... did it by marriage. Just by simply being female women qualified for participation in many religious festivals and some were even for women only. The festival Thesmophoria that celebrated harvest and the sowing of the winter seeds was exclusive to women as Greeks saw the reproductive cycle of crops and humans as being linked. So as well as offering sacrifices to the gods for a good harvest, the women were also hoping that they themselves would bear sons the following year. A man could divorce his wife, without reason, at any time in ancient Athens. So why were there not more divorced wives returning home to their fathers? Because, unless the wife had been raped or adulterous, a dowry (paid by the father to the groom of the bride) would have to be returned in full. This meant that wives were protected against divorce by the dowry, as many husbands could ...

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