Women in Early Eras

This study will examine the status and roles of women in the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hebrew and early Greek, Greek, the Hellenistic era, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the early Middle Ages, as described in Western Civilizations, by Robert E. Lerner, Standish Meacham, and Edward McNall Burns. The basic argument of the study will be that, with a certain number of exceptions, women in these ancient civilizations played little more than the most traditional and restricted roles, and their status was minimal compared to men.

One exception in Mesopotamia to this general rule was the queen Sammuramat. Her position of relative power was so unusual for a woman at the time that she became the subject of legend (44-45). The authors note, however, that for the most part women were kept in secondary roles, subjected to the cultural, political and economic domination of men in a period of "brutal masculinity" (44). "War and slaughter" (45) were prominent, and women were excluded from such militaristic pastimes. The only piece of art on women included in the chapter on Mesopotamia is that of a female in a traditional domestic role, carrying a bowl on her head (38).

In Egypt, we find the same pattern with respect to both earthly and divine females. The goddess Isis is seen as a significant character only in relation to the god Osiris, her husband and brother. She restores him to life so that he can regain his kingdom (57-58), and is then quickly forgotten, at least

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which men participated exclusively. This extent of this male superiority is suggested in the fact that Alexander declared himself a god (145). Women are scarcely mentioned in this chapter. Here is one such rare example: "What inspired Alexander most about the ways of Asia were not princesses or loaves of bread, but any Asian customs that might enhance the autocracy and his glamour" (144). Being seen as "princesses" and compared to "loaves of bread" are signs that women were seen as essentially inferior to men. Women were considered meaningful only in that, if they were a part of the royal family hierarchy, they carried royal blood. As a result, "The later members of the dynasty . . . revived the practice of sister marriage [to preserve] the divine blood of the royal family" (146). Women themselves were seen as inferior, but their genes were at least repositories of royal traits (146). The coming of the Roman Republic saw some increase in the status of women, because of two new laws: One was the introduction of so-called 'free marriage,' whereby the wife's share of her father's property remained her own instead of passing to her husband. . . . Together with that came new rules for divorce, whereby either side, instead of just the

Category: History - W