Women in Ancient Greece
Euripides
The main point of this entire writing is how unfortunate it was to be a woman in ancient greek society. Even if they were born into a wealthy family they were forced to find a husband that would take care of the woman.He was almost like a master to them as it says in the writing, but it was even worse to not have a husband. If a woman in ancient greek civilization had no husband, she could not do much and was better off just having a husband even though that option was not great. In the writing, it talks about how there is no easy escape for a woman. She can either be in an unhappy marriage that she is forced to be in or has paid to be in, or she could not have a husband and make life very difficult for herself. A woman must serve her husband, as the text stated, be his master. She must stay at the house all day doing chores such as cleaning, cooking, and making clothes. She only comes out for parties that she is required to go to, but otherwise stays hidden in the house, away from any of the husband’s guests that may stop over to visit. If the husband wants, when he gets bored he can go out in search of people his own age and be with them instead of his wife, while she must sit at home taking care of all of his needs and waiting for him. At the end the writer states that it is easier to go into battle three times than have a child with a husband. Assuming this is most likely because the woman would have to do all of the work raising the child with little to no help from the husband. The relevance of this writing shows us how the ancient greek people lived. It shows us how the men were the dominant people in this civilization, and how the women were expected to be subservient to the men. Knowing the lives of women will tell us much about the roles they play and give us some background for the myths contained in this course.
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