Women in the home

• Roman Matrona

  • matrona would’ve been refered to as materfamilias and had authority over slaves and children
  • expected to produce children to perpetuate household
• Roles of Matrona

  • managaing household duties like finances and slaves
  • domestic duties like spinning wool and weaving
  • poorer families did more domestic tasks and often took jobs; rich girls would’ve been assisted by slaves
• Richer matrona had more freedom compared to poor families

  had time to educate and engage in social and leisure activities
• Matrona organised and attended husbands dinner parties

  important role as patronages (client and patron relation) would be made at these dinner parties
• Limitations of Matrona

  • couldnt sell property but could own it
  • couldnt bring a lawsuit to court
  • couldnt free a slave
• Matronae we’re capable of buying and owning property or being an heiress in a will
• Laudatio Turiae

  • eulogoy written by husband praising turiae for her accomplishments in domestic and political sphere
  • gives evidence regarding ideal matrona qualities
• Domestic qualities of Turia

  • “your loyalty, your companionship, your good nature, your woolworking and your religiosity”
• When defending Turias claim to her fathers inheritance she demonstrated “unerring determination”
• Turia “took responsibility for those dowries” by providing her female relatives with dowry’s when they couldn’t afford them

  example of a maternal quality she had
• • Turia convinced politician to spare her husband when he was in exile at a time of political crisis

  “i owe my life no less to your piety than his clemency“ her faithfulness was as vital as his lenience to spare him
• Turia offered to give up her position as his wife when she found out she was infertile

  • ”should be given over to the fertility of another woman”
• Turia when her husband was in exile took care of the household and sent him money and golden jewelry to sell
• Divorce in Rome

  • once declaring marriage was over, a woman would return to her paterfamilias family
  • man could keep custody of child
• Men were free to have other sexual partners as long as they were within a lower class to his

  women were not allowed to have affairs; if so a portion of her dowry would be forfeited
• Reasons for Divorce

  1. political alliances
  2. infertility
  3. affairs
• Example of divorce due to infertility

  • spurius carvillius divorces his wife due to infertility
  • attic nights= “he gave preference to the sanctity of his oath over his inclination and his love”
• Athenian Kyria

  • expected to bear children and uphold household
  • an ideal. kyria wouldn’t engage in public sphere of politics culture or war
• Thucycdies= “the greatest glory with be hers who is least talked of among men whether good or bad”

  • reflects greek attitudes regarding women in society
• kyria had to produce a male heir in order to perpetuate the family and household

  male heir would inherit kyrios property as women couldn’t
• Parthenos= unmarried girl

  Nymphe= girl who had lost virginity

  Gyne= woman who has borne a child
• Greek society’s admiration for childbirth shown by women’s grave stone markers/ steles

  women wouldn't receive one if they didn’t give birth
• Ampharate Stele

  depicts ampharate and her grandchild = implies her maternal role as her greatest contribution

  draped in chiton and gaze averted from audience= highlights her modesty
• Hegeso Stele

  • depicts hegeso and slave in domestic scene
  • dressed heavily= shows modesty
  • slave holds jewelry box= emphasises wealth and elegance
• Kyria was responsible for maintaining the household

  • Xenephon provides evidence in Oecononicus towards the roles kyrias had within the household like training slaves, weaving and contributing to self sufficiency; via a conversation between socrates and ischomachus
• Oecononicus= “all members of the household who fall ill are cared for”

  refers to kyrias duty within the household to care for all members within it
• Oecononicus= “make her skilled she becomes twice as valuable to you”

  • refers to kyria training slaves to contribute to households self sufficiency
• Oecononicus= for the wife it is more noble to remain inside”

  • refers to ideal qualitiy to greece for women
• Limitations of Kyria

  • not allowed to leave house without male escort; poor girls would’ve ignored custom
  • limited amount of money to spend; in order to ensure kyria didn’t do severe damage to household
• Divorce and Adultery in athens

  • adultery laws were severe; men required legitimate heirs
  • allowed to kill lover or charge large fine for having an affair
  • man would keep the dowry
• if guilty of adultery, women were excluded from religious festivals in order to not corrupt other women with their presence
• Plutarch Life of Alcibiades tells us how his wife tried to stop his affairs

  • ”came up and seized her“ from court when she “put in her plea for divorce to the magistrate”
  • shows that women had little power within marriage
• Spartan Women

  • purpose was to bear healthy children and serve the state
  • no women would’ve been commemorated with a grave marker until she had children
• Spartan Polygandry

  • women encouraged to have multiple partners to bear healthy children
  • Duties of men and women in sparta were not concerned with legitimacy; only service to the staye
• Xenophon Constitutions of Rome= “he would bring into his house a man whose body and mind he desires for the purpose of bearing children”

  Plutarch life of Lycurgus= “introduce him to her and adopt the offspring”
• • Spartan womens duties were to engage in physical training, maintain households kleos/ farm and uphold spartan ethos
  • women had training in arithmetic in order to manage finances
• Spartan Women were allowed to inherit property; two fifths of property owners were women
• Women had to send their sons to agōgē at the age of 7; shows dedication to state

  • spartan saying “return either with your shield or on it” refers to women’s dedication to upholding the spartan system
• Plutarch, sayings of a spartan women= “for i bore him so that he would die for sparta”

  refers to purpose of producing children in sparta