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The Philosophic Notion of Women in Antiquity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2015
Extract
Aristotle said that the association between male and female was the most natural form of association and he treated it as the first of the elementary units of society. Like many of Aristotle’s confident assertions this one looks unimportant, though true; but it deserves some attention. The association between male and female might seem to have a timeless reference. We might think that we know exactly what we mean by the words, and that Aristotle could have thought no differently. In fact there are many possible relationships between males and females and the ancient world was well aware of it.
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References
1 Oeconomica 1343 b 8–9. (References to Aristotle denote the pages, columns and lines of the Berlin edition. References and quotes from other authors are taken from the Oxford Classical Texts unless it is stated otherwise.)
2 Politico 1252 a 24 ff.
3 1ix 122.
4 Arthur, Marylin B. comments: ‘Clearly, the whole question still awaits analysis by a scholar who is free, not only of Victorian taste, but of simple prejudice’ (‘Early Greece: The Origins of the Western Attitude toward Women’, Arethusa 6 [1973], 53).Google Scholar
5 Richter, Donald C. ‘The Position of Women in Classical Athens’, Classical Journal 67 (1971), 5.Google Scholar
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7 In addition to Richter and Kitto, referred to above, see Gomme, A.W. ‘The Position of Women in Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C.’, Classical Philology 20 (1925), 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar (reprinted in his Essays in Greek History and Literature [Oxford, 1937], pp. 89–115).
8 de Ste Croix, G.E.M. in an article entitled ‘Some Observations on the Property Rights of Athenian Women’, Classical Review 20 (1970), 273–8, considers what real control women had over any property that was nominally theirs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Harrison, A.R.W.The Law of Athens, Vol. ii (Oxford, 1971), p. 84,Google Scholar says: ‘An Athenian woman, on the other hand, remained under tutelage all her life under the rules set out in the section on guardianship (Vol. i, pp. 108 if.).’
10 See especially Engels, FrederickThe Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (New York, 1964), pp. 54–60Google Scholar and de Beauvoir, SimoneThe Second Sex (translated by Parshley, H.M.) (London, 1972), pp. 106–15.Google Scholar
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14 Timaeus 42 b 5–c 1, 76 d 8–e 1, 90 e 6–91 a 1.
15 Politica 1260 a 25–31, 1264 a 40–b 6.
16 ibid. 1259 b 28–38.
17 ibid. 1254 b 13–14.
18 ibid. 1259 a 1–3.
19 ibid. 1260 a 13.
20 Etilica Nicomachea 1157 a 36, 1158 b 1–28.
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23 Fragment 275 (Merkelbach and West).
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29 Eumenides 657–66.
30 De Generatione Animalium 763 b 30–764 a 1.
31 Needham, JosephA History of Embryology (Cambridge, 1959),Google Scholar discusses ancient theories of embryology in chapter 1.
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