Ancient Greek Peasants: Myth and Reality from a Gender Perspective

In this article, I will explore the idyllic conceptions of peasantry in the Ancient Greek world. From the Homeric poems and Hesiod’s Opera, ancient Greeks considered land tenure the most honorable way to have property. This symbolic creation was present in the minds of the Greeks and was part of children's education. Land tenure was the basis of political participation and the recruitment of soldiers in historic times. Manual workers, even specialized ones, merchants, and long-distance traders were considered inferior to land owners. It was believed that those who had land to lose would defend the country better. However, ancient Greece was also a patriarchal society. In their system, only men could have land, inherit it as first sons, and mature into adulthood. Women were seen as dependent, eternal minors who were expected to marry once adolescent and produce as many children as possible. This ideal sex-role division did not correspond with reality but was used to explain Greek political problems throughout its history. I will use historical events such as the archaic colonization process or the Spartan crisis of the fourth century B. C. to analyse how ancient sources either blamed women for political problems or disregarded them altogether.