Ancient Greek Women and Art: The Material Evidence

Ancient Greek women and their relationship to the visual arts are here discussed solely on the evidence of the extant monuments, rather than on the information of the literary sources. Although this review makes no attempt to be complete, several forms of the relationship are explored. The most important is that of women as sponsors of architectural projects; second is that of women as dedicators of statues and other offerings. Finally, the objects meant to be used by women, or those that represent them, are included, although the men of the family might have been responsible for the commission and the funding. The survey follows a chronological arrangement. In the wake of the feminist movement, a great deal of attention has been focused in recent years on women in antiquity. Most such studies, however, have based their conclusions on literary sources, which by their very nature either dramatize or are slanted according to a specific bias. Even those studies that have used contemporary depictions on vases, or other artistic evidence, have often drawn inferences colored by literary knowledge, since many of the painted scenes are less explicit than it may seem, and can be subjected to more than one interpretation. My own task is much more limited in scope, since I do not plan to write specifically on the status of women in ancient Greece; yet the resultant picture may lead to a more balanced view of women’s role in their society. What I attempt to do is to draw together a sample group of extant monuments that can be demonstrably connected with women in various ways. Women may have either commissioned or dedicated the items in question; they could have simply used them, or even have been the subject represented on and by them. This last areawomen as depicted in the visual arts-is, of course, too extensive for the scope of a brief survey which makes no claim to completeness. Women as artistic subjects, therefore, will be included only as a way of suggesting their relative importance, thus fleshing out what to me is the more interesting aspect of this research, women as patrons of art and architecture.1 Obviously, if by patronage one visualizes the complex relationships of Renaissance women with artists and poets, no such condition seems to have existed in ancient Greece, at least before the Hellenistic period. Even the more limited role played by Roman women IAn oral version of this study was delivered as part of a symposium on “Women in the Ancient World” held on 1 February 1986 at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. I am indebted to Prof. C. Valone for her invitation to participate in the symposium and for her suggestion that I address the issue of Greek women as patrons. In keeping with my archaeological training, I tried to approach the topic from the tangible evidence alone, using literary sources only as supporting information. Since delivering the paper, I have received several requests for my text, and I have therefore attempted to put it into article form, although without the help of the many illustrations which accompanied the original presentation; it must still be considered in the nature of comments rather than a thorough study, and primarily useful for pointing the way for potential future research. For a helpful collection of literary sources on women, see, for instance, M.R. Lefkowitz and M.B. Fant, Women’s Life in Greece and Rome (rev. ed., Baltimore 1982). But tragedies, historical accounts, and legal records are likely to deal only with extreme cases, and not with common, everyday life. For interpretation of scenes on vases see, e.g., E. Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus (New York 1985), but that different interpretations are also possible is shown, e.g., by G.F. Pinney, “Money-Bags?” AJA 90 (1986) 218. For a more moderate approach see also A. Cameron and A. Kuhrt eds., Images of Women in Antiquity (Detroit 1983); I owe this reference to R. Hamilton, to whom I am grateful also for many helpful comments. Other useful studies are M.R. Lefkowitz, Heroines and Hysterics (New York 1981) and S.B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves (New York 1975); in the latter, however, the archaeological evidence, because of the compass of the study, has been condensed and simplified to the point of being occasionally misleading (e.g., p. 46, on Archaic Attic gravestones of women; not only is there some evidence that stelai just for women existed, but no grave relief, to my knowledge, shows a woman with a warrior). In my text, all dates should be taken as B.C., unless otherwise specified. Reference has been made to general handbooks or sources of illustrations, to facilitate consultation. The following abbreviations are used throughout: Boardman J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture. The Archaic Period (London 1978). Jeffery L.H. Jeffery, “The Inscribed Gravestones of Archaic Attica,” BSA 57 (1962) 115-53. Lazzarini M.L. Lazzarini, “Le formule delle dediche votive nella Grecia arcaica,” MemLinc, ser. 8, vol. 19 (1976) 47-354. Raubitschek A.E. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athenian Akropolis (Cambridge, Mass. 1949). Ridgway B.S. Ridgway, The Archaic Style in Greek Sculpture (Princeton 1977).