Gynaeconŏmi
(
γυναικονόμοι). Magistrates in many Greek States, who
exercised a censorship over the conduct of women and to some extent of men also, especially
the young. At Sparta there were
παιδονόμοι, but not
γυναικονόμοι. The farreaching Spartan discipline brought both sexes
alike under the control of the authorities, and such special officers may not have been
required. Aristotle mentions them as a well-known institution in two passages of the
Politica (iv. 12 [15]. 9; vi. 5 [8]. 13), and each time observes that they
were characteristic of aristocracies rather than of oligarchies or democracies—a
remark which alone is almost sufficient to prove that they did not exist at Athens in his
time. We find them at Chaeronea, Syracuse, Andania, and at Gambreion near Pergamum.
They were associated with the Areopagus in the maintenance of public decency and the
enforcement of sumptuary laws. They superintended even the meetings of friends in their
private houses—e. g. at weddings, and on other festive occasions. Meetings of this
kind were not allowed to consist of more than thirty persons, and the
γυναικονόμοι had the right of entering any house and sending away all the guests
above that number. They also controlled the eccentricities of female attire; women who went
unsuitably dressed in public were liable to a fine of 1000 drachmas, and these fines were
recorded on a tablet suspended to a plane-tree in the Ceramicus (Harpocrat. s. v.
ὅτι χιλιάς; Hesychius, s. v.
πλάτανος). The number of these officers and the mode of their appointment are
alike unknown.