The Lives of Athenian Women

Relying on literary materials on the role of women in Greek city states, classic Athenian women can not have a very pleasant experience. The so-called Athenian democracy only benefits a small part of the entire population. At least half of these people are women, but women seem to have little effect, and official citizenship is rare. "The status of women has become a major controversy point" (Lancy: 1968, 151). Art and drama are fascinated by femininity, but studies of the lives of classical Athenian women caused a lot of controversy, as we do not have evidence of their view towards these people.

Since the 1970's, the study of the lives of classical Athens women was an important part of classical academic research. Our understanding of women's lives in Athens comes from various ancient resources. Most of them are literary evidences mainly from tragedies, comedies, speech, and they complement archeological resources such as stone and pottery. All of these sources - and mainly for men - are made: classic Athenian women could not survive ancient testimony of their own life

Regarding their marriage life, Athens and Spartan women are also doomed to be different from each other according to their own society. Women in Athens are considered to be much weaker than men; they must be protected at home, and unless there is a male relatives' partner, they can not get the door. When they were very young, for the most part they were arranged to marry their fathers when they were 13 or 14 years old. As most women in Athens have to be protected and protected at home, they marry a man who did not even know what she saw. Their grooms are usually from famous families around the age of 30. The bride's father had to pay a dowry to the groom and arranged a wedding called "gamos". The wedding ceremony began after it got dark. The bride wore a veil, stood on a tank, and went to her groom's house from home. Her family, friends, and relatives hike and light the way with a torch

All women in Athens society must have guardians for their lives. From the perspective of law, women are always minors. Parents (kyrios) are usually fathers or siblings, but maybe relatives of other men. The only exception is a prostitute to discuss later. Some of the work we got from women during this time shows that the happiest part of a woman's life is childhood. Father's family happiness was praised. Most respected young girls live in exile, but sometimes they are allowed to go out