Athenian Women’s Acquisition of Power through Relationships with Men :: Greek Women Females Power Papers

Athenian Women’s Acquisition of Power through Relationships with Men Greek society held the belief that women had little common sense or logic; they had the natural tendency to move toward chaos and destruction. Women were thought to have the ability to destroy a man’s honor through their actions. Because of this, women were given no influence in the government of the polis or in their lives; they had no power. Instead, they were kept inside where they could be closely monitored by their husbands, fathers, lovers or protectors. Yet, as seen in Kathleen Freeman’s translations of Athenian court trials The Murder of Herodes, women were able to acquire power in the household, the government, and for their own betterment through sexual relationships, marriage, and family ties. Greek mythology painted a poor picture of women. This, in turn, created a society where the men believed that these myths were an accurate interpretation of the nature of women (or, possibly, vice-versa). Zeus created women as a punishment, and to this end, he made them so tempting that men could not resist them. But, he also made them a bane to men’s existence, where men had to marry them and constantly have to try to balance the good and the evil that inherently existed in their wives, or die alone. As a consequence of this bleak picture of women, Athenian men believed they had to keep a close eye on women and not allow them too much freedom; they had to keep them behind closed doors as much as possible so they could balance the good and evil and control their deceitful nature. So how is it that women are supposed to acquire any power in their lives if all they have is their households? In fact, the first area in which a woman could gain power was the household. In a trial concerning the killing of an adulterer, the defendant Euphiletus gives an account as to what happens when a man and a woman marry: "†¦ When I decided to marry and had brought a wife home, at first my attitude was this: I did not wish to annoy her, but neither was she to have too much of her own way. I watched her as well as I could, as kept and eye on her as was proper. But later, after my child had been born, I came to trust her, and I handed all my possessions over to her, believing that this was the greatest possible proof of affection.