On "Adultery" And Punishment In Athens In The Classical Period

In ancient Greece,the legal norms and constraints on people's sexual behavior were directly related to the stability of marriage contract,the legitimacy of civil rights,the safety of property inheritance and transfer,and other vital social factors.Athens' adultery law was unique in history,which was not only different from today's understanding of "adultery",but also distinct from the relevant provisions of other ancient societies.This thesis will take "adultery" as the research object and explore the definition and punishment of adultery in classical Athens to understand the social construction of gender relations.In the first chapter,I will analyze the meaning of the word "moicheia" in classical Athens,explore its unique characteristics that distinguish it from modern cognition,and analyze the case application in court speech.First,in classical Greek the word moicheia denotes the kind of illicit sexual intercourse which the standard dictionaries render as "adultery".Seducing a citizen's wife,widowed mother,unmarried daughter,sister,or niece was defined as moicheia.And its meaning there are two characteristics,respectively,adultery and constitutive requirements of the scope of adultery general sex: on the one hand,the key to the identification of adultery is not sex itself,but the sex female side of oneself circumstance,that is,with any citizen under the supervision of illegal sex female relatives can be classified as adultery;On the other hand,the sexual behavior of unmarried men and women also counts as moicheia.In addition,taking the speech On the Murder of Eratosthenes as a typical example,it is of great significance to explore the attitude of the court in ancient Athens towards adultery and analyze the defense details in it to understand the relevant provisions of adultery law and punishment,and to make necessary fogs for the discussion of the consequences of adultery in the next chapter.The second chapter discusses the punishment measures of male and female adulterers in classical Athens by law and public opinion,and the comparison between the consequences of adultery and rape.The offended woman's guardian was free to humiliate and even execute the adulterer on the spot without penalty,while the adulterer could avoid death but face the exclusion and isolation of the whole city.In addition,the comparison of adultery and rape shows that adultery had a worse influence on Athenian society than rape.Adultery,to a large extent,carries the risk of death,while the consequence of rape is only the payment of a fine,because it is related to the determination of the descent of the children and the inheritance of property,affecting the stability of the city-state.The third chapter mainly discusses the problem of adultery and the construction of social gender relations.Starting from the marriage structure and gender relations,it explores the causes of adultery in Athens in the classical period.Secondly from the social construction of gender roles and social control between two aspects to understand the rationality of the classical period social attitude about adultery,social gender roles of men and women in shape,a large number of classical literature permeate to the men of ability and the cultivation of masculinity and boast and emphasis on women's weak and to;Through a network of rumors,codes of honor and shame,and informal social sanctions,they constituted a social control over adultery in Athens.