Gender in Phaeselis

A child and his mother.

Alexander, with his brush with the Amazons, had become impressed with their warrior culture.  He decided to try and see what will happen if he gave the women in Phaeselis more equal opportunities.  Phaeselis is the only city that had adopted laws, codified by Alexander himself, that allows for more equal opportunity among the common races.  Unlike the other Alexandrian kingdoms (whose equal opportunity laws were struck down), Phaeselis allows a woman to own property, hold titles, own weapons, and participate in government just like a man can.  They are also treated equally when accused and convicted of a crime.

The truth is, amongst the people in Phaselis, there is nothing to keep a woman from becoming a good fighter, a wizard, a merchant, or an accountant just like men do.  Still, about 75% of all the outside of the home occupations are filled by men, simply because many married women stay home to look after their children. 

Gender Terms

woman in a toga.

Gender specific terms are apart of the languages in all of Alexander's Phaselis.  There is no culture of political correctness in Phaselis, everyone is expected to express their thoughts freely and openly.  Indeed, Alexander codified laws against Totalitarianism by telepaths within the city.  The city was meant to be a place of freedom, where people are free to think and act for themselves.

In the languages spoken in the city, and especially in Koine Hellenic, humanity is referred to as Mankind or as Man. Elves, however, refer to themselves as "Elfkind", and so on.  The reptilian humanoids call themselves the Assarai, and the Serpent Folk call themselves the Ssitherai.  Most everyone in the city calls them "lizardmen" in the case of the Assarai as opposed to the gender neutral "Lizard folk."  In the case of the Serpentfolk, they call them "serpents."  The Nagaji are just called "Nagaji" and are referred as "Nagaji man" or "Nagaji woman" when one questions gender.

Still, there is a bias towards using the male pronouns as gender neutral in all of the languages of the Empire. The women in Phaselis are not offended, even when witches are exclusively referred to in the feminine.  When everyone else uses the term "witch," it basically means that they are referring to a woman who practices the "old craft."   Still, terms like Gymnitos, Hoplite, and Pradramos are masculine terms and the women do not balk at this and demand to be called a Gymnita or Pradrama.  However, most female sorcerers are starting to be called "sorceress" out of respect for the power these women hold.

Some specific gender terms are offensive. No self respecting woman wanted to be called a harlot, or a "wench," or a "witch," by any standard.

Marriage and Children

Marriage in Phaeselis is undergoing a revolution.  With the gathering of so many psychics in one place, and the production of such psychics, is producing a revolution that is beyond imagination.  While in most places of Alexander's empire, people practice arranged marriages. 

Marriage was usually arranged by the parents of the bride, and the groom himself. A man would choose his wife based on three things, the dowry which was given by the father to the groom, her presumed fertility, and her skills, such as weaving. There were no established age limits for marriage, but most girls were married by the age of 14 while their husbands were at least 30. Polygamy was popular during this time as rich men could have several wives.

Courtship in Phaeselis

However, in Phaeselis, with telepaths in the city and wilders about; marriage is becoming more and more of a personal affair.  In Phaeselis, several experiments in matchmaking are being performed.  From social contact between teenagers, to medieval courting, to actual matchmakers, to arranged marriages, there are several experiments with courtship that are being conducted.

Arranged Marriages

In an Arranged Marriage, marriage is usually conducted by the parents of the bride and the bridegroom.  Such a thing is practiced by the respectables in society (i.e. non adventurers). Again, a the bridegroom parents would choose his intended based on three things: the dowry, her fertility, and her skills.  Phaeselis' law does not have age of consent marriage laws, but most girls in respectable society were married by the age 14.

The Courting of Love

Love courting is conducted romantically, as the pursuer would often persue the damosel through serenade, gifts, and expressions of love and admiration.  Such a thing is practiced by the Kshatriya of the Southeastern Quadrant.  Generally, it was conducted in secret. In essence, courtly love was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment that now seems contradictory as "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined, humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent".

Such conduct by the Kshatriya is an experiment that is catching on.  Basically, it offers respect to women and is thought to be a spiritual affair.  The woman is often courted by the Romantic poet, by declaring himself a vassal to her.  The result would be songs, poems, serenades, and adventures abroad taken on behalf of the woman to prove his love.  The woman might be impressed in as much that the love would be consummated through sexual union.

In certain isolated parts of the Northwestern Quadrant, however, courting is practiced by homosexual couples.  A young boy might be serenaded and he too, would be treated as a woman in a Kshatriya court.  Such courting between men and boys would be done even in more secret.  Though homosexuality was practiced through a demogogue -- student, or Master -- Apprentice relationship.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking is conducted by independent matchmakers hired by the man to be the go between.  The matchmaker is usually, but not always, a seer or telepath.  The bridegroom would be interviewed, and then the matchmaker would find possible matches.  The matches would meet the bridegroom through the initial interview, and the match would be made.  The most popular matchmaker in the city however is Madam Ahavah.  She maintains a matchmaking service that is discreet on the part of the bridegroom and is located in the Southwest Quadrant (see Madam Ahavah's).

Social Contact

Since the first adventurers came out of the caves below the city, the city has become a magnet for adventurers and would be adventurers.  The result is a revolution!  Adventuring is considered to be as disreputable as professional acting and people think that common thieves get it better when it comes to marriage.  But since people want to make it rich, troops of adventurers are formed in which they brave life and limb.  And since adventurers can come in all flavors, love seems to blossom when you are going out and adventuring in dangerous places.

Many an adventurer will find themselves falling deeply inlove with another person after sharing a dangerous experience together.  This results in a common bond that can lead to marriage.  Although such activities often result in the death of the beloved, so sometimes the love is consummated through sexual union before the marriage vows.  Such a thing has had an affect on the poor and lower middle classes in the city.  Teenagers think it's okay to actually meet and be socialable with each other in order to have love spark between them.  Although Adventurers often experience this spark in a life or death situation, teenagers experience the spark by socializing with young people of both sexes.  The results often do end in marriages that are more often than not, successful.  

The Family

The Man

The man in a traditional Greek family is often the head (or kyrios, κύριος, "master") of the family. In Phaeselis, a man is responsible for representing his family or household (called an oikos) in matters of politics, legality, and commerce. Exceptions are made for widows with children, of course. In the beginning, the kyrios of an oikos would have been the husband and father of his offspring. But, when any legitimate sons have reached their adulthood, the role of kyrios could be legally transfered from the father to the son. When this happens, either before or after his father had died, he legally is said to form a new family or oikos. So, according to Hellenic Law, new families are formed every generation and this would continue to be perpetuated through marriage and childbirth.

This existed as a complex relationship between father and son, and this relationship had the transfer of family property bound up in it. Because of this, a legitimate son could expect to inherit the property of his father, and because of this was legally obligated to provide for his father in his old age. So, if a son failed to care for his parents, he could be prosecuted and a conviction would result in the loss of his citizen rights. On the other hand, a father could be prosecuted by their sons for maltreatment if their fathers prostituted them for failed to provide them with a techne ( τέχνη, "Craftsmanship"). Also, an heir would be also required to perform the funeral and continue to provide annual commemorative rites. In Athens, however, they were notoriously pious about it. In Phaeselis, the attitude is usually let the dead bury their dead.

The Woman

The Venus Anadyomene, from Pompeii, believed to be a copy of a lost work by Apelles. (p.d.)

Although men represented the oikos legally and commercially, women had a different role in the oikos. In an upper class household, the women led an independent life. Women had no political rights in the Ancient World, and could take no part whatever in civil duties. They could conduct only limited buisness and could hold and inherit limited property. All business conducted on a girl's behalf was by her husband or her father.

As a result, women would rarely recieve inheritance because the law of inheritance was through the male line. Instead, they received a dowrie on their marriage (the bride price). In Phaeselis, this was turned around by Alexander due to his brush with the Amazons. in Phaeselis, a woman is able to own property and could pass it down to her son or her daughter at her will. Despite this, marriage is usually arranged for a woman by her father or male guardian.

In the home, however, women were kept in their own quarters, called the gynaikonitis, and were virtually unseen. Women are responsible only for their oikos, which included managing the household -- providing for the slaves, the children, the cooking, the cleaning, the caring forthee sick, and making clothes. But much would be done by the female slaves, but only under the supervision of the head of the household.

Children

As for children, childbirth often took place at the home, often with all the women of the household in attendance. So, a midwife (maia, μαῖα) may have been present, and a physician can be called in if complications arose. Unfortunately, childbirth was regarded as polluting so it was not allowed to take place on sacred ground. Usually, the father had to dcidee whether to keep the child or to expose it to the elements. If it was kept, a purification ceremony did take place on the fifth or seventh day after birth.

Breastfeeding is the mother's duty, but often wet nurses were employed, and feeding bottles made of pottery were known (at least until the invention of clear glass by alchemists). Children often played a number of games, and they had toys to play with. It's customary, though, at various festivals to give children some toys. When girls were about to marry, and when boys reach adolescence, its customary for them to dedicate their playthings to certain deities.

Man children were favored, so they perpetuated the family and family cult. They cared for the parents in old age and arranged a proper funeral for deceased parents. In addition, their sons could inherit their mothers' dowries. Boys are raised in the female quarters until the age of six, when they were sent to be educated. But girls, unless they were gifted, often remained under the close supervision of their mothers -- where they could learn the domestic skills. They also attended some religious festivals. The only exception in Phaeselis is if the family was well to do, and their girls exhibited psychic potential, were the girls sent to the Psychic Academy to develop their mental powers. For this reason, many girls disproportionately wilders.

Adventurers and the Oikos

Adventurers are practically incredibly different. Sons (and daughters) who leave the household to seek their fortunes through Adventurism can create any number of reactions. Sons who study swordplay to seek their fortunes as a wandering soldier of fortune or hero is often lauded for his choice. Since he is following in the footsteps of the great heroes. Sons who study the mysteries of the Universe and become wizards (also called philosophers, but they study arcane philosophy) and psions in Phaeselis are thought of as betraying their family when they choose the way of Adventurism.

Girls who leave the oikos to seek their fortunes through Adventurism can also expect the same range of reactions. Girls who were raised by widowers (especially widowers who were veterans of war) who go out to seek their fortune through adventure is often much more accepted than girls who were raised by their mothers. Hence, women adventurers are truly a rarity.

Despite this, Adventurers are almost universally looked down upon. In Phaeselis, with the discovery of riches under the city, all of this is changing. Adventurers are coming into Phaeselis from all over the Greek (and Phoenician) World trying to seek their fortune. They spend money, and this money is spent on supplies for their expensive choice of profession. In Phaeselis, Adventurers aren't looked down upon except by their oikoi, instead they are seen as a source of wealth.

Homosexuality

Achilles and Patroclus

The most widespread and socially significant form of same-sex sexual relations in ancient Greece was between adult men and pubescent or adolescent boys, known as pederasty (marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age structured, with men in their 30s commonly taking wives in their early teens). Though homosexual relationships between adult men did exist, at least one member of each of these relationships flouted social conventions by assuming a passive sexual role. It is unclear how such relations between women were regarded in the general society, but examples do exist as far back as the time of Sappho.

The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier as Western societies have done for the past century. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated. This active/passive polarization corresponded with dominant and submissive social roles: the active (penetrative) role was associated with masculinity, higher social status, and adulthood, while the passive role was associated with femininity, lower social status, and youth.

On Lemurias

On Lemurias, homosexuality in the Hellenic Empire is also acceptable.  Homosexuality is also expressed between adult men and pubescent or adolescent boys.  such roles were not described as sexual orientation or a disease, or even something you were born with.  in Lemurias, laying with someone of your own sex and making love wasn't something of a disease or something you were born with.  It is a cultural normative, however, as accepted by the Hellenes as normal behavior.  Even Alexander engaged in it before he conquered the Archemeniad Empire.

This changed when Alexander conquered the Archemeniad Empire.  The ingenius king saw nothing but effeminate men and masculine women.  Even when running into the Amazon barbarians, who respected strength (the Queen wanted to lay with Alexander so she could issue a new Queen; she got a son and a daughter by him); the amazons depended on men to continue their race. In his zeal to spread Hellenistic Culture and to found cities, he found that amongst his people where displays of unnatural behavior.  Although his father was, at one time, an eromenos;  and he did practice homosexuality before, Alexander beleived that one of the reasons the Archemeniads were so easy to conquer was their acceptance and hatred of the practice.  So, he could not accept Homosexual relationships as normal for society.

Homosexuality and Phaeselis' society

Alexander believed that homosexuality is a problem in a moral, working society.  Since Phaeselis is his experiment, he codified a law that any one man who was guilty of laying with another man as one would a woman, he could be tried for undermining the moral society.  The pervert would be given a choice to either be turned into an eunuch or to be banished from the city, never to return again.  The castration was to be done in public so everyone could see what happens to homosexuals.

Unlike the Hebrew/Phoenician Laws against homosexuality -- which calls for the death of the perpetrators, Alexander wanted them either out of the city forever or to have their organ separated from their body.  Despite this, however, you can't make laws forcing a man to be moral.  Pederasty is still a problem in the Northwest District of the city, which has caused problems with the Phoenicians.  Known pederasts, both male and female, were killed by Phoenicians trying to predate on their sons and daughters.  However, the Law as set forth by Alexander is still enforced, so known homosexuals are banished from the city more often than they are castrated; and before the Phoenicians could kill them.  Sometimes, though, they slip through the cracks of the law enforcement, and more than one known pederast has been found dead.

Murder is still against the law, and so is vigilanteism.  However, in a city like Phaeselis, homosexuals have been forced underground for their own protection, keeping their activities out of sight and out of mind.  They know the law, and many couples choose willful banishment. They leave the city of their own choice without the Law coming into it on pretense of going on heroic adventures.  Some of the couples go to Ephesus, where the ruler of the Kingdom of Cassandras is openly homosexual and pederastic. 

The proteans, however, make all of this muddy.  The race is able to change their bodies' shape in countless ways, and it's hard to pin down the law on them.  Alexander's Homosexuality Law recognized them as Hermaphrodites (beings that are both sexes).  To deal with the problem of Proteans, he included a law that applies to them about Corruption of the Youth.  It's against the Law for Proteans to lay with a youth younger than seventeen years of age.  The punishment is banishment from the city.  After all, Proteans have been castrated in Alexander's Army, but they'd just grow back the male organ when they changed shape.

Homosexuality outside of Phaeselis

In the rest of the Hellenic World, though, life continues on as normal.  Alexander didn't extend his law to other parts of his empire, as he knew he would be seen as a hypocrite, somewhat.  The experiment was for Phaeselis, and Phaselis alone.  Homosexuality is accepted in Anaxamandras and beyond.  Even in Cassander's Kingdom -- where it is often on open display. In the lands of Magna Hellas (the Western Colonies), homosexuality is accepted.

Still, in other parts of his kingdom, the cultures handled the activity and belief system in their own ways.  In the land of Syria and Phoenicia, the Phoenicians still kill known homosexuals.  In these places, such activity is regarded as a perversion.

Fornication

The Hellenes regarded fornication and adultery as mating with a member of another race other than one's own. The Hellenes were white Europeans despite what the modern day Greek looks like today. To them, to fornicate is to mix your blood with the blood of another race. The Hellenic City State of Corinth (founded by descendants of Joseph), its population to be exact, was notorious in this. In their temple of Aphrodite, they had legalized prostitution and many members of other races.

During certain festivals, the Hellenes of Corinth would go up unto the Temple of Aphrodite and into the sacred prostitutes there in. They would continuously do this. Because of this, the people of Corinth would be called by an epithet of scorn and derision.

Adultery

There were a number of reasons for which men often carefully guarded the faithfulness of their wives. Illegitimate children were deprived of many rights in most Greek city-states; should a man's heirs' legitimacy be questioned on grounds of his mother's chastity, his family could end. Illegitimate children could also be a considerable economic drain on their family, while giving little back. Another cause of fear was the threat of an outsider gaining access to the oikos, either through the woman he was sleeping with, or their child.

Presumably, the fear of adultery is linked to the ban on women's consumption of alcohol, as evidenced in such plays as Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae and Lysistrata. These fears were intensified by the nature of marriage in Ancient Greece. Marriage was arranged by the bride's father, and many men did not have a close relationship with their betrothed before the marriage.