CCIV 243:
WOMEN AND THE POLIS

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Suggestions for Study
For each Tuesday class, I suggest that you first read through the assigned material, to get an overview of the period covered, the major issues and events in it, and the aspects relating to women. Second, reread the material from Fine, The Ancient Greeks with the notes and questions below in mind: these are designed to help you organize the material for yourself and to alert you to what the major issues are. Also, consult the indicated pages in the Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece (PHA), and follow the links to the supplementary material from Thomas Martin's on-line Overview of Archaic and Classical Greek History (TRM). This will give you a slightly different perspective on the material and will help you to see how historical information can be understood and presented differently. Third, reread the material in Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece and think about the historical period covered in relation to women: what questions occur to you that are not answered by the readings in either Fine or Blundell? Make a list of these and bring them to class. For Tuesday's class, ignore the questions posted for Blundell: in most cases we will discuss these in connection with Thursday's readings. Your reading in Blundell for Tuesday can be more or less casual, and should be used to help you get started in thinking about women in relation to the historical period under discussion. For Thursday's class, read the Blundell chapter more carefully and think about it in more detail (see next paragraph).

For each Thursday class, I suggest that you first read through the assigned primary material, to get an overall sense of what it is about. Second, reread the material with the notes and questions below in mind. These are designed to help you focus your attention on historical and sociological, rather than literary, issues. Third, reread the material in Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece which was assigned for Tuesday. Evaluate your own interpretation of the implications for women of the material against hers. Make notes on your observations and bring them to class.

Background
Cleisthenes: Review Herodotus V.66, 69-70, 72-81, VI.87-93 and Fine, pp. 228-43 (Cleisthenes, Cleisthenean reforms, Cleomenes, Boeotia, Aegina; 508-487 BCE).

Persian War: Read PHA 62-71, 72-77 for a quick fix on the Persian War (490-480 BCE).

From Cleisthenes to the mid-fifth century
Delian League: Read PHA 86-87 for a quick fix on the Delian League, which Fine mentions in the opening of the chapter.

Archons: Fine 383-86; review the discussion of election, appointment, and the use of sortition

Areopagus and Ephialtes: Fine 386-91; review the discussion of the Areopagus and its powers and the reforms of Ephialtes and their meaning for the development of democracy

Pericles: Fine 391-95; review the measures introduced by Pericles and their meaning for the development of democracy

Institutions of Democracy
I. Magistracies: Fine 395-400; review collegiality; sortition vs. election; generals (stratêgoi), archons, hellenotamiai, pôletai, astynomoi, agoranomoi, sitophylakes

Blundell, Chapter 17: "Women in Classical Sculpture," in Women in Ancient Greece, pp. 188-95 (Tuesday)

Read this chapter; look at the representations of women in plates 24-25 (opposite page 65); look at this set of sculptural representations of women from 550-30 (follow the links to full-size images). Then see if you agree with what Blundell says about women in sculpture in this chapter.

Discussion leaders: Tricia, Mary Liz, Becky

Blundell, Chapter 15: "Women in Drama," in Women in Ancient Greece, pp. 172-80 (Thursday)

Review what Blundell says about gender conflict in tragedy on pp. 173-75; compare what she says about the same subject in comedy on pp. 175-76. Then identify the analytic perspectives she presents on pages 176-80 and see what you think about them: which do you find more convincing?

Discussion leaders: Rachel, Andrea, Sarah R

Background
Consult Henderson's Introduction for a general overview of ancient theater, Aristophanes, and women in ancient comedy.
Link here to Didaskalia's page on Ancient Stagecraft, which has a discussion and illustrations of the sanctuary of Dionysus on the south slope of the acropolis.
From the same page or from here you can link to a 3D Reconstruction of the Theater of Dionysus in Athens
and also to a tour of remaining Greek theaters in Greece (click on the map).
See also the Theater of Dionysus as it appears today and another view of the same.
Keep in mind, too, that a number of the demes had their own theaters; there was a deme-theater in the Piraeus, for example, and also one in Thoricus, a deme of SE Attica; link here to the location of Thoricus, one of the original twelve Attic demes.
Link here to see the remains of the Thoricus deme-theater, which was constructed on an unusual ellipsidal plan (on Istos; on Perseus; on HMC).

Lysistrata
Henderson divides the play into eleven sections (as follows). For each one, ask yourselves what you learn about women in it that seems unusual or new, and that doesn't correspond with what you have learned from other sources. How do you think the representation of women and women's lives is affected by genre considerations? by the dramatic situation?

One scholar (Loraux) has suggested that, in the Lysistrata, the women of Athens find themselves between Aphrodite and Athena, and that they use each of the goddesses in the service of the other. What do you think Loraux means by this? How could you support it from your reading of the play?

Prologue (Lysistrata, Kalonike, Myrrhine, Lampito)
Parodos (12 old men and leader; 12 old women and leader)
Episode (Magistrate, Lysistrata, old women, men's leader)
Debate (Magistrate and Lysistrata, principally)
Choral Debate (men's and women's choruses)
Episode (Lysistrata and various women)
Choral Songs (men's and women's stories)
Episode (Myrrhine and Kinesias)
Episode (Spartan herald, Kinesias, and choral leaders)
Episode (ambassadors and Lysistrata)
Episode (ambassadors and reconciliation)

To help you locate the action of the play in the various areas of the acropolis of Athens, link here to a reconstruction of the site, and link here to an annotation of the reconstruction.

Discussion leaders: Jen, Sarah W, Bekkah

Last updated 25 March 1998