These were their wives and mothers. No one would want to repeat Orestes' folly and bring down the wrath of the Furys, but man's sense of honor and ego has resulted in worse. Although many Athenians believed that women were potentially capable of intellectual and philosophical thought, the exclusion of women from the polis and the need to keep the mothers of their heirs safe at home kept women ignorant of affairs of state. Women's views of political affairs were not taken very seriously and the attitude of the commissioner was probably typical of the Athenian citizen. Women should attend to their carding and weaving.
War's a man's affair.
Works Cited Austin, M. M. and P. Vidal-Naquet . An Introduction . Gulick, Charles Burton. Modern Traits in Old Greek Life . Cooper Square. 1963.