I was just listening to one of my teaching tapes on Socrates, and was struck that he was discussing how not all men (women weren't even considered) are capable of acquiring virtue or wisdom; he noted, quite cooly (and I don't blame him, that was his world) that the best of men and women should be encouraged to make babies together so that those children could be brought up in wisdom, and if the baby wasn't up to standards, it should be exposed. Of course, Dravidia and Demetrios have already mentioned this.

I've always had terribly mixed feelings about this, and I know of no culture but the Greeks (and later, the Romans) who practiced infanticide on a socially-accepted scale. But I suspect Demetrios is right, and that a prostitute with an unwanted child would be able to expose it with far more self-possession than we can ever imagine. Of course, in a world where surely most babies died before reaching adulthood, it would resonate differently to them, I suspect. And exposure probably, but not ALWAYS, meant death - sometimes, surely (as in Rome), parents unable to have children might have raised the infants?

I think Demetrios really hit me with this one,

Secondly, and perhaps more consciously for the Greeks, the idea of an intellectual woman was somehow titillating. You could even say it was slightly dirty. A woman spouting Homer or making philosophical observations may have been the equivalent of cheerleaders or schoolgirls in the modern sex industry; something not explicitly erotic that still served to arouse men.



And I'm also with Dravidia - whereas the Romans found an intellectual woman offensive (one thinks of Dr. Johnson, "A woman preaching is like a dog walking on its hind legs - it is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all"), the Greeks did find something unnaturally exciting about it. And this is where most modern women, I suspect, cast their eyes heavenwards, because we just CANNOT understand why Greek men were so determined to keep a lid on their womenfolk. Of course, in a warrior society, only other warriors would be worthy of your affection and respect - women, like children, were weak and useless and not worth much consideration.