Weeks 9 and 10 Flashcards
(36 cards)
What is the Oikos?
Best translated as “household” -> the Oikos included the physical house, all of its material and living possessions, land (if owned), and its occupants
What does the textbook mean by “The Oikos was thus not a fixed entity,…”?
pg 292
The physical Oikos was the join where past, present and future met. Honoring the ancestors who handed down the oikos to family connected Greeks to their past.Hoped to add themselves to the ancestors and ensuring the permanence of their names. Therefore the Oikos was ideally growing
What is the myth about Agamemnon’s house?
The failed household of Agamemnon:
Agamemnon is heir to a great house and kingdom, but unfortunately punctuated by acts of kin-killing, cannibalism, rape, adultery, incest, and treachery, much of what arose because individual pre-eminence was privileged over the security of the entire household. While Agamemnon adds significantly to his own kleos, he fails to safeguard and build up his family/ He sacrifices his daughter to ensure the Greek fleet sails to Troy under his command, he is killed on his return, his wife then dies at the hand of their so Orestes, and he, in turn, is driven mad and flees.
Why are the cities around Naples able to provide us with a good overview of how houses looked?
Was buried under volcanic ashes (preserved)
What was Pericle’s citizenship law?
Only two Athenian citizens could produce a child with citizen statues
What was the dowry of a bride?
In a marital union, the brides Kurios attached a dowry of 5 to 10 percent of his wealth to her.
Insurance policy that protects her against abuse from husband. If she goes back to her parents home, she can take her dowry back home
Why did ancient Greeks believe menstruation was important according to Hippocratics?
being wetter and more porus than men, women needed to evacuate excess moisture, which was accomplished through menstration.
Best cure for which was marriage, intercourse, and childbirth (for that would restore the imbalance)
When were a mother’s parental responsibilities fulfilled?
when a son was registered in a deme or when a daughter was betrothed and married to an Athenian of good standing and of citizen status
What is the story of Aristophane’s Lysistrata?
an Athenian woman (Lysistrata) successfully undertakes a mission to end the Peloponnesian War by convincing all women whose families and people are suffering from the war (Spartan, Athenian, corinthian etc.) to commit a sex strike.
What were the two main types of organized competition?
- those of Panhellenic character ( those that were celebrated at sanctuaries where Greeks from all the Mediterranean and black sea came to compete)
- those of Local character ( associated with local cults and festivals to the gods)
What were the four Panhellenic games?
the Olympic, Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian Games
Def: Engue
betrothal, bridegroom would get down on his knee and propose marriage to father in law-could I get your daughter’s hand in marriage, girl may have never met her prospective husband
Legally binding contact of marriage is engue
Eispoisesis
don’t know very much about adoption in Greek world, from romans we know adoption is very different from our times
Define Epikleros
must marry her closest male relatives outside of bounds of incest, so that property stays within family
Define: Promnestria
matchmaker, would find useful to have a go between who would find the best financial arrangement
Pherne
important sum of money that women brings with her when she marries, in addition to the money, she also brings a trousseau for personal use
Define Hupobeblemenos
could kill another man who was caught in bed with his wife, the problem around adultery wasn’t so much of male ego, but the risk of rearing another man’s child
How did women trick men into rearing another man’s child?
supposititious suppose a woman is scared that she isn’t giving birth to sons, so woman will go smuggle babies that were abandoned into the house without the awareness of his family, will then tell husband who is back from battle that they had a kid
What is the final stage in the wedding?
the husband is leading the way about to enter the porteko of his house
How was adoption different in the ancient world
Adopting a child can be risky (take someone else’s child into your house and raise it, invest time and money)
Much safer to adopt a grown adult, know what they are like, don’t have to worry about child morality or them growing up to be a creep
What Adonis gardens?
common to bury a deceased person with a very small garden of wheat planted in a bed of earth in the shape of Adonis, who like Osiris, dies and rises again
• In honour of Adonis, who Aphrodite placed his body on a bed of lettuce, women planted on rooftops “Adonis gardens” of lettuce
• No evidence of men worshipping Adonis – a women’s practice
Why was the swing invented?
To prevent young Greek women from hanging themselves, suggested by the oracle of Delphi
What is the story about Oinimanous and pelops?
What is the significance?
- needed to choose a suitor for his daughter
- also opposed to his daughter to be married (didn’t want thrown to be passed to his new son and law and himself be dethroned)
- created a chariot race competition to win her - special clause (suiters would not compete agains one another but himself)
- The chariot race in which pelops won is the first competition ever won at Olumpia and is the begining of the Olymic games
Why is Pelops linked to Zeus? (the worships to both are intertwined)
Greek thinking was that Pelops is worshipped in conjunction with Zeus because he went against Zeus (killed two people and cheated in the race)
He outrighted the sanctuary and violated Zeus
Positive and negative poles from these two people
Its not about goodness or holiness but about the energy rising out of this opposition
