CLA 2100	Lecture Fifteen: Women in Athenian Life and the Tragedies of Euripides.
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Women in Athenian Life

• The problem of sources.
• Evidence for literacy.
• Texts by women?
• Main social function.
• Political rights?
• Legal disabilities?
• Women in cult.
• Women in philosophy.
• Sexuality.
  • Marriage as a transfer of sovreignty from one male (kyrios) to another.
  • Status key: hetairai, prostitutes, slaves, concubines, and wives.
  • Homosexuality.
  • Adultery.

Basic Background to Euripides' Trojan Women

• Euripides' Trojan Women was produced in 415 BC.
• 415 BC was also the year Athens captured Melos.

Main Characters (with speaking parts or simply spoken of)

• Hecuba (& Priam)
• Odysseus
• Talthybius
• Cassandra
• Agamemnon (& Aegisthos, Clytaimnestra)
• Andromache and Astyanax (& Hector) and Neoptolemus
• Polyxena and Achilles
• Menelaus and Helen (& Paris)

Links to Illustrations of Euripides' Trojan Women:

http://plaza.ufl.edu/hmueller/cla2100/lecnotes/trojanwomen.htm

Essays

• Given the date of Euripides' Trojan Women would it be justified to call the play "anti-war"? If so, why? If not, why not?
• How does Euripides' Trojan Women illustrate and reflect ancient social aspects of women's lives? Please discuss in some detail.