Student No. 0933020

 

To what extent do archaeological remains show woman as

being as equal as men in Greek religion?

 

 

Through looking at primary sources and other sources without seeing the archaeological evidence first hand it would appear that religion often gave women many more rights and benefits that they were not allowed in other areas of their lives. In some ways it could be said that woman were given a stronger role than men in religion because of their nature, Carroll believed that there were many women prophets as men “stood in awe of the intuitive fauclty in women that enabled her to arrive at a truth without apparent effort”(Carroll 1907:269).  This would imply that women were almost seen as more important than men in religion because people believed that women’s natures made them more talented prophets than men. However Osborne believed that it is difficult to see women’s role in religion as there were many different inscriptions and conflicting views. For example an inscription at the sanctuary of Herakles said that woman aren’t allowed to take part in rituals that involve sacrifice whereas at the sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros an inscription clearly included women in the ritual. (Osborne 2000:294) Farnell believed that the Greeks believed the presence of women impairs the warriors energy and so it would be detrimental to have women in a warriors shrine. (Farnell 1921:162-163) Still the majority of the evidence seems to suggest that women were included in most aspects of Greek religion and were often revered and were given positions of power in religion which they would not have been able to gain positions of power in other aspects of their life.
 

In Delphi the importance of woman in religion is obvious because of the oracle of Delphi. The priestess was meant to be channelling the spirit of Apollo and people came from all over Greece to ask the oracle for advice for important matters in their lives and of the state. The Delphi oracle shows the importance of women in Greek religion as the oracle was one of the foremost places for the Greeks to go for advice, even in political areas (Broad 2007: 32). The importance of the oracle is obvious in the archaeological remains as the oracle was the main reason that Delphi became such a large city and became so important. It would be useful to go and see the archaeological evidence first hand as it would help to see if how far the importance of the oracle had influenced how essential other women were seen to be. Without looking at the evidence first hand it would all imply that woman were almost more than equal in Greek religion as they were seen to be the mouthpiece  of the Gods and their advice was taken with such importance.
 

On the other hand women were excluded from aspects of religion in other areas, in Olympia women were excluded from one of the largest panegyris in all of Greek. However this was mainly down to the Olympic Games being held and so the Greeks were excluding the women more from the sporting aspect of this festival rather than the religious aspects.  Nonetheless women were given their own separate festival named the Heraea Games. In some ways this was almost equal to the Olympic Games as the winners were both given olive crowns showing that the winners were at least given equal winnings. The winners of the Heraea Games were also able to dedicate statues inscribed with their names or paint portraits of themselves on the columns of Hera's temple. (Pausanias 5.15. 1-6) We will be visiting the temple of Hera to see these inscriptions and paintings to see how important these games were and if they were seen as important as the Olympic Games.
 

The main temple in Corinth on its acropolis is the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, in which there more than one thousand temple prostitutes employed who would give the money they earned towards worshiping Aphrodite. During the Persian war in 480 BC the women entered the shrine and prayed for Greece to win and after the war the Greeks dedicated a pinax to Aphrodite with the names of the women who prayed for victory. (Dillon 2003:201) This could imply that women were as important as men in that they were still praised for their religious practises, on the other hand it could be said that they weren’t as equal as men as men would not have been used for prostitution. By using women as prostitutes and making the men pay for religious purposes suggests that in religion men wouldn’t see woman as equal and they wouldn’t be seen as equal. By going to Corinth it would show how woman were represented and show how they were portrayed, this would give a full representation of how women were seen and if the women at Corinth were praised or scorned.
 

The cult of Athena Polias was also run by priestesses which was one of the highest religious positions in Athens. During the Panatheaia the ancient Greeks went on a procession throughout the streets of Athens and throughout the procession even unmarried women were allowed to mix with the noble men without restraint which was very unusual for women at this time. (Johnston 2007:305) The fact that women were allowed to act in ways in religious festivals which they were not allowed to do in other aspects of their life shows that religion gave women power and equality which they wouldn’t have otherwise. The depiction of women in the Museum at Athens at the Acropolis would help show how these religious festivals impacted the women’s lives and how much they were treated differently and more or less equally in religion compared to the rest of their lives.
 

Throughout all of the places we shall be visiting I will be looking at the general presence of women in the archaeological remains to try to see whether or not women were treated as equally as men in ancient Greek religion. From the primary and secondary sources available it is likely that in general they were treated relatively equally in comparison to how women were treated in the rest of their lives. Nevertheless women without a doubt had different roles to men yet in some ways this almost gave them more power in religion. For example the oracle of Delphi had a very strong influence throughout the whole of Greece because they believed the Gods were speaking through the high priestess. This not only gave them power in Greek religion but allowed them through the role in religion to have influence over the rest of Greece. Overall it seems that women were treated as equally as men in religion yet it would be extremely useful to see these sites first hand to get a different perspective and back up the primary and secondary sources which seem to suggest this.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Burkett, W. 1987 Greek Religion Oxford. 

Broad, J  2007 The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets New York
Buxton, R. G. A. 2000 (eds) Oxford readings in Greek religion. Oxford.

Calame, C. 1997 Choruses of young women in ancient Greece : their morphology,

religious role and social function. London

Dillon, M. 2002 Girls and women in classical Greek religion. London.

Johnston, S. 2004 Religions of the ancient world: a guide Cambridge

Mitchell, C. 2004. Greek women. London.

Neils, J. (eds) 1996 Worshipping Athena : Panathenaia and Parthenon. Wisconsin.

Rose, H. J. 1946 Ancient Greek religion. London.

Slater, P. 1992 The glory of Hera; Greek mythology and the Greek family. Oxford.

Stobart, J. 1997 The glory that was Greece: a survey of Hellenic culture and civilisation London

Wire, A. 2003 The Corinthian Women Prophets: A Reconstruction Through Pauls Rhetoric. Minneapolis