 CCIV 243:
WOMEN AND THE POLIS
SPRING
1998
BACKGROUND AND
STUDY NOTES
TOPIC:
JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS
Image
credit
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.
Fine, The Ancient Greeks, Chapter 10: "The Development of
Athenian Democracy" pp. 415-429 (Tuesday)
In this section,
Fine discusses details concerning the administration of
justice in ancient Athens. This will serve as a background
to our consideration of the case of Neaera on
Thursday.
As you read through the
material in Fine, follow the links indicated below for
illustrations of various aspects of judicial procedure. (The
linked pages will open in a separate browser window;
don't use the
links on the page to return, since they will take you to the syllabus
for a different course.)
Topics:
Popular Courts:
follow this link to a plan of the agora which shows the Heliaia and one
of the buildings in the agora which has been identified as a
lawcourt (there were many others, but their remains have not
been found); follow this link to see a reconstruction of the
agora in the
late fifth century.
State
Prosecutors: On
page 416, Fine refers to the appointment of Pericles as a
state prosecutor in the matter of the prosecution of Cimon
in 463. Remind yourselves of the part played in this matter
of Elpinice, by looking again at Plutarch's Life of Cimon, chapter
14.4, and
Plutarch's Life of Pericles, chapter
10.4.
(Remember that we calculated in class that Elpinice was
probably somewhere between 54 and 60 years of age at this
time.)
Dikai and
Graphai:
distinguish between these two forms of action at law
Sycophancy: this has a different meaning than we
attribute to it; clarify for yourselves what the Greek one
was
Homicide
Law: first stage
(relatives bring spear to the tomb); second stage
(proclamation by the relatives); third stage (proclamation
by the king archon); fourth stage (three pre-trials); fifth
stage (introduction of case to court)
Homicide
Courts: Areopagus
(premeditated; king archon presiding); Palladion
(unpremeditated; ephetai presiding); Delphinion
(justifiable; ephetai); Prytaneion (animal or inanimate
object; king archon and four phylobasileis)
Apagogê and
kakourgoi:
summary judgment before the Eleven or the thesmothetai
Methods of
execution:
stoning; barathron; apotympanismos; poison
District Judges
and the Forty:
originating with Pisistratus; revival to 30 in 453/2; Forty
from 403 (appointed by lot and from tribes)
Arbitrators: men over 60; ten groups; selected by Forty;
appeal to popular courts
Popular Courts and
Judicial Procedure: 6000 dikasts, 600 from each tribe; 30+
years old; dicastic pay; division into panels: 200-500 in
number; meetings every day but festival ones
First
steps: summons
and preliminary hearing (anakrisis). For an example of how
this would have gone in the case of the trial of Socrates,
follow this link to a page (Judicial Procedure I) on which there are also links to
the Stoa Basileios and the Shrine of the Eponymous Heroes
(use the links to return to Judicial Procedure I).
The
Trial: Follow
this link to a page on which the allotment of jurors to courts is illustrated.
- The speeches for
prosecution and defense: Follow this link to a page on
which the klepsydra and its operation are shown.
- Reaching the verdict:
Follow this link to a page on which the method for
voting for a verdict is shown.
- Penalties: fixed and
unfixed: Follow this link to a page on which the
verdict and penalty in the case of Socrates are
recreated.
- Carrying out the
penalty: Follow this link to a page on which the
prison in which Socrates was held and died is
shown, and on which the room where he died is identified
in the contemporary remains of the structure.
Blundell, Chapter
11: "Women in Athenian law and society," in Women in Ancient
Greece, pp.
113-29 (Tuesday/Thursday)
Topics:
Legal Status:
function of the kyrios. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of this system of guardianship?
Property (Dowry
and Inheritance):
a medimnos of barley. What was this amount
equivalent to? Why do you think this particular restriction
was contrived? In what respects were women
property-owners? How did they acquire rights over
property?
Dowry: proix. Who provided it? When was it handed over?
What was the meaning and function of the dowry? What
happened to it in the event that the marriage was dissolved?
What is the relationship between the ancient dowry and women's
economic status within marriage today?
Inheritance: anchisteia. What was the anchisteia? How did women
figure in it? What was its function in inheritance? What
options for inheritance did a man have if he had no
children?
Epiclerate:
epikleros. What
was this? What rights did the husband of the epikleros have
with respect to her property? How does this situation
illuminate the function of inheritance generally?
What was the content of what Blundell calls "women's
liminality?"
Marriage: at what age were women married? what
reasons does Blundell give for this practice, and what do
you think were the reasons for it? What is endogamy and what
form did it take in Athens? How did it affect women? What
was the legal definition of marriage? What were the stages
in effecting a marriage? What were the rituals which, taken
together, constituted the celebration of a wedding? How
does Blundell describe the relationship between marriage and
death?
Concubines: What is the difference between a hetaera
and a pallake? What was the status of a pallake in the law?
Adultery: moicheia. What was this and how was it punished?
Was it punished differently for men and women? What was the
importance of the crime in the polis as a whole?
Divorce: How was this accomplished? What were its
repercussions? Why do you think the wife had to register the
divorce with the archon but the husband did not? What do
you think of the long quotation at the bottom of page 127?
What does it reveal about marriage in Athens?
Political
Status:
astai. Do you agree with the claim that
democracy "accentuated the disparity between males and
females"? Why or why not?
Demosthenes,
Against
Neaera
(Thursday)
Read through the
whole of this long speech, and pay attention to two
principal topics:
1. What the speech tells us about male citizens, their
relations with one another, and with the women of their
families;
2. What the speech tells us about hetairas, their relations
to wealth and power, and the liabilities and the advantages
of this status in Athens.
You can read the speech on Perseus, or link here to the
course version of Demosthenes 59.
For the purposes of reviewing the material on hetairas,
there is also a useful page which extracts these sections:
link here to the Diotima version of selections from Demosthenes
59.
Return
to Syllabus
Image credit: Cartledge, ed.,
Cambridge
Illustrated History of Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1998) page 130.
London, British Museum E 190.
Last updated 7 April
1998
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