The Proper Attic Wife - "Good Greek Wives Stay In The Attic" - Ancient Light #2

With the title “Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic” someone familiar with classical scholarship or ancient geography might think I am making a joke by referencing the attic, as an allusion to the area of Attika, the region which contained the great city of Athens. 

Fig. 1 The region of Attica. 

This is only partially the case. I instead, want you to think of the architecture of the home. Many ancient Greek homes were similar in that the house would have a second floor. In the classical Greek home, the second floor often looked up into the exposed slope of the rooftop. Many peoples in many places, have this kind of home. 

Fig. 2 An Imagining of a Classical Greek Home

When I was very young my mother read the series of books written by Laura Ingalls wilder, a narrative of prairie life. I remember they had a home which had a second floor, more like an exposed attic, and a ladder which led up to it. This is where the children slept.

Fig. 3 Loft-style cabin late 19th century U.S. frontier

In the classical Greek home, the attic was not only the sleeping quarters, but also often referenced as the woman’s quarters. This is where the good Athenian wife would spend most of her day. As a result of the lack of sun, the good Attic wife had white arms, while the man was often depicted as dark or tan. 

Fig. 4 From left to right: Hermes, Apollo, Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares. Men in black, women in white. 

The good attic wife was not seen at the Marketplace, but she spent her time with her domestic slaves spinning thread, mainly from wool, and weaving fabric. She might go to a nearby rural spring to bring back water with her domestic slaves. Even the evil witch, Circe, in the Odyssey, was found weaving on her loom like a spider building a web, by rapidly weaving her thread back and forth across her loom. Circe’s magic, was pharmaceutical based, by the way, and so would be, the magic of a devious wife.  

Fig. 5 Circe at her loom, Odysseus standing

Looking further at the architecture of the Classical Greek home you will see the standard outdoor courtyard(Fig.2). The good Attic wife could get plenty of air and light without being seen by other men. She would probably avoid too much sunlight if she wanted to maintain her white-armed appearance. Perhaps she would cover herself when necessary to avoid the burning gaze of Helios, another man by the way. The Roman’s did this with their famous Vestal Virgins. The lived behind highly secure walls in the symbolic center of the city. You could hear them sing and play from the outside, but you could not steal away their state assets. If you did, as you can guess, you would be executed. 

Fig. 6 Vestal Virgins tend the immortal fire of the god Vesta

Within preserved Classical Greek court arguments we can see a Greek wife lure her lover to her own home when the husband was out of the house. This shows that it was perhaps less risky to have the secret lover visit the woman, rather than risk having the proper Attic wife seen roaming about the city unattended, which would be quite the red flag so to speak. I once won an ancient Greek style mock trial at the University of Missouri by making an argument, part of which explained why I would “honorably” visit local Athenian prostitutes rather than dirty myself with my enemy’s wife. You have to be a little familiar with the classical Athenian culture to understand why that argument would work. 

The second floor as the woman’s quarters is highly significant for functional reasons. First, the man of the house could have other men visit the main floor, which also connected to the courtyard, and it was expected that all the females stay upstairs while another man visits. Historians, of course, do not believe this rule was absolute. Second, there are references to locks on the door which can prevent escape and access to the women’s quarters. In modern homes, we often have either multiple accesses to the second floor, or often a stairway which is open at the top and difficult to block off. Similarly, we often have a large yard, but our fences do not prevent penetration, nor conversation or eye contact between your non-Attic wife and a wandering man. The Classical Athenian man had the advantage of marrying, often in his 30s to a wife who was much younger.

Fig. 7 From "The Black Adder" Ep. 4 BBC 1983. The young Princess Leia of Hungary marries the much older Prince Blackadder. 

It seems they wanted the “purity” of their wives safe and secure. Men often wanted many babies from their young wife, and this might bring her own death quite early. The Male Athenian citizen would then require a fresh Attic wife. An Attic wife would be expected to live among the children produced by her older husband and female slaves under the legally recognized institution of the man of the household breeding with one or more of his female slaves, which produced more slaves, not legitimate Athenian citizens. In retrospect, perhaps the wife of the household was an honorable enough position, and perhaps, it was better in some cases to not be the main target of her husband’s affections. You know with all the female slaves and legal prostitutes in the city proper to keep him busy. With some marriages, this might be helpful. Imagine, the husband comes home drunk and calls for his wife. The wife sends down a female slave… and goes back to bed. 

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[Video] "Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic" Ancient Light #2 Live at SpoFest, Cafe Blackadder, Warrensburg, Missouri, U.S.

Ancient History & Prose. Steve Dotson #1 Spofest, Cafe Blackadder, April 1, 2016

Ancient History Prose & Satire - SpoFest Steve Dotson pt. 1 [11:16]



Introduction - Ancient Joke #1 - "Origin of a Flower" The story of the lovers Apollo & Hyacinthos - "Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic" Satirical prose about the "Proper" Athenian wife.



Steve Dotson's 1st reading at SpoFest held at Café Blackadder April 1, 2016

Ancient Light #10 Why We Seek Someone Else To Feel Complete [Plato's Gen...

Ancient Light #10 Why We Seek Someone Else To Feel Complete [Plato's Gender Creation Myth]


Ancient history & classics themed series presented by history professor, Steve Dotson.

Ever wonder why you feel incomplete? Do you know we are actually only a half of one person, craving to find the other half? You were once one. Search your heart and you will know this is true. As a whole person, humans were once wise and powerful. You once had four arms and four legs, you had two heads. You could use your multitude of limbs to move quickly in any direction by a rolling movement which also produced amazing power. We thought we could rival the gods and Zeus took out his wrath on us, cutting us in two. You have male and female traits, and there is someone else walking around who has an exact combination of male and female traits to balance out your own. This is why we always search for someone else to make us complete. This also explains the great variety of desires among human kind, as one searches for their own unique opposite. Perhaps this could serve as an explanation for transgender issues. But, even more important to understand is the threat that was made if we should continue to defy the gods. In our modern age, some even deny that the gods exist or confidently claim that there is only one god. Humans, in the past two hundred years having been growing too strong, and even taking on the abilities of the gods for themselves: long distance communication, flight, hurling weapons from the heavens, and other scientific advancements. Zeus has already given us a warning if we are to rival the gods again. 

Ever see the musical or movie-musical ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’? If you haven’t I wont spoil it for you. It is the story of a rock star “Hedwig” who was the victim of a sex-change operation gone bad. Just watch the movie, you will never forget it, and many of you will discover a new favorite film. One of the musical numbers is an animation of an ancient myth from Plato’s book Symposium. The myth tells of how humans were once complete. Plato has the dead playwright Aristophanes tell his own creation myth, as a way to explain the nature of love. The creation myth is quite fantastic, but when the individual components of the story are broken down, we have a complex theory which addresses the complexity and longings of human existence. By the end you probably be able to determine from which proto-human species you came, and there are three: sun, earth, and moon.

What is symposium? Sum pinein - “to drink together” 

The story: we were originally three genders. Male, female, and androgynous. The word androgynous is made of the Greek words for man and woman, the androgynous one contains both of the sexes. The three genders were more complex than today. Of the three entities they were known as children of the sun, earth and moon. The sun children were made of two men, the earth children were made of two women, and the moon children contained male and female parts. Everyone had two heads, which could do two things at once. How many times have you felt like you should be doing more than one thing at a time, we were better multi-taskers. We had four arms and four legs, we must have looked like some depictions of a Hindu god. As of now, you should be able to ascertain that we had double of everything. With our ability to multitask, enhanced brain power, super speed and momentum, we became too proud and began to rival the gods. The gods thought about killing them with thunderbolts, like they did to many of the giant-race of Titans, really their fathers and mothers. Instead, Zeus made use of them as tools of worship, but first he had to weaken them as well as punish. He decided to cut humans in two, so they loose their great advantages. Humans from then on, walked and moved about, with only two legs, two arms, and one head. It is at that point we began to seek others to embrace, kiss, copulate, and a desire to not be alone. But, wait, we were still not the exact physical form we are today. After a while, the text does not say how long, Zeus took pity on mortals, as he watched them attempt to join with each other physically, he came up with a helpful aid for these awkward humans. He made one more anatomical adjustment. Instead of the genitals hanging off the side of the body, like it once did, god moved the genitals of the man and the woman to their front and middle. This way, humans could now join together in copulation while they embraced, kissed and sank into each other’s eyes. Perhaps this is about the time the Kama Sutra needed to be invented. Humans would have to invent new bedroom habits. The physical repositioning must have been very helpful. Acts of love making, with one’s genitals hanging off the side of the body, probably killed most of the intimacy.

Ancient Light #2 "Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic" Ancient History & ...

Ancient Light Episode "Good Greek Wives Stay in the Attic" Ancient History & Classics

Ancient history themed podcast presented by Steve Dotson, history professor. 

Recorded Live at Cafe Blackadder in Warrensburg, Missouri during a SpoFest spoken word event, April 1, 2016. Event photo courtesy of Faith Benson-Bemiss. 

Keywords for this episode: Attica, Athens, Greece, Circe, pharmakos, Helios, architecture, Athenian law, slaves, weaving, looms, white-armed, Vestal Virgins, Rome, gender roles, infidelity, purity, gender roles.