IMAGE OF WOMEN IN MIDDLE AGES

I. DEMOGRAPHIC FACTS

   Changes between ancient Greece and Middle Ages:
         in sex ratio  (male vs female percentage of population)
          in life expectancy of men versus women
    Evidence of these changes:
         from bride price (early MA) to dowry (late MA)
         wergeld values of women
         medical and scientific writers:
             Aristotle--5th BC Greece
             Albert the Great--13th C. AD theologian
         modern explanations:  anemia, infanticide
             governmental centralization; economic change

II. ATTITUDES TO WOMEN
         Classical mythology:  Hecate, goddess of magical arts
                                        mother of Circe & Medea
         Misogyny--classical and Christian = fear of sex and marriage
          idea of woman as inferior
               physiologically -- scientific argument
               ontologically -- women as type of being
               theological argument:  "Not made in God's image."
               philosophical argument: 
                    "Male is to female as spirit is to matter."
               functionally -- social argument
         Romanticization or Idealization of Women
               Cult of Virgin Mary: (hyperdulia = special reverence)
                       Virgin Birth & Immaculate Conception
               Courtly Love Tradition (12-13th C. France)
         Women as "above" and "below" reason
                    but not “normal” (male standard for normalcy)

III. MALLEUS MALEFICARUM ON WOMEN
        compendium of classical & Christian misogynist views
        "split" image of woman: good (Mary, Old Testament women)
                                            vs  bad (Eve & others, including witches)
        evidence: authority --Bible (OT & NT), classical & early Christian writers
             plus experience (evidence gathered in Kramer & Sprenger witch trials)