“Don’t Trust a Woman, Even When She’s Dead” and Other Fine Schoolboy Maxims

Heather I. Waddell Gruber (University of Iowa)

According to D. A. Russell, “Insofar as declamation is an educational tool, the study of its settings gives an idea of the values and prejudices that teachers assumed or encouraged” (Greek Declamation, 1983:  22).  That is, declamation provides more than just rhetorical training.  It also provides moral training, and therefore the study of declamation is also a study in the values and cultural assumptions by those who teach and practice it. 

To that end, there are several declamations about women, which are intriguing in their regularity of theme.  Most involve cases of adultery and seduction, but rape and prostitution are also very common.  These declamations provide a wealth of information about traditional Greek values regarding women’s roles.  Great consideration, however, must be given to the significant role played by New Comedy in  shaping them.  Many of the declamations seem to come straight out of Menander. 

To illuminate the study of women in declamation, we must look more broadly at what training in Greek New Comedy the students had:  it was not only extensive, but marked the very first lessons learned in school.  Let’s say you are an aristocratic boy, eight years old and just starting school.  The first thing to do is learn how to read and write Greek.  The teacher gives you several maxims, like “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” and with this catchy saying in mind you learn how to write it, then practice your penmanship by repeating it over and over.  This sounds pedagogically sound, not a bad way to learn one’s letters.  But Greek teachers did not use our familiar adage about the apple and the doctor.  Instead, here are some examples of actual sayings used in the schools:  “Don’t trust a woman, even when she’s dead.”  “It’s better to bury a woman than to marry one.”  “It’s better to live with a lion than a woman.”  All are quotes attributed to Menander, pulled from their original context and used as isolated maxims, full of sound advice from a master of Greek poetry and handed down over the centuries. Suddenly this exercise does not seem so innocuous, to our modern ears.

In this paper, I discuss the connection between this type of elementary education and its effect on the highest level of education, the declamation, and also how it effects the way women are portrayed in the advanced compositions.