Download Classics response 8 Lysias on women

Lysias on Women
The Activity
What can we learn from Lysias’ speech On the Murder of Eratosthenes about the role of
women in Classical Athens?
The speech: initial considerations
This short speech provides a splendid glimpse into private life in Athens at the turn of the fourth
century B.C. It has recently been suggested that the speech may have been a fictional exercise,
perhaps a rhetorical model for how speeches should be written. Nevertheless, it offers a unique
insight into Athenian social values, and attitudes towards gender, sexuality, female participation
and legal concerns in the heyday of Athenian democracy.
As you read this speech and attempt the activity, you should be careful about making sweeping
statements or generalizations about women and female life in Athens. Euphiletus (if he ever
existed) is likely to have been a well-to-do Athenian man, hailing from the upper echelons of
Athenian society. His attitude towards his wife, his living arrangements, and his values are likely
to have been those of the Athenian aristocracy, but may well have been quite different from the
attitudes of the dēmos (the ‘masses’). If Euphiletus (the name literally, and perhaps ironically,
means ‘well-loved’) is a fictional character and the speech a ‘model’ speech, then what we read
may be idealised, rather than a realistic depiction of how Athenians lived. Furthermore, because
this text is a piece of rhetoric, its function is to persuade its audience to think about the situation,
Euphiletus’ lifestyle, his wife’s behaviour and the values and morals of Athenian society in a
certain light, which may be far-removed from how things really were. And, like almost all of the
ancient literature we possess which engages with women, the speech was written and delivered
by men, for men, in the male domain of the lawcourt and the political arena.
This does not mean that the speech ceases to be useful as a historical source, just that it
provides us with one blinkered snapshot of how to approach women in antiquity.
1
Approaches
You should aim to identify particular figures, themes and sections which are useful for
approaching the activity.
(i) Characters
There are four female protagonists in the speech:
•
•
•
•
Euphiletus’ wife (not named: is this unusual?)
The slave girl
The ‘other woman’
The old woman, a servant of the ‘other woman’, sent to warn Euphiletus
Think: do these four characters have anything in common? How do they differ? Are they all
sources of trouble for Euphiletus/ Athenian men?
(ii) Euphiletus the cuckold
Euphiletus has sometimes been described as a ‘cuckold’, under the influence of his conniving
wife and unable to keep control of his household. Do you agree with this assessment? Does this
depiction help his case? Does he come good in the end?
On the other side of the coin, what do we learn about his wife’s character? How does she speak
and act towards him (cc. 12-13)? Is this what we would expect of an Athenian woman? What is
the significance of the make-up she wears, do you think? Are cosmetics also part of female
deception and entrapment?
(iii) Public and Private
Read sections 9-14 carefully. What do we learn about living arrangements in this Athenian
household? Where is the wife supposed to live? Is Euphiletus culpable for rearranging this setup?
Under what circumstances is Euphiletus’ wife allowed out in public (see especially cc. 8 and
19)?
(iv) Slaves
What is the role and characterisation of the two servants in this speech? Slaves and women are
often grouped together in Athenian social life under the heading of ‘subordinates’: is there any
support for such an approach in this speech?
How do the slaves speak and act towards Euphiletus in the speech? Are they also out of order?
To whom do you think the slave-girl belongs: the husband or the wife?
(v) Law
Read sections 31 – 33 carefully, which detail the Athenian law on adultery. What does this
suggest about the legal position of women, and their relationship to men? Why do you think the
law distinguishes between different ‘types’ of women (c. 31)? Do you find the relative
punishments for rape and seduction surprising? Is this position justifiable/ defensible/
misogynistic today?
2
These are just a few of the approaches you might take to this activity, but there are others.
Above all, try to use your common sense, and ground your arguments and ideas in the detail of
the speech. Below I have outlined how you might analyse one small section of the speech in
some detail, in order to give you an idea of how to approach literary criticism as an historical
tool.
Literary criticism: an example
[12] So, I told my wife to go away and nurse the child to stop it crying. To begin with, she did not want to go, claiming
that she was glad to see me home after so long. When I got annoyed and ordered her to leave she said, "Yes, so you
can have a go at the young slave here. You made a grab at her before when you were drunk."
[13] I laughed, and she got up, closed the door as she left, pretending it was a joke, and drew the bolt across.
Thinking there was nothing serious in this, and not suspecting a thing, I happily settled down to sleep as I had come
back from my farm work.
a) Traditional role of Athenian women as mothers/ child-bearers.
b) Duplicity of wife: pretence of being devoted, then jealous.
c) Implication that Euphiletus also misbehaves sexually, but (as we must assume from the
context of the speech) that such behaviour – even if it is hypocritical from a modern perspective
– is acceptable for men.
d) Humour: suggests a degree of free communication not unlike what we might expect in
modern western society.
e) The bolt: an inadvertent reference to what must have been commonplace in such households
– the wife can be locked in her own quarters at night. Here Euphiletus is being ‘feminised’.
f) Farm work: even if the wife is behaving improperly, Euphiletus is a hard-working Athenian
citizen, engaging (as all proper Athenian citizens should) in traditional agricultural duties.
Finally, why do you think the Athenian law was so strict about adultery? Why was adultery such
a threat to a patriarchal society?
3
Mid fifth-century B.C.
Attic vase, showing
Orestes, son of
Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra, killing his
mother’s lover
Aegisthus, and looking
back at Clytemnestra as
she flees.
4