ABSTRACT
The labour involved in assembling and evaluating this material partly explains why social history has been much less studied than political, for which a large proportion of the evidence is conveniently contained in the works of two writers, Herodotos and Thucydides. A better-known profession of an ideal concerning women is that ascribed by Thucydides to Perikles, as part of a speech of 431/0. The behaviour of women was commonly appraised with words from the root kosm-, which often implied the orderly separation of things. A fragmentary quotation attributed to Theophrastos, a fourth century writer, teacher, and associate of Aristotle, includes these words: “in the case of women education in literacy seems to be most essential, to the extent that it is useful for household management”. A legal speech, probably from the end of the fifth century, depicts a woman as addressing a gathering of men on a distressing family matter.
