The purpose of this research is to show that the Athenian woman was not as completely debased or as secluded as sometimes presented. The social, political and legal rights of women during this ancient period of Greece’s history will be reviewed. Also covered will be evidence of women’s participation in religious ceremonies.

The point is a difficult one to prove – or disprove – it depends from which viewpoint in history you are looking at the Greeks; it also depends, since the Greeks had a caste system of sorts, which economic class you are concentrating on.

To the Victorian woman, whose only legitimate role was to marry and be supported and protected by her husband, the glamorous, educated lives of the hetairai (prostitutes), if they were allowed to be aware of them, would have seemed like devilishly- …