Transcript The Nature of Social Relationships Ancient to Early-Modern Times The Traditional Image of Classical Greece • The Greeks were the founding civilization that “invented” many.

The Nature of Social
Relationships
Ancient to Early-Modern Times
The Traditional Image of
Classical Greece
• The Greeks were the founding civilization that
“invented” many attributes we associate with
Western Civilization.
• Our modern notions of literature, drama,
philosophy, science, mathematics, and political
theory were strongly influenced by Greek thought.
• Greek artisans are noted for producing classical
models of architecture and sculpture that still
endure.
Images of a “Golden Age”
The Role of Women in Greek
Life
• Ancient Greece was a very patriarchal (maledominated) society.
• A wife was viewed as the property of her husband
and was kept in seclusion.
• Dominance (and hatred) of women often bordered
upon misogyny.
• Love of women considered secondary (or suspect)
compared to the love of fellow men.
“The authority of the ancients”
• Aristotle wrote, “The male is by nature
superior, and the female inferior; and the
one rules and the other is ruled.”
• In his famous “Funeral Oration,” Pericles
advised the women of Athens to (1) rear
more children for the sake of Athens; (2)
not show more weakness than is natural for
their sex; and (3) avoid gossip, good or bad.
A Lesser Sense of Personhood
• Origin of the word
feminine – “fe” from
faith + minus. Women
were even weaker to
hold and preserve the
faith.
• Ancient Greeks used
the same word for
woman and wife.
Facts for Consideration
• The normal ratio of girls to boys at birth is
100 : 105.
• Census figures from ancient Greece suggest
that 10% of female babies in Athens were
not raised by their families. Many were left
to die by exposure to the elements.
• In ancient Greece, life expectancy for men
was 42 years; for women 36 years.
“Prostitutes we have for pleasure, concubines for daily physical
attendance, wives to bear us legitimate children and be our
faithful housekeepers.”
- an Athenian orator –
Note: In ancient Greece seduction was viewed as a crime
greater than rape.
Phokylides of Miletus, Satire on Women, c. 440 BCE
“The tribe of women is of these four kinds---that of a dog, that of
a bee, that of a burly sow, and that of a long-maned mare. This
last is manageable, quick, fond of gadding about, fine of figure;
the sow kind is neither good nor bad; that of the dog is difficult
and snarling; but the bee-like woman is a good housekeeper, and
knows how to work. This desirable marriage, pray to obtain,
dear friend.”
Hipponax, On Women, c. 580 BCE
“Two happy days a woman brings a man: the first, when he
marries her; the second, when he bears her to the grave.”
Hiram Powers’ “The Greek Slave”
(1844)
•
Displayed at the Crystal
Palace in London (1851).
The image evoked renewed
discussion of women and slaves
in Greek society.
Sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Critical of Greek Attitudes Toward Women and Slaves –
(a response to “The Greek Slave” sculpture)
The Hidden Side of Ancient
Greek Society
• One of the the things that contributed to the
quality of life that the Greeks experienced
was their creative use of leisure time.
• The city-states of ancient Greece relied very
heavily upon the labor of slaves.
• This practice exempted citizens from much
of the drudgery of hard physical labor.
An Old and Extensive Practice
• In Works and Days – written about 705 B.C.E.,
Hesiod acknowledges that a class of slaves exist in
Greek society.
• Slaves were generally foreigners, captives of war,
or the children of captives held in bondage.
• Aegean islands like Delos became slave-trading
centers – capable of sending and receiving 10,000
slaves per day.
Strabo: Geographia, [written c. 20 A.D.], circa 550 BCE
“And the temple of Aphrodite [at Corinth] was so rich that it
owned more than a thousand temple slaves---prostitutes--whom both free men and women had dedicated to the goddess.
And therefore it was also on account of these temple-prostitutes
that the city was crowded with people and grew rich; for
instance, the ship captains freely squandered their money, and
hence the proverb, “Not for every man is the voyage to
Corinth.”
Demosthenes: Against Timocrates. c. 350 BCE
“If, gentlemen of the jury, you will turn over in your minds the
question what is the difference between being a slave and being
a free man, you will find that the biggest difference is that the
body of a slave is made responsible for all his misdeeds,
whereas corporal punishment is the last penalty to inflict on a
free man.”
Standards and Double Standards
• Solon, the wise
Athenian lawgiver,
forbade all sales of
children into slavery
except the sale of a
young girl who had
lost her virginity.
Antigone
• Meaning of the name Antigone = “A woman
who has failed to regenerate.”
• What does the playwright Sophocles say
about Greek society when he creates a play
that features a headstrong woman?
• Should we read the play as social satire? As
a commentary on the way that things should
be (or actually were)?
The Book of Proverbs
• Old Testament book (of Writings)
associated with post-exile Judaism.
• Most include use of simile or metaphor.
• Short pithy statements designed to form a
portable code of morality and conduct.
• Change from hunting/gathering lifestyle to
agrarian society forced people to learn how to
live in closer proximity with others
• This development gave birth to new issues that
had to be dealt with:
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Public vs. private space
Civility
Intimacy
Role of family/children (children are largely absent
from writings until the 17th century)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• 1712-1778
• An Enlightenment
writer who influenced
Romanticism
• His writings focus on
individualism and the
rejection of imposed
patterns of behavior,
often using emotional
and sentimental
language
Rousseau (writings)
• In Emile (1762), Rousseu
advocates a “return to
nature” as the best
education for a boy
Rousseau’s tomb – Pantheon (Paris)
– A simple life in the country
with instruction in reading,
writing and nature studies
– Girls should be educated “to
please men, to be useful to
them, and make themselves
loved and respected by
them”
Discourse on Inequality (1753)
• Attempts to define man’s true character
• Rousseau believes that man was at his best
“in nature”, and that man’s interaction with
others in society impeded the development
of man’s best characteristics
• Focuses on:
– Man’s physical nature
– Use of language
– Human passions (including sexuality)
Women
• Two options available
– Marriage
– Religious life
• Neither option gave
women equal power to
men
– Exception: widows
could own property,
sign their own
documents
Christine de Pisan
• 1363-1430
• Her father was the court astrologer for King
Charles V of France
• Widowed at 25 with three children, she began
writing to earn money
• The Book of the City of Ladies (1405) is an
allegory (symbolical narrative) written in response
to the Romance of the Rose, another allegory
which defamed the character of women
Christine de Pisan
• Pisan’s writings urge that women be
allowed to participate more fully in society
• She is quoted as saying that a man once told
her that an educated woman is unattractive,
since there are so few; she responded that
an ignorant man was even less attractive,
since there are so many
La Cité des Dames of Christine de Pisan, 1410s
Illumination on parchment, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Jane Austen
• 1775-1817
• Daughter of English
clergyman; never married
• Her novels are comedies
of manners that depict the
self-contained world of
provincial (middle-class)
ladies and gentlemen
• Her writings primarily
deal with the issue of
finding a spouse from the
female perspective
Pride and Prejudice
• Written c. 1797; published anonymously in 1813
• Focuses on the Bennet family, with five daughters
that need to be married and an estate that is
entailed to a distant (male) cousin
• Primary characters:
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Elizabeth Bennet (2nd daughter)
Fitzwilliam Darcy (landed gentleman with large estate)
Jane Bennet (1st daughter)
Charles Bingley (landed gentleman)
Regency family life
~ Life in England c. 1820s ~