A DAY WITH AN ATHENIAN
I. THE ATHENIAN GENTLEMAN
The day began early in Athens, and as soon as the sun was up everyone
was stirring: the workman was off to his work, the schoolboy to
school, and every booth and stall in the Agora was laden with
articles to attract the buyers who were expected in the market.
Before leaving his house, the Athenian gentleman had his breakfast, a
little bread soaked in wine, after which one of his house-slaves saw
that his himation hung in graceful folds, and then, accompanied by
one or more slaves carrying baskets, he set forth for the Agora.
Here the morning marketing was done, but unless he was giving a very
important banquet in the evening, the gentleman did not himself
attend to the household marketing; his slaves did that for him and
took the purchases home. Their master, in the meantime, would walk
up and down the Agora, or take a turn or two in one of the Porches,
where he would meet some of his friends, or go to the barber's shop,
where he would be sure to hear {208} the latest news of the day:
Pericles had proposed to build another temple, and there was much
discussion as to whether the state could afford it; the Spartan army
was said to be stronger than ever, and Sparta had always been jealous
of Athens; was she secretly getting ready for a war, and if so should
not Athens be prepared, or were those right who believed that the
greatness of Greece lay in a policy of peace with Sparta? Perhaps
the Olympic Games were being held and the news had just come and
spread like wildfire through the city, that the Athenians had covered
themselves with glory, especially in the chariot race, and that the
victors were even then on their way home, so all must be in readiness
to receive them. Or was it known that a galley had just returned
from a trading voyage on the Aegean, and that the sailors were
reporting that there was a good deal of discontent in some of the
islands, and that threats were being made of withholding some of the
tribute money unless the islanders were allowed greater independence?
These and many more burning questions of the day were made known and
discussed without the use of newspapers.
But the Athenian gentleman did not spend all his morning in talk. If
he were wealthy, he would have definite duties required of him by the
State: he had to fit out and keep in good order one or more triremes
for the navy, and there would be interviews with the captain as to
the number of men he required and how much they should be paid; there
were estimates for repairs to be gone over, and {209} designs for a
new and splendid figure-head on the prow of the ship to be approved.
Or perhaps it was his turn to provide for one of the choruses in the
coming dramatic festival, and he must see to it that this chorus was
well-trained and that no expense was spared in making it better than
any of the others, so that he might win the prize.
Then there were other duties towards the State that were demanded of
every free-born citizen. He must sit on the jury and judge law-suits
whenever he was called upon to do so, and as the Athenians were very
fond of such suits the demand came very often. Aristophanes, a
dramatist who wrote a number of plays in which he made fun of a great
many of the Athenian characteristics, said of the juryman:
He is a law-court lover, no man like him.
Judging is what he dotes on, and he weeps
Unless he sits on the front bench of all.[1]
In some way or other every Athenian citizen took part in the actual
government of the state, and in the time of Pericles about nine
thousand men held, during the year, some kind of state position.
These officials were chosen by the people and were seldom re-elected,
so that not only was everybody in turn responsible for certain
functions, but everyone was capable of intelligently discussing the
affairs of the state, and this was done at great length every day
whenever Athenian citizens met together.
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About once every ten days, the Agora was deserted in the morning, and
every free-born Athenian citizen over thirty years of age, both rich
and poor, was expected to go to the Pnyx, the meeting place of the
Assembly. In times of war, or when some very important question in
which everyone was interested had to be settled, no one stayed away,
and there would be great hurrying in the early morning in order to
get a good place.
The Pnyx was a great open-air place of assembly, west of the
Acropolis and not far from the city wall. In shape it was a sloping
semi-circle, part of which was supported by a wall. There were no
seats, and the citizens had to make themselves as comfortable as they
could on the bare ground. Facing the slope was a rock cut in the
form of a platform and mounted by steps on each side. This was
called the Bema, and here the orators stood when they addressed the
Assembly. In front of the Bema was the altar on which was offered
the sacrifice that always opened the Assembly, and behind it on a
rock were seats for the state officials who had charge of the meeting.
There were doubtless many days when the business in hand was not very
interesting, but there were times when excitement ran high and no one
was absent. It is not difficult to imagine the scene. Not far off
rose the rock of the Acropolis, symbol of the strength and glory of
Athens and of the guardianship of Athena; in the dim distance was the
sea, the great bond of union between Athens and the islands of the
Aegean and the East, and a symbol {211} of the protecting power of
Poseidon; overhead stretched the blue Greek sky; and there below in
the Pnyx was the densely packed crowd of Athenians, deliberating on
matters on which hung their very life or death. It was there that
the decision was made to march to Marathon and to face the unnumbered
Persian foe; that Themistocles pleaded passionately for a navy; that
the messengers from Delphi brought back the answer about the "wooden
walls"; that Aristeides persuaded the Athenians to free the Ionians
from their Persian masters and to form the Delian League which led
Athens to become an Empire; and it was there, too, that Pericles in
stately and measured tones urged the Athenians to beautify their city
as no other city in the world had ever been beautified before.
These and similar occupations took up the morning of the Athenian
gentleman. After a light meal in the middle of the day, he would go
to the Academy or one of the other gymnasia, where he would spend the
cool of the day in exercising himself, or in watching the youths at
their games; in walking in the pleasant groves talking over the
events of the day with his friends; or in discussing with some
philosopher all kinds of questions concerning new interpretations of
old beliefs and new ideas about man, whence he comes and whither he
goes. Some of these were questions which were discussed for the
first time in the history of the world, and never before and but
seldom since has there been such an eager desire to know the truth
about all things, as there was in this Athens of the fifth century
B.C.
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But as the evening drew on and it grew dusk, the Athenians left the
gymnasia and returned to the city. All day long they had been in
company, and in the evening the most was made of every opportunity to
meet again, for they held that "to eat your dinner alone was not
dining but feeding," so it was very likely that the day would end by
a banquet. If that were so, the guests would all have been invited
in the morning, either by the host himself when he met them, or by a
message carried by a slave. Preparations were usually made for more
than the invited number of guests, as it was a common custom for
guests to bring some additional friends of their own, and uninvited
guests would often come without any special bidding. Since leaving
the gymnasia, all the guests would have been at their homes. There
they would have bathed and clad themselves in fresh chitons and
mantles, and slaves would accompany them to the house of their host.
At a banquet the guests reclined on couches, and the food was brought
to them on low tables. The evening meal was the chief meal of the
day in Athens. It began with fish or meat and vegetables, and when
this course was over, the tables were removed, water was poured over
the hands of the guests, and garlands were often passed round. Then
came the second course of fruits, confectionery and various kinds of
sweetmeats, after which the tables were again removed, and replaced
by smaller ones on which stood beautifully shaped drinking cups. The
guests were given more garlands and wreaths, and {213} the slaves
brought in the large kraters, in which the wine and water were mixed,
and the after-dinner entertainment of the evening began.
This entertainment was called the Symposium, and it began with the
pouring out of three libations: to the Olympian gods, to the Heroes,
and to Zeus. Then the health of the hosts and of his guests was
drunk; after which began the entertainment. This consisted of
conversation, singing, listening to music, watching dancers, in
playing games, telling stories or passing round jests. Just what was
done at the Symposium depended on the kind of guests present. "When
the company are real gentlemen and men of education," said Plato, you
will see no flute-girls, nor dancing girls, nor harp girls; they will
have no nonsense or games, but will be content with one another's
conversation." More often, however, the guests were less serious.
They enjoyed the music of the flute and other instruments, they
played games, and watched dancing, they "chatted and talked pleasant
nonsense to one another."
When the party came to an end, a libation was offered to Hermes, the
slaves were called, who attended their masters home, lighting their
way with torches or lamps. The older men would go sedately home, the
younger would keep up their merriment and go noisily and boisterously
through the streets until, having knocked at the doors of their
houses, the sleepy porter would wake up and let them in, and silence
would at length reign in the streets of the city.
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II. THE ATHENIAN LADY
What, in the meantime, was the Athenian lady doing? She was at home,
managing all the household affairs and bringing up the children. She
educated her sons until they were seven years old, when they went to
school, and her daughters until they were about fifteen, when they
were considered old enough to be married.
The Greek writer Xenophon wrote an account of what were considered
the duties of an ideal Athenian wife. He imagines the husband of a
young bride telling her what he expected of her, and in what way he
hoped the household affairs would be managed.
You will need to stay indoors, despatching to their toils
without, such of your domestics whose work lies there. Over
those whose appointed tasks are indoors it will be your duty to
preside, yours to receive the stuffs brought in, yours to
apportion part for daily use, and to make provision for the rest,
to guard and garner it so that the outgoings destined for a year
may not be expended in a month. It will be your duty when the
wools are brought in to see that clothing is made for those who
have need. Your duty also to see that the dried corn is made fit
and serviceable for food. Then, too, if any of the household
fall sick, it will be your care to tend them to the recovery of
their health.
But there are other cares and occupations which are yours by
right. This, for instance, to take some maiden who knows nothing
of carding wool, and to make her skilful in the art, doubling her
usefulness; or to receive another quite ignorant of housekeeping
or of service, {215} and to render her skilful, loyal,
serviceable, till she is worth her weight in gold. But the
greatest joy of all will be to prove yourself my better; to make
me your faithful follower; knowing no dread lest as the years
advance you should decline in honour in your household, but
rather trusting that though your hair turn gray, yet in
proportion as you come to be a better helpmate to myself and to
the children, a better guardian of our home, so will your honour
increase throughout the household as mistress, wife and mother,
daily more dearly prized.[2]
Some further good advice was then given, and the husband concluded by
recommending exercise as the best means of preserving both health and
beauty. He said:
I counsel you to oversee the baking woman as she makes the bread,
to stand beside the housekeeper as she measures out her stores;
to go on tours of inspection to see if all things are in order as
they should be. For, as it seems to me, this will be at once
walking exercise and supervision. And as an excellent gymnastic,
I urge you to knead the dough, and roll the paste; to shake the
coverlets and make the beds; and if you train yourself in
exercise of this sort you will enjoy your food, grow vigorous in
health, and your complexion will in very truth be lovelier.[3]
Added to all these occupations was the education of the children.
The Athenian lady had nurses for them, Spartan slave-women, if they
were to be had, for their discipline was sterner than that of other
Greeks, and the Spartan nurses had the {216} reputation of being able
to keep their young charges in particularly good order. All kinds of
toys were provided for the children, hoops and balls, spinning-tops
and go-carts, dolls and toy animals. The Athenian mother learnt to
be a good story-teller, for it was in these early days that the
children wanted stories told them, and many a tale would she relate
of the gods and heroes of old, of the nymphs and spirits of the
forests and mountains, of the sea and of the air. And when night
came and the children must go to bed, then she would sing them to
sleep with a slumber song:
Sleep children mine, a light luxurious sleep,
Brother with brother: sleep, my boys, my life:
Blest in your slumber, in your waking blest.[4]
The girls had to be trained to all the duties of an Athenian wife,
and there was much to learn in the short years of their girlhood. It
was a domestic training that they were given; of other things they
learned as much or as little as their mother knew herself and was
able to teach them, probably not more than a little reading and
writing. A girl was not encouraged to take up any kind of
intellectual pursuits, and during her life before her marriage she
was generally "most carefully trained to see and hear as little as
possible, and to ask the fewest questions."[5]
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But it was not all work for the maiden, and many a time did she sit
in the swing in the courtyard and idle away a warm afternoon gently
swinging to and fro, and many a merry game of ball did she have with
her companions. It was she who made the fresh garlands and wreaths
for the altars or the house, and who, when the moon was full, laid
offerings on the tomb of her grandparents, and, most glorious of all
her girlhood privileges, it was she who helped to weave the robe
taken to the temple of Athena at the time of the great Panathenaic
festival and who bore baskets of offerings to the goddess in the
great procession.
When the Athenian maiden married, all this life came to an end, and
she took upon her young shoulders the training of her own household,
even as she had seen her mother do. Her marriage had usually been
arranged for her, and she often knew but little of her future
husband. Before the marriage day, she offered all her girlhood
treasures to Artemis, the goddess who had watched over her childhood.
Her tambourines and pretty ball, and the net that confined her
hair, and her dolls and dolls' dresses, Timareta dedicates before
her marriage to Artemis, a maiden to a maiden as is fit; do thou,
daughter of Leto, laying thine hand over the girl Timareta,
preserve her purely in her purity.[6]
When these symbols of her youth had passed from her keeping into that
of the goddess, the {218} maiden was dressed in beautiful raiment,
crowned with a wreath and covered with the bridal veil for the
marriage ceremony. This took place in the evening on a day when the
moon was full, and when she was ready, the bride was led by her
attendant maidens to the court where the bridegroom and her parents
and the invited guests awaited her. The marriage took place in the
court, a sacrifice was offered and a libation poured out to the gods,
and then the marriage feast followed, at which cakes of sesame were
always eaten. This was the only occasion on which women were allowed
to be present at a feast, but through it all the bride remained
closely veiled. When the feast was over, the bridal chariot was
driven up to the door, and the bride took her seat in it beside her
husband, her mother walked behind it bearing the marriage torch with
which the fire on the hearth of her new home would be lighted, the
guests surrounded it and with flute-playing and singing escorted the
bride to her new home.
If the bridegroom lived in a distant place, the bridal procession
broke up at the gates of the city, but if he lived in Athens, he and
his bride were escorted to the door of his house, where they were met
by his mother, and then, to the music of a marriage song, the bride
was led into her new home.
Did the Athenian lady have no amusements or recreations? Did she
leave all that was gay behind her when she became a wife? The
Athenian lady seldom left the house, and never unless attended by a
female slave. She had practically no society {219} but that of her
slaves. The peasant woman in the fields and the few women who sold
in the market had the society of their friends, but such
companionship was denied to the well-born lady. She saw no men,
except those of her own family. If her husband dined at home alone,
she shared his meal, but if he had guests she was unseen. From time
to time she took part in the great religious festivals and
processions, and occasionally she was permitted to be present in the
theatre when a tragedy was performed, but she was never permitted to
see a comedy for the wit and humour were often coarse and were
considered unfitting for her ears.
In many ways it was a strange life that the Athenian lady lived, one
that seems as if it were in contradiction to all that the Athenians
held of the highest importance, for the
Athenian lady lived in the house among a people that lived out of
doors. Among a people who gave great importance to physical
training she was advised to take her exercise in bedmaking. At a
time when the human spirit was at its freest she was enclosed on
all sides. Art and thought and letters were reaching the highest
development they were ever to know, but for her they hardly
existed.
But whatever was the actual life of the Athenian lady, the Athenian
ideal of womanhood was very high. In the wondrous temple that stood
high above the city, looking down upon it and guarding it, was the
figure that symbolized to the Athenians all that was good and
beautiful and true, and it was {220} the figure of a woman. It was
always the figure of a woman that represented Victory, and nearly all
the great Greek dramas deal with the fate of a woman, who was
generally the wife or daughter of a King. The Sacred Mysteries of
Eleusis, mysteries of such deep meaning that it was said that
"partakers in them had better hopes concerning death and all
eternity," centred round the story of the love and sorrow of a woman.
A race that could produce such great figures as these must have
thought nobly of womanhood.[7]
And so, in spite of her subordinate position in the background, the
Athenian woman was of real influence in Athens. She reigned supreme
in the household, and as her sons grew up, they recognized in her
those qualities which every Greek and especially the Athenian, was
taught to value so highly: that quiet courage which by its very
steadfastness overcomes all the little anxieties and annoyances of
daily life; and that self-control and self-mastery which, putting
self in the background, sets free the individual for service to
others. The Athenian ideal of service was that the man should give
it wholly to the state, and the woman wholly to her home, but narrow
as was her horizon, limited as were her opportunities, the Athenian
woman exercised an influence in Athens, that helped to strengthen and
preserve some of the noblest Athenian qualities.
[1] Aristophanes: _The Wasps_, translated by B. B. Rogers. (By
permission of Messrs. G. Bell and Sons.)
[2] Xenophon: _The Economist_.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Theocritus: From _Idyll_, XXIV, translated by S. C. Calverley.
(By permission of Messrs. G. Bell and Sons.)
[5] Xenophon: _The Economist_.
[6] Author Unknown: From _Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology_,
translated by J. W. Mackail.
[7] See Emily James Putnam: _The Lady_.
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