"Can't live with them, can't live without them"

"A wife was an expensive and troublesome necessity because the Greeks did not usually take an unmarried man seriously." It makes it sound like women were fashion accessories. Actually, they kind of are. Whether they're just arm candy to make their guys seem more impressive, or just proof of family commitment for politicians, famous men just have to have those pretty faces.
Sarah Ruden's essay on Athenian women was very interesting because it seemed like the total opposite of what the women in "Lysistrata" were like. Subdued, domesticated, they hardly ever left the house. In some ways, it seems like the poor women had it easier because at least they got to go places and actually do stuff. The only two festivals they were allowed to particpate in were the Dionysiac and the Elusinian Mysteries. I tried looking up the "Dead Day" on the internet, but it sounds like the Dionysiac Mysteries is the same thing. From what I read from , it sounds like nobody knew what went on. I can imagine the speculations of the women dancing wildly, carrying a thyrsus (a rod with leaves or a pine cone) and drinking, but it boggles my mind why the men thought the women dressed in skins and practiced sporagmos and omophagia (consuming raw flesh) on various animals. Unless men realized they were bottling women's emotions and feelings to the point of exploding. Maybe that's why they came up with the two feasts for women- to go out and get everything out of their system. I just find the whole thing. . . interesting.