Throughout the vast history of humankind, gender roles have been a consistent trait of society. From the oppressive treatment of women in Assyria to the traditionally matrifocal societies of the Western Sahara, every society has had a niche for women to fit themselves into. It can be argued that the role of the woman in many, if not most, parts of the world has evolved to a more liberal and equal location on the spectrum. An example of this evolution can be seen by comparing the largely modern role of the woman in modern Greece to the more harsh treatment of the women of Athens during the Classical Period of antiquity.
The latter role is especially interesting when compared to the role of the female in the art of the same society. In Classical Athens, the female played two roles: one in society, and one in art. By exploring the relationship between the two, much can be revealed about how the female likeness was regarded in the patriarchal culture of Classical Athens.
There was a general consensus amongst Athenian philosophers and scholars2 that a woman was full of strong, dangerous emotion and lacked the brainpower to control it. Therefore, according to these men and the society they controlled, women had to be controlled and protected from themselves. To fulfill this, an unwritten law of guardianship was orchestrated. Before marriage, a father controlled his daughter; after marriage, a husband controlled his wife. This constant guardian figure in a woman's life, known as a kyrios, dicatated her spending habits, free time, work schedule, and every other major aspect of her life. She had very little leeway in her lifestyle, and was obligated to obey her kyrios.
Along with the lack of freedom in the lives of Athenian women came the lack of education. Rarely would a girl's kyrios allow her to learn to read and write at home, let alone receive a formal education. Athenian playwright Menander wrote of educating women, "What a terrible thing to do! Like feeding a vile snake on more poison," (Menander 473). Rather than waste their time and mental capacity with education, women were expected to learn to proficiently cook, clean, spin, weave, and take care of children. In the minds of Athenian men, the primary duties of a woman were to provide caretaking for her husband's dwelling and to bear and raise his children. In fact, the woman was often confined to the gynaikon, an area of the house set aside for the woman to accomplish these tasks most efficiently. Education was not required for these duties, nor were they glorified or appreciated. Instead, Athenian women led lowly and monotonous lives in the land built on equality and fairness.
Though the societal role of women clashed with the ideals of Athens, its differences from the role of the female in a sizable portion of classical art are even more contradictory. While women generally only left the house on a day-to-day basis to fetch supplies or water, some of the most stunning and culturally significant pieces of Classical Athenian art feature females.3 Colette Hemingway of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote, "Despite the extreme social restraint on women in classical antiquity, it is interesting that they had a number of powerful female goddesses of the type that were never available to Christian women," (Hemingway). These characters, particuarly the ever-powerful goddesses, were revered and worshipped by Athenian men and women alike. Athena was wise enough to advise the likes of Odysseus and Perseus, Artemis wielded the fatal arrow, and Aphrodite held the keys to any man's heart. Pursuant to Greek tradition, with great reverence came great artistic significance. These prominent mythological female figures were heavily featured in the art of Classical Athens.
An example of a work of art from Classical Athens that portrays the female in a style quite similar to the societal role is Phidias's Athena Parthenos, Figure 1. This sculpture, prominently placed in the center of the Parthenon, was firstly a tribute to the patron goddess of Athens, Athena. This gesture establishes the importance of Athena as a protector and patron, but not necessarily as a female. In fact, there are many reminders of the male's dominance over the female in the sculpture. The shield at Athena's side, Figure 2, is not only a symbol of her warrior status, but also of this gender-based domination. It shows the Amazonomachia, which was the slaughter of the mythical all-female Amazon warrior nation by the all-male Greek army. The women scramble in an attempt to save themselves from the obviously much more powerful Greek army. At the base of the statue is the story of the birth of Pandora, the quintessential evil female. The myth, as depicted by the narrative on the base, tells of Zeus ordering Hephaestus to create a woman of a "shameless mind and thievish nature fit for lies and tricky words," (Hesoid 71).
