Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2009
This paper is concerned with some of the ‘dark’ aspects of the lives of Athenian women of the Archaic and Classical periods. Through a review of images of women with light in hand and of female activities that were illuminated by lamps and torches, the amount and significance of women's activities which required lighting devices may be traced. These may have taken place in private, inside the oikos – for which our knowledge is limited – or outside the oikos, where women enjoyed a restricted participation in certain socio-religious activities. The kind of females under discussion range from ‘respectable’ wives and daughters of Athenian citizens to hetairai, the professional female entertainers. On the basis of literary and iconographical evidence, I shall seek to identify the nature and timing of those female activities, and to assess whether the type of lighting device chosen for a particular action may possibly reveal other aspects of the life of Athenian women, notably age or social status.
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32. See p. 19 above.
33. For the seclusion of citizen women in contrast to the open lifestyle of hetairai, see nn. 3–4.
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39. Ibid., v. 197.
40. Ibid., v. 165.
41. Ibid., v. 166.
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52. Dunedin (N.Z.), Otago Museum F 54.48. ARV 2 264.63 (The Syriskos Group).
53. Basle, Market Formerly, ARV 2 720.23 (Lekythos); Münster 586 (Oinochoe); Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 1.02; Para 465.2 (Small hydria, The Class of Cambridge 1.02), CVA i, pl. 34.2.
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56. LIMC V Hestia, 410 nos 21 and 27 pi. 297; also see 411–12.
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92. For example: Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau Museum 273, ARV 2 1194.2 (The Painter of Altenburg 273), CVA ii, pl. 48.1–2; Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2363, ARV 2 853.1, Add 2 297 (The Painter of Munich 2363); Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2356 Q258), ARV 2 1130.147(56) (The Washing Painter); Brussels, Musees Royaux A 3094, ARV 2 842.122(63), CVA iii, pl. 12.11b, 14.3a (The Sabouroff Painter); Bourges, Musees du Berry 883.71.91, CVA i, pi. 8.2, 4; Compiègne, Musée Vivenel 1036, ARV 2 212.213(173), Add 2 196, CVA i, pl. 14.7 (The Berlin Painter); Laon, Musée Archéologique Municipal 371043, ARV 2 1130.148, CVAi, pl. 33.4, 7 (The Washing Painter); Syracuse, Museo Nazionale 33502, ARV 2 519.20(14) (The Syracuse Painter); Copenhagen, National Museum 6558, ARV 2 838.31(18), CVAiv, pl. 160.1a–c (The Sabouroff Painter); Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 985, ARV 2 591.20, Para 394, Add 2 264 (The Altamura Painter).
93. For example: New York, Metropolitan Museum 41.162.117, ARV 2 642.104, Add 2 274 (The Providence Painter); Oxford, Ashmolean Museum 1890.23, ARV 2 641.84, Add 2 274 (The Providence Painter); Paris, Louvre G 202, CVA vi, pl. 36.10–11; Kassel, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen T 696, ARV 2 (488.75 bis), Para 380, Add 2 248, CVAi, pl. 32.1–2 (Hermonax).
94. For example: Paris, Louvre G 202, CVA vi, pl. 36.10–11; Laon, Musée Archéologique Municipal 371043, ARV 2 1130.148, CVA ii, pl. 33.4, 7 (The Washing Painter); Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2356 (J258), ARV2 1130. 147(56) (The Washing Painter).
95. For example: Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau Museum 273, ARV 2 1194.2 (The Painter of Altenburg 273); CVA ii, pl. 48.1–2; Syracuse, Museo Nazionale 33502, ARV 2 519.20(14) (The Syracuse Painter); Copenhagen, National Museum 6558, ARV 2 838.31(18), CVA iv, pl. 160.1a–c (The Sabouroff Painter).
96. For example: Brussels, Musées Royaux A 3094, ARV 2 842.122(63), CVA iii, pl. 12.11b, 14.3a (The Sabouroff Painter); Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau Museum 230, ARV 2 1283.14(19), CVA ii, pl. 72.1, 2, 4 (The Lid Painter).
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98. Blundell, , op. cit. (n. 5), 43, 161Google Scholar.
99. See discussion on p. 24, with n. 23.