“Pagen societies did not treat women very nicely...”
Actually, before societies realized the contribution of the male to reproduction, women often had more power, as seen sometimes with matrilineal societies. It is theorized that as animal husbandry became common, males realized both their physical power in handling large animals, and the male contribution to parentage.
The period of 17 to 12th centuries BC. was an interesting transitional period. Murals from Thera (1600’s BC) show important goddesses. Shortly thereafter, Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt was a major power, although her successor tried mightyly to erase her name. The murals from Crete of the same period show female bull leapers who must have had some importance. In the following centuries there were rich buriels of women in the Russian steppes. They even had tall headdresses, which to my mind seemed a little like the crown of upper and lower Egypt. The Roman’s were impressed with the Germanic women warriors.
It took a lot of hard work on the part of men to subjugate women, but they finally succeeded after a fashion.
I think that human reproduction was understood by then. There were important goddesses, but then there still are. Hatshepsut wasn’t a queen, but a female king who ruled as a man. Bull leapers were of both sexes, but were expendable rather than high status entertainers (not a job you would want). Tall hair, in various forms, can be found throughout the ages.
Pagan societies did not treat women very nicely...or men for that matter.
I’ll stand by my original comment above.
The fact that the ancient Crete worshiped goddesses doesn’t make them unusual; so did classical Athenians, whose city housed one of the most magnificent images of the goddess Athena ever created. But their women had about the same legal rights as their goats.
In classical Greece, girls got no education. When a man brought guests home for dinner, his wife was not allowed to eat with them. Adult women were considered little better than chattel thus the hetairae. Correspondingly, sodomy was rampant. In Aristophanes says women are “the vilest of creatures.” Female infanticide was routine.
The Romans: Emperor Tiberius surrounded himself with nude women to wait on him while he gorged. Female prostitutes entertained him with group sex. Caligula committed incest with all his sisters while Domitian was another who specialized in incest. In Roman law, adultery was a crime that only a woman could commit. Marital faithfulness in the Roman Empire was almost unknown.
Durant is one easily accessible source for all this. In pagan Rome, a husband could divorce his wife, kill her or sell her. He could even kill his married daughter.