DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0192
170 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
much haggling over its price. It is no longer a
shame for a woman to go to market in Athens; but
is it a survival of the old Greek prejudice against
women engaging in business, or because of the later
Orientalism in which Greece has been submerged,
that women are not generally found as clerks and
attendants in the stores and shops of Athens ? " Shall
Women Work? " was a question thrown open to pub-
lic discussion in the daily Acropolis. Several hundred
letters were received on the subject, and more than
half of them were in favor of extending the range of
women's employments; and this change is certainly
taking place.
Retail dealers and hucksters in the old Agora and
the common pedlcrs did not have a high social
position, and Socrates would find that the word
/ca7T7j\o9, huckster, retains much of its old meaning,
and that the adjective Ka-nrfkLit6<; means rude and
impolite to-day, while cfxiropo^, merchant, and the
derivatives of that word, are held in greater honor.
Not far away from their old-time resort one finds to-
day the trapczitai, the bankers and money-changers.
If you want to know how the trade winds are blow-
ing, walk through iEolus Street (the " Street of the
Windy God "), — the fluctuations of the drachma are
a pretty good gauge. ■ Sitting out on the sidewalk
are the money-changers. A small table supports a
glass case in which their money is displayed. They
do not sit in the temple or in its immediate court,
but the church is not far away, and the tables at
which they sit bear the same name, Tpdire^a, as in
New Testament days. Indeed, this word used by
the money-changer for his table has come to be
much haggling over its price. It is no longer a
shame for a woman to go to market in Athens; but
is it a survival of the old Greek prejudice against
women engaging in business, or because of the later
Orientalism in which Greece has been submerged,
that women are not generally found as clerks and
attendants in the stores and shops of Athens ? " Shall
Women Work? " was a question thrown open to pub-
lic discussion in the daily Acropolis. Several hundred
letters were received on the subject, and more than
half of them were in favor of extending the range of
women's employments; and this change is certainly
taking place.
Retail dealers and hucksters in the old Agora and
the common pedlcrs did not have a high social
position, and Socrates would find that the word
/ca7T7j\o9, huckster, retains much of its old meaning,
and that the adjective Ka-nrfkLit6<; means rude and
impolite to-day, while cfxiropo^, merchant, and the
derivatives of that word, are held in greater honor.
Not far away from their old-time resort one finds to-
day the trapczitai, the bankers and money-changers.
If you want to know how the trade winds are blow-
ing, walk through iEolus Street (the " Street of the
Windy God "), — the fluctuations of the drachma are
a pretty good gauge. ■ Sitting out on the sidewalk
are the money-changers. A small table supports a
glass case in which their money is displayed. They
do not sit in the temple or in its immediate court,
but the church is not far away, and the tables at
which they sit bear the same name, Tpdire^a, as in
New Testament days. Indeed, this word used by
the money-changer for his table has come to be