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Sexual Violence In Ancient Greek Society

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Introduction
Every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. Moving closer to home, on our college campuses, one-third of women will be victims of sexual violence before they graduate from a college or university in the United States. Within our seven person student group at Boston University, three of our members are at a high risk of being victims of sexual violence before earning our degrees. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention defines sexual violence as, “Any sexual activity that is not obtained or given freely.” The National Sexual Violence Association explains the different types of sexual violence as rape and sexual assault, child sexual assault and incest, intimate partner sexual assault, …show more content…

This civilization was governed by a set of 300 laws known as Hammurabi’s code. This code addressed every aspect of living, including the sexual assault of a woman. This code stated that if a married woman were raped, regardless of consent, she was considered an adulteress and would be bound and thrown into a river alongside her attacker. Thousands of years later, in the newly developed democratic city of ancient Athens, the issue of sexual assault remained nascent. Ancient Greek society as a whole was progressive, however, as seen through their written works and arts, their response to sexual violence and the perception of women hadn’t evolved greatly since Mesopotamia. Women’s role was secondary to that of men, as only males were considered “citizens”. Although rape existed within the justice system and is described in many works of literature, an actual word equivalent to that of “rape” never existed. Scholars, however, relate the modern term of rape to Hubris (1). Hubris, unlike “rape”, does not take into account a woman’s consent. Instead, it “emphasizes that Athenian legal discourse represents heterosexual relations largely in terms of relationships between men”, specifically between the perpetrator and a woman’s kurios, or “master” (Omitowoju 39). When a woman is sexually assaulted or raped, she would not be involved in her own case. …show more content…

Based on the current population, this figure adds up to about one billion women. Statistics on the history of sexual assault are unreliable, as much of the data collected in countries are merely estimates or non-existent. Today, however, the amount of data being collected worldwide on Sexual Violence has increased (Figure 1). UN-HABITAT for example, has taken surveys on violence, mostly in Africa, to try to help with policy creation. UN Women, an organization within the United Nations devoted to gender equality and the empowerment of women, states that “at least 119 countries have passed laws on domestic violence, 125 have laws on sexual harassment and 52 have laws on marital rape” (Facts and Figures: Ending Violence against Women). Even with the existence of these laws, not all countries are compliant with the international standards on sexual violence. Much of this has to do with traditions such as early marriage or genital mutilation. Sexual assault today is often used as a tactic of war, as it has been in the past. An example of this is shown in Bosnia where it is believed that more than 20,000 Muslim girls have been raped there as a form of “ethnic cleansing” since 1992 (Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War ). After a UN Declaration in 1993, thousands of organizations have been created to help end sexual violence worldwide. In 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his

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