Women and Money Within the Oikos: Their Financial Responsibilities According to Xenophon and Aristophanes

Katherine A. Bussinger (University of Arizona)

In Classical Athens the mistresses of well-to-do oikoi handled the financial accounts for the household.  Xenophon’s Oeconomicus and Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae discuss the female involvement in the household finances.  In the Oeconomicus, Ischomachus not only tells his wife that she is responsible for the household finances, but he also suggests different accounting methods.[1]  This implies that the mistress of a profitable estate may have required some formal education.  She may have learned her skills in household management in her father’s or guardian’s home, but Xenophon suggests that the husband was responsible for training his wife in household management, including the handling of household finances.  A woman could also contribute to the financial stability of her husband’s home by contributing a large dowry, which was an important factor in determining the suitability of a potential wife. 

Although the work of Aristophanes must be approached with caution because of the exaggerated nature of comedy, it offers insights into the daily lives and financial responsibilities of women in Athens.  In the Ecclesiazusae, Praxagora stresses the duties of women in the household.  More intriguing is a minor character’s declaration that men are no longer able to transact business over the one-medimnos limit.[2]  This is the limit that was placed upon women’s purchases in Athens.  However, one medimnos of barley was roughly equivalent to a week of groceries for the average family, a sum of money that is not small.  This spending limit for women is significant because of the way in which it is defined: the size of a business transaction allowed to women was defined in purely domestic terms.  This is reaffirmed in that food preparation was the woman’s responsibility.  That citizen women in Classical Athens might have transacted business up to the amount that was roughly equivalent to the week’s grocery bill suggests that she may have been in charge of making the actual purchases for the household.

The Oeconomicus and Ecclesiazusae demonstrate that the citizen wife was responsible for handling finances within the home and that they likely did some purchasing for the household.  Despite social values that ideally kept women secluded from economic matters, women gained some education in financial matters and made purchases for the oikos.  Accordingly, a certain amount of trust was ideally present between husband and wife, since the mistress of the household was responsible for handling household finances.