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Women’s Religion in Hellenistic Athens

  • Robert Parker
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Sidelights on Greek Antiquity
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Sidelights on Greek Antiquity

Abstract

In some respects, the role of women in religious life becomes more visible in Hellenistic Athens than it had been hitherto: their service as priestesses or lesser cult functionaries is commemorated by honorary decrees and statues; large numbers of young women involved in weaving Athena’s Panathenaic robe begin to be listed. Some private religious societies admitted women, though male-only societies continued to predominate. But when Athens took over Delos in 166 BC, none of the ten major priesthoods then established was assigned to a woman. Most of the religious life of ordinary women known to us from the Classical period disappears from view: informal neighbourhood rites, the arkteia at Brauron and Mounichia, and above all the central element in married women’s religious calendar, the Thesmophoria. Most of these rites probably vanish because we no longer have the evidence of the main source that had hitherto revealed them, namely Attic comedy. But it would be hard to claim that the religious horizons of Athenian women were significantly expanded in the period. Among the priesthoods of Delos assigned to men in 166 is that of Artemis. An endnote collects the evidence for priests of goddesses in Athens, and rejects the possibility that men replaced women in consequence of democratic reform, since in one cult controlled by a genos (i.e. a cult pre-dating the democracy) Demeter is already served by a priest. Rather, Holderman’s old observation remains valid - that two principles were in tension: the patriarchal rule that ritual is done by men, and the practice of ‘temple worship’ by which an officiant is chosen who is best suited to the particular rites to be performed.

Abstract

In some respects, the role of women in religious life becomes more visible in Hellenistic Athens than it had been hitherto: their service as priestesses or lesser cult functionaries is commemorated by honorary decrees and statues; large numbers of young women involved in weaving Athena’s Panathenaic robe begin to be listed. Some private religious societies admitted women, though male-only societies continued to predominate. But when Athens took over Delos in 166 BC, none of the ten major priesthoods then established was assigned to a woman. Most of the religious life of ordinary women known to us from the Classical period disappears from view: informal neighbourhood rites, the arkteia at Brauron and Mounichia, and above all the central element in married women’s religious calendar, the Thesmophoria. Most of these rites probably vanish because we no longer have the evidence of the main source that had hitherto revealed them, namely Attic comedy. But it would be hard to claim that the religious horizons of Athenian women were significantly expanded in the period. Among the priesthoods of Delos assigned to men in 166 is that of Artemis. An endnote collects the evidence for priests of goddesses in Athens, and rejects the possibility that men replaced women in consequence of democratic reform, since in one cult controlled by a genos (i.e. a cult pre-dating the democracy) Demeter is already served by a priest. Rather, Holderman’s old observation remains valid - that two principles were in tension: the patriarchal rule that ritual is done by men, and the practice of ‘temple worship’ by which an officiant is chosen who is best suited to the particular rites to be performed.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents XI
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Tabula Gratulatoria XIX
  6. Vasileios Petrakos: A Life Dedicated to the Service of Greek Archaeology XXIII
  7. Part I: Epigraphy and Ancient History
  8. Thucydides, Historical Geography and the ‘Lost Years’ of Perdikkas II 3
  9. Athens, Samothrace, and the Mysteria of the Samothracian Great Gods 17
  10. De quelques épitaphes d’étrangers et d’étrangères au Musée d’Érétrie 45
  11. Φυτωνυμικά τοπωνύμια Κωμών της Αργολίδος 103
  12. Le recours à l’arbitrage privé dans les actes d’affranchissement delphiques 117
  13. Προξενικό ψήφισμα από την Αιτωλία 137
  14. Women’s Religion in Hellenistic Athens 145
  15. Notes on Athenian Decrees in the Later Hellenistic Period 159
  16. “Those Who Jointly Built the City” 179
  17. Part II: Archaeology
  18. Attica and the Origins of Silver Metallurgy in the Aegean and the Carpatho-Balkan Zone 197
  19. Cultural Variation in Mycenaean Attica. A Mesoregional Approach 227
  20. Mythical and Historical Heroic Founders: The Archaeological Evidence 299
  21. Das Volutenkapitell aus Sykaminos 321
  22. Dionysos Lenaios at Rhamnous. Lenaia ἐν ἀγροῖς and the “Lenaia vases” 359
  23. Philoktet in Attika 383
  24. Part III: History of Greek Archaeology
  25. Peiraieus in 1805 411
  26. Karl Otfried Müller in Marathon, Rhamnus und Oropos 423
  27. Spyridon Marinatos and Carl Blegen at Pylos: A Happy Collaboration 441
  28. Vassilis Petrakos et les fouilles suisses d’Érétrie 451
  29. List of Contributors 465
  30. Index of Epigraphical Texts 469
  31. Index Locorum 477
  32. Index of Mythological Names 483
  33. Index of Geographic Names (Place Names, Ethnic and Demotic Adjectives) 485
  34. Index of Ancient Personal Names 499
  35. Index Rerum 505
  36. Index of Modern Personal Names 515
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110699326-011

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents XI
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Tabula Gratulatoria XIX
  6. Vasileios Petrakos: A Life Dedicated to the Service of Greek Archaeology XXIII
  7. Part I: Epigraphy and Ancient History
  8. Thucydides, Historical Geography and the ‘Lost Years’ of Perdikkas II 3
  9. Athens, Samothrace, and the Mysteria of the Samothracian Great Gods 17
  10. De quelques épitaphes d’étrangers et d’étrangères au Musée d’Érétrie 45
  11. Φυτωνυμικά τοπωνύμια Κωμών της Αργολίδος 103
  12. Le recours à l’arbitrage privé dans les actes d’affranchissement delphiques 117
  13. Προξενικό ψήφισμα από την Αιτωλία 137
  14. Women’s Religion in Hellenistic Athens 145
  15. Notes on Athenian Decrees in the Later Hellenistic Period 159
  16. “Those Who Jointly Built the City” 179
  17. Part II: Archaeology
  18. Attica and the Origins of Silver Metallurgy in the Aegean and the Carpatho-Balkan Zone 197
  19. Cultural Variation in Mycenaean Attica. A Mesoregional Approach 227
  20. Mythical and Historical Heroic Founders: The Archaeological Evidence 299
  21. Das Volutenkapitell aus Sykaminos 321
  22. Dionysos Lenaios at Rhamnous. Lenaia ἐν ἀγροῖς and the “Lenaia vases” 359
  23. Philoktet in Attika 383
  24. Part III: History of Greek Archaeology
  25. Peiraieus in 1805 411
  26. Karl Otfried Müller in Marathon, Rhamnus und Oropos 423
  27. Spyridon Marinatos and Carl Blegen at Pylos: A Happy Collaboration 441
  28. Vassilis Petrakos et les fouilles suisses d’Érétrie 451
  29. List of Contributors 465
  30. Index of Epigraphical Texts 469
  31. Index Locorum 477
  32. Index of Mythological Names 483
  33. Index of Geographic Names (Place Names, Ethnic and Demotic Adjectives) 485
  34. Index of Ancient Personal Names 499
  35. Index Rerum 505
  36. Index of Modern Personal Names 515
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Heruntergeladen am 10.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110699326-011/html
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