The Classic Woman Summary

In “The Classic Woman?” Mary Ritter Beard cleverly describes the life of women in Greece as such, “There seemed to be almost no end to the horrors of women's lives in Greece and Rome that you could discover if you tried hard enough”. Women were treated very unequally in Ancient Greece. Women had little to no rights, especially compared to men. The Middle East has come a long way since Ancient Greece and women have fought long hard years to have the equality that there is today. Some of the horrors the women had to go through related to their religious, political, legal and economical positions. Women also had to worry about their role in their community as well as their domestic role in Greece. Even the young girls had to worry about some of these factors in their life. Consequently, no matter what age the females were, they had to constantly keep up their image and do no wrong. …show more content…
Some legal and political positions women had been that they couldn’t inherit property, appear in court as a juror, and couldn’t achieve political rights. Furthermore, women couldn’t do very many activities related to economy. They weren’t allowed to do market business, didn’t appear in occupations where real money could be made, and one area under female control was prostitution. Younger girls were required to get married at a young age. They often had specific rituals in the polis as well. Young girls had to weave the peplos for Athena, wash the cult statue, and serve Artemis as acolytes in the sanctuary at Brauron. The amount of rules the women had to follow was