Reading about the culture and lifestyle of the Ancient Greece women brought a few “aha” moments to me. When I was 18 years old, I traveled to different parts of Greece, alone, and the adventures I experienced there, especially with men (most of whom were named “Zorgos”), were confusing. There were many subtleties which I did not feel privy to, and yet which involved me as a woman… With a clear vision, thirty years later, Catherine L. French and Alison M. With the help of Posca, Women Writers and Gender in the Western Past, and Sarah Shaver Hughes and Brady Hughes, who compiled Women in World History, I realized much of what had happened to me. While in Patras, I encountered a social class of men who shared their women and yet preferred the company of other men. It seems to go straight back to the days of ancient Sparta.
One day while he was working as a waiter at a local pizzeria, I decided to go into town and explore. I met a man named Georgos who took me dancing. When I returned to Theos’ apartment that night, Theos was angry; The city had eyes, and someone he knew saw me with this other guy who didn’t belong to Theos.
I left the next day, hopped on a train to Athens, relieved to leave all that luggage behind, and ready to see what else Greece had to offer. I was careful about bearing gifts to Greek men now if you know what I mean.
After reading about the almost luxurious status of ancient Egyptian women, it was disturbing to see how women lost ground in the so-called “democratic” states of ancient Greece. Even noble women were employed at home, while middle-class women were able to run inns and market booths. Women were mainly seen as child bearers and housewives. Perhaps this is where the saying “women should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen” comes from.
Infanticide was an accepted practice, and women were usually disposed of because they did not have the same value as men. Men were the golden nuggets as opposed to women who were fool’s gold.
Spartan women seem to have the most power. As young women, they can run and jump and play like boys, so they can give birth to strong children (especially boys). Women socialized with other women while men and boys were doing their military work. Any newborns deemed unacceptable were released to be taken by vultures and wild animals or sent as slaves. The movie “300” touches on many of the same things mentioned in our textbooks about Spartan society Of course, the movie romanticizes Sparta and its citizens, and Lena Headey, the wife of King Leonitas, portrays her as a strong and independent woman of her time.
Both French and Posca touch on the fact that “Greek men were not only interested in the lives of women but believed that it was inappropriate to talk about them in public.” What’s great? Knowing how highly we modern women like to think of ourselves, this is downright misogynistic. My own personal experience as a young sexually active women and wine in Greece in 1979 showed me that Greek men had not changed that much since ancient times.
In 1994, I returned to Greece with my husband. At this time We were making a mountain bike travel video called “Full Cycle: A World Odyssey”. As a woman, I had a more enjoyable time with two men (my husband and our camera operator). All the Greek men we encountered kept their pants and their hands off me. I had the opportunity to visit Delphi and the rock that the oracle once sat on, cast its fortune, and I rode my mountain bike to the top of Mount Olympus. When I reached the top, I put my bike down and sipped water from a cool natural spring that came out of some rocks. As I turned around, I saw a fierce dog coming toward me. I stood tall and growled at it, thinking it might be a good way to scare it off. Wrong. It comes charging towards me. I scrambled over a six-foot pile of loose rock and luckily it didn’t follow me. Finally, it retreated and disappeared. One thing I noticed about the dogs in Greece was how fierce and angry they were. When I thought of my experience atop Mount Olympus, I smiled to myself as I realized that “dog” was spelled “god”.
