Women in the Ancient World: Witches, Wives,

Women in the Ancient World: Witches, Wives, And Whores

One of the paradoxes of the ancient and medieval world is that although women were often discriminated against and treated as second class citizens (or not allowed to be citizens at all); they had an extremely central role in literature of the period. Women fulfilled a symbolic function in literature, representing foreignness, danger, and sexuality. Occasionally, when women's virtue surpassed that of men, this was used to goad men to behave in a more moral fashion. But the standards of behavior, conduct, and common humanity were seldom the same for both sexes. Women were usually seen as innately 'worse' than men and thus had to be 'better than men' to earn praise.

The fears of men are perhaps most starkly embodied in the character of the Greek dramatist Euripides' Medea. Not only is Medea a spurned wife: she is also a foreigner and a witch. Her husband Jason may be king, but he is no match for his wife's supernatural powers. When he attempts to cast her off, instead of going quietly, she kills his prospective bride by giving the woman a magical dress that burns her to death. She the murders the small children she had with Jason (whom she would have been forced to abandon after the divorce). Medea is a she-wolf, a monster -- and yet -- as the chorus intones -- she is also somewhat sympathetic, even though her actions are ultimately repudiated. Jason's plight is every man's fear, namely that he cannot get rid of the woman he no longer loves. Yet if it had not been for Medea's sacrifice and her willingness to betray her country and her father for her love of Jason, Jason would never have been able to have won the Golden Fleece and become king. Medea gave up everything for Jason -- her family and her nationality -- and he refused to honor this fact.

This idea that women embody behavioral extremes is also seen in Lysistrata, a comedy by Aristophanes. The play takes place during the Greek civil wars, when Athens and Sparta were fighting one another. Frustrated at the constant warfare, the title character Lysistrata rallies her fellow Athenian women to effectively 'make love, not war,' or rather to withhold making love until the men agree to cease fighting. The play shows women as sexual beings who have trouble, just like the men, with the cessation of all sexual activity. However, they persist because they see the insanity of Greeks fighting Greeks. Greek men have become so corrupted it is women who must tell them what to do. The play ends with a passionate appeal by Lysistrata for Greeks to stop fighting one another and instead turn their attentions to the barbarians (non-Greeks) lurking around them). Greeks should be united, not divided: this is the message of the play.

The play is not really anti-war as it is as much pro-senseless war or pro-Greek -- the character of Lysistrata embodies these values, although she lives in a world where women are relegated to the home and are not permitted to either fight or vote. However, the play suggests that the domestic sphere can be very powerful and even overwhelm the military sphere, if women 'play their cards right.' Given that the play is meant to be taken humorously, rather than seriously, the idea that women can be a powerful political voice is not clearly feminist, even though women who are nobler than their husbands like the females of the play are celebrated. Lysistrata is still honorable in the way she puts the needs of Greece ahead of those of her own marriage bed.

The idea that a good woman must go 'above and beyond' the requirements of that of men to be seen as virtuous is embodied in "A Funeral Eulogy for a Roman Wife" which notes how the woman of the title observed the filial duty of avenging her parents' death. She also defended her inheritance and her sister's inheritance when her parents' will was challenged in court: her husband praises her for this, because by her actions she not only protected herself and her sister, but also the husband whom she had not even formally married at that point.

The woman described in the eulogy does seem extraordinary -- although an orphan, she took care of her husband's mother as if she was her own. She is praised for her fidelity, obedience, rationality, modesty, piety, and even her wool-making skills over the forty-year marriage. The husband notes that divorce is common, but he says that he wishes he had died first, given how virtuous his wife was and how much he loved her. His list of her virtues show what was valued in women by Roman society, although her actions suggest a character as strong and determined as any man, in terms of how she fought for her rights and the rights of her family. Her husband was forced to flee Rome at one point, and she provided for him financially and publically begged for his life, at tremendous risk to herself. Her husband is well aware of the fact that he owes his life to her. The eulogy is moving and clearly shows a couple which was loving towards one another -- but it also shows how, even though women were denied the same active role in public life as men, that they were capable of acts of genuine heroism.

Of course, it should be noted that, despite the traditional constructs Medea, Lysistrata and the unnamed Roman wife embody, these are still complex portraits of women. Even her detractors admit that Medea is more sinned against than sinning as a wife. Despite her rampant sexuality and desire for her husband to return to the bedroom permanently, Lysistrata makes an informed and intelligent critique of the reasons for the civil war. The Roman wife sustained her husband in his hour of direst need and showed a level of intelligence and loyalty in economic and political affairs that surpassed most men. Even when women are stereotyped in terms of the roles that they play, there is still complexity.