Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

84 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
and philosophical matters. Such was her influence over Perikles
that the latter’s decision to lead an expedition against the island
of Samos is said to have been taken on her advice (Plutarch, Life
of Perikles 24.1–3). Aspasia was able to attain this status and influence
in part because she was a foreigner who came from Miletus in
Turkey and was therefore not subject to the same social constraints
as her Athenian counterparts. It would have been inconceivable for
a freeborn Athenian woman to hobnob with the leading intellectuals
of her day, and the freedom she enjoyed, and perhaps flaunted,
no doubt greatly offended the sensibilities of Athenian men and
women alike.
In addition, many brothels existed in Athens, largely staffed by
slaves. In fact, the state acted as pimp by farming out the right to
collect taxes from prostitution to enterprising individuals in much
same way, mutatis mutandis, that it farmed out the right to collect
harbor dues.
Conclusions
To offer any final assessment regarding the condition and status
of women in the Greek world is impossible. To begin with, almost
all the evidence, such as it is, relates to Athens. (The principal exception
to this claim is the Homeric poems, whose portrayal of women
must be treated with obvious caution.) Because, moreover, we possess
almost no testimonies by women themselves, all we have to go
on are statements made by men about women. Furthermore, our
ability to make an objective judgment is complicated by contemporary
assumptions about the role and status of women in our own
society—assumptions, moreover, that continue to be in a state of
flux. Although some vase paintings depict a rather more rosy picture
of women reading, playing musical instruments, and dancing
that challenge the more conventional view of women as repressed
and uneducated, we cannot know how typical such scenes are of
daily life.
Certain unpalatable facts are not in dispute, however. For
instance, a girl’s chances of survival were poorer than those of a
boy; her life expectancy was shorter than that of a boy; her opportunities
for acquiring an education were virtually nonexistent; the
law regarded her as a minor whatever her years; and, should she
choose to abandon her traditional role as mother and housekeeper,
virtually only one profession—the oldest of all—was available
to her. Partly as a result of the imbalance in life expectancy—the