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family: Greece ther-in-law, in turn, promised a dowry, a certain amount of property that accompanied his daughter into marriage The dowry was, after the marriage, available to the new husband for his use but nevertheless belonged in a certain sense to the wife If the husband divorced her, or she divorced him, the dowry was to be repaid to her father Weddings were religious ceremonies, in most Greek communities involving a triad of goddesses Artemis was invoked, as the goddess overseeing a young woman’s transition from girlhood to womanhood So, too, were Hera, the goddess overseeing the institution of marriage, and Aphrodite, responsible for the sexual and erotic aspects of marriage Weddings usually took place at the house of the bride’s father, ending with a public procession to the husband’s house; the procession was often accompanied by a crowd of celebrants shouting bawdy jokes At the husband’s house was a ceremony of katachusma, a “uniting” of the bride with the new household This ceremony was also used when new slaves were brought into a house, which may shed some light on assumptions about marriage The age of marriage differed in different communities, but the general practice was for young women to marry between the ages of 16 and 23 and men to marry in their 20s or 30s Marriages between much older men and much younger women were relatively common Childbirth was generally left in the hands of women, either relatives of the mother-to-be or midwives Male doctors seem to have been involved only rarely, though the ancient medical writers, all of whom were male, left some treatises on childbirth Soranus, writing in the first century c.e., describes childbirth as taking place on a birthing chair or on a hard bed (the latter when the woman was too weak to sit) Given the limits of ancient medical knowledge, his treatise is responsible and humane, emphasizing the importance of breathing, of having the midwife reassure the mother, and of taking care not to embarrass the mother Estimates vary as to how many women died in childbirth, ranging from a high of 25 of every 1,000 women to a low of five of 20,000 The figure surely varied according to the prosperity of the family, if only because more prosperous women would likely be better fed and therefore stronger After a baby was born, the midwife laid it on the ground to assess its health and vitality If it was deemed worth rearing, it would be given to the mother or a wet nurse for feeding Later, sometimes days later, the father displayed the baby to the members of the household, thus acknowledging it as legitimately his If a baby was not deemed worth rearing, or if the husband refused to accept it, it might be exposed, that is, left outside to die or be taken away There is no good evidence regarding how frequently infants were exposed The practice figures frequently in literature, which may reflect how common it was but also may reflect merely a cultural anxiety about the practice Mothers generally breast-fed their children themselves, for this was considered the duty of a responsible woman of the house and most wholesome for the child and the mother’s 455 Fragment of an archaic Greek stelae, with the heads of a mother and child (Alison Frantz Photographic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at Athens) relationship with it Soranus recommended the hiring of a wet nurse when the mother could not produce enough milk or was too sick or exhausted to nurse her baby herself The status of a wet nurse could vary, but evidence suggests that wet nurses could be valued members of the family An Athenian woman of the fourth century b.c.e named Hippostrate had this inscription carved on the tomb of her wet nurse: “I loved you while you were alive, nurse, I love you still now even beneath the earth, and I shall honor you as long as I live.” Divorce was possible, at the initiation of either a husband or wife The community of Gortyn, a small city in Crete whose laws survive on an inscription from the 450s b.c.e., required that in cases of divorce a wife retained all property she brought into the marriage, as well as half of any profits or proceeds that came from that property, with provisions for judgment in the case of disputes Existing children remained in the father’s household in cases of divorce Children born to a woman after she was divorced were to be brought to the father; if he accepted them, they would be reared in his household, but if he rejected them, the mother was free to rear them or expose them herself After the death of either spouse, the survivor was free to remarry In the case of a widowed woman, she brought her own property into her new marriage, but any property she had held in common with her former husband belonged to
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