In this chapter Greek and Chinese representations of gender relations are examined in the context of two major types of convivial activities that took place in the home: family banquets in which women participated as full members, and drinking parties for male guests that had women at work behind the scenes as managers. How are men and women shown interacting with each other at the family banquet table and over the arrangements for the reception of guests? How do men view their female relatives as fellow convivialists and as providers for their gatherings with friends and associates? The key domestic relationships to be investigated are those between husband and wife, and between mother and son. An overview of the general discourses on the two sets of relationships in Greek and Chinese families will be provided before they are examined in a convivial context.

Greece

Gender Configuration in the Family: Husband–Wife

Different forms of families existed in ancient Greece. Normally, at least one son in the Greek family stayed in the household after his marriage, and widowed parents often joined the household of a married son for maintenance in their old age. From Homer onward, however, the nuclear family provided the normative framework within which the Greeks conceived of the ideal domestic order or prescribed female conduct.

The renown of the three exemplars of Greek womanhood, Penelope, Andromakhe, and Alkestis, is based on their devotion to their husbands and has little to do with their attitudes toward their in-laws.