Why Couldn't Ancient Greek Women Spend Their Own Money?

Why Couldn't Ancient Greek Women Spend Their Own Money? In classical Athens, a woman could inherit, bring a dowry worth years of wages into her marriage and run her household's entire budget, yet by law she couldn't make a deal worth more than one sack of barley. Could Greek women own property? Could they work, or even leave the house? And what happened to their money in a divorce? The answers are stranger than the rule. In this video we go inside the money life of Athenian women in the 5th and 4th centuries BC: the kyrios, the legal guardian every woman had from birth; the barley law that capped her contracts at about three days' wages; the dowry that followed her out of a divorce and charged 18% interest when it came back late; the boundary stones that put up farms as security for it; the citizen's mother who sold ribbons in the agora, and the old law of Solon that protected her; why the idea that Athenian women never left the house collapses at the Thesmophoria; the wife in Xenophon's household manual who ran the storerooms, the staff and the yearly budget and the widow who faced a family council and audited her own father, talent by talent. Sources in this episode: Isaeus 10 (the barley law), Demosthenes 27 (Against Aphobus) and 57 (Against Eubulides), Xenophon's Oeconomicus, and Lysias 32 (Against Diogeiton). Which one is real power; the signature or the audit? Tell us in the comments. CHAPTERS: 0:00 The Silver She Couldn't Spend 1:31 The Man You Could Never Fire 3:49 The One-Bushel Ceiling 6:06 The Money That Followed Her 8:31 The Women Who Worked Anyway 10:50 The Myth of the Locked Door 13:17 The Keys to Everything 15:37 The Widow Who Audited Her Own Father Subscribe for more of the everyday side of ancient Greece nobody taught you. #AncientGreece #WomensHistory #AncientAthens #AncientHistory #GreekHistory #HistoryDocumentary #ClassicalAthens #DailyLife