Ancient Beliefs and How They Affected Women

Ancient Beliefs and how they affected Women

Trenton Duncan

CLCV 240

Women are commonly underestimated throughout history. I feel that this underestimation of the value women have has created a cycle of male dominance. A cycle where false ideas are created were the concept of female inferiority play a major role, and because of this belief system women have a much more difficult time reaching their full potential and contributing more to society. Also, because women were never able to reach their fullest potential, they were also never able to stamp out this sexist belief system and promote equality for women. So, in this paper I am going to take a look at some of these ancient ideas and then I will attempt to understand how these ideas changed the lives that ancient women led.

Women in ancient times did not seem to get very fair treatment when they were growing up, especially when the treatment of females is compared to the treatment of males. It appears to me that male society dismissed any contribution that could and would have been made by young girls. Young people in general seemed to be thought of as being less of a human being, and having more the nature of a wild animal. Ancient people believed that young individuals would outgrow the animalistic nature, but it unfortunately appears that ancient men thought that women could only develop mentally and socially after a man takes control of their lives through marriage. This idea is very similar to the idea of taming animals, and I think it was taught and implemented for a reason. If ancient people were brought up to think that the only way to keep women under control was to marry them of, then the cycle of a male dominated community could continue. In ancient Greek society, the marriages were arranged. Arranged marriages today are, for the most part, seen as unacceptable. One could conclude that this change in our society comes from our understanding that women are intellectually equal, and I have heard lately that a woman's brains even mature faster than men's brains do on average. But in a society that is taught that women only develop under the watchful eye of a man, arranged marriages are accepted due to the dehumanizing that would have taken place there. It appears to me that after marriage, women could then start to play a more prominent role in ancient Greek society. But the way the society was set up put women at a huge disadvantage. The lack of control women had over their lives could only continue because after they were finally accepted into the community their primary purpose was then to reproduce. (King)

Reproduction was seen as being of utmost importance in the classical age. It does not seem to me that women had much say in the matter. If a woman could have children, then it would be expected of her to take full advantage of that ability. The myth of the wondering womb and other beliefs of the time seem to suggest the very same thing. Using the wondering womb as an example, the womb is described as wanting to carry a child. This belief would definitely encourage young women of the time to want to procreate. There are also many health ailments that were thought to occur if a woman did not engage in sexual intercourse or bear a child. This way of thinking also gives even more power to the males of the time. Believing in this science means that in order for a woman to have a healthy body and be happy with one's self, she needed a man to be with her in order to do so. I find that these beliefs are very similar to the beliefs that women are wild and uncontrollable until they are tamed by men, because they are both women's problems that gave only the will of a man to resolve. (Blundell, 98-105)

The way ancient people viewed differences between sexes based of the dryness both physically and psychologically I find interesting. It does not make sense today to base differences on the humidity or lack thereof in one's body or mind. Thanks to improvement in science we know this way of thinking to be untrue, but it is still fascinating to me because water is essential to any animal that we know of, yet some ancient people, including Aristotle and Homer, point out that being less saturated with wetness makes one more effective and efficient in life. This idea is very abstract to me because I have always grown up never thinking in terms of how wet or how dry some person may be. But after reading and learning about the subject, it starts to makes sense that men were viewed as dryer and therefore superior to women. This is due to the fact that many things in the ancient world perceived as more important, like war, have extremely dry and warm conditions. The wetter and colder environments were seen as more suitable for women. These environments were seen as easier to live in, in ancient times, like staying in the household. Of course this idea would only further encourage husbands