What Life Was Like For Women In Ancient Greece

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Name something, literally anything, and Ancient Greek men probably banned women from doing it, watching it, or participating in it. Working? Nuh-uh. Politics? No way. Even just walking around the market? Totally frowned upon. This included the Olympic Games. Amazingly, it wasn't a complete ban. Young single girls could watch the naked men show off their sporting prowess. But if a married woman snuck a peek, she got thrown off a mountain. Still, the competing part was a men-only activity, so women started their own Olympics.

According to Atlas Obscura, the event was called the Heraean Games, and just like the boys' competition, it was every four years. It's not clear when or why they started, but they may be almost as old as the dude Olympics and seem to have been in honor of the goddess Hera. A total of 16 women from various city-states competed in footraces. Unlike the naked guys, they wore tunics, although they were cut very short and only covered half their chests. The winners received olive branch headdresses, plus part of a dead cow, and statues with their names carved on them were dedicated to them. Spartan women apparently won a lot of the time, as you'd expect.

Some historians don't believe the Heraean Games really existed, since there's very little evidence for them. Only a few ancient sources mention them, and none of the victors' statues have ever been found. But others say this is just a sign of the insignificance of women's sports to the Ancient Greeks.

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