Researching and someplace I did read that the reason the games were boys only is because the boys were nude. The reason for that is that earlier there were girls who dressed as boys and won - the embarrassment was too great and so to assure that boys were the winners, in keeping with the original plan for the games, as an all boys games, naked the proof was assured. The chariot races evidently were the only part of the games that were coed. However, the Olympic games originated after the Trojan War and after the Odyssey - 776 BC is the beginning of the Olympic Games
So far I am finding it was the Minoan civilization that held women in high esteem with women jumping over bulls on wall decorations and goddesses ruling the roost. They appear peaceful as compared to the Mycenaean civilization of pre-Greeks who were war-like and who existed on piracy and trade.
I wanted to look at the culture from the point of view of what marriage meant for women, and what part of the house they could enter. One thing leads to another and timing for this story becomes part of making suppositions - the Polis, ‘City/State’ concept of governing came after the Dark Age, which was after this Bronze Age, which is the time of the stories, the Iliad and the Odyssey. There seems to be many who say that Homer is telling a story that happened 800 years prior to his lifetime - and so I am guessing some of his references would be during the time he lived - as everyone agrees there was no books much less the internet to make sure his references were timely.
Sparta had a different culture than most of the other areas in what we now consider the Greek World. The women wore lighter fabric, short, tunic dresses and had more power that allowed them to inherit land from their husbands and fathers. I cannot find anything specific about Ithica, however, the time of the story is before the Dorians, during the time when clans and tribes were the way of life.
Think of what we have learned about Tribal law since Iraq. Trial culture and law is as a result of family loyalty that started with a clan and grew to include several families. - Early Roman families include I believe 7 families among the earliest tribes of Rome that later became a dozen and grew from there. During the time of Odysseus I cannot find the number of tribes in this area - we do know that Tribal law is not the same as the Democratic system of the Polis. Sparta is credited with an early City/State form of government but not until 800BC which is after the Odyssey - and Athens Democracy is around 508 BC.
And so again, we are talking of a time before City/State, Polis, when Tribal Law and Clan loyalty was the rule. The communities of people would have been alike and in one way or another all related to each other. There are sites explaining who could or could not marry and so there had to be some understanding of defective children as a result of in-marriage. I am also thinking Hollywood has so glamorized the people in these stories and during this time in history that we may be trying to imagine behavior, ethics and personal morality based on our conception of modern man - and so I question the motive of Penelope based on Love. Love in marriage is a medieval concept.
It sounds like Odysseus was a clan chieftain or king. The marriage rituals that describe women dressing the bride, that include a long ceremony, took place in a later time around 600-525 BC coinciding with the art found on the various archaeological vases that also depicts women talking at fountains - the Trojan War and the Odyssey took place some 300 - 400 years earlier -
There were two marriage rituals in keeping with tribal societies during the Late Helladic, in the area of Mycenae, Troy, Athens and other nearby areas during the Bronze Age. I cannot tell which Penelope would have experienced. One practice involved Bride kidnapping. The more a girl kicks and screams the more she is thought to be virtuous and if she refuses to eat or sit she is again thought to be pure and virtuous.
Another marriage ritual involve the new wife tucked away in a room - head shaved - wearing boys clothes - [that I cannot figure out why] - and the groom, after eating with his chums, sneaks in - this sneaking in to see his wife secreted away can go on for weeks on end so that some women are pregnant when they finally join the household.
After marriage, we learn from our story that a women had quarters on the second level. Again we have no information if this was Homer telling the story from his perspective 8oo years later since we only have evidence of stone houses after archeological digs.
Known is that after 600 BC the Greek house was a two story timber framed house with a tile, slate or stone roof, built around a courtyard. There was a 'men's apartment or 'banqueting hall' and the women's quarters, which were the rooms on the second floor with the men’s quarters directly underneath. Usually women were kept secluded in their second floor quarters, out of way of male visitors whom the husband might be entertaining at a banquet and symposium.
The symposium is a 'drinking party'. All who attend wore wreaths and reclined on couches. A female double-aulos player, who often was a hetaira, a call-girl, entertained the men along with female slaves or other female entertainers (like dancers or acrobats). Although wine was the drink of choice it was always mixed with water. The host decided the ratio and everyone abided with the choice.
It was more honorable for women to remain indoors. The household was under her management; where as for men it was more shameful to remain indoors rather than taking care of affairs outside the house. The husband lived out of doors in the Agora, the Assembly, the gymnasium, on the farm, and in time of war, on warships or on the battlefield.
Because women were viewed as incapable of a rationally informed moral decision, she was not trusted to go outside of the house unaccompanied; the husband or a slave did the shopping. The only times a woman could go outside without damaging her reputation would be to attend weddings, funerals, and religious festivals limited to females
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