title=Freeing of women
In the Laws and Republic Platon proposed that a woman should be given larger freedom and make education more accessible as it was in the case of men, as already has been said. Aristofanes in so often cited comedy Lysistrata, which was from the year 411 presented at celebrations called Lenajes, represents rebellion of a women group against the foolishness of men in political issues. It was the problem which had never been discussed. The wives announced sexual strike, they refused husbands in order to force them to quit with the bloody war at Peloponeze. In the next comedy Women during Tesmoforii, the women protest against Euripidus, who always attacks them. Such an act of fighting feminism was several generations ago unthinkable. We cannot forget the fact that it was only a literary fiction. Some woman from Athens would not encourage even to dream about being compared with a man at that time. A man in the comedy backs away from complaints of women.
After the reaction of educated persons, the process of development of total freeing of women could not be stopped. In Hellenic period, there were a lot of free women and the strict division into honest woman and a prostitute, disappeared in the number of half woman of the world. These were also those, who inspired roman poets, studying the models of greek poetry, e.g. Lesbia, Catulls mistress, Cyntia - she was praised by Propertius, Corrina, Ovidius mistress and others, neither so famous nor so lucky.
Other Greek towns did not participate in such discrimination of women as it was in classical Athens. In Sparta, a big rival of Ahtens, a woman was more free than in other Greek world. Plutarchos points to the fact, that Spartians praised their women "more than was suitable". Surprising Spartian legislature, whose author was lawmaker Lykurgos /8th century BC/, provided women with autonomy, which was considered to be scandalous by other Greeks: the girls went to sporting place halfnaked, they interfered with boys and wives who received the honorary title potnia /lady/, they went freely outside and according to horrified Athenians, they dominated to husbands.
It is sure that Sparta was thanks to its distinctive war hatred a different case. The couples only hardly ever lived there martially life, there were a lot of single mothers, and it even happened that one citizen left his wife to another man who was stricter and was supposed to make braver personalities from his children. Many centuries later, the deformed people were killed again and the places of begetting exceptionally talented people were renewed, and that was in Nazi Germany. Certain trace of this behaviour remained in some episodes of greek mytology. In Apoolodors apocrypha / in mythological manual Apollodors library, 2. iv 10-11/ we can read: "Herakles stayed in the house of Tespius for fifty days. Tespius and his wife had fifty daughters. He wished his daughters had children with Herakles and that is why when he returned exhausted home from campaigns where he looked for the lion from Nemey, he always found one of his daughters in the bed with him. Herakles slept with all of them because he thought it was the same woman.: This fact called for the comment of O. Denice. "Apolodoros omitted one detail /or he did not know about it/ was that they all were virgins. So goofily Herakles as all strong men thought that the hardest work - much more difficult than his well known twelve, was to deprive the only Tespius daughter of virginity."1
Maybe these freedom of Spartian women were appropriate to the need of town, so that it could operate, when the men were out of town in the war - and that was often. Spartian woman really gave up the sentiment, in order to take up all mens abilities, such that were required from the citizen. When women said goodbye to their men who left home for war, they did not burst out crying, and did not make scenes, they only reminded them, that they had to come back untouched by scandal, either as winners or dead.