Yet if we remind ourselves that we are not hearing women's voices, but rather observing emblems of women, Greek tragedy can be a most rewarding subject for feminist study because we can find clear . . . Although women in fact play virtually no public role other than a religious one in the political and social life of ancient Greece, they dominate the imaginative life of Greek men to a degree almost unparalleled in the Western tradition. Although all of what is known about women comes from the representations and ordinances of men, and although this evidence will not allow the discovery of the whole truth about women about how they felt, about how they saw Athenian society and their place within it, or even very much about what they did within the confines of their private and domestic lives it will nevertheless allow the discovery of something of the way in which Athenian men thought of women, of the place allocated to them in the male construction of society, and of the attributes and characteristics with which they were thereby credited. An abridged, hypertextual and searchable version of Women's Life in Greece and Rome by Mary Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant, prepared especially for Diotima. Perseus Project , an evolving digital library.
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The Medea Home Page Study Guide for Homer's Odyssey , by Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Temple University.