Student No. 0933020

 

To what extent do archaeological remains show woman as

being as equal as men in Greek religion?

 

 

By visiting the sites of Ancient Greece it is clear to see that women in religion did not actually enjoy as large a role as I previously thought. Men still seem to be represented to a much larger degree than women in religious artefacts and statues and there does not appear to be very many remaining depictions of women in the archaeological remains. Although women prophets were commonplace and there were certainly many more women prophets than men, the remaining evidence would imply that this was the only area in which women had more power and influence than men. The large majority of shrines and statues show how athleticism and power seem to be the two main attributes which the Greeks seem to praise the most even in religion. As these two attributes would not have been apparent in women in Ancient Greece this could explain why they were not represented equally in the archaeological remains of the sites. On the other hand there were still aspects of religion that women were revered and there were many examples of women oracles that would have had a great control of influence.     

The first site we visited was the ancient site of Corinth, in particular I looked at the temple of Aphrodite which I believed from my reading previously was the site in which 1000 prostitutes were employed. However at the museum it states that the use of the temple has been debated and it may not have been used for the purpose I believed it was. It is likely that because of all the changes the temple has gone through in history that a large degree of misinterpretation would occur. The temple itself had throughout the ages been converted into both a church and mosque  The idea of the 1000 prostitutes in the temple seems to have arisen from the ancient Greek historian Strabo’s claim, yet there does not seem to be much more evidence from the archaeological site which supports this claim.

 

We then visited the Ancient Site of Olympia, where I looked at the temple of Hera to show evidence of the importance of the Heraea Games in Ancient Greece.  As the largest panegryis in Greece took place at the Olympia this meant women were not allowed to partake in this religious festival. Instead women were allowed their own Heraea Games as a replacement for not being able to take part in the Olympic Games. Therefore I wished to look at how important these games were viewed as.  At the temple of Hera it is still clear where the portraits of the winners of the Heraea Games were attached, again this emphasises how important these games were to women as it allowed them to partake in the games. Yet the fact still remains that they games were separate to men and therefore it cannot be called equal, the evidence at Greece also suggests that the Heraea Games were not as important as the Olympic Games. There is little representation of the games at the site, this would imply that the religious festival which would accompany it would also not be as important as the Olympic panegyris. This hints that women were not as equal as men in religion a they were not able to partake in all the religious festivals. On the other hand the evidence did show that in some ways women were seen as equal. At the Museum in Olympia they showed the evidence of offerings which were given to the Oracle of Olympia, through this it is clear how important the oracle was seen to be.  This suggests that women were given some responsibility and they were treated equally as males in some respects but not all as they were not allowed to partake in the largest panegyris in Greek.

 

It is also clear from the site of Delphi that women were given important roles in religion even if it was not quite equal roles. The archaeological evidence shows how important the oracle of Delphi must have been as the main reason the city became such a large area was because the oracle brought huge amounts of visitors to Delphi. The sanctuary was developed in order to include the temple of Apollo, the ancient theatre and many other buildings. By seeing this it is clear that the oracle had a large degree of influence as it created such a large amount of new sites and the archaeological remains still show that these buildings were impressive. This would imply that the oracle of Delphi had a large amount of power and had an extremely important role in religion as the fact that the city grew exponentially because of the oracle shows the huge amount of visitors to Delphi asking the oracle for advice.  As the role of the oracle was a woman it shows that in some cases woman had a stronger role than men in religion, yet it is only one woman who is chosen and so does not give a wide enough view of women as a whole.

 

When visiting the Archaeological Museum of Athens it became clear that women were not given as equal a role in religion in men. Men were on a whole depicted much more on statues and pediments on temples than women were, therefore it could be said that this means women were not able to partake in religious festivals as much as men. On the other hand the Acropolis Museum showed many more statues and depictions of women, for instance on the Parthenon frieze it depicts the Panathenaia  it shows both men and women giving offerings and both partaking in the festival. This shows that in some cases men and women were equal.

 

In general throughout all the site of ancient Greece it was clear that men and women were not portrayed as equal in religion. Although in some instances women were shown to be equal, for example the Parthenon frieze depicts women and men together showing their equality, this seems to be the exception not the rule in women’s role in religion. Although it is clear from Delphi and Olympia that oracles were extremely important in Greek religion it seems to be that these were atypical examples and most other women were not given as big a role. The overall archaeological evidence shows that women were either not represented in religion or were not allowed to partake in most religious festivals. Either way this suggests that women were not treated as equally as men in ancient Greek religion.