gynaeceum
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thumb|300px|Family scene in a gynaeceum – painted on a lèbes gamikòs about 430 BC In Ancient Greece, the gynaeceum (, gynaikeion, from Ancient Greek , gynaikeia: "part of the house reserved for the women"; literally "of or belonging to women, feminine") or the gynaeconitis (, gynaikōnitis: "women's apartments in a house") was a building or the portion of a house reserved for women, generally the innermost apartment. In other words, a women's quarters, similar to the South Asian antahpura and Islamic South Asian zenana. The gynaeceum is the counterpart to the andrōn, or male quarters.
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Women in Greek antiquity
- From andron to ''gynaeceum''
- Archaeological and textual evidence
- From single room to multiple rooms
- ''Gynaikonomoi''
- Interpreting the evidence
- See also
- References
thumb|300px|Family scene in a gynaeceum – painted on a lèbes gamikòs about 430 BC In Ancient Greece, the gynaeceum (, gynaikeion, from Ancient Greek , gynaikeia: "part of the house reserved for the women"; literally "of or belonging to women, feminine") or the gynaeconitis (, gynaikōnitis: "women's apartments in a house") was a building or the portion of a house reserved for women, generally the innermost apartment. In other words, a women's quarters, similar to the South Asian antahpura and Islamic South Asian zenana. The gynaeceum is the counterpart to the andrōn, or male quarters.
The married woman of the household would often join the unmarried women and the female slaves at night when she did not join her husband. The women spent most of their days in this area of the house. These rooms were more remote from those reserved for the men by placing them away from the streets and public areas of the house. When visitors were entertained the women were not present, but remained in this secluded portion of the house.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “gynaeceum” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.