Women’s lives were improved and expanded in the Hellenistic age more so than at any other time prior Greek history. Papyri from Egypt and Coele-Syria have led to the discovery of documents on marriage contracts, inscriptions of philanthropy, and the daily lives of the women in that period. The Hellenistic woman changed in many ways. She became more educated, more cultured, and she received domestic freedom and her new legal and occupational advancements and a whole other myriad of news liberations. The ideal of the Classical obedient Greek wife was turned upside down. She no longer had to be escorted to places outside her home and to issue legal documents. She also could now have contracts drawn up to secure her position in a marriage contracts that would cover adultery and her right to divorce. Before the Hellenistic age Greek wives were looked down upon. They were seen as a means to produce kin, take care of the domestic duties, and be subordinate to their husbands. In a speech by King Eteocles in 467 BCE to some Theban women who have thrown themselves to his feet in a desperate attempt to lift his besiegement of Thebes, he says: “I ask you, you intolerable creatures, if you think that your behavior will be helpful to the state and will bring salvation, or support the army that is besieged, if you fall on the statues of the gods who protect the state, and wail and scream – to the disgust of sensible people?” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 28) He uses the term intolerable creatures to characterize these women. He here practices the common Greco-chauvinistic idea of male dominance over female. He even goes as far as reducing them to a less than human state by using the word creatures.He goes on to say to the Thebans: “I would not choose to live with the female sex either in bad times nor during a welcome peace… The outside is a man’s concern – a woman should not consider it; she should stay inside...
