Author: Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld, Department of Classics, University of Pittsburgh - Google Scholar

Abstract: »Athenian tragedy provides compelling evidence for the experiences of women in warfare, as it voices and stages the horrific fate of female war captives in the immediate aftermath of city sacks. Yet Attic oratory, too, can provide insight into the long-term effects of enslavement in war. One of the more detailed sources from this genre that addresses the violence female war captives faced after their enslavement is a scene from Demosthenes’s On the False Embassy. In this speech, Demosthenes describes a drinking party where a group of Athenian men initiated the brutal beating of an enslaved Olynthian woman, relating the encounter in an unusual level of detail.
This chapter compares the whipping of the Olynthian captive in On the False Embassy to the sexual abuse that another woman, Neaira, experienced at a series of drinking parties recounted in Apollodoros’s Against Neaira. Although Neaira was not enslaved as a result of warfare (to our knowledge), the circumstances surrounding her abuse share many similarities with Demosthenes’ presentation of the Olynthian. This chapter reflects on the overlap between these two scenes of violence and considers what the Olynthian and Neaira can tell us about the treatment of enslaved women, including female war captives, in the fourth century BCE. It argues that when read together these narratives provide insight into the specific circumstances that were particularly dangerous for enslaved women in Athens, as well as the strategies that enslaved women used to protect themselves.« (Source: Brill)

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Wikipedia: Ancient history: Ancient Greece / Classical Greece | Rhetoric: Classical rhetoric / Apollodorus of Acharnae, Against Neaera | Rhetoric: Classical rhetoric / Demosthenes, On the False Embassy | Sex and the law: Rape / Wartime sexual violence