The Creation of the Spheres

Abstract We can trace the philosophical division of the sphere to Aristotle, who argued that the city, where political discourse happened, was prior to the household, and that women belonged exclusively to the household. But the ancient Greek and Roman debates on the home were richer and more diverse than Aristotle’s arguments. The Stoic concept of oikeiosis, which we use to argue for cosmopolitanism, was part of a debate about family life. First-century CE Pythagorean philosophers made home and family central to their advice literature. And Plutarch thought that women’s lives were central to Roman politics, whether they stayed home or became heroines of war. Painting a picture of how the home featured in Ancient philosophical debates may help clarify how the division of the spheres was never inevitable.