A.E. Haigh (1898) in The Attic theatre p. 363-368. wrote:-
The Attic Theatre: A Description of the Stage and Theatre of the Athenians, and of the Dramatic Arthur Elam Haigh - Internet Archive
"And the old Attic comedy was pervaded by a coarseness which makes it utterly unfit for boys and women."
The Dramatic Festivals of Athens (2nd Edition 1968 Revised by J. Gould and D. M. Lewis): Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge - Internet Archive - Chapter VI The Audience pp 268-85.
[Discusses the evidence for women & children's attendance at the theatre in Ancient Athens]
S. Goldhill, ' Representing Democracy: Women at the Great Dionysia ', in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower (edd.), Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts Presented to David Lewis (Oxford, 1994), Chapter 21: pp. 347-69
Kitto repeats this in his book on p.233 in The Greeks - Internet Archive
"And the old Attic comedy was pervaded by a coarseness which makes it utterly unfit for boys and women."
Plato, Laws, Book 2, section 658d says that educated women preferred tragedies to comedies.
Plato, Gorgias, section 502d
Socrates:
Then it must be a rhetorical public speaking or do you not think that the poets use rhetoric in the theaters?
Callicl
Socrates:
So now we have found a kind of rhetoric addressed to such a public as is compounded of children and women and men, and slaves as well as free; an art that we do not quite approve of, since we call it a flattering one.
Aristophanes says in Thesmophoriazusae. Line 1228 where in the exodus to the play the Chorus Leader implies "like good honest women, we each go straight to our own home after the play."
Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae, line 1226-
Leader of the Chorus:
Go your way! and a pleasant journey to you! But our sports have lasted long enough; it is time for each of us to be off home; and may the two goddesses reward us for our labours!
References
The Attic Theatre: A Description of the Stage and Theatre of the Athenians, and of the Dramatic Arthur Elam Haigh - Internet Archive
"And the old Attic comedy was pervaded by a coarseness which makes it utterly unfit for boys and women."
[Discusses the evidence for women & children's attendance at the theatre in Ancient Athens]
S. Goldhill, ' Representing Democracy: Women at the Great Dionysia ', in R. Osborne and S. Hornblower (edd.), Ritual, Finance, Politics: Athenian Democratic Accounts Presented to David Lewis (Oxford, 1994), Chapter 21: pp. 347-69
Kitto repeats this in his book on p.233 in The Greeks - Internet Archive
"And the old Attic comedy was pervaded by a coarseness which makes it utterly unfit for boys and women."
Plato, Laws, Book 2, section 658d says that educated women preferred tragedies to comedies.
Plato, Gorgias, section 502d
Socrates:
Then it must be a rhetorical public speaking or do you not think that the poets use rhetoric in the theaters?
Callicl
So now we have found a kind of rhetoric addressed to such a public as is compounded of children and women and men, and slaves as well as free; an art that we do not quite approve of, since we call it a flattering one.
Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae, line 1226-
Leader of the Chorus:
Go your way! and a pleasant journey to you! But our sports have lasted long enough; it is time for each of us to be off home; and may the two goddesses reward us for our labours!
Chapter IVB - The Audience pp. 286-90
The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy - The Audience of Athenian Tragedy - Internet Archive
Dionysos, étude sur l'organisation matérielle du théâtre athénien: Octave Navarre - Internet Archive
CHAPITRE XIII : LE PUBLIC
§ 78 pp. 230-236 Les femmes étaient elles admiises au théâtre?
Utrum mulieres Athenienses scaenicos ludos spectaverint necne: Octave Navarre - Internet Archive
Henderson, J. (1991). Women and the Athenian Dramatic Festivals. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), 121, 133–147. https://www.jstor.org/stable/284448
Publics and Audiences in Ancient Greece: 2013 by David Roselli
https://core.ac.uk/works/10281526
Theater of the People: Spectators and Society in Ancient Athens - David Kawalko Roselli - Google Books
Theater of the People: Spectators and Society in Ancient Athens Chapter 5 Women and the Theater Audience - David Kawalko Roselli - Google Books
Social Class: 2014 by David Roselli
https://core.ac.uk/works/10281170
Theatre of the People: Spectators and Society in Ancient Athens - David Kawalko Roselli - Google Books
https://archive.org/details/theaterofpeoples0000rose/page/n5/mode/1up?view=theater
The Attic Theatre: A.E Haigh - Internet Archive Chapter VII The Audience
The Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes tr by Benjamin Bickley Rogers - Internet Archive pp. xxix-xxxv
Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient World edited by Joyce E. Salisbury - Internet Archive
Greek tragedy and comedy: Lucas, F. L. - Internet Archive
Aristophanic Comedy: Dover, K. J. - Internet Archive p.17
The Attic Theatre (3rd edition) - Chapter 8 Audience: A.E Haigh revised by A. W. Pickard-Cambridge - Internet Archive
Did the Women of Ancient Athens Attend the Theater in the Eighteenth Century? | Semantic Scholar
An Introduction to the Greek Theatre by Peter Arnott - Internet Archive
Cross-dressing - Oxford Classical Dictionary
Women in Ancient Greece - World History Encyclopedia
Internet Archive: Search for Women in Ancient Greece
Women in Ancient Greece: Sue Blundell - Internet Archive
Lysistrata by Aristophanes - Commentary 3 pp. 98-109 by Sarah Ruden on Athenian Women - Internet Archive
Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity - Sarah B Pomeroy - Google Books
Women in classical Athens - Wikipedia
Women in Greece - Wikipedia
The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy - Google Books
Chapter 3 p. 54-68 The Audience of Greek Tragedy - Simon Goldhill
Search results for "Did Women attend the theatre in Ancient Athens?" in JSTOR experimental search
Gender and politics in Greek tragedy : Zelenak, Michael X - Internet ArchiveThe topic of this article is one of complete controversy. I asked two AI Engines for their "opinion":-
Did the women of Athens attend the dramas at the Lenaean and Dionysian Festivals with references? ChatGPT said:
The participation of women in the dramatic festivals of ancient Athens, such as the Dionysian and Lenaean festivals, is a subject of some scholarly debate. However, the general consensus among historians is that women likely did not attend these festivals in large numbers, and their participation was more restricted compared to men.
Here’s a breakdown of the context surrounding their involvement:
1. The Dionysian Festivals:
The Great Dionysia (also known as the City Dionysia) was the most significant dramatic festival in Athens, celebrated annually in honor of the god Dionysus. It included theatrical performances, dramatic competitions, and religious rituals.
Theater Attendance: According to sources, it is unlikely that women were permitted to attend the Great Dionysia as spectators in the same way as men. The Great Dionysia was a major public event, with most attendees being male citizens, and women of Athens were generally expected to remain in the private sphere, particularly in civic and religious contexts like public festivals. The lack of direct evidence about female spectators at these events suggests their attendance was either very limited or nonexistent.
The Role of Women in Drama: Women’s roles in Greek theater were performed exclusively by men. All roles in tragedies and comedies were played by male actors, even those that involved female characters. This further reflects the gender segregation of the public sphere in ancient Athens.
Specific References: There are some references that indicate women may have been involved in the festivals in a limited capacity, such as in the role of priests or priestesses during certain rituals. For example, the Artemis Brauronia festival allowed women to participate, and some festivals involved female religious roles, but these were separate from the dramatic competitions themselves.
2. The Lenaean Festival:
The Lenaea was another Athenian festival in honor of Dionysus, celebrated in the winter (usually in January or February). It was a smaller-scale festival compared to the Great Dionysia and primarily focused on comedic performances.
Women’s Participation: The Lenaean festival was thought to have had a more localized, perhaps even less formal, atmosphere than the Great Dionysia. However, there’s little to suggest that women attended as spectators in this context either. The roles in Lenaean plays, like those in the Great Dionysia, were performed by men.
3. Exceptions and Considerations:
While women were mostly excluded from the public performances, there are a few exceptions and caveats:
Priestesses and Religious Roles: Women, especially priestesses, had important roles in the religious ceremonies that accompanied these festivals. For example, the priestess of Athena was an important figure in the religious activities related to the City Dionysia. However, these roles were distinct from participation in the theatrical events themselves.
Comedic Plays and Gender Roles: In some comedic plays, women were depicted in exaggerated or humorous ways, but this was more a reflection of the cultural norms and not a sign that women attended as audience members. Some playwrights, such as Aristophanes, used female characters in satirical or absurd ways, but these roles were always played by men.
Conclusion:
Although we lack direct evidence that women regularly attended the dramatic performances at the Great Dionysia or Lenaean festivals as spectators, their roles in the religious and civic aspects of these festivals could have involved limited participation. The majority of the audience would have been male citizens, with women largely excluded from public entertainment activities like drama.
Some secondary sources, including Aristophanes' plays, may humorously or critically engage with the idea of women attending public events, but these references are typically more concerned with gender roles and satire than with documenting actual attendance.
References:
Aristophanes, various plays (e.g., Lysistrata and Thesmophoriazusae) provide some insights into the role of women in Athenian society and their interaction with male-dominated public events.
Parker, Robert. "Athenian Religion." This work offers insights into the religious festivals and gender roles within Athenian religious life.
Wilson, Nigel Guy. "The Athenian Agora: A Guide to the Excavation and Museum." This includes some details on social customs surrounding public festivals in Athens.
Google Gemini said:
While historical sources on the lives of women in ancient Athens are limited and often contradictory, a strong case can be made that women, including citizen women, did attend the dramas at both the Lenaean and Dionysian Festivals.
Here's a breakdown of the evidence and arguments:
Arguments for Women's Attendance:
Religious Nature of the Festivals: Both the Lenaean and City Dionysia were primarily religious festivals in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and theater. Religion was a key sphere of public life in which Athenian women were allowed and even encouraged to participate, including serving as priestesses and attending various religious festivals (e.g., Panathenaia, Thesmophoria). It's contextually more probable that women would attend these religious dramatic festivals than be excluded.
Lack of Explicit Prohibition: There is no surviving ancient source that explicitly states women were forbidden from attending dramatic festivals. If such a significant exclusion existed, it's reasonable to expect some mention of it.
Literary References:
Plato's Laws [somewhat later than 5th Centruy BC] : A passage in Plato's Laws (2.658A) identifies tragedy as an amusement likely to please "educated women, young men, and the mass of people generally." While hypothetical, this suggests that women viewing dramatic performances was considered a normal occurrence.
Aristophanes' The Frogs: In this comedy, a character jokes that "Every decent woman or decent man's wife was so shocked by plays like Euripides' Bellerophon that she went straight off and took poison." This implies women were present in the audience to be "shocked."
Aristophanes' Assemblywomen (Ecclesiazusae): This play features Athenian women dressing as men to attend the Assembly, a place they were normally excluded from. The very premise of the play relies on the audience understanding the unusual nature of women in a public space, and the play itself makes jokes about women's behaviour and knowledge in a way that would only land if women were present in the audience. If women were absent, the humour would be lost or nonsensical.
Audience Capacity: The Theatre of Dionysus could hold 15,000-17,000 spectators. While the bulk would have been male citizens, it's plausible that women would have filled some of these seats.
Moral Instruction: Some scholars argue that tragedies, with their important moral messages, would have been seen as beneficial for the education of women, particularly since formal education for Athenian women was limited.
Nuances and Counterarguments (and Rebuttals):
"Oriental Seclusion": Older scholarship often assumed a strict "seclusion" of Athenian women, likening it to "Oriental harem-slavery," and therefore concluded they were excluded from public events. However, more recent scholarship challenges this view, recognizing that women had a more active role in religious and domestic life.
Comedies vs. Tragedies: Some have argued that women might have been allowed to attend tragedies but not comedies due to the bawdier nature of comedies. However, this argument is weakened by the fact that tragedies could also contain shocking content (e.g., Medea killing her children), and there's no clear ancient distinction regarding women's attendance based on genre. Furthermore, if such a distinction existed, it would likely have been mentioned or ridiculed by comic playwrights.
Limited Public Role: While Athenian citizen women were excluded from formal political and civic life (voting, juries, owning property), religious festivals were distinct.
Representation in Plays: While female roles were played by men, and women often had limited authority in the public sphere, they were ubiquitous as major characters in plays. This doesn't necessarily preclude their presence in the audience, and in fact, some plays (like Lysistrata) directly address women's agency.
Specific to the Lenaean Festival:
The Lenaia was generally considered a less lavish festival than the City Dionysia and may have been more "local," attracting a predominantly Athenian audience.
"Lenaia vases" depict women in Dionysian rituals, including ecstatic states and wine-related activities, suggesting a strong association of women with the festival's religious aspects. While these vases don't directly prove attendance at dramatic performances, they highlight women's active participation in the broader Lenaean celebrations.
New comic contests were officially included in the Lenaia around 442 BC, and a tragic contest was introduced in 432 BC. Many of Aristophanes' comedies, known for their social commentary and often including female characters, were first performed here.
Conclusion:
While direct, undeniable proof is elusive due to the fragmentary nature of ancient sources and the male-centric bias of surviving texts, the consensus among many modern scholars is that women in ancient Athens did attend the dramas at both the Lenaean and Dionysian Festivals. The religious nature of the festivals, the lack of explicit prohibitions, literary allusions, and the practicalities of audience composition strongly support this view.
A third AI Engine [Perplexity] said the following:-
Women's Attendance at Athenian Theatrical Festivals: A Scholarly Debate
The question of whether women attended dramatic performances at the Lenaean and Dionysian festivals in ancient Athens represents one of the most contentious debates in classical scholarship. Despite the prominence of powerful female characters in Greek drama and women's documented participation in various religious festivals, direct evidence regarding their presence as spectators at theatrical events remains elusive, leaving scholars to construct arguments from circumstantial evidence and comparative analysis.
The Evidentiary Challenge
The scholarly discourse surrounding women's attendance at Athenian theatrical festivals is fundamentally hampered by a complete absence of direct testimony. As noted in discussions of the Theatre of Dionysus, "all arguments on the subject are ex silentio since there is no direct evidence that women attended the Theatre of Dionysus"4. This evidentiary gap has created a scholarly battlefield where competing interpretations of indirect evidence have flourished for over two centuries.
The debate gained scholarly momentum following Karl August Böttiger's arguments in 1796, which "sparked a long-going debate" that remains unresolved today1. This longstanding controversy reflects not merely an academic curiosity but touches on fundamental questions about Athenian society, gender roles, and the nature of civic participation in classical antiquity. The persistence of this debate demonstrates how the absence of evidence can be as historically significant as its presence, forcing scholars to examine assumptions about ancient social structures and cultural practices.
Competing Scholarly Perspectives
The Exclusionist Position
Proponents of women's exclusion from theatrical festivals argue that these events functioned as extensions of the male civic sphere. Simon Goldhill, a leading advocate of this position, "maintains that the City Dionysia was a socio-political event similar to the courts or the assembly from which women were excluded"4. This interpretation positions theatrical festivals as fundamentally civic occasions where political and social matters were debated through dramatic performance, making them inappropriate venues for women according to Athenian social conventions.
The exclusionist argument draws strength from the broader pattern of women's limited participation in Athenian public life. The comparison to courts and assemblies is particularly compelling given the well-documented restrictions on women's political participation in classical Athens. Additionally, the theatrical festivals' role in showcasing Athenian cultural achievement to visiting dignitaries and allied city-states suggests they served important diplomatic functions that would have been considered male prerogatives.
The Inclusionist Position
Conversely, Jeffrey Henderson and other scholars argue for women's likely attendance based on their documented participation in religious festivals more broadly. Henderson's position, as described in the scholarly literature, suggests that "since women participated in other rites and festivals they could certainly have attended the theatre"4. This argument emphasizes the religious foundations of both the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, positioning them primarily as sacred observances rather than civic events.
David Kawalko Roselli, in his recent comprehensive study "Theater of the People: Spectators and Society in Ancient Athens," represents the most current scholarly thinking on this issue. Roselli "argues that there almost certainly were women in attendance at theatre performances"1, suggesting that the weight of circumstantial evidence favors inclusion over exclusion. This position has gained credibility as scholars have increasingly recognized the complexity of Athenian social structures and the dangers of assuming uniform exclusion across all public venues.
The Lenaean Festival Context
The Lenaia presents a particularly intriguing case study for examining women's potential attendance at theatrical events. Unlike the grand City Dionysia, the Lenaia was characterized by its more intimate, domestic atmosphere and local focus. Academic analysis reveals that "the Lenaia was held during the coldest part of the year" when "peasants from different parts of Attica, who constituted the majority of the Lenaian audience, were less busy with farming"3. Significantly, "unlike the Great Dionysia, the Lenaia was not attended by foreigners"3.
This domestic character of the Lenaia might have created conditions more conducive to women's attendance. The absence of foreign dignitaries and the festival's reputation as "a predominantly peasant festival, inaccessible to outsiders" suggests a more relaxed social environment3. The agricultural calendar's influence on attendance patterns also indicates that the Lenaia drew its audience from family units temporarily freed from farming obligations, potentially including women as part of household groups attending together.
The content of Lenaean performances further supports the possibility of mixed audiences. The festival was renowned for comedy rather than tragedy, with performances that were "much less affected by 'political correctness'" and featured "earthy humour" that "at times evolved into biting political satire"3. Such entertainment might have appealed to a broader demographic than the more formal tragic performances of the City Dionysia, though this remains speculative.
Religious Foundations and Women's Participation
The religious context of both festivals provides perhaps the strongest argument for women's attendance. Both the City Dionysia and the Lenaia were fundamentally religious observances honoring Dionysus, and women's participation in religious festivals was well-established in Athenian society. The irony of potential female exclusion becomes particularly acute when considering that Dionysiac worship traditionally involved women as primary participants. As Harvard scholarship notes, "the religion from which ancient Greek theater sprang was the worship of Dionysus, the god of ecstasy whose rites were carried out principally by women"2.
This religious foundation creates a logical inconsistency in arguments for complete female exclusion. If women were central to the original Dionysiac rites that evolved into theatrical performance, their complete banishment from the evolved form requires additional explanation. The transformation of religious ritual into civic entertainment may have altered the social dynamics, but the sacred character of the festivals would have maintained some connection to traditional religious practices that included women.
Furthermore, the Theatre of Dionysus served as a sacred space within the sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus, reinforcing the religious rather than purely civic character of the performances held there. The temple's presence and the ritual elements that accompanied performances suggest that attendance at dramatic festivals constituted a form of religious observance, which would traditionally have been open to women as well as men.
Social and Economic Considerations
The practical arrangements for festival attendance provide additional insights into the likelihood of women's participation. The enormous capacity of the Theatre of Dionysus, estimated at up to 25,000 spectators for the City Dionysia and 14,000-17,000 for other performances34, suggests festivals that drew from the entire Athenian population rather than a restricted male elite. The existence of the Theoric Fund, which subsidized ticket costs to ensure broad attendance, indicates official commitment to inclusive participation that might have extended to women4.
The economic structure of festival attendance also supports inclusionist arguments. If festivals were intended solely for male citizens, the substantial public investment in subsidizing attendance becomes harder to justify. The Theoric Fund's purpose was to ensure that economic barriers did not prevent Athenian participation in civic and religious life, suggesting a broader conception of who constituted the legitimate festival audience.
Additionally, the documented presence of "metics, foreigners and slaves" at dramatic performances indicates that attendance was not restricted to male citizens alone4. If these groups, who occupied subordinate positions in Athenian society, were permitted attendance, the complete exclusion of citizen women becomes less probable, particularly given women's higher social status relative to slaves and their participation in other religious observances.
Conclusion
The question of women's attendance at the Lenaean and Dionysian festivals remains unresolved, with scholarly opinion divided between exclusionist and inclusionist interpretations. The complete absence of direct evidence ensures that "no definite answer to the problem has been put forward"4, leaving the debate dependent on circumstantial evidence and comparative analysis. However, the weight of recent scholarship appears to favor the likelihood of women's attendance, particularly at the more intimate Lenaia, based on the festivals' religious character, documented patterns of female participation in other sacred observances, and the practical considerations surrounding festival organization and attendance.
The ongoing nature of this scholarly debate reflects broader questions about the reconstruction of ancient social practices and the dangers of imposing modern assumptions about gender roles on classical antiquity. While definitive proof may never emerge, the evidence suggests that Athenian theatrical festivals likely included women among their audiences, even if their participation was not explicitly documented by contemporary sources. This conclusion aligns with growing scholarly recognition of the complexity and diversity of ancient Athenian society, challenging simplistic narratives of universal female exclusion from public life.
