Greek Priestess Role

Comparable to the position of a magistrate, the status and role of priestess held great esteem and was a function of exceptional momentousness. Almost like celebrities which were viewed as role models, the power a priestess held proved that women in this area, although strictly confined in what they could do, could be the most influential people in the city because of their gender. The most important religious faction in Athens was the cult of Athena Polias, the patron deity of the city, in which the priestesses held one of the most recognizable offices in Greece. Being between the most historic feminine priesthoods at Athens, the post was only occupied by members who held exclusivity and hereditary in the Eteoboutad clan. These women officiated

Priestesses, referred to by their personal name in public, were the only respectable Athenian women who could be spoken of in this way, denoting that she held a quasi-masculine standing. A daughter of Drakontides, an esteemed citizen of Athens, Lysimache was the first observable priestess of Athena Polias who along with her secretary of treasures brother, Lysikles, held great power on the Acropolis due to their influential positions. The position of priestess of Athena Polias became a family affair as Lysikles’ granddaughter followed, and then other girls from their family. To honor the role Lysimache maintained, the Athenians erected a public bronze statue in her name, showing that women could be elected in affluent statuses and positions of high responsibility in Athens as a result of their gender and religious beliefs. In rare cases, other cults criterion for a priestess position was accompanied by restrictions, such as that concerning the sexual life of a female and the stage of life they were in during their assignment to the