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Wives And Husbands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Mary R. Lefkowitz
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Extract

If recently feminist writers have placed too much emphasis on the restrictions and limitations of ancient women's lives, at least they have provided some compensation for the apologetic and uncritical estimations made before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. These earlier studies had tended to single out the accomplishments of certain exceptional women; they tended also to leave the impression that since most ancient women did not appear to have complained about the kind of lives they led, they regarded the customs and laws that governed their lives as equitable and natural. It is easy (at least now) to see that neither premise is acceptable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , April 1983 , pp. 31 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1983

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References

Notes

1. On the problems of selecting and interpreting information about women in the ancient world, see esp. Gould, J., JHS 100 (1980), 39–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Translated by Lloyd-Jones, H., Females of the Species (London, 1975), p. 52Google Scholar.

3. Ibid., on line 88.

4. Wives are frequently compared to Penelope on grave inscriptions; see Peek, W., Ath. Mitteil. 80 (1965), 163–64Google Scholar.

5. Translated by Shewring, W., Homer, the Odyssey (Oxford, 1980), p. 156Google Scholar.

6. Pleket, H. W., Texts on the Social History of the Greek World, Epigraphica col. II (Leiden, 1969), no. 26Google Scholar. Smith, W., Phoenix 14 (1960), 127–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar, imagines that certain inconsistencies in Admetus' character indicate that he is being insincere instead of (understandably) distraught.

7. A quality also singled out by Megara in Eur., H. F. 494Google Scholar, because of her desperate circumstances.

8. See, e. g., Gould (n. 1), 56–58.

9. JHS 84 (1964), 28Google Scholar.

10. E. g., Pasion's will in Dem. 45.28 and Aristotle's will in D. L. 5.11–6. Cf. also the concept of patria potestas in Roman law; see esp. Treggiari, S., Classical Views 26 (1982), 34–44Google Scholar.

11. Cf. Gould (n. 1), 50; Cole, S. G., Women's Studies 8 (1981), 137–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. From a neo-Pythagorean treatise of the third-second century B. c.: see Thesleff, H. (ed.), The Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period (Abo, 1965), pp. 151–54Google Scholar.

13. Isaeus 10.10; Gould (n. 1), 50 n. 85.

14. Friedländer, P. and Hoffleit, H., Epigrammata (Berkeley, 1948), no. 139Google Scholar.

15. See esp. Humphreys, S. C., JHS 100 (1980), 114ffGoogle Scholar.

16. Cf. Eur., , Ale. 288–89Google Scholar.

17. Cf. IG II2. 10954.

18. E. g., P. Tebt. 104, P. Berol. 1104, P. Fam. Tebt. 21. Cf. Pomeroy, S. B., ‘Women in Roman Egypt’ in Foley, H. (ed.), Reflections on Women in Antiquity (London, 1981), pp. 308–9Google Scholar.

19. See esp. E. Wistrand, The So-called Laudatio Turiae, Stud. Lat. et Graec. Gothoburgiensia 34, Goteborg, 1976; Gordon, A. E., Epigraphica 39 (1977), 7–12Google Scholar.

20. ‘Turia’ turned her inheritance over to her hisband (I. 37), but they both shared in the administration of their joint fortunes; he protected hers and she was guardian of his. The practice was not unusual; see Wistrand (n. 19), p. 40.

21. Cf. Lefkowitz, , Heroines and Hysterics (London, 1981), pp. 32ffGoogle Scholar.

22. ILS 8394 (end); cf. Lefkowitz (n. 21), pp. 28–29; also ‘Turia’ I. 30: ‘why should I mention your domestic virtues, chastity, obedience, compatibility, reasonableness, industry in working wool, religion without superstition, sobriety of attire, modesty of appearance?’ The unique domiseda occurs in CIL VI. 11602; cf. Comfort, H., AJA 64 (1960), 275Google Scholar.

23. See esp. Lattimore, R., Themes in Greek and Latin Epitaphs (Urbana, 1962), pp. 277–80Google Scholar.

24. See esp. Bloch, H., ‘The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century’ in Momigliano, A. (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 1963), pp. 193–218Google Scholar.

25. See esp. Bloch, , HThR 38 (1945), 199–244Google Scholar.

26. Cf. Brown, P., Religion and Society in the Age of Augustine (London, 1972), pp. 172–73Google Scholar.