2020 IB Extended Essays

Athenian society held. The depiction of women on vases also exemplified men’s ideologies towards having more companions also meant the more respect he would receive. Unlike women who were mocked and tainted with inaccurate depictions on vases.

Even in domestic seclusion women and men were separated. Women were bound to only female quarters which were called Gynaikon or gynaikonitis. Within the Okios women were responsible for its daily maintenance and for the cooking. Whereas, males were responsible for protecting the household from enemies and were also responsible for the political status of the Okios. Through the literary writings of Thucydides and Plato, A.W Gomme (Oxford, 1937), a well-known classical historian, uses literary text from both philosophers as confirmation that “social diversion into separate spheres of activity indicated general contempt for women”. Literary sources attached to gendered spacing, distinguish between male ideology and behavioural realities in a women’s world. For instance, Ian Morris a Classical Greek Historian identifies public areas firmly conceived as male space … while the rest of the house was a space of freedom granted towards women. Another classical Greek scholar, Robert Flacelière, states that 'Whereas married women seldom crossed the thresholds of their own front doors, adolescent girls were lucky if they were allowed as far as the courtyard ... well away, even, from the male members of their own family” (Robert Flacelière, Seclusion, Separation, and the Status of Women in Classical Athens). Laws were even created, to ensure women would stay inside the Okios, due to the fear that women would seduce men with their eyes, and thus, they also had to cast there eyes down in front of men beside their family and Husband. Even though women were domestically some literary texts from Thucydides and Plato depict female seclusion accurately despite a blatant bias towards the male perspective. Attic black-figure and red-figure vase-paintings also depict the role and position of women in society and the extent of domestic oppression faced.