Special Episode – Ancient Athenian Women with Associate Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy

We sat down recently with Associate Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy to talk all about Ancient Greek women, specifically in relation to Athens.

Futo Kennedy teaches in Classical Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies at Denison University. Kennedy holds a BA in Classical Studies, an MA in Greek and Latin, and completed her PhD on the representation of Athena in the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles at Ohio State University. Kennedy’s most recent monograph is entitled Immigrant Women in Athens: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship in the Classical City.

Special Episode – Ancient Greek Women with Rebecca Futo Kennedy

In this conversation we explore the terminology and semantic fields of meaning connected with women in Ancient Greece including some of the persistent misconceptions and assumptions that come along with language. For example, the word hetaira is quite well-known, but what did the ancient Greeks really mean when they used the term?

How did women fit into the social structures and hierarchies of the ancient Greek city of Athens? What were women's lives like and what does the remaining evidence suggest about how they lived and the meaning they saw in their own experiences?

We also delve into the complexities attendant upon understanding metics – foreigners in Athens and what this category meant when you were also a woman. And the conversation rounds out with a consideration of poverty in ancient Athens and the challenges in studying this subject.

Some Sources

A number of sources and scholars are mentioned in this episode. Here's a few that come up: 

Jean-Leon Gerome Greek Interior 1848

• Brown, Peter 1989. The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750 
• Cecchet, Lucia 2015. Poverty in Athenian Public Discourse: From the Eve of the Peloponnesian War to the Rise of Macedonia
• Meyer, Elizabeth A. 2010. Metics and the Athenian Phialai-inscriptions: A Study in Athenian Epigraphy and Law 
• Osborne, Robin 1997. ‘Law, the Democratic Citizen and the Representation of Women in Classical Athens' Past and Present 155, pp 3-33
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. 1995. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity  – pretty readable, we recommend it if you're looking for a way to dip further into this subject.
• Taylor, Claire 2017. Poverty, Wealth, and Well-Being: Experiencing Penia in Democratic Athens 

Woman playing kottabos. Painting attributed to the Bryn Mawr Painter, c. 480 BCE

Sound Credits

Thanks to the thrilling Bettina Joy de Guzman for our theme music.

Transcript

We're playing around with auto-generated transcripts. This one was generated by Otter AI.

Dr Rad 0:16
Welcome to the Partial Historians,

Dr G 0:20
we explore all the details of ancient Rome.

Dr Rad 0:23
Everything from the political scandals, the love of ours, that battles waged, and when citizens turn against each other. I'm Dr. Rad.

Dr G 0:34
And I'm Dr. G. We consider Rome as the Roman Sword by reading different authors from the ancient past and comparing their stories.

Dr Rad 0:43
Join us as we trace the journey of Rome from the founding of the city.

Dr G 0:57
Thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Rad and I are super thrilled to welcome Associate Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy to the show. Professor Rebecca Futo Kennedy teaches in Classical Studies, women and gender studies and environmental studies at Denison University. Kennedy holds a BA in Classical Studies, and MA in Greek and Latin and completed her PhD on the representation of Athena in the trailer tragedi