Evidence in Attic lawsuits, viewed in a cross-cultural perspective, reveals that the
legal restrictions on women made it difficult for widows to achieve the kind of independence and
power enjoyed by their counterparts in early modern Europe. Athenian widowsfunctioned mainly
within the structure of the family. Peculiar to their position was the fact that they remained members
of their natal family. Hence, though legally without rights of inheritance, widows were assured of
the protection of a father or a brother and of a place in their family of origin. Sons carried on in
the tradition of natal kin in supporting and protecting widowed mothers. The latter, mature widows,
often exercised power within the family, where they were respected as figures of authority.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Andersen, O.1987. "The Widows, the City and Thucydides (II, 45, 2) ." Symbolae Osloenses62: 33-49.
2.
Beauchet, L.1897. Histoire du droit privé de la république athénienne . Vol. 2. Paris: Chevalier-Marescq.
3.
Beazley, J.D.1946. Potter and Painter in Ancient Athens. The Proceedings of the British Academy 30. London: G. Cumberlege, Amen House.
4.
Bennett, Judith M.1987. Women in the Medieval English Countryside: Gender and Household in Brigstock Before the Plague. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
Berkner, L.K.1976. "Inheritance, Land Tenure and Peasant Family Structure: A German Regional Comparison." Pp. 71-95 in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800, edited by Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E.P. Thompson.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
du Boulay, Juliet. 1974. Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
7.
Bremmer, Jan N.1983. "The Importance of the Maternal Uncle and Grandfather in Archaic and Classical Greece and Early Byzantium." Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Epigraphik50: 173-186.
8.
—. 1985. "La donna anzian a: libertà e indipendenza." Pp. 275-298 in Le donne in Grecia, edited by G. Artigoni.Rome/Bari: Laterza .
9.
Campbell, J.K.1964. Honour, Family and PatronageOxford : Oxford University Press.
10.
Casson, Lionel.1984. "The Athenian Upper Class and New Comedy." Chapter 2 in Ancient Trade and SocietyDetroit: Wayne State University Press.
11.
Cooper, J.P.1976. "Patterns of Inheritance and Settlement by Great Landowners from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries." Pp. 192-327 in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800, edited by Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E.P. Thompson.Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
12.
Cox, Cheryl A.1988. "Sibling Relationships in Classical Athens: Brother-Sister Ties." Journal of Family History13: 377-395.
13.
—. 1989. "Incest, Inheritance and the Political Forum in Fifth-Century Athens." The Classical Journal85: 34-46.
Davis, Natalie Zemon.1986. "Women in the Crafts in Sixteenth-Century Lyon ." Pp. 167-197 in Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe, edited by B.A. Hanawalt.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
16.
Dixon, Suzanne.1988. The Roman Mother. Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press .
17.
Dover, K.J.1968. Lysias and the Corpus Lysiacum. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
18.
Erler, Mary, and Maryanne Kowaleski .1988. "Introduction. " Pp. 1-17 in Women and Power in the Middle Ages, edited by Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski.Athens, Georgia and London : University of Georgia Press.
19.
Étienne, Roland.1975. "Collection Dolly Goulandris II. Stèle funéraire attique ." Bulletin de correspondance héllenique99: 379-384.
20.
Finley, Moses I.1952. Studies in Land and Credit in AncientAthens, 500-200 B.C.: The Horos-Inscriptions. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.
21.
Foxhall, Lin, and H.A. Forbes.1982. "Sitometreia: The Role of Grain as a Staple Food in Classical Antiquity." Chiron12: 41-90.
22.
Friedl, Ernestine.1962. Vasilika: A Village in Modern Greece. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
23.
Gardner, Jane F.1986. Women in Roman Law and Society. London and Sydney: Croom Helm .
24.
Garnsey, Peter.1988. Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25.
Gauvard, C., and A. Gokalp.1974. "Les conduites de bruit et leur signification à la fin du Moyen Age: Le Charivari." Annales ESC29: 693-704.
26.
Gernet, Louis.1918. "Notes sur les parents de Démosthène." Revue des études grecques31: 185-196.
Gies, F., and J. Gies.1978. Women in the Middle Ages. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
30.
Golden, Mark.1979. "Demosthenes and the Age of Majority at Athens ." Phoenix33: 25-38.
31.
—. 1981. "Demography and the Exposure of Girls at Athens ." Phoenix35:316-331.
32.
Goody, Jack.1976. "Inheritance, Property and Women: Some Comparative Considerations ." Pp. 10-36 in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800 , edited by Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E.P. Thompson.Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
33.
—. 1983. The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Harrison, A.R.W.1968. The Law of Athens. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
35.
Henderson, Jeffrey.1987. "Older Women in Attic Old Comedy." Transactions of the American Philological Association117: 105-129.
36.
Herfst, P.1922. Le travail de lafemme dans la Grèce ancienne. Utrecht: Oosthoek.
37.
Herlihy, D., and C. Klapisch-Zuber .1985. Tuscans and their Families: A Study of the Florentine Catasto of 1427. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
38.
Humbert, Michel.1972. Le remariage à Rome: étude d'histoire juridique et sociale. Università di Roma, Pubblicazioni dell' Istituto di Diritto Romano . Milan: Giuffrè.
39.
Humphreys, S.C.1983. The Family, Women and Death: Comparative studies . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
40.
= Journal of Hellenic Studies100 ( 1980): 96-126.
41.
—. 1985. "Social Relations on Stage: Witnesses in Classical Athens ." History and Anthropology1: 313-369.
42.
Hunter, Virginia.1989. "Women's Authority in Classical Athens: The Example of Kleoboule and her Son (Dem. 27-29)." Classical Views8: 39-48.
43.
—. Forthcoming. "Agnatic Kinship in Athenian Law and Athenian Family Practice: Its Implications for Women."
44.
Isager, Signe.1981-1982. "The Marriage Pattern in Classical Athens: Men and Women in Isaios." Classica and Mediaevalia33: 81-96.
45.
Kamezis, John E.1976. Solonian Guardianship Laws of Classical Athens and the Senatus Consultum (Dig. 23, 2, 59). Athens.
46.
Kennedy, George.1963. The Art of Persuasion in Greece. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul.
47.
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane.1985a. "The 'Cruel Mother': Maternity, Widowhood, and Dowry in Florence in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries." Chapter 6 in Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press .
48.
—. 1985b. "The 'Mattinata' in Medieval Italy." Chapter 12 in Women, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago and London: Univesity of Chicago Press.
49.
Kowaleski, M.1986. "Women's Work in a Market Town: Exeter in the Late Fourteenth Century." Pp.145-164 in Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe, edited by B.A. Hanawalt.Bloomington : Indiana University Press.
50.
Kuenen-Janssens, L.J.T.1941. "Some Notes upon the Competence of the Athenian Woman to Conduct a Transaction." Mnemosyne9: 199-214.
51.
Labarge, M.W.1986. Women in Medieval Life: A Small Sound of the Trumpet . London: Hamish Hamilton.
52.
Lacey, W.K.1968. The Family in Classical Greece. London : Thames and Hudson.
53.
MacDowell, Douglas M.1978. TheLaw in Classical Athens. Ithaca : Cornell University Press.
54.
Mann, Susan.1987. "Widows in the Kinship, Class, and Community Structures of Qing Dynasty China."Journal of Asian Studies46: 37-55.
55.
McClees, Helen.1920. A Study of Women in Attic Inscriptions. New York: Columbia University Press.
56.
Pitt-Rivers, Julian.1977. The Fate of Shechem or The Politics of Sex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
57.
Pomeroy, S arah B .1975. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books.
58.
Pressat, Roland.1956. "Le remariage des veufs and des veuves." Population11: 47-58.
59.
Reyerson, Kathryn L.1986. "Women in Business in Medieval Montpellier." Pp. 117-144 in Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe, edited by B.A. Hanawalt.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
60.
Rezak, Brigitte Bedos.1988. "Women, Seals, and Power in Medieval France, 1150-1350 ." Pp. 61-82 in Women and Power in the Middle Ages, edited by Mary Erler and Maryanne Kowaleski.Athens, Georgia and London : University of Georgia.
61.
Rhodes, P.J.1986. "Political Activity in Classical Athens." Journal of Hellenic Studies106: 132-144.
62.
Sabean, David.1976. "Aspects of Kinship Behaviour and Property in Rural Western Europe Before 1800." Pp. 96-111 in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800, edited by Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E.P. Thompson.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
63.
de Ste.Croix, G.E.M.1970. "Some Observations on the Property Rights of Athenian Women." The Classical Review20: 273-278.
64.
Schaps, David M.1977. "The Woman Least Mentioned: Etiquette and Women's Names ." Classical Quarterly27: 323-330.
65.
—. 1979. Economic Rights of Women in Ancient Greece. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
66.
Segalen, M.1981. "Mentalité populaire et remariage en Europe occidentale ." Pp. 67-77 in Marriage and Remarriage in Populations of the Past, edited by J. Dupâquier et al. London and New York: Academic Press .
—. 1976. "The Grid of Inheritance: A Comment." Pp. 328-360 in Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800, edited by Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E.P. Thompson.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
69.
Thompson, Wesley E.1972. "Athenian Marriage Patterns: Remarriage." California Studies in Classical Antiquity5: 211-225.
70.
Venit, Marjorie S.1988. "The Caputi Hydria and Working Women in Classical Athens ." Classical World81: 265-272.
71.
Whitehead, David.1986. "Women and Naturalisation in Fourth-Century Athens: The Case of Archippe." Classical Quarterly36: 109-114.
72.
Wolff, H.J.1944. "Marriage Law and Family Organization in Ancient Athens ." Traditio2: 43-95.
73.
Wyse, W.1904. The Speeches of Isaeus. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
