Marginalising Maternity: Iconography as Evidence for Social Ideologies in Classical Athens

ABSTRACT Representations of motherhood are rare on Athenian painted pottery from the fifth century BC. This lack of representation is surprising given producing and caring for children was one of a woman’s key duties in ancient Athenian society, and other evidence demonstrates the close bonds women had with their children, especially infants who were all the more in need of care and attention. In this article we explore the entangled lives of mothers and the youngest children – infants – in fifth century Athens to understand reasons for this under-representation. Images of childcare in iconography are surveyed to determine how women and infants are characterised in both private and public spheres. The devaluation, demonisation and appropriation of mothering within the context of fifth century Athenian society is then discussed to understand the impact of the institutional apparatus of motherhood on the experience of mothering.