A question of equity? The ‘value’ of male and female virginity in late 18th and early 19th century Athens

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores marriage payments in late Ottoman Greece through the early years of the independent Greek state and, in particular, the idea of virginity and its value in both men and women. The main focus of the article is the payment known as egenliki, paid by the bride who is entering a second marriage to a groom who has not been previously married. Engenliki is examined in conjunction with the rarer payment of a groom to his bride for her virginity. Through the examination of over 900 surviving dowry contracts from Athens and following the historical trajectory of such payments from the Roman Law to Ottoman Greece, this article argues that such rare payments were symbolic in nature meant to redress what was perceived as an inequality in marriage and possibly to forestall societal disapproval of marriages where only one of the members had been previously married.