>Such overwhelming evidence that G.E.M. De Ste. Croix was moved to
>suggest in his _The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World_ that
>while peasant women in Athens belonged to the peasantry, etc. that
>ruling-class women constituted a separate _class_ from ruling-class men.
>Sparta was a male dominated country, but its contrast to Athens (in the
>social status of women) was so great that Aristotle referred to it as a
>country ruled by women.
I'm a bit of an ignoramus about Athens, and realise what references there are to feminine agency often revolve around their 'wiles' and their capacity to withdraw sexual favours. Not much in the scheme of things, I admit, what with no record of formal education for girls between the 7th and 4th century (things had begun to improve as Aristotle was delivering himself of his nonsense - perhaps hence the nonsense), and Pericles's patronising ravings (funny, that; his wife was a formidable and intellectual presence by all accounts), and women not being entitled to property. But their pantheon is interesting, no? Lots of powerful intelligent and dignified deities of distinctly female form up there! Just makes me wonder whether 'well born' women mightn't have had significant social power and status once (eg before 6th century BC), and then had it taken away from them later on - things can change a lot in a century or so.
>P.S. One might qualify Yoshie's statement about freedom and leisure with
>the observation that from the standpoint of both Plato and Aristotle
>peasants and artisans ("the mob") enjoyed way too much freedom &
>leisure. You might say that Plato's core beef about the "Sophists" was
>that they dared teach rhetoric (i.e., the art of living) to those who
>ought to have been too busy slaving for aristocrats to indulge in
>intellectual pastimes.
Well, that kind of thinking seems to be making a bit of a comeback around these parts. Education has been completely redefined (exclusively in terms of the industrial stakeholder) and is being rapidly stratified (by way of large public grants to rich private schools and withdrawal of same from the public sector) - from the welfare state back to pre-war dispositions in half a decade. And the literacy and numeracy tests are showing it already. 'Course it's all the teachers' fault ...
Cheers, Rob.