The status of a woman in the ancient world: features of marital and family relations in Ancient Athens

Abstract

The status of women in Ancient Athens has been studied, the main criteria of their social differentiation have been determined. The main social groups of women have been characterized, their common and distinctive features have been revealed. The contemporary understanding of the nature of women have been shown. Features of marital and family relations in ancient Athens have been considered. The influence of the state on the development of marital and family relations in the policies of Greece has been analyzed. The causes of mass prostitution have been considered and its consequences described.

The research strategy is based on the historical-genetic approach used to study the genesis of marital and family relations in ancient Greece, as well as historical comparative used to determine the common and distinctive features in marital and family relations of ancient Greece. Systematic analysis, hermeneutic and normative comparative methods were used in the work on primary sources, primarily the legislation of Athens, which helped to describe in more detail the social status of women of that time.

Relevant generalizations and conclusions were made stating that the status of women of different social groups differed, but they were united by the general degrading treatment of men and the absence of any civil and property rights. Negative attitudes towards women have been cultivated by men since childhood. The woman was imagined as "matter", which was to perform the most important function, which is to give birth. In addition to men of her kind, the free woman of Athens was under the total control of the state, as it was interested in the quantitative and healthy replenishment of its citizens, able to participate in the management of the policy and ensure its security. Given that Athens was permanently at war, state control was rather harsh, which was reflected in the legislation. Intolerance of the opposite sex, along with the hypertrophied idea of man's purpose and role in society and the state finally formed and became apparent in the classical period of ancient Greece. This eventually became one of the factors that led to the social upheavals in the Athens polis. However, it was in the classical period of ancient Greece formed the first ideas about the harmonious coexistence of male and female, spirituality and love between man and woman, as well as in ancient philosophy, the first doubts about the biological nature of inequality, which in the future led to the formation of key provisions of gender theories.