Summary:

Marika Rauhala, Sisterly Solidarity and Manly Suspicions - Athenian Women at Religious Festivals.

In this article I considered the opportunities that religious festivals offered the Athenian women to mingle with each other, form new friendships and nourish the already existing ones in the Classical period. I also viewed the concerns that Athenian men expressed over the female behaviour at these festivals. As examples, I used three all-women festivals of different nature, namely the Thesmophoria, Bacchanals and Adonia. The Thesmophoria belonged to the official festival calendar of Athens, and it was highly respected. The wives of the Athenian citizens came together for three days to perform certain rituals to honour the goddess Demeter and to ensure the fertility of the land and people. The Bacchanals were organized every other year as a band of Athenian women travelled to Delphi dancing, singing and mimicking the ecstatic behaviour of the mythical maenads. Probably only the wives of wealthy citizens had the means to participate in this festival. The Adonia, on the other hand, was a more informal ritual which welcomed all the women regardless of their marital or social status.

In Athens, respectable women were expected to stay out of the public eye confined to their own housing quarters. Though this should be considered rather an ideal than actual reality, especially the lives of the women in wealthier families must have been somewhat restricted. However, religion was a sphere of public life where women were fairly equal with the men and their presence was required at the festivals, weddings and funerals. The festivals restricted to women were occasions of female bonding par excellence: they offered an opportunity to get together without male supervision, complemented by atmosphere of solemnity. Especially the Thesmophoria and the biennial Bacchanals gathered together the most secluded citizens’ wives enabling them to leave their homes and domestic duties for several days. One of the attractions of the Adonia, on the other hand, was the opportunity for women to choose freely the company they wished to celebrate it with. Thus, friendship relations played a major part in organizing the festive parties. All the festivals made it possible to enjoy the company of other women also beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

Though tolerated or even appreciated, women’s festivals also caused considerable uneasiness among the men. When left unsupervised, the women were feared to intrigue against the menfolk, consume wine excessively and commit adultery, or get seduced or raped in the nightly orgies. Many festivals included several inversions of the normal state, and, though they served to reassert the status quo, they also reminded of the serious consequences female rebellion would inflict on the social order. In accordance with the male concerns were perhaps the special meanings that women gave to their festivals – the celebration of the female power over life and the jeering at the male inadequacy.