Gender Regimes and Classical Greek Antiquity in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC

Abstract

Gender studies use gender to characterize behavioral norms, personality traits, and the relative importance given to differences between the sexes in individual relationships. In the field of Classical studies, these three definitions usually converge to isolate a single gender system: the polarity between anēr (male citizen) and gunē (wife and mother), which is strictly articulated as a division between male/female. Nonetheless, a number of studies, particularly those dealing with sexuality, have demonstrated that ancient Greek societies were not systematically organized according to gender differences. These conclusions encourage researchers to examine the various points of view expressed in documents elaborated by the Greeks living on the shores of the ancient Mediterranean. Contrary to what is commonly believed, the male/female division often seems secondary to that opposing members of the community to foreigners, Greeks to Barbarians or mortals to immortals.