Nathan Petek

Response to Alanna’s Paper

Alanna uses the model of an empty vessel filled by her husband to show what was expected of girls while they were growing up and after they were married. There is other evidence in Oeconomicus, which further strengthens her point. In Roman texts there is no mention of ignorance as a desired quality in a wife, or of husbands as teachers. There is, however, evidence that contradicts the Athenian ideal of ignorant wives. So it seems that although the empty vessel model works in Athens, it does not in Rome because Romans associated a different set of characteristics with the ideal wife.

There is other textual evidence in Oeconomicus that strengthens Alanna’s empty vessel model. Not only does Ischomachos assume his wife is ignorant of everything he doesn’t teach her when she loses something, but he even goes as far as to assume that she doesn’t know her way around the house, even though she has lived there for an extended period of time (Oeconomicus, IX, 2). He points out the location of the bedroom, "The bedroom, being at the interior part of the house" (Oeconomicus, IX, 3). This shows just how extreme his assumption of her ignorance is.

The Roman texts do not contain anything that would lead one to believe that the Romans saw ignorance as a characteristic of an ideal wife. Terrence’s play Mother-in-Law has female character that was married only nine months before the play opens. The play goes into the details of her early-married life. She is described as being "modest and retiring, as a lady ought to be" (Mother-in-Law, 298). There is no mention of her ignorance and her husband never really attempts to teach her. He actually spends the first few months of their marriage ignoring her. One of the characters in The Brothers is a woman that is just about to be married when the play ends. In her description there is no mention of her level of ignorance.

It does not seem like Roman girls were guarded nearly as closely as Athenian girls were, in an attempt to keep them ignorant. Philumena was out of the house by herself when Pamphilus assaulted her. She was probably even out at night because she was unable to identify her attacker. In The Brothers Aeschinus managed to seduce Pamphila and have an ongoing relationship with her. So she also must not have been closely watched.

It seems that even though women were not seen as empty vessels to be filled by their husbands in Roman society, there were specific characteristic Roman men wanted in their wives. In Mother-in-Law a modest and retiring woman is described as the ideal lady, "who bore with all her husband’s unkindness and unfair treatment" (Mother-in-Law, 298). By behaving in this way Philumena managed to win Pamphilus’ affection, even though he was "in love with Baccis" when he married Philumena (Mother-in-Law, 297). It was also important that a wife was obedient. After Phidippus tells his wife not to take the baby out of the house, he says, " But I’m a bigger fool to expect her to obey my orders — I’ll go tell the servants not to let it be taken out" (Mother-in-Law, 315). He seems like he expects his wife to obey him, but since he doesn’t think she will, he needs to also tell the servants what he wants done. He seems to be angry about having to tell the servants not to let the baby be taken out of the house because his wife should just obey him in the first place.

Even though the empty vessel model works well in Athenian society, it doesn’t seem to fit as well in Roman society. Roman women had freedom of movement that Athenian women just didn’t have and were not expected to be as ignorant as Athenian women. However, Roman women were expected to be modest and to take their husbands abuse, and to be obedient. So although women’s rights seemed to have improved from Greece to Rome, women were still under the control of men.