Marriage in Athens style
The ancient Greeks. Interesting and exiting world. Athen and Sparta.
In Athens, the purpose of marriage was to secure a legal heir. From the age of Pericles, only citizens of Athens whose parents were both Athenians could be citizens. The wife’s only task was to ensure the continuity of the genus.
The girls were married between the ages of 13 and 15. They were appreciated when they remained silent and undetected. They were raised so that she could see the least, hear the least, and ask little.
The wives were living alone in a separate female residence in the house, the Guaikeion. They did not eat or sleep with their husbands and, being completely uneducated, rarely talked to their husbands. In the life of a husband, the wife was not usually the only sexual partner. Women sometimes shared their homes with their husbands’ lovers because they couldn’t comment on what was happening in androne, the men’s house.
The wives could not leave home and talk to strangers, but they often visited their neighbors, attended funerals, and assisted in childbirth. Women organized their celebrations, which excluded men. The wives of the poor men were able to go to the wells for water, selling their craft and agricultural produce themselves.
Escape of the bride in Sparta
The ancient Greeks in Sparta, this is an interesting topic! In Sparta, women lived much more freely than in other Greek city-states. They were raised as boys as they were, aestheticizing, learning singing and dancing. They usually practiced naked and dressed more casually than Athenian women.
From childhood, men lived in military barracks. They married around the age of 20, then waited another 10 years before leaving the barracks and living with their wife. The marriage began with the escape of the bride. After her honeymoon, her husband left the barracks secretly at night to see his wife. This was necessary because the soldiers could practice the virtue of self-restraint and their sexual desire increased. When a boss caught him on a romantic getaway, he punished him exemplarily.
The Greeks of the time believed that women had much greater sexual appetite than men and had a hard time controlling their instincts. Women often commit adultery. In Athens, the deceived man could kill his wife’s lover with impunity, and the unfaithful woman could not attend religious holidays, beautify, or go to church.
The husband could divorce his wife at any time, and he had the opportunity to offer another woman. She didn’t need her consent. The women could only initiate the divorce through a relative, and the children were always under the paternal guardianship.
The ancient Greeks and the prostitution
The men did not regard their wives as their physical and spiritual associates. The easiest way to satisfy your cravings was to use porn, that is, ordinary prostitutes. Often they did not even speak Greek and were slaves. They were either men’s fencing workers or guiding them to a rich week. Aging, impoverished mother also taught her daughters the tricks of prostitution.
The educated luxury prostitutes, the weekers, were the regular guests of the banquets. They were rented overnight and entertained the men with dance, lyrics, instrumental music, and witty conversations. Many of them became celebrated celebrities, such as Rhodopis, Lais, or Phrune, who were the most famous “celebs” in ancient Greece.
It was common for men to hold a cot (pallak), which they could take with them to the household without being married. The children from the relationship could not be citizens of Athens. The only exception was Pericles’s exclusive lover, Aspasia. He gained such political influence in Athens that his son, born from Pericles, was made a full-fledged citizen of Athens.
Read about the beginnings, about Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the ancient India!