducted transactions with Athenian citizens. Th e pursuit of economic gain in the agorá served to create a level playing fi eld to some extent and to minimize the role of class, citizenship and race. Women took advantage of this freer, more open space to sell their goods and services. If there is a methodological lesson to be learned from this study, it is that it would be a mistake to discuss the position of women or the status of women in Classical Athens or any other Greek pólis. Th e freedom and condition of women in the ancient world was “context-sensitive” - in one context a woman might fi nd herself excluded or subject to heavy restrictions. But in another she might be able to play an active role and make her own choices. Within the confi nes of the household, women could exercise a certain amount of control over their lives and over her children and slaves. Women might also might move about the marketplace with some liberty though this came at the cost of a loss in social prestige. Donne che contano can be found in many

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diff erent places, not just in palaces royal courts. It is the duty of the historian to search for the contribution of women in all areas of ancient life and to give this contribution the credit it deserves.

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Women’s Occupations in Classical Athens

akestria - seamstress - IG II2 1556.27-9aleiptria - masseuse - Antiphanes fr. 26 K-A (cf. Pollux VII 17); Lys. fr. 88 Sauppeamorgantinos - wool-worker - Aeschin. I 97; Ar. Lys.. 735

(h)alopolis - salt-seller - IG II2 12073artopolis - bread-seller - IG I3 546auletris - fl ute-player - Aeschin. I 42, 76; Antiphanes fr. 49 K-A (= Plu. Dem. 4, 6; Athen. XIV 618a); fr. 50 K-A (= Athen. VIII 343d); fr. 224 K-A (= Athen. IV 172); fr. 233.1-3 K-A (= Athen. Epit. I 27d); Ar. Ach. 551; Pax 950; Men. Perik. 220

chrysotria - gilder - IG III(3) 69.2 erithos - wool-worker - Dem. LVII 45(h)etaira - call-girl - Alexis fr. 103 K-A (= Athen. XIII 568a); Alexis fr. 281 K-A;

Alexis fr. 284 K-A (= Athen. Epit. I 25f = Eubul. 133); Alexis fr. 255 K-A;

Antiphanes fr. 2 (= Athen. 567d); Antiphanes fr. 210 (= Athen. XIII 572a).(h)imatiopolis - clothes-seller - IG II2 11254iatria - female doctor - Alexis fr. 319 = Eust. in Il. p. 859.51kapelis - retail-salesperson - IG II2 1553.16-8; 1566.12-4; 1557.51-54; Ar. Th . 347-50; Pl. 435-36, 1120-22

kharitopolis - charm-seller - IG III(3) 68a.7-8kommotria - hair-dresser - Ar. Ec. 737; Pl. R. 373cmaia - midwife - Antiphanes fr. 157.6 (= Athen. VI 226c); Pl. Th t. 149a-50bmelitopolis - IG II2 1570.73.


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murephos - perfume-maker - IG II2 11688muropolis - seller of myrrh - Ar. Ec. 841; IG II2 1576.17; SEG XXV 180, 34; Pollux VII 198. orchestris - dancer - Alexis fr. 172 K-A (= Athen. X 441d); Ar. Ach. 1093 pandokeutria - inn-keeper - Ar. Lys. 458; Ran.114, 549-78porne - prostitute - Dem. LIX passim psaltria - harp-player - Men. Epit. 476-7; [Arist.] Ath. Pol. 50.2pluntria - clothes-cleaner - IG I3 794; IG I2 473; 2934; Ar. Pl. 166, 514sesamepolis - sesame-seller - IG II2 1554.40-43talasiourgos - wool-worker - IG II2 1553.35-7; 1554.32-5, 48-51, 71-3; 1555.14-20; 1556.18-21; 1557.55-58, 76-9, 84-5, 95-6, 97-8, 102-3; 1558.1-4, 29-32, 53-4, 58-62, 68-70; 87-9; 1559.40-3, 74-6, 86-9, 93-5, 98-9; 1560.16-20, 21-5, 18-20, 30-2; 1567.7-8; 1570.15-7, 39-41, 48-50, 51-3, 66-8, 95-7; 1576.32-5, 61- 2; 1577.2 titthe - wet-nurse - IG II2 10843, 11647, 12177, 12242, 12387, 12559, 12632, 12812-4, 12815-6, 12996, 13065. trophos - nurse - Pl. Prt. 325c; IG II2 7873, 12563trugetria - one who gathers fruit - Dem. LVII 45; Pollux I 221

(Durham)

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Bibliography

Brock 1994R. Brock, Th e Labour of Women in Classical Athens, «CQ» 44, 1994, pp. 336-46.

Cahill 2002N. Cahill, Household and City Organization at Olynthus, New Haven and

London 2002.

Cox 1998C. A. Cox, Household Interests: Property, Marriage Strategies, and Family Dynamics in Ancient Athens. Princeton 1998.

Faraguna 1994M. Faraguna, Alle origini dell’Oikonomia:Dall’Anomimo di Giamblico ad Aristotele, «RAL» 9, 5, 3, 1994, pp. 551-89.

Foxhall 1989L. Foxhall, Household, Gender and Property, «CQ» 39, 1989, pp. 22-44.

Gates 1987H. L. Gates (ed.), Th e Classic Slave Narratives, New York 1987.

Harris 1992E. M. Harris, Women and lending in Classical Athens: A Horos re-examined, «Phoenix» 46, 1992, pp. 309-21.


Harris 2000E. M. Harris, Notes on a Horos from the Athenian Agora, «ZPE» 131, 2000,pp. 1001-5.

Harris 2002E. M. Harris, Workshop, Household and Marketplace: Technical Specialization in Classical Athens and its Infl uence on Economy and Society, in P. Cartledge, E. E. Cohen, and L. Foxhall, Money, Labour, and Land: Approaches to the Economies of Ancient Greece, London 2002, pp. 67-99.

Harris 2006E. M. Harris, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical Athens, Cambridge and New York 2006.

Herman 1987G. Herman, Ritualised Friendship in the Greek City, Cambridge 1987.

Hunter 1994V. Hunter, Policing Athens: Social Control in the Attic Lawsuits 420-320 B.C.,

Princeton 1994.

Jones 1975J. E. Jones, Town and Country Houses of Attica in Classical Times, in Mussche, Spitaels and Goemaere-De Poercke 1975, pp. 63-136.

Kuenen-Janssens 1941L. J. Kuenen-Janssens, Some notes on the competence of the Athenian woman to conduct a transaction, «Mnemosyne» 9,1941, pp. 199-214.

MacDowell 1989D. M. MacDowell, Th e Oikos in Athenian Law, «CQ» 39, 1989, pp. 10- 21.

Mussche, Spitaels, and Goemaere-De Poercke 1975H. P. Mussche, P. Spitaels, and F. Goemaere-De Poercke (eds.), Th orikos and the Laurion in Archaic and Classical Times, Ghent 1975.

Pomeroy 1994S. B. Pomeroy, Xenophon Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary,

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Raubitschek 1949 A. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athenian Acropolis, Cambridge MA 1949.

Reinders 1988H. R. Reinders, New Halos, a Hellenistic Town in Th essalia, Greece, Utrecht 1988.

Reinders, and Prummel 2003H. R. Reinders, and W. Prummel, Housing in New Halos: A Hellenistic Town in Th essaly, Greece, Lisse 2003.

de Ste. Croix 1970G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, Some Observations on the Property Rights of Women, «CQ» 20, 1970, pp. 273-8.

Schaps 1979D. M. Schaps, Th e Economic Rights of Women in Ancient Greece, Edinburgh 1979.

Tsakirgis 1984B. Tsakirgis, Th e Domestic Architecture of Morgantina. diss. Princeton 1984.

Wagner-Hasel B. Wagner-Hasel, Geschlecht und Gabe: Zum Brautgüterssystem bei Homer, «ZRG» 105, 1988, pp. 32-73.

Young, R. S. (1951R. S. Young, An Industrial District of Ancient Athens, «Hesperia» 20, 1951, pp. 135-288.


Le nuove rifl essioni su donne visibili nella Storia grecaElisabetta Dimauro

Questione preliminare. Le donne non contano? Proprio sicuri?Umberto Bultrighini

Priestesses and citizensRoger Brock

Der Ruhm der HetärenWolfgang Schuller

Esibizionismo o propaganda politica? Frine tra storia e aneddoticaEleonora Cavallini

“Usi” e “riusi” della donna nell’Atene del IV sec. a. C. a fi ni successori e patrimoniali: i casi eccezionali di Alkè (Isae. De Philoct. VI) e Neera (Demosth. In Neaer. LIX)Pietro Cobetto Ghiggia

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Wife, Household, and MarketplaceTh e Role of Women in the Economy of Classical AthensEdward M. Harris

Archippe, la moglie del banchiereStefano Ferrucci

Die Frauen der TyrannenMartin Dreher

Le donne del tirannoEmilio Galvagno - Anna Maria Seminara

Tebe e Alessandro di Fere: passione di donna o tirannicidio?Marta Sordi

Figure femminili nell’opera di Senofonte: il caso di PanteaAnna Santoni

Aspasia donna sophè kaì politiké in PlutarcoSilvio Cataldi

Cimone, sua sorellaUmberto Bultrighini

TimeaElisabetta Dimauro

‘Regine riformatrici’ a Sparta nel III sec. a. C.Elisabetta Bianco

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Anna Dalassena: ritratto di una donna di potereSilvia Simone

Euridice, moglie di Aminta IIICinzia Bearzot

Potere, regalità e magia: la leggenda nera di OlimpiadeGiovanna Daverio Rocchi

Personaggi femminili nei frammenti di Carone di LampsacoEugenio Lanzillotta

Donne tra mito e storia nei primi cinque libri di Diodoro: tra modelli favolosi e fattori di progressoDelfi no Ambaglio

Donne aristofanicheLucio Bertelli

Platone, donne e paideíaSerena Teppa

Aristotele, Penelope e le altreGiulio A. Lucchetta

Ipparchia cinica, la trasgressione come sillogismoAnnalisa Paradiso

Eroine del mito greco sulle sponde del MediterraneoPaola Angeli Bernardini

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Saff o. Poesia e iconografi aCarmine Catenacci

Saff o... fra Ovidio, Leopardi e BaudelaireLorenzo Braccesi

Indice dei nomi

Indice dei nomi di luoghi e di popoli

895

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Progetto grafi co e impaginazioneCarlo Spera

Finito di stampare nel mese di dicembre 2014da Digital Team

Fano (Pu)

per conto dellaCasa Editrice Rocco Carabba srl Lanciano

Variante Frentana C.da Gaeta, 37Tel. e Fax [email protected]

€ 35,00

La discussione sulla condizione femminile nell’antichità greca è stata riaccesa da un Convegno Internazionale di Studi tenutosi all’Università “G. d'Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara nel 2007. Questo volume ne raccoglie i contributi, insieme a rifl essioni successive, fi no al 2014. Il fi lo conduttore del dibattito tra gli studiosi coinvolti è la verifi ca di una presenza della donna nel tessuto socio-economico e di una sua incidenza sulle dinamiche storiche della Grecia antica, che la tradizione, di segno maschile e intrisa di conseguenti visioni pregiudiziali, di norma tende a ‘sommergere’: lasciando tuttavia, in casi esaminati nel volume da considerarsi stimoli per un work in progress, la possibilità di far ‘riemergere’ il ruolo femminile nella Storia greca. Categorie rilevanti (sacerdotesse, etere, donne d’aff ari; ma anche donne legate a tiranni e tirannicide) e fi gure di riconosciuta rilevanza come Saff o, Frine, Aspasia, Olimpiade, o da riscoprire come Elpinice, sono fi nemente riproposte ad analisi e rifl essione da specialisti di primo piano nel campo dell’antichità classica.

Contributi di Delfi no Ambaglio, Cinzia Bearzot, Paola Angeli Bernardini, Lucio Bertelli, Elisabetta Bianco, Lorenzo Braccesi, Roger Brock, Umberto Bultrighini, Silvio Cataldi, Carmine Catenacci, Eleonora Cavallini, Pietro Cobetto Ghiggia, Giovanna Daverio Rocchi, Elisabetta Dimauro, Martin Dreher, Stefano Ferrucci, Emilio Galvagno, Edward M. Harris, Eugenio Lanzillotta, Giulio A. Lucchetta, Annalisa Paradiso, Anna Santoni, Wolfgang Schuller, Anna M. Seminara, Silvia Simone, Marta Sordi, Serena Teppa.

Umberto Bultrighini, ordinario di Storia greca all’Università “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara, ha al suo attivo pubblicazioni in vari campi di ricerca, tra cui i principali: il pensiero politico greco nel volume «Maledetta democrazia». Studi su Crizia (Alessandria 1999), nel volume da lui curato Democrazia e antidemocrazia nel mondo greco (Alessandria 2005) e in numerosi contributi sul pensiero platonico; l’economia greca (Elementi di dinamismo nell’economia greca tra VI e IV secolo. L’eccezione e la regola, Alessandria 1999); l’opera di Pausania, nel volume Pausania e le tradizioni democratiche. Argo ed Elide (Padova 1990), nell’edizione e commento del X libro della Periegesi, Delfi e la Focide, in collaborazione con Mario Torelli (in c.d.s. per la ‘Fondazione Lorenzo Valla’), e in vari articoli.

Elisabetta Dimauro, ricercatrice di Storia greca all’Università “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara, si è occupata di storia politica spartana (Re contro. La rivalità dinastica a Sparta fi no al regno di Agide II, Alessandria 2007) e, in vari articoli, di problemi di storia e storiografi a greca, di pensiero politico greco, di problemi pausaniani. Ha curato insieme a Umberto Bultrighini {Omhron ejx JOmhvrou safhnivzein. Omaggio a Domenico Musti, Lanciano, Carabba 2013.

Wife Household and Marketplace

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