Artemesia of Caria

Episode 20: Women in the Persian Empire

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

Persian women had much more personal freedom than those of Athens, who were required to wear veils, controlled by husbands, fathers and brothers, and restricted from jobs, public life and Persian courts. Moreover Athenian writers were extremely critical of the freedoms enjoyed by Persian women, who they described as oversexed and manipulative. At the same time, they viewed Persian kings as effeminate and enslaved to their women. Aristotle blamed Sparta’s decline on the right granted Spartan women to own property.

Persian kings practiced polygamy and frequently married their nieces, cousins and sisters to keep wealth in the family. Persian also kept concubines, for diplomatic purposes. They were often foreign women of high rank (who, as non-Persians, were forbidden to marry the king.

In general Persian women tended to be very outspoken. Wives attended banquets, in contrast to Greece, where only concubines attended banquets (to entertain guests).  Persian women learned to ride horses, archery and to shoot javelins. Royal women held audiences just like the king (an Elamite tradition – see Eartly Middle East Empires that Preceded the Persian Empire). They sometime traveled with the king on military campaigns.

Persian women could own land and some ran kortaj work teams at the palace involved in weaving and food production.

As a minority population in the empire, Persians placed great value on having children, especially sons. New mothers received extra rations, which were doubled if they gave birth to sons. Men who produced the most sons got special payments from the king, who sometimes gave gold coins to mothers.

Skilled men and women received equal pay. Unskilled men received higher pay than unskilled women.

Eunuchs, who looked after the king’s wives and concubines, were a tradition the Persians inherited from the Assyrians. Although the word means “keeper of the bed” (in Greek), some became powerful soldiers and generals or rich merchants. Not all were castrated.

Egyptians, Greeks, Jews and Babylonians were all monogamous and Egyptian and Babylonian women could buy and sell property and enter into contracts. In Egypt and Babylonia, women could initiate divorce. In the Ionian Greek cities, as in Athens, women had very restricted rights.

Some Persian women led military campaigns:

• Artemesia – became queen of Halicamassus in 480 BC when her husband died. She provided (and led) a squadron of ships to support Xerxes when he was trying to regain control of Egypt.
• Mania – became satrap of Dardanus in 440 BC when her husband died. She commanded troops and captured new cities.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372426