how did the greeks stereotype

A detailed Summary of how did the greeks stereotype


How did the Greeks stereotype women and how were they justified in doing so?

From the beginnings of establishing male physical superiority over women, men in antiquity went on to assume women were morally and intellectually inferior to men. Women, in their eyes, were different and should be treated as such.

It would be quite wrong to say that female stereotypes of ancient Greece emerged from the divine; nor can we extrapolate any common stereotypes from their actions. The goddesses cannot strictly be thought of as female as they are divine entities merely taking the shape of a human - Athene is only called such through convention and for ease of recognition. Also, by definition, the goddesses were not normal people; this is where the first problem arises in assessing the stereotypes of women in Greece - normal people, especially women, were not written about much only the extraordinary were studied; this makes the assessment of the norm even more difficult.

Semonides is one writer who concentrated on the character of women at his time; his work sums up the typecast role of a woman. He begins his poem with the line:

'In the beginning Zeus made the female mind separately'

here he is immediately isolating women - women were ma


One of the main features of Semonides' prejudice and, indeed the prejudice of the male population of Greece, was the belief that women were autominate - they not only make bad decisions ('she eats up sacrifices left unburned' - ferret), they are physically unable to make moral distinctions between right and wrong:

'courage and intelligence and justice are qualities that men and women have in common. Courage and intelligence are more appropriately male qualities because of the strength of men's bodies and the power of their minds. Chastity is more appropriately female. - Pythagoras

The Greeks believed that women were inferior to men (although not unequal socially) incapable of having good individual qualities. They justified this belief saying that Zeus had made women this way and that men, because of their superior mental ability must control the women and tell her what is right because she is unable to do so. Demosthenes said:



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Approximate Word count = 1508
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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