Primary Sources
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound and Other Plays. Trans. Philip Vellacott. London: Penguin Group, 1961. Print.
Euripides. The Trojan Women and Other Plays. Trans. James Morwood. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2000. Print.
The Greek Anthology. Trans. William Roger Paton. No. 67 Vol. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, 1916. Web. This is a collection of a few thousand short poems by various authors in Greek history. Only about a handful bring up ideas of marriage, but it is a useful source nonetheless.
Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey De Sélincourt, and John Marincola. New ed. New York; London: Penguin Books, 1996. This work does not discuss marriage in Athens at length, but it does offer some commentary about weddings and the married state.
Hesiod, David W. Tandy, and Walter C. Neale. Hesiod's Works and Days. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009. Print.
Homer. Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009. Web.
Plutarch, and Frank Cole Babbitt. "Advice to Bride and Groom." Plutarch's Moralia. 197 Vol. II. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, 1927. Print.
“Poems of Sappho: Translated by Julia Dubnoff,” University of Houston. University of Houston: 2001. Web. 1 April, 2016. <http://www.uh.edu/~cldue/texts/sappho.html> Originally translated by Dubnoff for a course at Harvard, this collection of poems comprises the Greek poetess Sappho’s work in clear English.
Rosivach, Vincent J. “Menander’s Dyskolos (Grouch): Translated by Vincent J. Rosivach.” Fairfield University, 28 April 2014. Web. 4 May 2016. <https://files.fairfield.edu/users/Rosivach/websites/rosivach/cl103a/dyskolos.htm>
Books
Dillon, Matthew. Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. New York; London: Routledge, 2002. Print. This book provides an overview of the female sphere with regards to religion in ancient Greek culture. Chapter 7: “From Adolescent Girl to Woman, Wife and Mother” covers this transition, which culminates in marriage and childbirth, with a focus on surrounding rituals. This chapter illustrates the religious responsibilities of women during their most drastic transition and shows the extent to which Greeks tended to their relationships with the gods as shown in myth and artwork. Dillon’s information in this chapter provides a religious background which aides in understanding the place in which the Athenian tradition maintains in Greek culture overall.
Just, Roger. Women in Athenian Law and Life. 1st ed. Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2008. Web. Chapter 4: “Marriage and the State” in Women in Athenian Law and Life details Athenian marriage customs specifically and discusses the significance of the marriage relationship in the structure of the ancient Athenian social system. Its heavy reliance on law and literature brings out the nuances of the Athenian notion of marriage and its ramifications for the family, community, and identity of the polis as a whole. Though the chapter only spans 25 pages, Just provides a clear argument for importance of marriage as the backbone of the social structure of the Athenian state.
Oakley, John H. and Rebecca H. Sinos. The Wedding in Ancient Athens. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1993. Print. The Wedding in Ancient Athens explores the ways in which the different components of the Athenian wedding ceremony itself convey messages about Athenian identity, the expectations of married couples, and perceptions about married life. The information in this work is grounded in both literature and artwork and is organized chronologically, providing detailed descriptions of rituals in the order they would be performed. The large section in this book devoted to vases in Ancient Athens and surrounding areas proves useful for those wishing to see ritual and custom as reflected in antiquity. Because the nature of Athenian marriages was based largely on expectations for the production of legitimate children and a girl’s transition to womanhood, the Wedding in Ancient Athens is a useful tool for gleaning an understanding of foundational concepts behind Athenian marriage and identity.
Articles
Hague, Rebecca. "Marriage Athenian Style." Archaeology 41.3 (1988): 32-6. Web. Embedded with colorful photos of Athenian wedding vases, Hagues research walks readers through each step in the wedding – ritual sacrifices, feasting, bathing and adornment, and procession to name a few. Its reliance on vases and literature is similar to The Wedding in Ancient Athens, and it provides much of the same information. Even so, this article is still valuable for its different literary references and information it does provide. Because Hague’s writing style is so clear, and because this article is relatively short, this would be a good first source for the complete beginner on Athenian marriages.
Ingalls, Wayne B. "Παίδα Νέαν Μάλιστα : When Did Athenian Girls Really Marry?" Mouseion : Journal Of The Classical Association Of Canada = Revue De La Société Canadienne Des Études Classiques 1.(1)1 (2001): 17-29. L'Année Philologique. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Thompson, Wesley E. “Athenian Marriage Patterns: Remarriage.” California Studies in Classical Antiquity 5 (1972): 211–25. This study functions as an extension of one of Thompson’s earlier studies on the marriage of first cousins (listed below) and looks into the importance of remarriage in Athenian society. With a demographic approach, he estimates that high divorce and mortality rates would have lent itself to a higher incidence of remarriage (in which finances and social connections were of great motive as well). He also mentions the fact that the Greek view of the marriage relationship would have been drastically different from the later Western view seen in most countries in a way that would have seen divorce more favorably. Even so, Thompson only has access to information about the upper classes and so can only make conjectures on those and not the whole of Athenian society. However, this proves a useful source for the ancient Athenian’s understanding of marriage, and should not be dismissed by one who wishes to gain a comprehensive [idea] of the matter.
Thompson, Wesley E. "The Marriage Of First Cousins In Athenian Society." Phoenix: Journal Of The Classical Association Of Canada = Revue De La Société Canadienne Des Études Classiques XXI.(1967): 273-282. L'Année Philologique. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. Thompson’s research presents eleven examples of presumed first cousin marriages in Athens and discusses how that information affects our understanding of marriage in Athens generally. Unfortunately, there is little information on the subject; all of the evidence displayed here is from literary sources, and none from epigraphical ones. However, Thompson concludes that the marriage of first cousins would have been “an important factor in the life of the upper classes at Athens” and was probably part of a larger practice of intermarriage generally as it would have strengthened connections between family lines and made claims to family estates easier among other benefits. This source provides an interesting account of the available knowledge on intermarriage in ancient Athens, and helps those interested to perhaps form a better idea of this aspect of marriage in aristocratic families.
Wolff, Hans Julius. “Marriage Law and Family Organization in Ancient Athens: A Study on the Interrelation of Public and Private Law in the Greek City." Traditio 2 (1944): 43-95. Web. In this article, Wolff methodically covers aspects of Athenian marriage law such as dowry, divorce and inheritance, and the concept of illegitimacy. Although Wolff speaks to an audience more familiar with the Greek language, this article proves essential in gleaning a better understanding of the nature of marriage practices in Athens.
Internet Resources
Kapparis, K. “Women and Family in Athenian Law,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context” (Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 22, 2003. <http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_women_and_family?page=4&greekEncoding> This online article takes a legal approach to the lives of Athenian women and includes information on citizenship, the nature of Athenian marriage, women’s roles, contraception and abortion, women’s prospects as a widow, and potential career paths for women in the lower classes. Because this source touches on the laws of Drakon, Solon and Pericles, it offers an account of the legal changes in Athens which occurred over the centuries, and how that affected women’s lives. This source is also useful for the study of the different aspects of Athenian marriage such as daily life after marriage, the concerns of childbearing, attitudes toward abortion, motivations for marriage and what a woman could expect after her husband’s death.
Mark, Joshua J. “Sappho of Lesbos.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited, 2 Aug. 2014. Web. 2 May 2016. <http://www.ancient.eu/Sappho_of_Lesbos/> The website as a whole is a good source for information on the ancient world; this specific page was used to check facts about Sappho's history.
Thompson, James C. “Marriage in Ancient Athens.” Women in the Ancient World. N.p., 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. <http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/marriageinancientathens.htm> This text provides an overview of marriage in Ancient Athens with regard to motivation, marriage age, wedding custom, and the dowry. His discussion on “love” between married Athenian couples and his reference to Menander’s comedy, The Litigants, also works to place the idea of arranged marriages into context. Because Thompson attempts to put Athenian practices into perspective and references Classical plays in the process, this source is extremely easy to read and becomes a good beginning source for those who are not already familiar with the Classical world.
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound and Other Plays. Trans. Philip Vellacott. London: Penguin Group, 1961. Print.
Euripides. The Trojan Women and Other Plays. Trans. James Morwood. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2000. Print.
The Greek Anthology. Trans. William Roger Paton. No. 67 Vol. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, 1916. Web. This is a collection of a few thousand short poems by various authors in Greek history. Only about a handful bring up ideas of marriage, but it is a useful source nonetheless.
Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey De Sélincourt, and John Marincola. New ed. New York; London: Penguin Books, 1996. This work does not discuss marriage in Athens at length, but it does offer some commentary about weddings and the married state.
Hesiod, David W. Tandy, and Walter C. Neale. Hesiod's Works and Days. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.
Homer. Iliad. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009. Print.
Homer. Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc, 2009. Web.
Plutarch, and Frank Cole Babbitt. "Advice to Bride and Groom." Plutarch's Moralia. 197 Vol. II. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, 1927. Print.
“Poems of Sappho: Translated by Julia Dubnoff,” University of Houston. University of Houston: 2001. Web. 1 April, 2016. <http://www.uh.edu/~cldue/texts/sappho.html> Originally translated by Dubnoff for a course at Harvard, this collection of poems comprises the Greek poetess Sappho’s work in clear English.
Rosivach, Vincent J. “Menander’s Dyskolos (Grouch): Translated by Vincent J. Rosivach.” Fairfield University, 28 April 2014. Web. 4 May 2016. <https://files.fairfield.edu/users/Rosivach/websites/rosivach/cl103a/dyskolos.htm>
Books
Dillon, Matthew. Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. New York; London: Routledge, 2002. Print. This book provides an overview of the female sphere with regards to religion in ancient Greek culture. Chapter 7: “From Adolescent Girl to Woman, Wife and Mother” covers this transition, which culminates in marriage and childbirth, with a focus on surrounding rituals. This chapter illustrates the religious responsibilities of women during their most drastic transition and shows the extent to which Greeks tended to their relationships with the gods as shown in myth and artwork. Dillon’s information in this chapter provides a religious background which aides in understanding the place in which the Athenian tradition maintains in Greek culture overall.
Just, Roger. Women in Athenian Law and Life. 1st ed. Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2008. Web. Chapter 4: “Marriage and the State” in Women in Athenian Law and Life details Athenian marriage customs specifically and discusses the significance of the marriage relationship in the structure of the ancient Athenian social system. Its heavy reliance on law and literature brings out the nuances of the Athenian notion of marriage and its ramifications for the family, community, and identity of the polis as a whole. Though the chapter only spans 25 pages, Just provides a clear argument for importance of marriage as the backbone of the social structure of the Athenian state.
Oakley, John H. and Rebecca H. Sinos. The Wedding in Ancient Athens. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1993. Print. The Wedding in Ancient Athens explores the ways in which the different components of the Athenian wedding ceremony itself convey messages about Athenian identity, the expectations of married couples, and perceptions about married life. The information in this work is grounded in both literature and artwork and is organized chronologically, providing detailed descriptions of rituals in the order they would be performed. The large section in this book devoted to vases in Ancient Athens and surrounding areas proves useful for those wishing to see ritual and custom as reflected in antiquity. Because the nature of Athenian marriages was based largely on expectations for the production of legitimate children and a girl’s transition to womanhood, the Wedding in Ancient Athens is a useful tool for gleaning an understanding of foundational concepts behind Athenian marriage and identity.
Articles
Hague, Rebecca. "Marriage Athenian Style." Archaeology 41.3 (1988): 32-6. Web. Embedded with colorful photos of Athenian wedding vases, Hagues research walks readers through each step in the wedding – ritual sacrifices, feasting, bathing and adornment, and procession to name a few. Its reliance on vases and literature is similar to The Wedding in Ancient Athens, and it provides much of the same information. Even so, this article is still valuable for its different literary references and information it does provide. Because Hague’s writing style is so clear, and because this article is relatively short, this would be a good first source for the complete beginner on Athenian marriages.
Ingalls, Wayne B. "Παίδα Νέαν Μάλιστα : When Did Athenian Girls Really Marry?" Mouseion : Journal Of The Classical Association Of Canada = Revue De La Société Canadienne Des Études Classiques 1.(1)1 (2001): 17-29. L'Année Philologique. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Thompson, Wesley E. “Athenian Marriage Patterns: Remarriage.” California Studies in Classical Antiquity 5 (1972): 211–25. This study functions as an extension of one of Thompson’s earlier studies on the marriage of first cousins (listed below) and looks into the importance of remarriage in Athenian society. With a demographic approach, he estimates that high divorce and mortality rates would have lent itself to a higher incidence of remarriage (in which finances and social connections were of great motive as well). He also mentions the fact that the Greek view of the marriage relationship would have been drastically different from the later Western view seen in most countries in a way that would have seen divorce more favorably. Even so, Thompson only has access to information about the upper classes and so can only make conjectures on those and not the whole of Athenian society. However, this proves a useful source for the ancient Athenian’s understanding of marriage, and should not be dismissed by one who wishes to gain a comprehensive [idea] of the matter.
Thompson, Wesley E. "The Marriage Of First Cousins In Athenian Society." Phoenix: Journal Of The Classical Association Of Canada = Revue De La Société Canadienne Des Études Classiques XXI.(1967): 273-282. L'Année Philologique. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. Thompson’s research presents eleven examples of presumed first cousin marriages in Athens and discusses how that information affects our understanding of marriage in Athens generally. Unfortunately, there is little information on the subject; all of the evidence displayed here is from literary sources, and none from epigraphical ones. However, Thompson concludes that the marriage of first cousins would have been “an important factor in the life of the upper classes at Athens” and was probably part of a larger practice of intermarriage generally as it would have strengthened connections between family lines and made claims to family estates easier among other benefits. This source provides an interesting account of the available knowledge on intermarriage in ancient Athens, and helps those interested to perhaps form a better idea of this aspect of marriage in aristocratic families.
Wolff, Hans Julius. “Marriage Law and Family Organization in Ancient Athens: A Study on the Interrelation of Public and Private Law in the Greek City." Traditio 2 (1944): 43-95. Web. In this article, Wolff methodically covers aspects of Athenian marriage law such as dowry, divorce and inheritance, and the concept of illegitimacy. Although Wolff speaks to an audience more familiar with the Greek language, this article proves essential in gleaning a better understanding of the nature of marriage practices in Athens.
Internet Resources
Kapparis, K. “Women and Family in Athenian Law,” in Adriaan Lanni, ed., “Athenian Law in its Democratic Context” (Center for Hellenic Studies On-line Discussion Series). Republished in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Dēmos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, edd., The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of March 22, 2003. <http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_women_and_family?page=4&greekEncoding> This online article takes a legal approach to the lives of Athenian women and includes information on citizenship, the nature of Athenian marriage, women’s roles, contraception and abortion, women’s prospects as a widow, and potential career paths for women in the lower classes. Because this source touches on the laws of Drakon, Solon and Pericles, it offers an account of the legal changes in Athens which occurred over the centuries, and how that affected women’s lives. This source is also useful for the study of the different aspects of Athenian marriage such as daily life after marriage, the concerns of childbearing, attitudes toward abortion, motivations for marriage and what a woman could expect after her husband’s death.
Mark, Joshua J. “Sappho of Lesbos.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited, 2 Aug. 2014. Web. 2 May 2016. <http://www.ancient.eu/Sappho_of_Lesbos/> The website as a whole is a good source for information on the ancient world; this specific page was used to check facts about Sappho's history.
Thompson, James C. “Marriage in Ancient Athens.” Women in the Ancient World. N.p., 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2016. <http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/marriageinancientathens.htm> This text provides an overview of marriage in Ancient Athens with regard to motivation, marriage age, wedding custom, and the dowry. His discussion on “love” between married Athenian couples and his reference to Menander’s comedy, The Litigants, also works to place the idea of arranged marriages into context. Because Thompson attempts to put Athenian practices into perspective and references Classical plays in the process, this source is extremely easy to read and becomes a good beginning source for those who are not already familiar with the Classical world.
Website created by Bianca Pulido, University of Texas at San Antonio, last updated - May 8, 2016