II. EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN GREECE Period and Source. The social revolution of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. affected the position of women as well as other aspects of Greek society, but the changes in the education of women were in no wise so profound as those affecting the education of men. It is true that there was a demand for greater freedom for women. Evidences of this are to be found in the teachings of Socrates and the writings of Plato. The latter held that the women possessed the same faculties as men, only in a lesser degree, and were entitled to a similar education. In this respect he approved the practices of the Spartans. A distinct cult relating to the greater freedom and higher education of women seems to have centred about Apasia. But so far as these changes concern the status of married women, they appear to have been limited to greater freedom and responsibility in the home. Literary education and intellectual pursuits belonged only to those who were without the home circle, the hetara, and in such privileges they were placed in sharp opposition to the position of the wife. The approved education of the women in the home during the later period did not differ materially from that of the earlier period. There was permissible a greater attention to dress and the toilet, somewhat greater freedom in the home, and a greater responsibility in its management. But as a rule the sphere of woman's activities and the scope of her education were still very limited. Hence the descrip tion of woman's education is essentially the same for the two periods of Grecian education that include the historic portion of independent existence of the nation. The description here given is taken from the Economics of Xenophon. Xenophon lived during the last quarter of the fifth century and the first half of the fourth, though the dates of his birth and of his death are unknown. Some authorities make the period of his life a quarter of a century earlier. However that may be, he writes from well within the period of the new practices. It has been suggested that this selection is but another evidence of a campaign for the rights of the "new woman," and as such is a source belonging to education of the later period only. But Xenophon was a conservative in almost every respect, and was an advocate of the old education for men, as will be seen in a later selection (p. 122). Moreover, the education here advocated for women is essentially the old education. It contains no intellectual training whatever, but is essentially a training in domestic duties. There is nothing to indicate that the education advocated for the woman in the home should approximate in its freedom and intellectuality that allowed to the hetara. It is, therefore, correct to take this passage as descriptive of the approved education of the Athenian woman in the earlier as well as in the later period, though as described by Xenophon this education is systematized and somewhat elaborated. The Economics is one of the so-called "Socratic" writings of Xenophon, and treats of the management of the household. But it is rather an exposition of his own ideas than of those of his master, for concerning such practical affairs Xenophon was more of an authority than Socrates. While in many respects Xenophon was a cosmopolitan in his treatment of this subject, in the main he is well within the old conservative Grecian practices. The description given is of an Athenian girl brought up in total ignorance of practical affairs, and, though kept in seclusion according to the old ideas, yet trained in some of the frivolous practices of the more degenerate times. The girl, thus neglected in her earlier training, is educated by her husband as she should have been by her parents. This is one of the most striking and detailed accounts relating to education to be found in Greek literature. The Education of Women in Greece, as described in this passage from the Economics, relates specifically to Athens but is typically Grecian. References in the Homeric poems are indicative of the same practices in an earlier stage of development. At Sparta a widely divergent type of education was found. There girls received an education similar to the boys, even in respect to gymnastic and rudimentary military training. Boys and girls were not educated together, but girls were under the discipline of women, as boys were of the men. These statements are made by Plutarch and others, though few details are given. There was, of course, this general difference in principle: men were educated with the sole idea of becoming warriors; women with the sole idea of becoming mothers of warriors. At Athens, women were educated for the home, hence their education was essentially a training in domestic duties. The ideal of this education receives a clear statement in the passage in Pericles' Funeral Oration: "... to a woman not to show more weakness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or evil among men." Such The an education could be given only in the home. literary and gymnastic schools were for boys. Woman's education was in the performance of household duties, and in the attainment of domestic virtues. In the later period, when the old moral, religious, and social ideas had lost much of their binding force, many Greek women did, to be sure, receive a literary education, but in so doing lost their place as the head of the household and the reverence that had been given them as such. The Grecian woman was never on an equality with her husband, as was true in many respects at Rome; and when she attained or aspired to intellectual equality, it was at the sacrifice of. the position in the home that she had, up to that time, held securely. The dialogue from the Economics gives an account of the approved education with as much detail as one could otherwise secure by a reconstruction from a great variety of isolated passages. In addition to supplying the details, it gives also the philosophy of this restricted education as it appeared to a keen, observing, conservative Greek of the period, when both old and new could yet be compared. Selections from the Economics of Xenophon CHAPTER VII. THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN 1. "Observing him1 therefore sitting one day in the portico of the temple of Jupiter Eleutherius,2 I went towards him, and as he seemed to me to be at leisure, sat down near him, and said, 'Why are you, Ischomachus, 1 Ischomachus, a friend of Socrates, called fair and good; these terms indicate the ideal educated man. The temple of Zeus, "the Deliverer." After the battle of Platea, 479 B.C., a special feast of liberty was instituted in honor of "the Deliverer.” Why called "fair and good." Training of the girl. who are not accustomed to be idle, sitting thus? for in 1 An Athenian law which specified that if any person was called upon to take the duty of any public office, and could point out any person richer than himself, who ought to have been called upon instead of himself, he might summon that citizen to take the office or to exchange properties. 2 Commander of a ship of war. 8 The person who supplied a properly trained choir in the production of the tragedies or comedies. |