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Femininity and Religion: Priestesses in Ancient Athens

Paisley Green

Women in classical Athensthe 5th and 4th centuries BCEwere often separated

from men and apart from the public eye. Most of their duties were domestic in nature, involving

caring for children and the household, fetching water, and tending graves.1 In the home, women

had a great deal of control over household affairs, but they still were largely relegated to the

private sphere. There were a few exceptions to this: women who held religious roles, including

priestesses and girls who participated in religious festivals. Priestess roles could take them into

public spaces otherwise reserved for men.2 Women who participated in religious ritual came

from the community, and their public role was one way to directly participate in government.

Religion was not separate from other parts of life in Athens. It was a major part of Athenian

culture that dominated every facet of life in the city, and those involved in religion touched all of

those aspects. Though Athenian women could not directly participate in politics, priestesses and

women involved in religious festivals exerted considerable influence over religious, cultural,

social, and political life in Athens. Despite the general trends of political and social sequestering

of females in ancient Athens, women in religious roles enjoyed greater freedom, visibility, and

influence over the city-state.

There is not one authoritative text on Greek belief, as Christianity would have a Bible, but

information on religious practice, ritual, and space in Athens comes from numerous sources:

1 Lisa C. Nevett, "Towards a Female Topography of the Ancient Greek City: Case Studies from Late Archaic and
Early Classical Athens ( c.520-400 BCE)," Gender & History 23, no. 3 (2011): 588.

2 Sue Blundell, The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece (New York: Routledge, 1999), 1.
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literature, poetry, inscriptions, and archaeological material.3 Many of the available sources on

ancient Greece come from male elite members of society, which can be problematic in a number

of ways. First, it was the belief of many men that the world outside belonged to men, while the

private, enclosedGreek household was the womans domain.4 Therefore, many political

writings and speeches written by elite men excluded women from their narratives. This does not

necessarily mean that housewives were absent from the public space: they often went about the

city to perform errands or visit each other. Second, it was generally taboo to refer to women

directly by name.5 This may have been done out of a desire to exclude women even more from

the public realm, or it could have been out of respect for the head of the household and the

women themselves. Third, many sources are written for particular audiences, most of whom

were literate males, and with specific purposes. Discussing the influence of women on the

democracy was apparently not a priority in the surviving texts from ancient Athens. Finally, in

political institutions like the Assembly and courts, women were not allowed to speak, even to

defend themselves against accusations. Therefore, there are no political or judicial records of

speeches offering a womans perspective. The silence of women in primary sources may not be

completely intentional. Rather, it may reflect the general gender distinctions of the time and the

authors purposes for writing.

3 Ibid., 3.

4 John Gould, Law, Custom, and Myth: Aspects of the Social Position of Women in Classical Athens, The Journal
of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980): 50.

5 Konstantinos Kapparis, Women and Family in Athenian Law, in Athenian Law in its Democratic Context, ed.
A. Lanni (Center for Hellenic Studies On-Line Discussion Series). Republished in C. Blackwell, ed., Dmos:
Classical Athenian Democracy (Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities[www.stoa.org],
2003), 9.
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Females could not be a member of major political institutions, like the Assembly or the

Council of 500, nor were they separately registered with a deme. Instead, a woman was in the

legal control of a male kyrios [head of household] who represented her in law.6 In other words,

she belonged to either a male relative or her husband, who acted as her legal representative. If a

woman inherited property, she would be married off to the closest male relative of her father,

who would then control and represent her.7 Some interpret this practice as an attempt to protect

women from poverty or a lack of legal representation through such a marriage. More modern

perspectives view it as an attempt by men to deny women their property. Either way, females

were legal nonentities and had very little societal protection outside of a male-run household.

Pericles citizenship law in 451 BCE defined an Athenian citizen as one who had two Athenian

parents. This law solidified womens roles in the continuation of the citizen body and

constructed motherhood as a vital piece to the state.8 Clearly, it did not advocate for female

political participation in areas like the Assembly. Furthermore, Aristotle conflated the feminine

ideal of submissiveness with his picture of an ideal state: The courage of a man is shown in

commanding, of a woman in obeying.9 By linking the male-female relationship with the

authority-submissiveness model of the state, Aristotle gave women a seemingly political role

while justifying their exclusion from real politics.10

6 Gould, Law, Custom, and Myth, 43.

7 Kapparis, Women and Family, 16.

8 Ibid., 6.

9 Aristot. Pol. 1.1260a

10 Tatiana Summers, Democracy and Women in the Ancient World, International Journal of the Humanities 6, no.
9 (2009): 33.
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Of course, male expectations of women were not monolithic, but they often emphasized

the role of the woman in the household. Some plays, like Lysistrata, show that men desire their

wives to submit to military decisions and not withhold sex.11 Euripides Trojan Women,

meanwhile, depicts Andromache as a faithful wife and fiercely protective mother, reinforcing the

gender roles expected of women at that time. Interestingly, though, when Andromache talks

about her dead husband, she says, Well I knew where I might rule my lord, and where 'twas best

to yield to him.12 Though Andromache perfectly fits the archetype of faithful wife and mother,

she demonstrates that women could exert power over their men. Historian Joan Connelly makes

an important distinction between separation and seclusion, yet both terms indicate that women

were predominantly relegated to the household and not public spheres.13 A large number of

Athenian women were confined to the domestic sphere by men in the city, but some women

defied conventional expectations.

In Athenian society, women found prestige and social status through their role as wives,

mothers, and matrons,14 but not all women fit into this mold. In religious circles, the barriers

between women and public life were conspicuously breached.15 Priestesses performed religious

rituals that were crucial to the definition and defense of each poliss territorial frontiers.16 Some

11 HIS 300W Lecture, 16 April 2013.

12 Euripides, Trojan Women.

13 Joan Breton Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2009), 3.

14 Kapparis, Women and Family, 14.

15 Blundell, Sacred and Feminine, 1.

16 Ibid., 4.
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of these rituals affirmed domesticized womens place in society. The Arrephoria, for example,

was a festival dedicated to Athena that celebrated the dual function of women in the

communitythe making of clothesand sex and marriage.17 The Arrephoria also included a

number of women from multiple age groups. The youngest girls, aged 7 to 11, carried important

relics in the procession and were elected by the Assembly to serve in this way.18 Even at a young

age, these females were visible participants in extremely important rites. A number of festivals or

rituals were connected to fertility or other aspects of the home, which was largely dominated by

women. Though womens societal value often lay in their ability to be good daughters or wives,

the domestic sphere was one area where they could take control over some aspects of the home

that men could or would not, like child-rearing or making clothing. Religious rituals, and the

importance ascribed to them, placed certain girls in the public spotlight and affirmed the

religious and social value of those women who were often relegated to domestic circles.

Priestesses were representative of the polis security in border zones and served important

intercessory functions with their offerings and rituals. Women involved in the cult of Artemis,

like other priestesses, were important figures to be protected by their communities, and their

temples could often be found on the borders of a city-state.19If these sites or the women in them

were to be attacked by another city-state, it would be taken as an act of aggression against the

polis itself. During the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians sanctuary dedicated to Artemis at

Brauron became a concern because of the important dedications stored there and because

17 Ibid.

18 Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess, 31.

19 Susan Guettel Cole, Domesticating Artemis in The Sacred and Feminine in Ancient Greece, ed. Sue Blundell
(New York: Routledge, 1999), 27.
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Artemis was deeply involved in the Athenian war effort.20 The womens bodily protection also

symbolized the polis ability to protect and care for its female population. Both in their city

processions and their more rural activities, priestesses, who were seen as vulnerable females,

tested with their own bodies the security of the community.21 If these women were harmed,

abducted, or attacked, it was a negative reflection on the citys security and its regard for these

women in sacred roles.

Additionally, because Artemis was responsible for the citys population, Athens expanded

the area dedicated to the goddess on the Acropolis. According to Athenians at the time, the

dedications made at the temple were for the health and securityof the demos of the

Athenians.22 In the festival for Artemis, the Brauronia, the girls who participated were from the

best families and represented young women in the city. By correctly performing the rituals, these

young girls could benefit their entire community both with Artemis favor and with a heightened

sense of community and security. For the Athenians, serving the goddess was a crucial role in

keeping divine favor and protecting the community, since its success was measured in terms of

the reproductive capacity of its women and by the health of its children.23 Though they were not

marrying or bearing children, as was the ideal for a woman at the time, priestesses of Artemis

carried out a critical role in the protection and continuation of the Athenian population as well as

its religious vitality.

20 Ibid., 41.

21 Ibid., 40.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid., 32.
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A number of religious festivals and functions reaffirmed marriage and its role in the city-

state. Marriage was a vital institution within Athens. As discussed earlier, Pericles citizenship

law in 451 BCE elevated the status of women in the polis and established them as vital to the

continuation of the citizenry. As motherhood and womens role in the community increased in

importance, priestesses, who were more public, affirmed and celebrated this role. A type of Attic

festival dedicated to Hera and Zeus, the hieros gamos, was a domestic celebration which

emphasized the importance of marriage by focusing on the positive aspects of the two gods

union.24 Many of the participants in hieros gamos were women, and their reenactments were

important in solidifying religious and social cohesion within the polis. The celebration of

marriage and fertility, and therefore the perpetuation of the Athenian community, linked

priestesses (who performed the rituals), domesticized women (who bore children), the favor of

the gods, and the security of the polis. Other hieros gamos symbolically united human women

with gods. The most significant participant in such a festival was the wife of the Basileus, or the

queen archon, who in the yearly Anthesteria was united to the god Dionysus in a sacred

marriage.25 She was a central figure to Athenian politics, as her husband could not hold the title

of Basileus without her. Her extremely important role as priestess in the hieros gamos with

Dionysus demonstrates the intimate ties between women, religion, and the state.

While marriage was an important institution for religious, political, and social reasons,

priestesses of Athena worshipped an androgynous goddess who rejected the institution of

marriage and often took the role of a warrior. Festivals dedicated to Athena simultaneously

24 Isabelle Clark, The Gamos of Hera: Myth and Ritual in The Sacred and Feminine in Ancient Athens, ed. Sue
Blundell (New York: Routledge, 1999), 19.

25 Grace H. Macurdy, Basilinna and Basilissa, the Alleged Title of the Queen Archon in Athens, The American
Journal of Philology 49, no. 3 (1928): 276.
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celebrated her as a virgin warrior and as a reaffirmation of the patriarchal system and values.

Rituals for Athena were situated at the extremely public Parthenon, which was a major

monument erected by the state to celebratesome of the fundamental tenets of Athens civic and

military ideology.26 The iconography on the Parthenon itself features depictions of Athenas

unusual birth and struggle with Poseidon, displaying her strength. In addition, there are multiple

symbolic representations of struggle in which Athens emerges victorious. These images of glory

and the establishment of the state are intimately connected with Athens patron goddess, Athena.

In her essay, Sue Blundell explicitly connects Athenas masculine strength and warrior-like

actions to the social subordination of the human female.27 However, this may not be the case.

Myth did have an impact on society in ancient Greece, but the story of a triumphant, strong

goddess over a male god would have demonstrated human females potential to be equal to or

above men, not inferior to them. Like Athena, the priestesses who worshipped her defied many

traditional gender roles and proved to be vital to their society.

The priestesshood of Athena was extremely valued, and the head priestess of Athena

Polias made several significant political decisions. Because the position was incredibly

prestigious and important to the polis, it was hereditary. Men could not touch this exclusivity.

Even Cleisthenes, striving to make Athens more democratic with a series of reforms, allowed the

priestesshood to retain its aristocratic hereditary nature.28 Around Hippias times in the 6th century

BCE, a small amount of money had to be paid to the priestess upon the birth and death of each

26 Sue Blundell, Marriage and the Maiden: Narratives on the Parthenon in The Sacred and the Feminine in
Ancient Greece, ed. Sue Blundell (New York: Routledge, 1999), 51.

27 Ibid., 57.

28 Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess, 47.

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citizen.29 This fee not only gave this priestess economic benefits, it established her as an

important figure connected to birth and death in the polis.

Priestesses of Athena wielded substantial power in the city-state. For example, in 508

BCE, a priestess of Athena kicked out a Spartan king, Kleomenes, from the Acropolis.30 This

instance is a clear example of a woman in a religious position being able to assert her dominance

and authority over a given spacein this case, the Acropoliseven over powerful men. The

Acropolis was an important political, social, and religious space, and the amount of power that

the priestess wielded over who had access was staggering. In another instance in 480 BCE, a

priestess of Athens supported the evacuation of the city in preparation for the Battle of Salamis

by claiming that the sacred snake of Athena had already departed from the Acropolis.31 Finally,

regarding military decisions, the priestess of Athena had to give her approval before Athens went

to war. Priestesses of Athena exerted major influence in the polis and held an important position,

but they were not the only powerful priestesses in Athens.

The Panathenaic Festival, dedicated to Athena, was the most significant display of this

kind ever mounted in historical Athens32 and emphasized her role as the patron deity of

Athensand the symbol of the polis.33 Because Athena was connected to the well-being of the

state, the women who participated in this festival also played a role in the citys protection and

29 Robert Luyster, Symbolic Elements in the Cult of Athena, History of Religions 5, no. 1 (Summer 1965): 143.

30 Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess, 61.

31 Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: Schocken
Books, 1975), 75; Herodotus viii.41.

32 Blundell, Marriage and the Maiden, 59.

33 Ibid., 51.
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prosperity. In addition, it was a massive religious procession that placed the glory of Athens on

full display. Therefore, controversy surrounding the festival often had major political

implications. According to Thucydides, in the late 6th century BCE, the tyrant Pisistratus sons,

Hippias and Hipparchus, were embroiled in a scandal. Hipparchus attempted to seduce an

aristocrat named Harmodius and failed. Thucydides writes, There was a young sister of

[Harmodius] whom Hipparchus and his friends first invited to come and carry a sacred basket in

a procession, and then rejected her, declaring that she had never been invited by them at all

because she was unworthy.34 The unworthiness spoken of was probably an attack on the

young girls virginity, which was required to lead the Panathenaic procession. This insult against

the young girl supposed to lead Athens largest festival caused Harmodius and some other

conspirators to attempt to murder Hippias and Hipparchus, taking down the brother tyrants.

Religious processions, especially the Panathenaic festival, were significant cultural, social, and

political events.

Priestesses served major cultural, social, and even political functions in Athens, and their

influence reached farther than more domesticized women. Religion permeated all of Athenian

life. There was no separation of church and state, no exclusion from religious duties because of

gender or age. Because women had such a substantial role in religion, they had considerable

influence on every other aspect of life in Athens. Their roles were equal and comparable to

those of men.35 They performed rituals that were crucial to the preservation of the polis

population and its physical boundaries; thus, they held indispensable roles. Priestesses were

conspicuous and inhabited a very public sphere, breaking the gender expectations that often

34 Thucydides 6.56

35 Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess, 2.

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relegated other women to the home. At the same time, many domesticized women participated in

religious festivals, which elevated their importance to the community throughout the year. The

priestess of Athena was not cloistered away from society, either; she was married. Political office

was closed to women, but this was not the only way Athenians could directly participate in

government. It may be hard to fathom for those living in more secularized nations, but

priestesshood and religious participation was one of multiple ways to participate in the polis.

Women were often the main figures in religion and thus did directly contribute to government.
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