ABSTRACT
This essay looks at artistic representations of men and women on vases as well as on public monuments of the fifth century bc suggesting the ideological exclusion of women from the political realm. Examining the decorative program of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Hephaisteion, Surtees fleshes out the subliminal messages encoded in the references to Athena as mother and Hephaestus as father of Athenian citizens. However, representing motherhood on public buildings is not evidence of women’s prominent role in public life or their political inclusion, as it has been recently argued. Instead, Surtees suggests, the context of such representations undermines any political role for women in the state: public representations of motherhood may extol women’s domestic role, but deny them a public one and advance the notion that women’s greatest contribution to the state is to reproduce citizens in the home. If, therefore, motherhood is honored in public imagery, it is praised for actions restricted to the private realm, while it is surrounded by subliminal messages about the threat women pose to the city, if allowed to participate in its political life. Fatherhood, however, is a public role, for fathers introduce their sons into the public world of the polis. As Surtees concludes, mothers give birth to citizens privately, yet fathers create them publicly. Therefore, prominent representations of women constitute public expressions of the patriarchal system that excludes women from public spaces by insisting that they can make a more valuable contribution to the city by staying at home.
