Did Rape Exist in Classical Athens? Further Reflections on the Laws about Sexual Violence

Abstract

When studying the evidence for sexual violence in Classical Athens, one is immediately struck by a curious fact: the ancient Greeks had no word that is the precise equivalent of our word “rape.” This, of course, does not mean that acts that we would call acts of rape did not occur in Classical Athens or in other Greek poleis . On the contrary, our sources make it abundantly clear that such acts did occur. For instance, Pausanias (9.13.5; cf. Xen. Hell . 6.4.7) tells the story of two young Boeotian women who were the victims of sexual violence (βιάζονται) at the hands of two Spartan soldiers. In shame at their dishonor (ὕβρeως), both women killed themselves. When their father was unable to obtain justice for his daughters from the Spartan authorities, he too committed suicide. For us there is no doubt that this was an act of rape; in fact that is the way translators render the term. In the prologue to Euripides' Ion , the god Hermes tells us that Apollo “married by force” (10–11) the young Creusa, who became pregnant and bore a son, whom she exposed. The language of tragedy is more delicate, but still makes clear that Apollo had sex with Creusa against her will. We would not hesitate to call what Apollo did to Creusa an act of rape. But in each of these passages the author does not use a word that is equivalent to our term “rape.” Pausanias uses the term hybris when he refers to the rape of the two young Boeotian women, but this term has a broader semantic range than the word “rape” in English.