Is there any evidence that says Greece and Rome were at one time matriarchal, matrilineal or matrilocal? I am doing research on Priestesses and Vestal Virgins and I have come across some interesting quotes from historians as far back as the 1890s up through 2005 claiming that Greece and Rome were matriarchal. Having a hard time finding the empirical evidence, though. This quote was taken from Lewis Morgan's "Ancient Society" vv“When in a society little use is made in the home of the female intellect, we may expect a wide collapse of public morals.” v“The mature destruction of ethnic life, or family, will cause a society, like Greece and Rome, to collapse politically.”
That's really interesting. As part of my studies I learned about several matriarchal societies, but I've never heard from a history book of Greece or Rome ever being labeled as such. I do remember a myth though from when I was studying Classical Roman and Greek myth...it said that Greece was actually once headed by women, but during the coming about of Athens the people were caught in a heated debate as to whether they should name their city after the sea-god Poseidon or the goddess Athena...the women wanted to choose Athena, but the men wanted Poseidon; unfortunately there was an even number of votes, but women being the heads, won out(their votes were worth more I guess). Apparently Poseidon was a very sore loser because after that he began to patronize the city: floods, earthquakes, attacking sailors, etc. The city suffered so badly that, after some oracle consultation, women were stripped of their voting status as well as their position as the heads of their families. There is also another piece about a woman's position in Metamorphosis, I believe, in the story of The Ages. It may be the silver or the bronze age where it describes women as leading villages; if I remember correctly(it's been a while) women ruled over the home while their sons went off to conquest. The myth in particular said something along the lines of men nursing at their mother's breast for 1oo years before they are able to leave home from the shelter of their mothers to conquer their neighbors and die. Apparently after leaving the safety of home they didn't live very long. I suppose their could be other interpritations for that myth, but that was what my class was taught. As I said, I can't remember all of it, it's been a while.
I've always heard that the Jews are matrilineal, but I'm not sure about other cultures. I seem to have heard that the Greeks were once matriarchal. Interesting question. The British author John Fowles (The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, etc.) would certainly agree that women are the key to civilized society. I am strongly inclined in that direction myself. Of course, ever since the Judeo-Christian Bible has become influential in the Occident, there has been a bias against women as a favorable cultural factor. Snakes have not fared so well either.
True. Women do seem to be painted as the villian often times from the Bible to Disney(as well as snakes and dragons). They certainly have gotten the short end of the stick. But it is true that the world would be non-existent if not for women; society would have fallen long ago
