page_title: Women in Classical Athens
section_title: Marriage
hierarchical_section_title: Women in Classical Athens / Family life / Marriage
caption_attribution_description: English: Marriage procession: the bride is driven in a chariot from her parent's home to that of her husband. Detail from an Attic red-figure pyxis, 440-430 BC. Français&#160;: Procession nyptiale&#160;: la mariée est emmenée en char de la maison de ses parents à celle de son mari. Détail d'une pyxis attique à figures rouges, 440-430 av. J.-C.
context_page_description: The study of the lives of women in Classical Athens has been a significant part of classical scholarship since the 1970s. The knowledge of Athenian women's lives comes from a variety of ancient sources. Much of it is literary evidence, primarily from tragedy, comedy, and oratory; supplemented with archaeological sources such as epigraphy and pottery. All of these sources were created by—and mostly for—men: there is no surviving ancient testimony by Classical Athenian women on their own lives.
  Female children in classical Athens were not formally educated; rather, their mothers would have taught them the skills they would need to run a household. They married young, often to much older men. When they married, Athenian women had two main roles: to bear children, and to run the household. The ideal Athenian woman did not go out in public or interact with men she was not related to, though this ideology of seclusion would only have been practical in wealthy families. In most households, women were needed to carry out tasks such as going to the market and drawing water, which required taking time outside the house where interactions with men were possible.
context_section_description: The primary role of free women in classical Athens was to marry and bear children. The emphasis on marriage as a way to perpetuate the family through childbearing had changed from archaic Athens, when (at least amongst the powerful) marriages were as much about making beneficial connections as they were about perpetuating the family. Athenian women typically first married much older men around age fourteen. Before this they were looked after by their closest male relative, who was responsible for choosing their husband; the bride had little say in this decision. Since a classical Athenian marriage was concerned with the production of children who could inherit their parents' property, women often married relatives. This was especially the case of women with no brothers (epikleroi), whose nearest male relative was given the first option of marrying her.
  Marriage most commonly involved a betrothal (engue), before the bride was given over to her new husband and kyrios (ekdosis). A less common form of marriage, practised in the case of epikleroi, required a court judgement (epidikasia). Athenian women married with a dowry, which was intended to provide their livelihood. Depending on the family, a dowry might have been as much as 25 percent of the family's wealth. Daughters of even the poorest families apparently had dowries worth ten minae. Rich families could provide much larger dowries; Demosthenes' sister, for instance, had a dowry of two talents (120 minae). Dowries usually consisted of movable goods and cash, although land was occasionally included.
  Only in exceptional circumstances would there have been no dowry, since the lack of one could have been interpreted as proof that no legitimate marriage occurred. A dowry may have been occasionally overlooked if a bride's family connections were very favorable; Callias reportedly married Elpinice, a daughter of the noble Philaidae, to join that family and was sufficiently wealthy that her lack of a dowry did not concern him.
  Married women were responsible for the day-to-day running of the household. At marriage, they assumed responsibility for the prosperity of their husband's household and the health of its members. Their primary responsibilities were bearing, raising and caring for children, weaving cloth and making clothes. They would also have been responsible for caring for ill household members, supervising slaves, and ensuring that the household had sufficient food.
  In classical Athenian marriages, husband or wife could legally initiate a divorce. The woman's closest male relative (who would be her kyrios if she were not married) could also do so, apparently even against the couple's wishes. After divorce, the husband was required to return the dowry or pay 18 percent interest annually so the woman's livelihood would continue and she could remarry. If there were children at the time of the divorce, they remained in their father's house and he remained responsible for their upbringing. If a woman committed adultery, her husband was legally required to divorce her. A married epikleros would be divorced so she could marry her nearest relative.
caption: Marriage was considered the most important part of a free Athenian woman's life. This box, known as a pyxis, would have been used to hold a woman's jewellery or cosmetics and is decorated with a wedding-procession scene.
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