As in other Greek city-states, Athenian society was made up of roughly three classes: citizens, farmers and merchants, and slaves. Citizens had the most privileges and were seen as representatives of the city-state.
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This article will look at the lives of the free Athenian women of Ancient Greece and offer a comprehensive picture of their lives. Did they have a better life than other Greek women, according to our current standards? Was Athens indeed the most civilized city-state? These questions will be answered by describing and comparing what information is currently known about Athenian women.
The majority of sources that scholars and researchers use today to investigate the lives of women in Athens are either archaeological findings or written accounts. The latter can vary widely in genre because they may be literary works, political, or legal. In addition, women in Athens were a common topic in satires or tragedies, and this can give the impression of a rich account concerning them. However, all the existing surviving accounts are written from a man’s perspective. Therefore, scholars ask if we can truly know anything about the women of Athens in Ancient Greece.
A tragedy, for example, will tend to exaggerate certain features for the sake of entertainment, and can be doubted at times as a good source. On the other hand, legal texts, in the form of speeches, offer a glimpse of the Athenian view on gender and family, as many of these texts are concerned with inheritance. Archaeology, through its material discoveries, may add to the text-based understanding as objects may be coupled with literature in hopes of getting a picture that is closer to historical reality.