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diff --git a/32318.txt b/32318.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..908839d --- /dev/null +++ b/32318.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11409 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Greek Women, by Mitchell Carroll + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Greek Women + Women In All Ages and In All Countries, Vol. l (of 10) + +Author: Mitchell Carroll + +Release Date: May 10, 2010 [EBook #32318] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREEK WOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Renald Levesque and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net. + + + + + + + +WOMAN + +In all ages and in all countries + +GREEK WOMEN + +by + +MITCHELL CARROLL, Ph.D. +Professor of Classical Philology in the George +Washington University + +_Copyrighted 1907-1908_ + + + + +GENERAL INTRODUCTION + +The history of woman is the history of the world. Strait orthodoxy may +remind us that man preceded woman in the scheme of creation and that +therefore history does not begin with woman; but this is a specious +plea. The first historical information that we gain regarding Adam is +concerned with the creation of woman, and there is nothing to show us +that prior to that time Adam was more active in mind or even in body +than a mollusc. It was not until the coming of woman that history began +to exist; and if the first recorded act of the woman was disastrous in +its consequences, at least it possesses the distinction of making +history. So that it may well be said that all that we are we owe to +woman. Whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden is to be +implicitly accepted, there can be no doubt that from the moment of the +first appearance of mankind on the scene woman has been the ruling cause +of all effect. + +The record of woman is one of extremes. There is an average woman, but +she has not been found except in theory. The typical woman, as she is +seen in the pages of history, is either very good or very bad. We find +women saints and we find women demons; but we rarely find a mean. Herein +is a cardinal distinction between the sexes. The man of history is +rarely altogether good or evil; he has a distinct middle ground, in +which we are most apt to find him in his truest aspect. There are +exceptions, and many; but this may be taken as a rule. Even in the +instances of the best and noblest men of whom we have record this rule +will hold. Saint Peter was bold and cautious, brave and cowardly, loving +and a traitor; Saint Paul was boastful and meek, tender and severe; +Saint John cognized beyond all others the power of love, and wished to +call down fire from heaven upon a village which refused to hear the +Gospel; and it is most probable that the true Peter and Paul and John +lived between these extremes. Not so with the women of the same story. +They were throughout consistent with themselves; they were utterly pure +and holy, as Mary Magdalene,--to whose character great wrong has been +done in the past by careless commentary,--or utterly vile, as Herodias. +Extremism is a chief feminine characteristic. Extremist though she be, +woman is always consistent in her extremes; hence her power for good and +for evil. + +It is a mistaken idea which places the "emancipation" of woman at a late +date in the world's history. From time immemorial, woman has been +actively engaged in guiding the destinies of mankind. It is true that +the advent of Christianity undoubtedly broadened the sphere of woman and +that she was then given her true place as the companion and helper +rather than the toy of man; but long before this period woman had +asserted her right to be heard in the councils of the wise, and the +right seems to have been conceded in the cases where the demand was +made. Those who look upon the present as the emancipation period in the +history of woman have surely forgotten Deborah, whose chant of triumph +was sung in the congregation of the people and was considered worthy of +preservation for all future ages to read; Semiramis, who led her armies +to battle when the Great King, Ninus, had let fall the sceptre from his +weary hand, and who ruled her people with wisdom and justice; and others +whose fame, even if legendary in its details, has come down to us. +Through all the ages there was opportunity for woman, when she chose to +seize it; and in many cases it was thus seized. Rarely indeed do we find +the history of any age unconcerned with its women. Though their part may +at times seem but minor, yet do they stand out to the observant eye as +the prime causes of many of the great events which make or mark epochs. +When we think of the Trojan War, it is Agamemnon and Priam, Achilles and +Hector, who rise up before our mental vision as the protagonists in that +great struggle; but if there had been no Helen, there would have been no +war, and therefore no Iliad or Odyssey. We read Macaulay's stirring +ballad of_ Horatius at the Bridge, _and we thrill at the recital of +strength and daring; but if it had not been for the virtue of Lucretia, +there would have been no combat for the bridge, and the Tarquins might +have ended their days in peace in the Eternal City. And, in later times, +though Mirabeau and Robespierre and Danton and Marat fill the eye of the +student of the cataclysmic events of the French Revolution, it was the +folly of Marie Antoinette that gave these men their opportunity and even +paved the way for the rise and meteoric career of a greater than them +all. + +These are instances of mediate influence upon great events; but there +have been many women who ham exerted immediate influence upon the story +of mankind. That which is usually mistermed weakness is generally held +to be a feminine attribute; and if we replace the term by the truer +word,--gentleness,--the statement may be conceded. But there have been +many women who have been strong in the general sense; and these have +usually been terribly strong. Look at Catherine of Russia, vicious to +the core, but powerful in intellect and will above the standard of +masculine rulers. Look at Elizabeth of England, crafty and false, full +of a ridiculous vanity, yet strong with a strength before which even +such men as Burleigh and Essex and Leicester were compelled to bow. +Look at Margaret of Lancaster, fighting in her husband's stead for the +crown of England and by her undaunted spirit plucking victory again and +again from the jaws of defeat, and yielding at last only when deserted +by every adherent. Look at Clytemmstra and Lady Macbeth, creatures of +the poet's fancy if you will, yet true types of a class of femininity. +They have had prototypes and antitypes, and many. + +Women have achieved their most decisive and remarkable effects upon the +history of mankind by reaching and clinging to extremes. Extremism is +always a mark of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm accomplishes effects which +must have been left forever unattained by mere regulated and +conscientious effort. The stories of the Christian martyrs show in +golden letters the devotion of women to a cause; and I have no doubt +whatever that it was in the deaths of young maidens, in their hideous +sufferings borne with resignation and even joy, that there came the +conviction of truth which is known as the seed which was sown in the +blood of the martyrs. The high enthusiasm which supported a Catherine +and a Cecilia in their hours of trial was strong to persuade where the +death of a man for his convictions would have been looked upon as a +matter of course. It is from this enthusiasm and extremism that there +sounds one of the key-notes of woman's nature--her loyalty. Loyalty is +one of the blending traits of the sexes; yet, if I were compelled to +attribute it distinctively to one sex, I should class it as feminine in +its nature. + +Loyalty to one idea, to one ideal, has been a predominant characteristic +of woman from time immemorial. Sometimes this loyalty takes the form of +patriotism, sometimes of altruism, sometimes of piety in true sense; but +always it has its origin and life in love. The love may be diffused or +concentrated, general or particular, but it is always the soul of the +true woman, and without it she cannot live. Love for her God, love for +her race, love for her country, love for the man whom she delights to +honor--these may exist separately or as one, but exist for her they +must, or her life is barren and her soul but a dead thing. Love, in the +true sense of the word, is the essence of the woman-soul; it is the soul +itself. She must love, or she is dead, however she may seem to live. +That she does not always ask whether the object of her love, be it +abstract or concrete, be worthy of her devotion is not to be attributed +to her as a fault, but rather as a virtue, since the love itself expands +and vivifies her soul if itself be worthy. It is at once the expression +and the expenditure of the unsounded depths of her soul; it is through +its power over her that she recognises her own nature, that she knows +herself for what she is. The woman who has not loved, even in the +ordinary human and limited meaning of the word, has no conception of her +own soul. + +Thus far I have spoken of love in its broad sense, as the highest +impulse of the human soul. But there is another and a lower aspect of +love, and this is the one most usually meant when we use the word,--the +attraction of sex. Even thus, though in this aspect love becomes a far +lesser thing, it possesses no less power. The passion of man for woman +has been the underlying cause of all history in its phenomenal aspects. +The favorite example of this power has always been that of Cleopatra and +Mark Antony; but history is full of equally convincing instances. + +To love and to be loved; such is the ultimate lot of woman. It matters +not what accessories of existence fate may have to offer; this is the +supreme meaning of life to woman, and it is here that she finds her true +value in the world. She may read that meaning in divers manners; she may +make of her place in life a curse or a blessing to mankind. It matters +not; all returns to the same cause, the same source of power_. _The +strongest woman is weak if she be not loved, for she lacks her chief +weapon with which to conquer; the weakest is strong if she truly have +won love, for through this she can work miracles. Her strength is more +than doubled; heart and brain and hand are in equal measure, for that +with which the heart inspires the brain will be transmitted by the heart +to the hand, and the message will be too imperative to fear failure. + +It is a strange thing--though not inexplicable--that your ambitious +woman is far more ruthless, far more unscrupulous, far more determined +to win at any cost, than is the most ambitious of men. Again comes the +law of extreme to show cause that this should be; but the fact is so +sure that cause is of less interest. Not Machiavelli was so false, not +Caligula was so cruel, not Caesar was so careless of right, as the woman +whose political ambition has taken form and strength. That which bars +her path must be swept aside, be it man or notion or principle. She sees +but the one object, her goal, looming large before her; and she moves on +with her eyes fixed, crushing beneath her feet all that would turn her +steps. + +I have spoken of the cruelty of an ambitious woman; and it is worth +while to pause a moment to consider this trait as displayed in +women--not as a means, but as an end. There have been men who loved +cruelty for its own sake; but they are few, and their methods crude, +compared with the woman who have felt this strange passion. In the days +of human sacrifices, it was the women who most thronged to the +spectacles, who most eagerly fastened their eyes upon the expiring +victims. In the gladiatorial combats, it was the women who greeted each +mortal thrust with applause, and whose reversed thumbs won the majority +for the signal of death to the vanquished. In the days of terror in +France, it was the woman who led the mob that threatened the king and +queen, and hanged Foulard to a lamp post after almost tearing him to +pieces; it was the women who sat in rows around the guillotine, day +after day, and placidly knit their terrible records of death; it was the +women who cried for more victims, even after the legal murderers of the +tribunals grew weary of their hideous task of condemnation. + +Not only thus--not only under the influence of excitement and +passion--but in cold blood, there are instances among women of such +ghastly cruelty that men recoil from the contemplation of such deeds. +There is record of a Slavonic countess whose favorite amusement was to +sit in the garden of her country palace, in the rigors of a Russian +winter, while young girls were stripped by her attendants and water +poured slowly over their bodies, thus giving them a death of enduring +agony and providing the countess with new, though unsubstantial, statues +for her grounds. This not more than two centuries ago, and in the +atmosphere of so-termed Christianity. The annals of the Spanish +Inquisition would be ransacked in vain for such ingenuity of torture; +and though the Inquisitors may have grown to love cruelty for its own +sake, they at least alleged reason for their deeds; the Russian countess +frankly sought amusement alone. + +Yet in these things there is to be found no general accusation of women. +That cruelty should be carried by them to its extreme, that they should +love it for its own sake, is but the development of extremism, and is +isolated in examples, at least by periods. The Russian countess was not +cruel because she was a woman, but, being cruel of nature, she was the +more so because of her sex. The ladies of imperial Rome did not love the +sight of flowing blood because they were women, but, being women, they +carried their acquired taste to bounds unknown to the less impulsive and +less ardent nature of men. + +Yet there comes a question. Is this lust for blood, this love of +cruelty; latent in every woman and but restrained, by the gentler +teachings and promptings of her more developed nature in its highest +presentation? So some psychists would have us believe; but they have +only slight ground for their sweeping assertion. That civilisation is +but restrained savagery may perhaps be conceded; but if the restraint +has grown to be the ever-dominant impulse, then has the savage been +slain. It is not, as some teach, that such isolated idiosyncrasies as we +have considered are glimpses of the tiger that sleeps in every human +heart and sometimes breaks its chain and runs riot. As a rule, these +things are matters of atmosphere. Setting aside such pure isolations as +that of the Russian countess, it will almost invariably be found that +the display of feminine cruelty, or of any vice, is of a time and place. +There has never been a universal rule of feminine depravity in any age. +Babylon, Carthage, Greece, Rome, and all the olden civilisations have +had their periods when female virtue was a matter of laughter, when +women outvied men in their moral degradation, when evil seemed +triumphant everywhere; but there always remained a few to "redeem the +time," and salvation always came from those few. Moreover, the sphere of +immorality and crime was always limited. The Roman world, when it was +the world indeed, might be given up to vice and sin, displayed in their +most atrocious forms by the women of the Empire; but there still stood +the North, calm, virtuous, patient, awaiting its opportunity to "root +out the evil thing" and to give the world once more a standard of purity +and righteousness. The leaven of Christianity was effective in its work +upon the moral degradation of the Roman Empire; but it was not until the +scourge of the Northmen was sent to the aid of the principle that +success was fully won. So the North was not of the same day with Rome in +civilised vice, and the reign of evil in the Latin Empire was but the +effect of conditions, not the instincts of humanity. Rome was taught +evil by long and steadfast evolution; it did not spring up in a day +with its deadly blight, but was the result of progressive causation. + +It may be doubted if the feminine intellect has increased since the dawn +of civilisation. To-day woman stands on a different plane of +recognition, but by reason of assertiveness, not because of increased +mental ability. As with that of man, the possibilities of woman's +intellect were long latent; but they existed, and the result is +development, not creation of fibre. I repeat that I do not believe that +the feminine intellect has grown in power. I doubt if the present age +can show a mind superior in natural strength to that of Sappho; I do not +believe that the present Empress of China, strong woman as she is, is +greater than Semiramis, or that even Elizabeth of England was the equal +of the warrior-queen of Babylon. But there can be no doubt that there +exists a broader culture to-day than ever before and that thus the +intellectual sum of women is always growing, though there comes no +increase in the mental powers of the individual. It has been so with +man. We boast of the mighty achievements of our age; but we have not yet +built such a structure as that of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbec, or +the Pyramid of Cheops at Ghizeh. We pride ourselves upon our letters; +but the grandest poem ever written by man was also the first of which we +have record--the Book of Job, and we do not even know the name of the +poet who thus set a standard which has never since been reached. We may +claim Shakespeare as the equal of Homer in expression; but it requires +true hero worship among his admirers to place the Elizabethan singer +upon an equality with the old Greek in any other respect. There has been +no growth of individual intellect in either sex since the days of which +we first find record; but there has been an increase of average and a +definition of tendency which are productive of higher general result. +And the natural consequence of this state of things is found in the fact +that even a Sappho in the world of letters would not stand out so +prominently, would not be considered such a prodigy, were she to come in +these days. We should admire her genius and her powers without feeling +the sensation of wonder that these should be possessed by a woman. It is +in the recognition of this fact that we are better enabled to understand +the changing aspect in the relations of women to men during these latter +years. There has been no alteration in the possibilities within the +grasp of the individual, but great change within those which can be +claimed by the sex at large. Women can do no more now than in the olden +days when they were considered as almost inferior to animals; but woman +has profited by the opportunities of her time, and is every day +developing powers until now unsuspected. + +[Illustration 12 _ASPASIA After the painting by Henry Holiday. Aspasia +was born in Miletus. At an early age, accompanied by another young girl, +Thargelia, she went to Athens. Their beauty and talents soon won them +distinction--Thargelia married a king of Thessaly, and Aspasia married +Pericles, "more than a king," says Plutarch. The home of Aspasia in +Athens was frequent by the_ elite _of the city and state, attracted by +her beauty, her art of speaking, and her influence. Socrates valued her +great mind, and even called himself one of her disciples. Plato speaks +of her great reputation. She was born in the fifth century before +Christ. The date of her death is not known._] + +The whole value of history is in teaching us to understand our own time +and to prognosticate the future with some degree of correctness. More +especially is this true of all class history, and the story of sex +development may be so rated. It is to find the reason of what is and the +nature of what is to come that we turn to the records of the past and +ask them concerning their message to us of these things. In our +retrospective view of woman, we shall, if we are alive to suggestion, +find steadfast tendencies of development. It is true that these +tendencies do not always remain in the light; like rivers, they +sometimes plunge underground and for a time find their paths in +subterranean channels where they are lost to sight; but they always +reemerge, and at last they find their way to the central sea of the +present. Future ages will doubtless mark the course of those tendencies +not only up to but through our own age; for though I have spoken of a +central sea, the simile is hardly correct, inasmuch as the true ocean +which is the goal of these rivers is not yet in the sight of humanity. +But we at least find promise of that ocean in the steadfast and +determined course of the streams which flow toward it; progress has +always a goal, though it may be one long undiscerned by the abettors of +that progress. So it is with the story of woman. We know what she has +been; we see what she is; and it is possible dimly to forecast what she +will be. Yet I dare to assert that there will be no radical change; +there may be new direction for effort, new lines of development, but the +essential nature will remain unaltered. It is not, however, with this +informing spirit that we have to do in such a work as this. There have +been many misconceptions regarding woman; I would not venture to claim +that none now exist. Yet there is a general consensus of agreement +concerning her dominating and effective characteristics, and the +probability is that in these general laws so laid down the common +opinion is of truth. + +Of course, I would not dare to make such an absurd claim that there +exists, or has ever existed, a man who could truthfully say that he knew +woman in the abstract; but that does not necessarily mean that knowledge +of the tendencies and characteristics of the sex is impossible. The +reason of the dense ignorance which prevails among men concerning women +is that the men attempt to apply general laws to particular cases; and +that is fatal. It is absolutely necessary, if we are to gather wisdom +and not merely knowledge from our researches in history, that we should +take into account the result of combination of traits. Otherwise we +should not only find nothing but inconsistency as a consequence of our +study, but we should utterly fail to understand the tendencies of that +which we learn. We must be broad in our judgments if we are to judge +truly. When we read of the Spartan women sending forth their sons to die +for their country, we must not believe that they were lacking in the +depth of maternal affection which is one of the most beautiful +characteristics of the feminine nature. Doubtless they suffered as +keenly as does the modern mother at the death of her son; but they were +trained to subordinate their feelings in this wise, and their training +stood them in stead of stoicism. Nay, even when we read of the +profligacy of the women of imperial Rome, we must not look upon these +women as by nature imbruted and degraded, but we must understand that +they but yielded to the spirit of their environment and their schooling. +They were not different at heart, those reckless Maenads and votaries of +Venus, from the chaste Lucretias or holy Catherines of another day; they +simply lacked direction of impulse in right method, and so missed the +culmination of their highest possibilities. + +There is an old saying which tells us that women are what men make them. +Thus generally stated, the saying may be summed up as a slander; but it +has an application in history. There can be no doubt that for +millenniums of the world's adolescence women were controlled and their +bearing and place in society modified by the thought of their times, +which thought was of masculine origin and formation. This state of +affairs has long since passed away, and it may be said that for at least +a thousand years, in adaptation of the saying which I have quoted, the +times have been what women have made them. It was the influence of women +which brought about the outgrowths of civilisation in the dawn of +Christianity that have survived until now. It was the influence, if not +the actual activity, of women that was responsible for the birth of +chivalry and the rise of the spirit of purity. It was the influence of +women that made possible such characters as those of Bayard and Sir +Philip Sydney. It was the influence of women that softened the roughness +and licentiousness of a past day into the refinement and virtue which +are the possessions of the present age. + +There has always, in the worst days, been an undercurrent of good, and +its source and strength are to be found in the eternal feminine spirit, +which in its true aspects always makes for righteousness. + +The world's statues have, with few exceptions, been raised to men, the +world's elegies have been sung of men, the world's acclamations have +been given to men. This is world justice, blind as well as with bandaged +eyes. Were true justice done--were the best results, the results which +live, commemorated in stone, the world itself, to adapt the hyperbole of +the Evangelist, could hardly contain the statues which would be reared +to women. But it is precisely in the cause for this neglect that there +lies the value of the work which has been done by woman for the welfare +of mankind. It is one of the truths of history that the greatest and +most enduring effects have always been accomplished in the least +conspicuous manner. + +The man who searches effect for cause must find his goal most often in +the influence of a woman. Not always for good; that could not be. But it +would seem that all that has endured has been for good, and that the +evil which has been wrought by woman--and it has not been slight--has +been ephemeral in all respects. I know of no enduring evil that can be +traced to a woman as its source; but I know of no constant good which +did not find either its beginning or its fostering in a woman's thought +or work. Poppaea leaves but a name; Agrippina leaves an example. It may +be true of men that the evil that they do lives after them, while the +good is oft interred with their bones; but it is not true of women. Of +course, there is a sense in which it is true--in the descent from mother +to son of the spirit of the unrighteous mother; but even this would not +seem to hold as a rule, and the effects are often modified by the +influence of a love for a higher nature. The sum of woman's influence +upon the destinies of the world is good, the balance inclines steadily +toward the best. Woman is the hope of the world. + +It is to find the persistence of this influence that we search her +history. Sometimes we shall find strange factors in the equation that +gives the sum, strange methods of attaining the result; but the result +itself is always plain. Nor is there ever entire lack of contemporary +influence of good, even when the evil seems predominant. If we read of +an Argive Helen bringing war and desolation upon a nation, we shall find +in those same pages record of a Penelope teaching the world the beauty +of faith and constancy. If we trace the story of a Cleopatra ruining men +with a smile, we shall find in the same day an Octavia and a Portia. If +we hear of the Capitol betrayed by a Tarpeia, we have not far to seek +for a Cornelia, known to all time as the Mother of the Gracchi. And it +is those who made for good whose names have come down to us as +incentives and examples. The more closely we read our history, the more +surely are we convinced that the tendency has always been upward; the +progress has been steadfast from the beginning, and it has carried the +world with it. + +As I began with the statement that the history of woman is the history +of the world, so I end. This truth at least is sure. The earth is very +old; it has seen the coming and the going of many races, it has +witnessed the rise and fall of uncounted dynasties, it has survived +physical and social cataclysms innumerable; and it still holds on its +way, serenely awaiting its end in the purpose of its Creator. What that +end shall be no man may know; but it is the end to which woman shall +lead it. + +G.C.L. +Johns Hopkins University. + + + + +PREFACE + +It is the purpose of this volume to give a simple sketch of the history +of Greek womanhood from the Heroic Age down to Roman times, so far as it +can be gathered from ancient Greek literature and from other available +sources for a knowledge of antique life. Greek civilization was +essentially a masculine one; and it is really remarkable how scant are +the references to feminine life in Greek writers, and how few books have +been written by modern scholars on this subject. In the preparation of +this work, the author has consulted all the authorities bearing on old +Greek life, acknowledgment of which can only be made in general terms. +He feels, however, particularly indebted to the following works: Mlle. +Clarisse Bader, _La Femme Grecque_, Paris, 1872; Jos. Cal. Poestion, +_Griechische Philosophinnen_, Norden, 1885; ibid., _Griechische +Dichterinnen_, Leipzig, 1876; E. Notor, _La Femme dans l'Antiquite +Grecque_, Paris, 1901; R. Lallier, _De la Condition de la Femme +Athenienne au Veme et au IVeme Siecle_, Paris, 1875; Ivo Bruns, +_Frauenemancipation in Athen_, Kiel, 1900; Walter Copeland Perry, _The +Women of Homer_, New York, 1898; Albert Galloway Keller, _Homeric +Society_, London, 1902; and Mahaffy's various works, especially _Social +Life in Greece from Homer to Menander_, and _Greek Life and Thought_. In +making quotations from Greek authors, standard translations have been +used, of which especial acknowledgment cannot always be given, but Lang, +Leaf and Myers' _Iliad_, Butcher's and Lang's _Odyssey_, Wharton's +_Sappho_, and Way's _Euripides_, call for particular mention. + +In the spelling of Greek proper names the author has endeavored to adapt +himself to the convenience of his readers by being consistently Roman, +and has used in most cases the Latin forms. He has retained, however, +the Greek forms where usage has made them current, as Poseidon, Lesbos, +Samos, etc., and has invariably adopted forms, neither Greek nor Latin, +which have become universal, as Athens, Constantinople, Rhodes, and the +like. The Greek names of Greek divinities have been preferred to their +Roman equivalents. + +To conclude, my thanks are due to the publishers for their uniform +courtesy and help, and to Mr. J.A. Burgan for the careful reading of the +proof; nor could I have undertaken and carried through the work without +the sympathetic aid and encouragement of my wife. + +MITCHELL CARROLL. +_The George Washington University_. + + + + +I + +GREEK WOMEN + + +Whenever culture or art or beauty is theme for thought, the fancy at +once wanders back to the Ancient Greeks, whom we regard as the ultimate +source of all the aesthetic influences which surround us. To them we look +for instruction in philosophy, in poetry, in oratory, in many of the +problems of science. But it is in their arts that the Greeks have left +us their richest and most beneficent legacy; and when we consider how +much they have contributed to the world's civilization, we wonder what +manner of men and women they must have been to attain such achievements. + +Though woman's influence is exercised silently and unobtrusively, it is +none the less potent in determining the character and destiny of a +people. Historians do not take note of it, men overlook and undervalue +it, and yet it is ever present; and in a civilization like that of the +Greeks, where the feminine element manifests itself in all its higher +activities,--in its literature, its art, its religion,--it becomes an +interesting problem to inquire into the character and status of woman +among the Greek peoples. We do not desire to know merely the purely +external features of feminine life among the Greeks, such as their +dress, their ornaments, their home surroundings; we would, above all, +investigate the subjective side of their life--how they regarded +themselves, and were regarded by men; how they reasoned, and felt, and +loved; how they experienced the joys and sorrows of life; what part they +took in the social life of the times; how their conduct influenced the +actions of men and determined the course of history; what were their +moral and spiritual endowments;--in short, we should like to know the +Greek woman in all those phases of life which make the modern woman +interesting and influential and the conserving force in human society. +Yet, when we estimate our sources of information, we find that there is +no problem in the whole range of Greek life so difficult of solution as +that concerning the status and character of Greek women. + +The first condition of a successful study of Greek women is to +familiarize one's self with the _milieu_ in which they lived and moved. +To do this we must adapt ourselves to a manner of life and to +conceptions and feelings widely different from our own. The Greek spirit +of the fifth century before the Christian era has but little in common +with the spirit of the twentieth century; and unless we gain some +insight into the spirit of the Greeks, we cannot understand the +fundamental differences between the life of the Greek woman and that of +the modern woman. Let us note a few respects in which this difference +shows itself. + +The Greek attitude toward nature was that of reverent children who saw +everywhere therein manifestations of the divine. To them everything was +what we call supernatural. If wine gladdened the heart of man, it was +the influence of a god. If love stirred the breast, a god was inspiring +man with a sweet influence, and the divine power must not be resisted. +The gods themselves yielded to the impulses of love; why should not men? +Furthermore, Greek thought conceived of the human being as the noblest +creation of nature. Christian theology conceives of the body as the +prison house of the soul, from which the soul must escape to attain its +highest development; the Greeks, on the other hand, regarded body and +soul as forming a complete, inseparable, and harmonious unit. There was +no impulse toward distinguishing between the two, no restless reaching +out toward something regarded as higher and nobler; seeing infinite +possibilities in man as man, the Greek sought only the idealization of +the human being as such, the completion and realization of the highest +type of humanity, physical and spiritual. Because of this peculiar +conception of man, the gods of the Greeks rose out of nature and did not +transcend it. Some of them were personifications of the forces of +nature; others were merely, according to Greek ideas, the highest +conceptions of what was admirable in man and woman. When we consider the +goddesses of the Olympian Pantheon, we see that this conception of the +ideal in woman must have been very high, manifesting itself in the +characters of Hera, the goddess of marriage and of the birth of +children; Athena, "intellect unmoved by fleshly lust, the perfection of +serene, unclouded wisdom;" Demeter, goddess of agriculture and of the +domestic life; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty and the +idealization of feminine graces and charm; Artemis, the maiden divinity +never conquered by love, and the protectress of maidens; and Hestia, +goddess of the hearth and preserver of the sanctity of the home. + +It is difficult for us to appreciate the passionate love of beauty which +animated the Greeks. + + "What is good and fair + Shall ever be our care. + That shall never be our care + Which is neither good nor fair." + +This immortal burden from the stanzas of Theognis, sung by the Muses and +Graces at the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia, "strikes," says Symonds, +"the keynote to the music of the Greek genius." This innate love of +beauty, fostered by natural surroundings and held in restraint by a +sense of measure, was the most salient characteristic of the Greek +people. It is impossible for us to realize the intensity of the Greek +feeling for beauty; and to them the human body was the noblest form of +earthly loveliness. To illustrate, we may recall the incident of +Phryne's trial before the judges. Hyperides, her advocate, failing in +his other arguments, drew aside her tunic and revealed to them a bosom +perfectly marvellous in its beauty. Phryne was at once acquitted, not +from any prurient motives, but because "the judges beheld in such an +exquisite form not an ordinary mortal, but a priestess and prophetess of +the divine Aphrodite. They were inspired with awe, and would have deemed +it sacrilege to mar or destroy such a perfect masterpiece of creative +power." Nor was the Greek conception of beauty purely sensual. Through +the perfection of human loveliness they had glimpses of divine beauty, +and "the fleshly vehicle was but the means to lead on the soul to what +is eternally and imperishably beautiful." Thus the lesson of the +_Phaedrus_ and _Symposium_ of Plato is that "the passion which grovels in +the filth of sensual grossness may be transformed into a glorious +enthusiasm, a winged splendor, capable of rising to the contemplation of +eternal verities and reuniting the soul of man to God." + +This last reflection leads us to the most important difference between +ancient and modern conceptions, that in regard to the relations between +the sexes. We of the Christian era have a clear doctrine of right and +wrong to guide us, a law given from without ourselves, the result of +revelation. The Greeks, on the other hand, "had to interrogate nature +and their own hearts for the mode of action to be pursued. They did not +feel or think that one definite course of action was right and the +others wrong; but they had to judge in each case whether the action was +becoming, whether it was in harmony with the nobler side of human +nature, whether it was beautiful or useful. Utility, appropriateness, +and the sense of the beautiful were the only guides which the Greeks +could find to direct them in the relations of the sexes to each other." +Hence we find that the Greeks deemed permissible much which offends the +modern sense of propriety; for example, when maidens captured in war +became for a time the concubines of the victors, as Chryseis in the +Iliad, and were afterward restored to their homes, they were not thought +in the least disgraced by their misfortune; "for if such a stain happen +to a woman by force of circumstances," says Xenophon, "men honor her +none the less if her affection seems to them to remain untainted." + +How, then, are we to bridge over the gulf which separates us from the +Greeks? What are our sources of knowledge of Greek woman and her manner +of life? + +We must first of all know the country of the Greeks. The influence of +country and climate on the Greek nationality has been frequently +emphasized, and the physical phenomena which moulded the characters of +the men must also have affected the women. A climate so mild that, as +Euripides says, "the cold of winter is without rigor, and the shafts of +Phoebus do not wound;" a soil midway between harsh sterility and +luxurious vegetation; a system of fertile plains and rugged plateaus and +varied mountain chains; a coast indented with innumerable inlets and +gulfs and bays--these were the physical characteristics which moulded +the destinies of Greek women. Furthermore, the modern Greek people trace +the threads of their history unbroken back to ancient times, in spite +of the incursions of alien peoples and years of subjugation to the Turk. +Many ancient customs survive, such as the giving of a dowry and the +bathing of the bride before the wedding ceremony. On the islands of the +AEgean, where there has been but little intercourse with foreigners, the +type of features so familiar to us from Greek sculpture still prevails, +and the visitor can see beautiful maidens who might have served as +models for Phidias and Praxiteles. The configuration of the land led to +the Greek conception of the city-state--the feature of internal polity +which had most to do with the seclusion of women. + +Greek literature, however, is our chief source of knowledge in this +regard, yet even the information afforded by that literature is +inadequate and unsatisfactory in the glimpses it gives of the life of +woman. All that we know about Greek women, with the exception of the +fragments of Sappho's poems, is derived from chronicles written by men. +Now, men never write dispassionately about women. They either love or +hate them; they either idealize or caricature them. Furthermore, Greek +literature was not only written by men, but also by men for men. The +Greek reading public, the audience at the theatre, the gathering in the +Assembly and in the law courts, were almost exclusively masculine. +Remarks indicating the inferiority of the frailer but more fascinating +sex are even in our day not altogether displeasing to the average man, +and constitute one of the stock _motifs_ of humor; hence it is not to be +taken too seriously that on the Greek stage there was much abuse of +woman--though this is offset by passages in which the sex is +extravagantly praised. Euripides was once called a woman hater in the +presence of Sophocles. "Yes," was the clever response, "in his +tragedies." + +Then, aside from the point of view of the writer, only meagre facts can +be gleaned here and there from Greek literature regarding the life of +Greek women. Only by gathering and comparing disparate passages +collected from writers of different views, of different States, and of +different periods, can we get anything like a systematic presentation of +the outward aspect of feminine life. We are more fortunate, however, +when we consider the subjective side; for the Greek epos and drama +present feminine portraitures which necessarily reflect, more or less +clearly, the thought and feelings of woman in the age in which the poet +flourished. Homer gives an accurate portrayal of the Heroic Age, on the +borderland of which his own life was passed, while memories of it were +still fresh in the minds of men. The Athenian tragedians also locate +their plots in the Heroic Age, but they endow their characters with a +depth of thought, with a power of reflection, with an insight into the +problems of life, which were altogether foreign to men and women in the +childhood of the world, and were characteristic of Athens in its +brilliant intellectual epoch. Hence a history of Greek womanhood must +draw largely from the works of the poets, and must endeavor to give a +picture of the women who figure in the Iliad and the Odyssey and in the +dramas of AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The lyric poets of Greece +are also of unique importance in the study of ancient humanity, for they +reveal the hearts of men and women and make known the conflicts of the +soul. The historical women of Hellas are few in number, and are known to +us only through meagre passages in the historians, orators, and +philosophers. + +A third source of information is Greek art. When woman figures so +largely in the few relics of antiquity which have come down to us +intact, what a commentary on ancient womanhood must the art of the +Greeks have been, before the ruthless hands of Romans and barbarians and +the tooth of time effaced her most precious treasures! The vase +paintings of the Greeks illustrate every phase of private life, and +abound in representations of the maiden and the matron, in the home, at +the loom, in the bridal procession, at the wedding. And Greek sculpture +presents ideal types of woman, perfect physically and highly endowed +with every intellectual and sensuous charm. From these works of plastic +art, abounding in the museums of Europe, we know that the Greek woman +was beautiful, the peer of man in physical excellence. In form, the +Greek woman was so perfect as to be still taken as the type of her sex. +"Her beauty, from whatever cause, bordered closely upon the ideal, or +rather was that which, because now only found in works of art, we call +the ideal. But our conceptions of form never transcend what is found in +nature. She bounds our ideas by a circle over which we cannot step. The +sculptors of Greece represented nothing but what they saw; and even when +the cunning of their hand was most felicitous, even when love and grace +and all the poetry of womanhood appeared to breathe from their marbles, +the inferiority of their imitation to the creations of God, in +properties belonging to form, in mere contour, in the grouping and +development of features, must have sufficed to impress even upon +Phidias, that high priest of art, how childish it was to rise above +nature." But it is not merely physical perfection which appeals to us in +these masterpieces of plastic art. Love and tenderness and every womanly +charm find expression in every feature of the countenance; and there is, +above all, a moral dignity, an elevation of soul, a spiritual fervor, +which lift us from things of earth and impart aspirations toward the +eternal. The women who gave insight and inspiration to the sculptor in +his portrayal of Hera and of Athena and of Aphrodite must have possessed +in some measure the qualities imparted by the artist to his works. The +status of woman among the Greeks differs according to the period, tribe, +and form of government, and all the various phases of life and +civilization arising from these must be taken into consideration in +reaching our conclusions. Greek history falls into certain well-defined +periods which are distinct in culture and civilization. There is first +the Heroic Age, portrayed in Greek mythology and in the Homeric poems, +the age of demigods and valiant warriors and noble women. This is the +monarchical period in Greek history. Kings presided over the destinies +of men, and about them were gathered the nobles. Society was +aristocratic; the life portrayed was the life of courts. A court made a +queen necessary; and where there is a queen, woman is always a source of +influence and power for good or evil, and wins either the deference and +regard, or the fear and resentment of men. Succeeding the Heroic Age, +there followed the "storm and stress" period in Greek life, when +monarchies were overturned and gave place to oligarchies, and they, in +turn, to tyrannies; when commerce was developing, colonies were being +sent out to distant parts of the Mediterranean, and the aristocratic +classes were enjoying the results of wealth and travel and the +interchange of social courtesies. In this period, epic poetry declined, +and lyric poetry took its place in the three forms of elegiac, iambic, +and melic; the arts, too, were beginning to be cultivated. This is the +Transition Age of Greece. In aristocratic circles, among the families of +the oligarchs and in the courts of tyrants, woman continued to hold a +prominent place; but among the poorer classes, who were ground down by +the aristocrats, life was hard and bitter, and woman was censured as +the source of many of the ills of mankind. + +The Transition Age constitutes the portal admitting to Historical Greece +proper. In most communities, the levelling process has gone on, and +democracies have taken the place of oligarchies and tyrannies. The +people have asserted themselves and are regnant. It is a noteworthy fact +in Greek history that where democracy prevailed woman was least highly +regarded and had fewest privileges. In Athens, where democracy was +all-controlling, feminine activities were confined largely to the +women's apartments of the house. In other cities, oligarchies continued +to have power, and an aristocracy was still recognized, as at Sparta; +and here the privileges and freedom of woman were very great. + +The early tribal divisions among the Greeks must also be taken into +consideration. The Achaeans are closely identified with the Heroic Age; +they built up the powerful States in the Peloponnesus, and undertook the +first great national expedition of Hellas. Thus the Achaeans are the +representative Homeric people, with its monarchical life and the +prominent social status of its women. The Achaean civilization gave way +before the Dorian migration, and ceased to be a factor in Greek history. +Of the three remaining divisions, the AEolians inhabited parts of +Thessaly, Boeotia, and especially the island of Lesbos, and the Greek +colonies of Asia Minor along the shores of the North AEgean. Their most +brilliant period was during the Transition Age, when Lesbos was ruled by +a wealthy and powerful aristocracy and later by a tyranny, and when +lyric poetry reached its perfect bloom in the verses of Sappho. AEolian +culture was marked by its devotion to music and poetry and by its +richness and voluptuousness. At no other time and place in the whole +history of Hellas did woman possess so much freedom and enjoy all the +benefits of wealth and culture in so marked a degree as among the AEolian +people of Lesbos. + +The Dorian and the Ionian peoples occupied the arena during the +historical period; and, representing as they did opposing tendencies, +they were continually in conflict. The Dorians mainly occupied the +Southern and Western Peloponnesus, Argos, Corinth, Megara, AEgina, Magna +Graecia, and the southern coast of Asia Minor; the Ionians inhabited +Attica, Euboea, most of the islands of the AEgean, and the famous twelve +Ionian cities along the coast of Asia Minor. The chief city of the +Dorians was Sparta; but Sparta had a form of government peculiar to +itself, which must not be taken as representing all the Dorian States. +Yet among the Dorian States in general there was much the same degree of +freedom enjoyed by women as in Sparta, though they were not subjected to +the same harsh discipline. + +The Ionian cities of Asia Minor were greatly influenced by Asiatic love +of ease and luxury, and they introduced into Greece many aspects of the +civilization and art of Asia. There is a tradition that when the Ionians +migrated from Hellas to Asia Minor they did not take their wives with +them, as did the Dorians and AEolians, and, consequently, they were +compelled to wed the native women of the conquered districts. As they +looked upon the wives thus acquired as inferior, they were glad to shut +them up in the women's apartments, following the Oriental custom, and to +treat them as domestics rather than as companions. Thus is supposed to +have arisen the custom of secluding the women of the household, which +rapidly spread among Ionian peoples, even in Continental Greece. + +Athens was the chief city among the Ionian peoples, but it developed a +civilization peculiarly its own, known as the Attic-Ionian, combining +much of the rugged strength and vigor of the Dorians with the +refinement, delicacy, and versatility of the Ionians. Yet the status of +woman in the city of the violet crown was a reproach to its otherwise +unapproachable preeminence. Nowhere else in entire Hellas were Greek +women in like measure repressed and excluded from the higher life of the +men as among the Athenians. Consequently, the name of no great Athenian +woman is known to us. But the Ionian repression of women of honorable +station led to the rise of a class of "emancipated" women, who threw off +the shackles that had bound their sex and united their fortunes with men +in unlawful relations as hetaerae, or "companions." Owing to their pursuit +of the higher learning of the times and their cultivation of all the +feminine arts and graces, the hetaerae constituted a most interesting +phenomenon in the social life of Greece, and played an important role in +Greek culture, especially in Athens. As the centre of culture for +Hellas, and as the exponent of literature and art for the civilized +world, Athens demands especial attention in its treatment of women. + +The classical period of Greek history was succeeded by the Hellenistic +Age, an epoch introduced by the spread of the Greek language and culture +over the vast empire of Alexander the Great. The theory of the +city-state had been one of the chief causes of the seclusion of women; +and as Alexander broke down the barriers between the Greek cities and +introduced uniformity of life and manners throughout his empire, from +this time on the status of woman is gradually elevated, her attention to +the higher education becomes more general, and she takes a more +prominent part in culture and politics and all the living interests of +the day. Alexandria usurps the place of Athens as the chief centre of +Greek life and thought, and here the Greek woman plays a conspicuous +and prominent role. Then, as Rome spread her conquests over the Orient, +the Graeco-Roman period succeeds the Hellenistic, and through the +intermingling of alien civilizations a womanhood of purely Greek culture +is merged into the cosmopolitan womanhood of the Roman world. +Christianity rapidly becomes the leaven that permeates the lump of the +Roman Empire, and, appealing as it did to all that was highest and best +in feminine character, finds ready acceptance among the women of +Hellenic lands. The woman of Greek culture, with rare exceptions, ceases +to exist, and our subject reaches its natural termination. + + + + +II + +WOMANHOOD IN THE HEROIC AGE + + +The life of the earliest Greeks is mirrored in their legends. Though not +exact history, the heroic epics of Greece are of great value as pictures +of life and manners. Hence we may turn to them as valuable memorials of +that state of society which must be for us the starting point of the +history of the Greek woman. + +The evidence of Homer regarding the Heroic Age is comprehensive and +accurate. The discoveries of recent years are making Troy and Mycenae and +other cities of Homeric life very real to us. We find that Homer +accurately described the material surroundings of his heroes and +heroines--their houses and clothing and weapons and jewels. The royal +palaces at Troy and Tiryns and Mycenae have been unearthed, and we know +that their human occupants must have been persons of the character +described by Homer, for only such could have made proper use of the +objects of utility and adornment found in these palaces and now to be +studied in the museums of Europe. Hence we are driven to the conclusion +that though Agamemnon be a myth and Helen a poet's fancy, yet men and +women like Agamemnon and Helen must once have lived and loved and +suffered on Greek soil. + +Furthermore, great movements in the world's history are brought about +only by great men and great women. The great epics of the world tell the +stories of national heroes, not as they actually were, but idealized and +deified by generations of admiring descendants. Hence, behind all the +marvellous stories in myth and legend were doubtless actual figures of +men and women who influenced the course of events and left behind them +reputations of sufficient magnitude to give at least a basis for the +heroic figures of epic poetry. + +To appreciate the elements from which the immortal types of Greek Epic +were composed, a comparison with the Book of Judges is apposite. In +Judges we have represented, though in disconnected narrative, the heroic +age of Ancient Israel, and from material such as this the national epic +of the Hebrew people might have been written. In such an epic, women +like Deborah and Jephthah's Daughter and Delilah would be the idealized +heroines, as are Penelope and Andromache and Helen in Homeric poems. It +is not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that in the Achaean Age there +lived actual women, of heroic qualities, who were the prototypes of the +idealized figures presented by Homer and the dramatic poets. + +Woman must have played a prominent role in the childhood of the Greek +world, for much of the romantic interest which Greek legend inspires is +derived from the mention of the women. Helen and Penelope, Clytemnestra +and Andromache, and the other celebrated dames of heroic times, stand in +the foreground of the picture, and are noted for their beauty, their +virtues, their crimes, or their sufferings. Thus, a study of the history +of woman in Ancient Greece properly begins with a contemplation of +feminine life as it is presented in the poems of Homer. + +Homer's portrayal of the Achaean Age is complete and satisfactory, +largely because he devotes so much attention to woman and the conditions +of her life. His chivalrous spirit manifests itself in his attitude +toward the weaker sex. Homer's men are frequently childish and +impulsive; Homer's women present the characteristics universally +regarded as essential to true womanhood. They even seem strangely +modern; the general tone of culture, the relation of the sexes, the +motives that govern men and women, present striking parallels to what we +find in modern times. + +Homer has presented to us eternal types of womanhood, which are in +consequence worthy of the immortality they have acquired. At present, we +shall merely seek to learn from these works as much as possible about +the life of woman as seen in the customs of society, and in +archaeological and ethnographic details. + +That which strikes us as most noticeable in the organization of society +in heroic times is its patriarchal simplicity. Monarchy is the +prevailing form of government. "Basileus," "leader of the people," is +the title of the sovereign, and every Basileus rules by right hereditary +and divine: the sceptre of his house is derived from Zeus. The king is +leader in war, head of the Council and of the Assembly of the people, +and supreme judge in all matters involving equity. The "elders" +constitute the Council, and the people are gathered together in Assembly +to endorse the actions of their chiefs. The Iliad describes the life of +a Greek camp; but Agamemnon, the suzerain, has under him men who are +kings at home. The Odyssey describes civil life in the centres where the +chieftains at Ilium are royal rulers. The two epics are chiefly +concerned with the lives of these kings and their families. It is the +life of courts and kings, of the aristocracy, with which Homer makes us +familiar; and in the monarchies of Homer the status of woman is always +elevated and her influence great. The wife shares the position of her +husband, and his family are treated with all the deference due the head. +As the king derives his authority by divine right, the people live +peaceably under the government of their chief as under the authority and +protection of the gods. Such are the salient features of the Homeric +polity. + +With what inimitable grace does the poet initiate us even into the life +of the little girl at her mother's side. Achilles is chiding Patroclus +for his tears: "Wherefore weepest thou, Patroclus, like a fond little +maid that runs by her mother's side and bids her mother take her up, and +tearfully looks at her till the mother takes her up?" Now, let us note +the maiden at the dawn of womanhood. The mother had prayed that her +daughter might grow up like Aphrodite in beauty and charm, and like +Athena in wisdom and skill in handiwork. Father and mother observe with +happiness her radiant youth; and her brothers care tenderly for her. Her +pastimes consist in singing and dancing and playing ball and the various +forms of outdoor recreation. Young men and maidens join together in +these sports. Homer represented such scenes on the Shield of Achilles: +"Also did the lame god devise a dancing place like unto that which once +in wide Cnossos Daedalus wrought for Ariadne of the lovely tresses. There +were youths dancing and maidens of costly wooing, their hands upon one +another's wrists. Fine linen the maidens had on, and the youths +well-woven doublets, faintly glistening with oil. Fair wreaths had the +maidens, and the youths daggers of gold hanging from silver baldrics. +And now they would run round with deft feet exceeding lightly, as when a +potter sitting by his wheel that fitteth between his hands maketh trial +of it whether it will run: and now anon they would run in line to meet +each other." Such were their pastimes, and equally joyous were their +occupations. To the maidens seem to have been chiefly assigned the +outdoor tasks of the household, which would contribute to their physical +development. Thus the Princess Nausicaa and her girl friends wash in the +river the garments of fathers and brothers; and the Shield of Achilles +represented a vintage scene where "maidens and striplings in childish +glee bear the sweet fruit in plaited baskets, and in the midst of them a +boy made pleasant music on a clear-toned viol, and sang thereto a sweet +Linus-song, while the rest with feet falling together kept time with the +music and the song." + +The education of the girls was of the simplest character. They grew up +in the apartment of the mother, and learned from her simple piety toward +the gods a modest bearing, skill in needlework, and efficiency in the +management of a household. + +While enjoying a freedom far greater than that allowed to maidens in the +classical period, the Homeric girls did not take part in the feasts and +pastimes of court life. Thus the poet tells us that Nausicaa, who is a +perfect picture of the Greek girl in the springtime of her youth and +beauty, "retired to her chamber upon her return to the palace, and +supper was served to her by a nurse in her apartments," while Odysseus +was being graciously entertained by her father and mother in the court +below. Strict attention to the _convenances_ of their sex and station +was required of these primitive women; and the high-minded maiden +Nausicaa feared evil report should the stranger, Odysseus, be seen with +her in the streets of the city, as such intimacy would be a "shame" to +her, a maiden; while it was also a "shame" for a married woman to go +alone into the presence of men, even when in her own house, though she +could enter their presence when attended by her handmaidens. Thus +Penelope is followed by her maidens when she goes to the hall of the men +to hear the minstrel Phemius. "Bid Antinoe and Hippodamia," says she, +"come to stand by my side in the halls, for alone I will not go among +men, for I am ashamed." Nor did Helen and Andromache ever appear in +public without their handmaidens. In seeming opposition to this +excessive modesty was that office of hospitality which ofttimes required +young women to bathe and anoint the distinguished strangers who were +guests in the house. Thus Polycaste, the beautiful daughter of Nestor, +bathed and anointed Telemachus, and put on him a cloak and vest. Helen +performed like offices for Odysseus when he came in disguise into Troy, +and Circe later for the same hero. Though the poet's statements may at +times, in matters of outward appearance, do violence to modern social +rules, yet, because life in heroic times was simpler and less +conventional, there could innocently be greater freedom of expression +between the sexes regarding many matters which are tabooed in good +society in this very conventional age. Hence such passages as those +cited are to be taken rather as an evidence of the innocence and +ingenuousness of Homer's maidens than as an imputation of lack of +modesty. + +There are many indications pointing to the universal beauty of Homeric +women. Thus a favorite epithet of the country is "Hellas, famed for fair +women." There are also numerous epithets applied to Homeric characters +significant of beauty, as "fair in form," "with beautiful cheeks," "with +beautiful locks," "with beautiful breasts," and the like, demonstrating +the universal love of physical beauty as well as the prevalence of +beautiful types. + +Marriage was a highly honorable estate, and both young men and maidens +looked forward to it as a natural and desirable step in the sequence of +life. The preliminaries were of a distinctly patriarchal type. The +marriage was usually a matter of arrangement between the suitor and his +intended father-in-law. Sometimes a man might win his bride by heroic +deed or personal merit; but usually the successful suitor was he who +brought the most costly wedding gifts. Thus the characteristic feature +was wife purchase. Usually these gifts were offered to the bride's +father or family; but in the case of the (supposed) widow Penelope, they +were presented to the woman herself. The gifts were added to the wealth +of the bride's household. The idea of dower as such is foreign to the +Homeric poems, though the poet occasionally represents the bride as +receiving from parents rich gifts, which apparently were to be her +personal property, in addition to the nuptial gifts from her family, +consisting of herds or jewels or precious raiment. + +From the eagerness with which suitors sought to win the regard of the +maiden, it would seem that she had some choice in the selection of a +husband; but in general the father decided whom he would have for his +son-in-law, though at times the maiden was given her choice from a +number of young men approved by her father. Widows were expected to +remarry; and in their case considerable freedom of choice existed. + +The marriage ceremonies were of a social rather than religious or civil +character. The wedding day was celebrated by a feast provided by the +groom in the house of the bride's father. All the guests were clad in +their most costly raiment, and they brought presents to the young +couple. In these patriarchal times, when the father was both chief and +pontiff, so that his approval gave a sacred character to the union, the +leading away of the bride from the house of her father seems to have +constituted the most important act of the marriage ceremony. In the +description of the Shield of Achilles, Homer gives us a glimpse of this +solemnity. Under the glow of torches, surrounded by a joyous company, +dancing and singing hymeneal songs, the bride was led to the house of +her future husband. She was veiled, a custom that was a survival of the +old attempt to avoid angering the ancestral spirits by withdrawing +unceremoniously from their surveillance. The gods presided over +marriage, but no priest or sacrifice was needed; no ceremonies have been +recorded which confirm the theory of bride capture, so often said to be +at the basis of Homeric marriages, nor is there mention of any +ceremonial rites on the wedding night. + +Marriage among the Homeric Greeks had primarily two distinct objects in +view: the preservation of a pure line of descent, and the protection of +the property rights of the family. Hence the wife and mother had in her +hands all the sacred traditions of the family; if these were preserved +by her, she added to their glory; if violated, the prestige of the +family suffered untold loss. In consequence, there was no polygamy and +no divorce. Monogamy could be the only sanctioned form of marriage where +such conceptions of wedded life prevailed. Concubinage existed, +especially when the husband was long absent from home; but it was looked +upon with disfavor and frequently led to unfortunate consequences, as in +the cases of Phoenix and Agamemnon. Hetairism and prostitution did not +receive in the Homeric days the recognized place that was later accorded +them in the social structure of the Greeks. The many instances of +conjugal devotion in the Iliad and the Odyssey, as seen, for example, in +Hector and Andromache, Odysseus and Penelope, Alcinous and Arete, show +the high average of marital fidelity in heroic times. There are also +many minor indications that the ties of the family were very sacred +among the Achaeans, and that conjugal affection was very strong. One of +the lamented hardships of the long siege was separation from one's wife: +"For he that stayeth away but one single month far from his wife in his +benched ship fretteth himself when winter storms and the furious sea +imprison him; but for us the ninth year of our stay here is upon us in +its course." And the prayer of Odysseus for Nausicaa shows the Greek +love of home and happy married life: "And may the gods grant thee all +thy heart's desire: a husband and a home, and a mind at one with his may +they give--a good gift; for there is nothing mightier and nobler than +when man and wife are of one heart and mind in a house, a grief to their +foes, and to their friends great joy, but their own hearts know it +best." + +The view taken of adultery is a good test of the position of woman in +society. In Homeric times, adultery was regarded as the violation of a +property right. There are few harsh words in the Iliad against Helen; +all the anger of the Greeks was concentrated against Paris, who had +violated the bond of guest friendship, and had alienated his host's +property. Menelaus readily pardoned Helen, when material reparation had +been exacted; there is no moral reprehension of the adultery itself. +Clytemnestra was violently condemned, less because she yielded to the +seductions of AEgisthus than because her crime led to the murder of her +husband. There seems to have been also a natural perpetuity of the +marriage contract. To the Greeks, Helen was always the wife of Menelaus. +The ideal for the wife was single-hearted loyalty toward her husband; +faithfulness and submission were the principal virtues of women. Moral +lapses by men were frequent, and the same standard of marital rectitude +was not required from them as from the women of the heroic days. + +The social manners of the time, and especially the elevated position of +the matron, may be gathered from Homer's account of Telemachus's +reception at the palace of King Menelaus in Sparta. He and his friend +Pisistratus are conducted into the great hall, where, after having +bathed and anointed themselves and put on fresh raiment, they are +received by their host, Menelaus. They are placed on chairs beside him, +and a repast is brought, of which they are invited to partake. Menelaus +does not yet know who his guests are, but he has observed that +Telemachus weeps when Odysseus is mentioned in conversation. + +While he is pondering on this, Helen comes forth into the hall from her +"fragrant vaulted chamber" in the inner or woman's part of the house. +With her are three handmaids, one of whom sets for her the well-wrought +chair, a second brings a rug of soft wool, while the third places at her +side a silver basket on wheels, across which is laid a golden distaff +charged with wool of violet blue. Helen immediately takes a leading part +in the entertainment of the guests, one of whom, with woman's intuition, +she is the first to recognize, and they converse far into the night. +Then good cheer is spread before them, and Helen casts into the wine +whereof they drink "a drug to lull all pain and anger and bring +forgetfulness to every sorrow." Presently Helen bids her handmaids show +with torches the guests to their beds beneath the corridors, where +bedsteads have been set with purple blankets and coverlets and thin +mantles upon them. + +Here, in her royal palace, Helen is in every sense a queen. Endowed with +charms of intellect, as well as of person, she regulates the life and +determines the tone of the society about her; and she is but an example +of the high social position of the Homeric women. + +The Homeric matron had as her regular duties the management of the +household, and was trained in every domestic occupation. Spinning and +weaving were her chief accomplishments, and all the Homeric heroines +were highly skilled in the textile arts. The garments worn by the men +were fashioned at home by handmaidens under the superintendence of their +mistress, who herself engaged in the work. Penelope had fifty slave +maidens to direct in the various duties of the household. The daughters +of Celeus, like Rebecca of old, went to the well to draw water for +household use; and the clothes washing of the Princess Nausicaa and her +maidens has been already mentioned. So, by the side of the refinement +and elegance of the Homeric Age we have a simplicity of manners that but +adds to the charm. + +In spite of these beautiful instances of domestic harmony and affection, +the women of Homer had really no rights, in the modern sense of the +term. Throughout the whole of life their position was subject to the +will or the whims of men. At marriage, woman merely passed from the +tutelage of her father to that of her husband, who had absolute power +over her. But though the power of the husband was absolute, yet he was +generally deferential toward the wife he loved, and was frequently +guided by her opinions. Thus, the Phaeacians say of Queen Arete: +"Friends, this speech of our wise queen is not wide of the mark, nor far +from our deeming, so hearken thereto. But on Alcinous here both word and +work depend." With Arete lay the real seat of authority, though she +could claim no rights, and doubtless the tactful and clever Homeric +woman was, as a rule, the dominating influence in the palace. + +When the husband died, the grown-up son succeeded to his rights, and it +was in his power, if he saw fit, to give his widowed mother again in +marriage. Penelope's obedience to her son Telemachus is one of the +striking features of the Odyssey. He had it in his power to give her in +marriage to any of the suitors, but he refrained, from filial affection +and mercenary motives. "It can in no wise be that I thrust forth from +the house, against her will, the woman that bare me and reared me," says +Telemachus; and he continues: "Moreover, it is hard for me to make heavy +restitution to Icarius, as needs I must if, of my own will, I send my +mother away." + +Far worse, however, was the lot of the widow whose husband had been +slain in battle. She became at once the slave of the conqueror, to be +dealt with as he wished. Hector draws a gloomy picture of the fate of +Andromache in case he should be slain: "Yea, of a surety I know this in +heart and soul; the day shall come for holy Ilium to be laid low, and +Priam and the folk of Priam of the good ashen spear. Yet doth the +anguish of the Trojans hereafter not so much trouble me, neither +Hecuba's own, neither King Priam's, neither my brethren's, the many and +brave that shall fall in the dust before their foemen, as doth thine +anguish in the day when some mail-clad Achaean shall lead thee weeping +and rob thee of the light of freedom. So shalt thou abide in Argos and +ply the loom at another woman's bidding, and bear water from Fount +Messeis or Hyperia, being grievously entreated, and sore constraint +shall be laid upon thee. And then shall one say that beholdeth thee +weep: 'This is the wife of Hector, that was foremost in battle of the +horse-training Trojans, when men fought about Ilium.' Thus shall one say +hereafter, and fresh grief will be thine for lack of such an husband as +thou hadst to ward off the day of thraldom. But me in death may the +heaped-up earth be covering, ere I hear thy crying and thy carrying into +captivity." Similar lamentations over the harsh treatment of the widows +and the sad lot of the orphans, when the natural protector had been +slain, occur again and again. When taken captive, the noblest ladies +became the concubines of the victor, and were disposed of at his +pleasure. Briseis is a striking instance of this. She was a maiden of +princely descent, whose husband and brother had been slain by Achilles. +Yet she looked upon her position as a captive as quite in the natural +order of things. She manifestly became much attached to her captor, and +left "all unwillingly" when she was carried off to Agamemnon's tent. +When she was restored to Achilles, she laments the fallen Patroclus, who +had promised to make her godlike Achilles's wedded wife. + +Many female slaves of noble descent are mentioned by Homer, and their +positions in the households of their mistresses are frequently of +importance. Thus Euryclea, who had nurtured Odysseus and reared +Telemachus, was practically at the head of the domestic affairs of the +palace, and her relations with Penelope were most affectionate. The +other slaves were divided into several classes, according to their +different qualities and abilities. To some were assigned the menial +offices, such as turning the handmills, drawing the water, and preparing +the food for their master; while others were engaged in spinning and +weaving, under the direct oversight of their lady mistress. + +It is but natural that the great ladies of heroic times, reared in the +luxury of courts, attended by numerous slaves, and exercising an +elevating influence over their husbands through their personal charms, +should devote great attention to the elegancies of the costume and the +toilet. The Greek love of beauty led to love of dress. Numerous +epithets point to this characteristic of Homeric ladies; as "with +beautiful peplus," "well-girdled," "with beautiful zone," "with +beautiful veil," "with beautiful sandal," and the like; and care in +dressing the hair is seen in such phrases as "with goodly locks," "with +glossy locks." + +The Homeric poems describe for us the dress of the AEolico-Ionians down +to the ninth or eighth centuries before Christ, and it differs in many +important particulars from that of the classical period as seen in the +Parthenon marbles. + +The women wore only one outer garment, the peplus, brought to Hellas +from Asia by the Aryans, which garment the Dorian women continued to +wear until a late period. The peplus in its simplest form consisted of +an oblong piece of the primitive homemade woollen cloth, unshapen and +unsewn, open at the sides, and fastened on the shoulders by _fibulae_, +and bound by a girdle; but, undoubtedly, as worn by Homeric princesses +it assumed a much more regular pattern and was richly embroidered. The +pharos was probably a linen garment of Egyptian origin, which was +sometimes worn instead of the peplus. Thus the nymph Calypso "donned a +great shining pharos, light of woof and gracious, and about her waist +she cast a fair golden girdle, and a veil withal on her head." Both +these garments left the arms bare, and, while frequently of some length +behind, as seen in the epithet "the robe-trailing Trojan dames," were +short enough in front to allow the feet to appear. + +As the peplus was open at the sides, the girdle was the second most +important article of feminine attire. This was frequently of gold, as in +Calypso's case, and adorned with tassels, as was Hera's girdle with its +hundred tassels "of pure gold, all deftly woven, and each one worth an +hundred oxen." But the girdle of girdles was the magic cestus of golden +Aphrodite, which Hera borrowed in order to captivate Zeus. The tightened +girdle made the dress full over the bosom, so that the epithet +"deep-bosomed"--that is, with full, swelling bosom--became frequent. +Another characteristic article of dress was the _kredemnon_, a kind of +veil, of linen or of silk, in color generally white, though at times +dark blue. It was worn over the head, and allowed to fall down the back +and the sides of the head, leaving the face uncovered. There was no +garment, like a cloak, to be worn over the peplus. For freer movement +women would cast off the mantle-like _kredemnon_, which answered all the +purposes of a shawl. Thus Nausicaa and her companions, when preparing +for the game of ball, "cast off their tires and began the song," and +Hecuba, in her violent grief, "tore her hair and cast from her the +shining veil." There were also metal ornaments for the head, the +_stephane_, or coronal, and the _ampyx_, a headband or frontlet. The +_kekryphalos_ was probably a caplike net, bound by a woven band; +Andromache "shook off from her head the bright attire thereof, the net, +and woven band." Other feminine ornaments were: the _isthmion_, a +necklace, fitting close to the neck; the _hormos_, a long chain, +sometimes of gold and amber, hanging from the nape of the neck over the +breast; and _peronae_, or brooches, and ear-rings of various shapes, +either globular, spiral, or in the form of a cup, Helen, for example, +"set ear-rings in her pierced ear, ear-rings of three drops and +glistening; therefrom shone grace abundant." + +To embrace in one general description these various articles of feminine +attire, "we may think of Helen as arrayed in a colored peplus, richly +embroidered and perfumed, the corners of which were drawn tightly over +the shoulders and fastened together by the _perone_. The waist was +closely encircled by the zone, which was, no doubt, of rich material +and design. Over her bosom hung the _hormos_ of dark red amber set in +gold. Her hair hung down in artificial plaits, and on her head was the +high, stiff _kekryphalos_, of which we have spoken above, bound in the +middle by the _plekte anadesme_. Over the forehead was the shining +_ampyx_, or tiara, of gold; and from the top of the head fell the +_kredemnon_, or veil, over the shoulders and back, affording a quiet +foil to the glitter of gold and jewels." + +Such is the picture of the Heroic Age as drawn for us by Homer. It is a +bright picture in the main, though the treatment of the widows and the +captive maidens throws on it dark shadows. But when we become acquainted +with the heroines of this age, and study their characters in the +environment in which Homer places them, we shall be all the more +impressed with the high status maintained by the gentler sex at the dawn +of Greek civilization. + +Before treating of the heroines of Homer, however, let us briefly notice +the maidens and matrons of Greek mythology who do not figure so +conspicuously in the Chronicles of the Trojan War, but who have won a +permanent place in art and in literature. + +We should not fail to mention the mortal loves who became through Zeus +the mothers of heroes,--Europa, whom he wooed in the form of a white +bull, and carried away to Crete, where she became the mother of Minos, +Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon; Semele, who was overcome with terror when +Zeus appeared in all his godlike array, and who gave birth to Dionysus, +god of the vine; Leda, wooed by Zeus in the guise of a snow-white swan, +the mother of Helen, and of Castor and Pollux; Alcmene, mother of +Heracles; Callisto, changed, with her little son Arcas, because of the +jealousy of Hera, into the constellations known as the Great and the +Little Bear; and, finally, Danae, daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos, +locked up by her tyrannical father in a brazen tower, but visited by +Zeus as a golden shower. The offspring of this union was the hero +Perseus. King Acrisius, in dread of a prophecy that he was destined to +be slain by his grandson, had the mother and helpless infant enclosed in +an empty cask, which was consigned to the fury of the sea. Terrified at +the sound of the great waves beating over their heads, Danae prayed to +the gods to watch over them and bring them to some friendly shore. Her +piteous prayers were answered, and mother and child were rescued and +found a hospitable haven on the island of Seriphos, + + "When rude around the high-wrought ark + The tempests raged, the waters dark + Around the mother tossed and swelled; + With not unmoistened cheek she held + Her Perseus in her arms and said: + 'What sorrows bow this hapless head! + Thou sleepst the while, thy gentle breast + Is heaving in unbroken rest, + In this our dark, unjoyous home, + Clamped with the rugged brass, the gloom + Scarce broken by the doubtful light + That gleams from yon dim fires of night. + But thou, unwet thy clustering hair, + Heedst not the billows raging wild, + The moanings of the bitter air, + Wrapt in thy purple robe, my beauteous child! + Oh! seemed this peril perilous to thee, + How sadly to my words of fear + Wouldst thou bend down thy listening ear! + But now sleep on, my child! sleep thou, wide sea! + Sleep, my unutterable agony! + Oh! change thy counsels, Jove, our sorrows end! + And if my rash, intemperate zeal offend, + For my child's sake, his father, pardon me!'" + +The god Apollo, too, had his mortal loves: the fair maiden Coronis, whom +in a fit of jealousy he shot through the heart,--the mother of +AEsculapius, the god of healing; Daphne, the beautiful nymph, who would +not listen to his entreaties, and was finally changed into a laurel +tree; and the muse Calliope, by whom he became the father of Orpheus, +who inherited his parent's musical and poetical gifts. The story of the +loves of Orpheus and his beautiful wife, Eurydice, is one of the most +touching in all literature: how she died from the bite of a venomous +serpent, and her spirit was conducted down to the gloomy realms of +Hades, leaving Orpheus broken-hearted; how Zeus gave him permission to +go down into the infernal regions to seek his wife; how he appeased even +Cerberus's rage by his music, and Hades and Proserpina consented to +restore Eurydice to life and to her husband's care, but on the one +condition that he should leave the infernal regions without once turning +to look into the face of his beloved wife; and how he observed the +mandate until just before he reached the earth, when he turned, only to +behold the vanishing form of the wife he had so nearly snatched from the +grave. The rest of his days were passed in sadness, and finally some +Bacchantes, enraged at his sad notes, tore him limb from limb, and cast +his mangled remains into the river Hebrus. "As the poet-musician's head +floated down the stream, the pallid lips still murmured 'Eurydice!' for +even in death he could not forget his wife; and as his spirit floated on +to join her, he incessantly called upon her name, until the brooks, +trees, and fountains he had loved so well caught up the longing cry and +repeated it again and again." + +The story of Niobe is one of the best-known Greek legends, because of +its exquisite portrayal in art. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, the mother +of fourteen children,--seven manly sons and seven beautiful +daughters,--in her pride taunted the goddess Latona, mother of Apollo +and Artemis, because her offspring numbered only two. She even went so +far as to forbid her people to worship the two deities, and ordered that +all the statues of them in her kingdom should be torn down and +destroyed. Enraged at the insult, Latona called her children to her, and +bade them slay all the children of Niobe. Apollo, therefore, coming upon +the seven lads as they were hunting, slew them with his unfailing +arrows; and while the mother was grieving for the loss of her sons, +Artemis began to slay her daughters. In vain did the mother strive to +protect them, and one by one they fell, never to rise again. Then the +gods, touched by her woe, changed her into stone just as she stood, with +upturned face, streaming eyes, and quivering lips. + +Three other heroines of mythology deserve to be enrolled within this +brief chronicle: Andromeda, Ariadne, and Atalanta. The Princess +Andromeda, a lovely maiden, was being offered as a sacrifice to a +terrible sea monster who was devastating the coast. She was chained fast +to an overhanging rock, above the foaming billows that continually +dashed their spray over her fair limbs. As the monster was about to +carry her off as his prey, the hero Perseus, returning from his conquest +of Medusa, suddenly appeared as a deliverer, slew the monster, freed +Andromeda from her chains, restored her to the arms of her overjoyed +parent, and thus won the princess as his bride. + +Far more pathetic is the story of the Princess Ariadne, daughter of King +Minos of Crete, who fell in love with the Athenian hero Theseus when he +came to rescue the Athenian youths and maidens from the terrible +Minotaur. She provided him with a sword and with a ball of twine, +enabling him to slay the monster and to thread his way out of the +inextricable mazes of the labyrinth. Theseus in gratitude carried her +off as his bride; but on the island of Naxos he basely deserted her, +and Ariadne was left disconsolate. Violent was her grief; but in the +place of a fickle mortal lover, she became the fair bride of an +immortal, the genial god Dionysus, who discovered her on the island and +wooed and won her. + +Atalanta, the third of this illustrious group, the daughter of Iasius, +King of Arcadia, was a famous runner and sportswoman. She took part with +Meleager in the grand hunt for the Calydonian boar, and it was she who +at last brought the boar to bay and gave him a mortal wound. When +Atalanta returned to her father's court, she had numberless suitors for +her hand; but, anxious to preserve her freedom, she imposed the +condition that every suitor should engage with her in a footrace: if he +were beaten, his life was forfeited; if successful, she would become his +bride. Many had thus lost their lives. Finally, Hippomenes, a youth +under the protection of Aphrodite, who had bestowed on him three golden +apples, desired to race with the princess. Atalanta soon passed her +antagonist, but, as she did so, a golden apple fell at her feet. She +stooped to pick it up, and Hippomenes regained the lead. Again she +passed him, and again a golden apple caused her to pause, and Hippomenes +shot ahead. Finally, just as she was about to reach the goal, the third +golden apple tempted her to stop once more, and Hippomenes won the race +and a peerless bride. + + + + +III + +WOMEN OF THE ILIAD + + +The reader of the Iliad and the Odyssey finds himself in an atmosphere +altogether human. As he peruses these pages, so rich in pictures of the +life and manners of heroic times, it matters little to him whether the +men and women of epic song had merely a mythical existence, or were, in +fact, historical figures. The contemporaries of Homer and later Greeks +had an unshaken belief in the reality of those men and women; and the +poet has breathed into them the breath of genius, which gives life and +immortality. + +We have in these poems the most ancient expression of the national +sentiment of the Greeks, and from them we can form a correct idea of the +relations of men and women in prehistoric times, and of the character +and status of woman in the childhood of the Greek world. + +It is a noteworthy fact that the plots of both the Iliad and the +Odyssey--as well as the most interesting episodes they contain--turn +upon love for women; and a clear idea of the importance of woman in the +Heroic Age could not be given better than by briefly reviewing the +brilliant panorama of warlike and domestic scenes in which woman +figures. + +We are first introduced to a Greek camp in Troy land. During ten long +years the hosts of the Achaeans have been gathered before the walls of +Ilium. What is the cause of this long struggle? A woman! Paris, son of +King Priam, had carried off to his native city Queen Helen, wife of +Menelaus, King of Sparta. Aided by the wiles of Aphrodite, to whom he +had awarded the golden apple as the fairest in the contest of the three +goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, Paris succeeded in winning the +heart of this fairest of Greek women and in persuading her to desert +husband and daughter to follow the fortunes of a handsome stranger. On +the isle of Cranae their nuptial rites were celebrated, and after much +voyaging they reached their new home in Troy, where King Priam, +fascinated with the beauty and grace of this new daughter, in spite of +his dread of the consequences, graciously received the errant pair. The +Greek chieftains bound themselves by an inviolable oath to assist the +forsaken husband to recover his spouse, and, marshalling their forces, +they entered upon the long and tedious war. Thus, a woman was the cause +of the first great struggle between Orient and Occident, of the +assembling of the mighty hosts of the Achaeans under King Agamemnon, of +ten years of siege and struggle and innumerable wars, of the hurling of +many valiant souls to Hades, of the fall of Troy, and of the varied +wanderings and dire fortunes of the surviving heroes and heroines of the +epic story. + +The Iliad does not tell the whole story of the Trojan War; Homer invites +the muse to sing of but one episode thereof--the dire wrath of Achilles. +The cause of that violent outburst is also a woman. The Greek chieftains +are gathered in the place of assembly, along the banks of the Scamander. +In their midst is an aged priest of the town of Chryse, bearing in his +hand the fillets of Apollo, the Far-darter, upon a golden staff. He +beseeches the Greeks to restore to him his dear child, the maiden +Chryseis, their captive, and to accept in return the proffered ransom, +reverencing the god. There is a sympathetic murmur among the chieftains, +who urge the granting of the petition; but the thing pleases not the +heart of Agamemnon, king of men, who had received the beautiful captive +as his own share of the booty, and for love of her will not give her up. +So he roughly sends the old man away, and lays stern charge upon him not +to be seen again near the ships of the Achaeans. Outraged in his dignity +as a priest and in his tenderness as a father, the aged sire prays to +Apollo, who at once sends dire pestilence upon the Greeks; and the pyres +of the dead burn continually in multitude. Nine days speed the god's +shafts throughout the host, and on the tenth the valiant warrior +Achilles summons the folk to assembly, and bids Calchas, "most excellent +of augurs," declare the cause of the pestilence. Calchas, after much +hesitation, responds that the Far-darter has brought war upon the Greeks +because Agamemnon has done despite to the priest, and has not set his +daughter free and accepted the ransom. + +Agamemnon is violently enraged at the seer; his dark heart within him is +greatly filled with anger, and his eyes are like flashing fire. He +charges the seer with never saying anything that is pleasant for him to +hear. And as for Chryseis, he would fain keep her himself in his +household; for he prefers her even before Clytemnestra, his wedded wife, +to whom she is nowise inferior, neither in favor nor stature nor wit nor +skill. Yet if she be taken away from him for the good of the people, he +demands another prize forthwith, that alone of the Greeks he may not be +without reward. Then is the valiant Achilles enraged at the covetousness +of his chief, and a violent quarrel ensues. At last, Agamemnon asserts +that he will send back Chryseis, but he will come and take in return +Achilles's meed of honor, Briseis of the fair cheeks, that Achilles may +know how far the mightier is he and that no other may hereafter dare to +rival him to his face. + +Then is the son of Peleus the more enraged, and, had not the goddess +Athena appeared and restrained his wrath, he would have assailed +Agamemnon on the spot. However, he speaks again with bitter words and +declares that hereafter longing for Achilles will come upon the Achaeans +one and all; for no more will he fight with the Greeks against the +Trojans. So the assembly breaks up, after this battle of violent words +between the twain. Achilles returns to his huts and trim ships, with +Patroclus and his company; and Agamemnon sends forth Odysseus and others +on a fleet ship to bear back to her father the lovely Chryseis, and to +offer a hecatomb to Apollo. Thus Chryseis is restored to her father's +arms, and appears no more in the story. + +But Atrides ceases not from the strife with which he has threatened +Achilles. He summons straightway two heralds, and bids them go to the +tent of Achilles and take Briseis of the fair cheeks by the hand and +lead her to him. Unwillingly they go on their mission, and find the +young warrior sitting sorrowfully beside his hut and black ship. He +knows wherefore they come, and bids his friend Patroclus bring forth the +damsel and give them her to lead away. And Patroclus hearkens to his +dear companion, and leads forth from the hut Briseis of the fair cheeks, +and gives her to the heralds. And the twain take their way back along +the ships of the Achaeans and with them goes the maiden, all unwilling. + +In this moment of grief at the loss of the woman he loves, Achilles +bethinks him of his dear mother, the Nereid Thetis, and, stretching +forth his hand toward the sea, he prays to her to hearken to him. His +lady mother hears him as she sits in the sea depths beside her aged +sire, and with speed she arises from the gray sea, and sits down beside +him and strokes him with her hand and inquires the cause of his sorrow. +Into her sympathetic ear he tells all the story of his wrongs, and the +goddess shows herself the tenderest and most loving of mothers. He bids +her seek justice for him at the throne of mighty Zeus, with whom she is +potent on account of favors she has done him. She bewails with her son +that she has borne him to brief life and evil destiny; but she bids him +continue wroth with the Achaeans, and refrain utterly from battle, while +she will early fare to Zeus's palace upon Mount Olympus, and she thinks +to win him. True to her promise, she betakes herself to sunny Olympus +and finds the father of gods and men sitting apart from all the rest +upon the topmost peak. She clasps his knees with one hand as a suppliant +and with the other strokes his chin, and prays him to do honor to her +son and exalt him with recompense for the gross wrong he has suffered. +And Zeus, though he knows that it will lead to strife with Lady Hera, +his spouse, promises to heap just vengeance upon Agamemnon. + +Thus, upon the very threshold of the Iliad, the chord of maternal +affection is struck; and when the wild passions of early manhood have +led to sorrow and humiliation, the mother appears, affording sympathy +and comfort, and is ready to traverse sea and earth and heaven to +intercede for her wronged and grief-stricken son. + +Achilles remains away from battle, sulking beside the ships. The odds +are now in favor of the Trojans in the conflict that is being waged. +Both sides are weary of continual fighting, and a single combat is +arranged between Menelaus and Paris, the wronged husband and the +present lord of Helen. The meed of victory is to be Helen herself, with +all her treasures, she now appearing for the first time in the Epos. + +Helen is summoned from her palace to witness the combat. So she hastens +from her chamber, attended by two handmaidens, and comes to the place of +the Scaean gates, where are gathered King Priam and the elders of the +city. + +Homer nowhere attempts to describe Helen's beauty in detail, but +impresses it upon the reader merely by showing the bewitching effect of +her presence upon others. Even these sage old men fall under the spell +of her divine beauty, and, when they see her coming upon the towers, +softly speak winged words, one to the other: + +"Small blame is it that Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans should for such +a woman long time suffer hardships; marvellously like is she to the +immortal goddesses to look upon. Yet even so, though she be so goodly, +let her go upon their ships and not stay to vex us and our children +after us." + +Priam, however, addresses his beautiful daughter-in-law with gentle +words, laying the blame, not on her, but on the gods, for the dolorous +war of the Achaeans. Helen utters expressions of self-reproach, and then, +at Priam's request, points out the famous warriors of the invading host. + +Paris is vanquished in the single combat, and Menelaus would have slain +his foe, and in that moment have regained Helen, had not the goddess +Aphrodite snatched up Paris in a cloud and transported him to his +chamber. Aphrodite then appears to Helen, in the form of an aged dame, +and bids her return to her lord. Helen recognizes the goddess, and her +scornful, bitter reply shows how the high-spirited lady rebelled at the +chains with which Aphrodite bound her. The wrath and menace of +Aphrodite, however, overcome her noble resolution, and she reluctantly +returns. When she sees her husband, she chides him scornfully for his +cowardice, and regrets that he had not perished at the hands of +Menelaus. But Paris is unaffected by her reproaches. His thoughts, as +ever, are not of war, but of love, and Helen, owing to the subtle power +of Aphrodite, cannot long resist his caresses. Meanwhile, the injured +husband rages through the host like a wild beast, if anywhere he might +set his eyes on and slay the wanton Paris. + +We are now approaching a series of domestic scenes, in which figure the +three principal female characters of the Iliad. Owing to the abortive +issue of the single combat, the truce between Greeks and Trojans is +declared at an end, and the forces once more array themselves in +conflict. The Trojans are being hard pressed. Hector returns to the city +to command Hecuba, his mother, to assemble the aged dames of Troy, who +should go to Athena's temple and supplicate the goddess to have +compassion on them. At the gates the Trojans' wives and daughters gather +about him, inquiring of their loved ones. As he enters the royal palace, +his beautiful mother meets him and clasps him by the hand, and bids him, +weary of battle, pause to take refreshments. But Hector resists her +solicitous entreaties, urges her to gather the aged wives together, and, +with the most beautiful robe in the palace as an offering, to go to the +temple and supplicate Athena to have mercy. Hecuba does as he commands, +and the solemn procession mounts the citadel and implores the goddess to +have mercy on them and turn the tide of combat. The goddess, however, is +inflexible: she denies their prayer. + +Hector, meanwhile, stops at the palace of Paris. He finds Helen seated +among her handmaidens, distributing to them their tasks, and Paris +polishing his beautiful armor. Hector severely rebukes his brother; but +words of scorn make but little impression on the smooth and courteous +Paris. Helen now addresses Hector, for whom she has a sisterly love and +admiration that contrasts painfully with her contempt for her cowardly +lord; and her words reveal the bitterness of her heart, because of her +evil destiny and because "even in days to come we may be a song in the +ears of men that shall be hereafter." Hector responds with sympathetic +regard to the sisterly confidence of Helen, and bids her rouse her +husband once more to enter the combat, while in the meantime he will go +to his own house to behold his dear wife and infant boy; for he knows +not if he shall return home to them again, or if the gods will now +overthrow him at the hands of the Achaeans. + +When Hector comes to his palace, he finds not his beautiful wife, +white-armed Andromache, within; upon inquiry he learns that, through +anxiety because of the battle, like one frenzied, she had gone in haste +to the wall, and the nurse bearing the child was with her. Hector +hastens to the Scaean gates, and as he approaches them there came his +dear-won wife, running to meet him, and with her the handmaid bearing in +her bosom the tender boy, Hector's loved son Astyanax. Hector smiles and +gazes at the boy; while Andromache stands by his side weeping and clasps +his hand in hers, and urges him to take thought for himself and to have +pity on her, forlorn, and on their infant boy. Hector tells her that he +takes thought of all this, that his greatest grief is the thought of her +anguish in the day when some mail-clad Achaean shall lead her away and +rob her of the light of freedom, but it is his part to fight in the +forefront of the Trojans. He lays his son in his dear wife's bosom, and, +as she smiles tearfully upon the lad, her husband has pity to see her, +and gently caresses her with his hand and seeks to console her. He bids +her return to her own tasks, the loom and distaff, while he provides for +war. So part these heroic souls. Hector sets out for the battlefield; +and his dear wife departs to her home, oft looking back and letting fall +big tears. When she reaches her house, she gathers her handmaidens about +her, and stirs lamentations in them all. "So bewailed they Hector, while +yet he lived, within his house; for they deemed that he would no more +come home to them from battle nor escape the fury of the hands of the +Achaeans." + +The closing scenes of the dramatic recital time and again present these +three women--Hecuba, Helen, and Andromache. Achilles continues to sulk +away from battle, in spite of Agamemnon's attempt at reconciliation. The +Trojans are winning victory after victory. Achilles's comrade Patroclus +finally gets permission to don the great warrior's armor, and he enters +the conflict. Hector, supposing him to be Achilles, engages with him in +combat and finally slays him. Achilles is overwhelmed with grief at the +death of Patroclus. His lady mother, Thetis, rises from the depths of +the sea to console him, and provides him a suit of armor fashioned by +Hephaestus. Agamemnon and Achilles are reconciled before the assembly of +the Achaeans, and fair-faced Briseis is restored to her lover. She utters +shrill laments over the body of Patroclus, who had been ever kind to +her. Achilles enters the combat, clad in the armor of Hephaestus. Hector +alone dares to face him, and he is slain, and his lifeless body is +dragged behind Achilles's chariot as he drives exultantly toward the +ships. Piteous wailings are heard from the walls, wailings of the aged +Priam, and of the sorrowful Hecuba, whose cry is the full bitterness of +maternal grief. + +Within the city, in the inner chamber of her palace, a young wife is +engaged in weaving a double purple web and directing the work of her +handmaidens. Her thoughts are all of her warrior husband, and she has +had a servant set a great tripod upon the fire that Hector might have +warm washing when he comes home out of the battle--fond heart all +unaware how, far from all washings, bright-eyed Athena has slain him by +the hand of Achilles! But suddenly she hears shrieks and groans from the +battlements, and her limbs tremble and the shuttle falls from her hands +to earth. She dreads terribly lest Hector has met his fate at the hand +of Achilles. Accompanied by her handmaidens, she rushes to the +battlements, and beholds his lifeless body dragged by swift horses +toward the hollow ships. Then dark night comes on her eyes and shrouds +her, and she falls backward and gasps forth her spirit; and when at last +her soul returns into her breast, she bewails her own sad lot and that +of her child, deprived of such a husband and father. + +The succeeding days are spent in gloom and sorrow, each side bewailing +the loss of a favorite warrior. King Priam finally recovers the body of +Hector from Achilles, and brings it back to Hector's palace, where the +women gather about the corpse--and among them white-armed Andromache +leads the lamentation, while in her hands she holds the head of Hector, +slayer of men. Hecuba, too, grieves for Hector, of all her children the +dearest to her heart; and, lastly, Helen joins in the sore lament, +sorrowing for the loss of the dearest of her brethren in Troy, who had +never spoken despiteful word to her, but had always been kind and +considerate. Here the long story reaches its natural conclusion. The +Iliad opens with a scene of wrath occasioned by man's passion for woman, +and closes with a scene of mourning--women grieving for the loss of a +slain husband and son and friend--knightly Hector. + +Before we bid farewell to the martial tableaux presented to us in the +Iliad, and direct our attention to the domestic scenes of the Odyssey, +let us take a final glance at the heroines who have appeared in the +first Homeric epos. + +Worthy of note is the atmosphere of beauty and delicacy and charm with +which the poet has enveloped Helen of Troy. She has committed a grievous +fault, but there is in the recital nothing which offends the moral +sense. This is because the poet has portrayed her with none of the +seductions of vice, but with all the allurements of penitence. She has +sinned, but it has been because of the mysterious and irresistible bond +which united her to the goddess of love; her moral nature has not been +perverted, and she is filled with shame and remorse because of the +reproach that has been cast upon her name. By a long and bitter +expiation, she has atoned for her fault; and memories of the days long +past abide with her in all their sweetness and purity. One can but +contrast the difference of attitude with which she addresses Priam and +Hector on the one hand, and Aphrodite and Paris on the other. For the +former she has the utmost consideration and respect, and in their +presence she feels most keenly how compromised is her position; for the +latter, the causes of her fall, she has nothing but the scorn and +contempt of a cultivated and high-spirited queen. In portraying the +regret of Helen for her first husband, and her contempt toward her +second; in representing Menelaus and the Greeks as fighting to avenge +"the longings and the groans of Helen"; and in subtly suggesting how +inevitable are the chains with which Aphrodite has bound her, the poet +wins for her our sympathy and admiration. Homer nowhere tells us of the +reconciliation of Menelaus and Helen, after the fall of Troy; but in the +Odyssey he presents a beautiful picture of Helen in Sparta, a queen once +more, beloved of husband and attendants, and presiding over her palace +with courtly grace and dignity; and in the prophecy of Proteus, the Old +Man of the Sea, the destiny of the fair queen is suggested in that of +her faithful spouse: "But thou, Menelaus, son of Zeus, art not ordained +to die and meet thy fate in Argos, the pasture land of horses; for the +deathless gods will convey thee to the Elysian plains and to the world's +end, where is Rhadamanthus of the fair hair, where life is easiest for +men. No snow is there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain, but always +ocean sendeth forth the breeze of the shrill blast to blow cool on men; +yea, for thou hast Helen to wife, and thereby they deem thee son to +Zeus." + +Thus, because wedded to Zeus-begotten Helen, Menelaus himself is +deathless and immortal, and Homer meant, no doubt, to picture the royal +couple passing together in the Isles of the Blest the aeons of eternity. + +Homer provided the literary types for all succeeding Greek poets, and it +is but natural that so bewitching a conception as Helen should be +frequently portrayed and adopted. But with the change in form of +government from monarchy to oligarchy, and from oligarchy to democracy, +the old epic conception of heroes and heroines frequently suffers +disparagement. In later periods, men began to meditate on moral +questions, and poets who sought to weigh the problems of human life and +destiny saw in Helen's career the old, old story of sin and sufering, +and they could not with Homeric chivalry gloze over that fatal step +which caused the wreck of empires and brought infinite woes to men. + +Stesichorus was the first poet to charge Helen with all the guilt and +suffering of Hellas and of Troy; but for this offence against the +daughter of Zeus, says tradition, he was smitten with blindness, and did +not recover his sight until he had written the recantation beginning: +"Not true is that tale; nor didst thou journey in benched ships, nor +come to town of Troy,"--in which he adopted the theory that the real +Helen remained in Egypt, while a phantom accompanied Paris to Troy. + +AEschylus searches into the dire consequences of Helen's sin, and on her +shoulders lays all the sufferings of Agamemnon and his descendants. +"Rightly is she called Helen," says he; "a hell of ships, hell of men, +hell of cities." He regards her as the very incarnation of evil, the +curse of two great nations. Yet even stern AEschylus yields due reverence +to her all-conquering beauty: + + "Ah! silent, see she stands; + Each glowing tint, each radiant grace, + That charm th' enraptur'd eye, we trace; + And still the blooming form commands, + Still honor'd, still ador'd, + Though careless of her former loves, + Far o'er the rolling sea the wanton roves." + +He also represents her forsaken husband ever dreaming of her, enraptured +of her beauty: + + "Oft as short slumbers close his eyes, + His sad soul sooth'd to rest, + The dream-created visions rise + With all her charms imprest: + But vain th' ideal scene that smiles + With rapt'rous love and warm delight; + Vain his fond hopes; his eager arms + The fleeting form beguiles, + On sleep's quick pinions passing light." + +AEschylus is not the only one of the early dramatists to whom Helen +furnished a worthy theme; the titles of four lost plays show that +Sophocles wrote of the Argive queen. There is no means of knowing, +however, how this master dealt with the romance. Judging from his +treatment of the Antigone legend, it is probable that Sophocles treated +Helen as a woman of rare beauty and power, more sinned against than +sinning, and subjected her character to the most profound analysis. + +While AEschylus deprived Helen of something of the delicacy and charm +with which Homer had invested her, Euripides, in a number of his plays, +goes even further, and brings her down to the level of common life. Upon +her beautiful head were heaped the reproaches of the unfortunate maidens +and matrons of Greece and Troy for the woes they had to suffer, and we +must not always take the sentiments of a Hecuba or a Clytemnestra as +expressing the poet's own convictions. In the _Daughters of Troy_, he +represents her in violent debate with her mother-in-law, Hecuba, before +Menelaus, leaving with the reader the impression that she is a guilty, +wilful woman of ignoble traits, and in other plays he lays on her the +load of guilt for all the dire consequences of her act; yet in his +treatment of Helen there is always an ethereal element, hard to define, +but recognizable. She causes ruin and destruction, she is roundly abused +and reproached, yet she herself does not deal in invective and is proof +against all physical ill, being finally deified as the daughter of Zeus, +while suffering is invariably the fate of those who abuse and censure +her. And, like Stesichorus, Euripides in his old age makes a +recantation. In the _Helen_, he follows the Stesichorean version, and +dramatizes the legend that, after she was promised to Paris by +Aphrodite, Hera in revenge fashioned like to Queen Helen a breathing +phantom out of cloud land wrought for Priam's princely son; while Hermes +caught her away and transferred her to the halls of Proteus, King of +Egypt, to keep her pure for Menelaus. Thus it was for a phantom Helen +that Greek and Trojan fought at Troy; while the real Helen passed her +days amid the palm gardens of Egypt, eagerly awaiting the return of +Menelaus, and bewailing her ill name, though she was clean of sin. After +the war, she is happily reunited with her lord. + +It is hard, however, to besmirch a conception of ideal beauty, and later +writers, casting aside the imputations of the dramatists, returned to +the Homeric type. The Greek rhetoricians found in Helen a fruitful +subject for panegyric, and made her synonymous with the Greek ideal of +beauty and feminine perfection. Isocrates praises her as the incarnation +of ideal loveliness and grace; beauty is all powerful, he says, and the +Helen legend shows how beauty is the most desirable of all human gifts. +Theocritus, in his exquisite _Epithalamium_, pays an unalloyed tribute +to her beauty and goodness. She is "peerless among all Achaean women that +walk the earth;--rose-red Helen, the glory of Lacedaemon;--no one is so +gifted as she in goodly handiwork;--yea, and of a truth, none other +smites the lyre, hymning Artemis and broad-breasted Athena, with such +skill as Helen, within whose eyes dwell all the Loves." + +Quintus Smyrnaeus, of the fourth century of our era, who wrote a +_Post-Homerica_, emphasizes the demonic influence that controlled the +fate of Helen, and lays her frailty to the charge of Aphrodite. He gives +a beautiful picture of the queen as she is being led to the ships of the +Achaeans: "Now, Helen lamented not, but shame dwelt in her dark eyes and +reddened her lovely cheeks ... while round her the people marvelled as +they beheld the flawless grace and winsome beauty of the woman, and none +dared upbraid her with secret taunt or open rebuke. Nay, as she had been +a goddess, they beheld her gladly, for dear and desired was she in their +sight." + +Thus the Helen legend became the allegory of Greek beauty, and so +exquisite an ideal, uplifting the spirit and satisfying one's longing +for higher things, strikes a responsive chord in the hearts of lovers of +beauty in every clime. The romance of Helen, after lying dormant for +centuries, came to life again in the legend of Faust. Marlowe treated +merely the external phases of the Faust legend; Goethe allegorized the +whole, and in the loves of Faust and Helen symbolized the passion of the +Renaissance for the Greek ideal of beauty; the fruit of the union of the +two is Euphorion, the genius of romantic art. Nor has Helen exerted less +influence on modern English poets. Landor, in numerous poems, portrays +the sweetness of her character and the omnipotence of her beauty and +charm; Swinburne dwells on the innocence and joyfulness of her +childhood; Tennyson speaks of her as + + "A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, + And most divinely fair;" + +and Andrew Lang has written a lengthy poem on the Helen legend, in which +he ascribes her frailty to the irresistible power of Aphrodite. Thus +Homer and the Homeric Age are inextricably entwined about the name of +Helen. It is significant in the study of Greek women that at the very +dawn of Greek civilization we should find such an ideal conception of +womanhood--one that universally captivates the fancy and has exerted an +influence through all succeeding ages. + +Let us now pause a moment to contemplate the most lovable of all the +women of Homer, Hector's spouse, white-armed Andromache. Homer does not +devote much space to her--only the famous parting scene and the two +lamentations which she utters over her fallen husband. Yet, as the ideal +type of the soldier's wife, the loving mother, she has taken a hold on +the modern imagination and is the best known of all the female +characters of Greek epos. We know that she must have been beautiful, +though Homer uses only one epithet to describe her; we know that she +must have been brave and devoted and domestic, for Homer has painted for +us an ideal picture which portrays her with all these and many other +lovable attributes. Andromache is neither Trojan nor Greek; she is +universal; and wherever there are scenes of husband parted from wife, of +uncertainty as to the issue of the combat and the destiny of the +children, Andromache will be the great prototype. Andromache feels in +her heart that sacred Ilium is doomed, and, in those cruel times when +might was right, she knew but too well what was to be the fate of +herself and the lad Astyanax. Euripides tells us how the forebodings of +Andromache came true, and dwells on those sad days for the daughters of +Troy when the mailed hand of the Achaeans carried them off captive after +the fall of the city and determined their destiny by lot. + +Andromache was apportioned to Neoptolemus, Achilles's valiant son, and +in Euripides's _Daughters of Troy_ she reappears, with her child in her +arms, haled forth to her new bondage. Sadly she bewails her lost Hector, +who could have warded off from her the curse of thraldom. The Greek +herald, Talthybius, demands from her the lad Astyanax, whom the Greeks +have decided to hurl from the battlements of Troy. The child is +ruthlessly torn from his mother's embrace, and she is led off to the +hollow ships. Neoptolemus takes her over sea to his home in Thessaly, +and loves her and treats her with a kindness and consideration that are +sweetly perfect. To him she bears a son in her captivity; but not of her +own will does she share his couch, for her heart is true to the memory +of Hector. After many years, Neoptolemus weds Hermione, daughter of +Menelaus and Helen, a princess of Sparta. To them no child is born, and +Hermione's heart is filled with anger and jealousy toward the thrall, +whom her husband still treats tenderly. With her father, Menelaus, +Hermione, during Neoptolemus's absence, plots the destruction of +Andromache and her boy, but the aged Peleus protects the defenceless +ones. Neoptolemus is slain at Delphi, and Thetis, who appears at the +close of the _Andromache_, thus solves the problem of fate: + + "And that war-captive dame, Andromache, + In the Molossian land must find a home + In lawful wedlock joined to Helenus, + With that child who alone is left alive + Of AEacus' line. And kings Molossian + From him one after other long shall reign + In bliss." + +Readers of Virgil will recall how AEneas found Andromache in the +Molossian land, and how her heart yearned for the lad Ascanius, who +reminded her of the lost Astyanax. Euripides has been true, in the main, +to the Homeric conception of Andromache, and endows her in her captivity +with the same womanliness and domestic traits that won our hearts in the +Iliad; nevertheless, there is about her the infinite sadness that is +natural to one who has lost all that life holds dear. Yet Euripides +falls so infinitely below the master that the picture which will abide +longest in the memory is the parting scene in the Iliad. + +Homer endows his minor characters with an interest that is no less real +to us than that given to Helen and Andromache. Of these lesser +characters, a few stand out insistent of our notice. At the threshold of +the story, Chryseis and Briseis appear as the innocent causes of the +quarrel of the chieftains. Chryseis is still a maiden, as far as can be +inferred, and had not lost kindred and friends when taken captive; for +her father, the priest of sacred Chryse, comes to beg her release, with +boundless ransoms. Hence her day of captivity is brief, and the aged +father joyously welcomes his beloved daughter. She must have been +beautiful and clever, for Agamemnon prized her far above Clytemnestra. + +The story of Briseis is a much sadder one, and graphically illustrates +the fate of a gentlewoman who fell into the hands of the foe. She was a +captive widow, husband and kindred having been slain by Achilles. But +her captor loved her devotedly, and to him she was a wife in all but in +name; and Patroclus had promised her that she should in time become the +wedded wife of Achilles. The young warrior weeps bitterly when she is +taken from him, but at the close of the Iliad we see them happily +reunited. She is remembered because of the great passions that gathered +about her. + +Homer presents two pictures of heroic motherhood in sorrow,--Hecuba and +Thetis; for the latter, though a goddess, is perfectly human in her +devotion to her fated son, Achilles. To her he goes for comfort, and she +is ever resourceful in responding to his wants. She weeps over his +destiny, but, since he has chosen the better part, she nobly supports +him in every struggle. Hecuba is truly the companion of her husband, +King Priam, associated with him in his projects, and sharing his +counsels. She has borne him nineteen children, and these she has seen +slain, one after another, by the hand of the foe. Hector is her favorite +son, in whose courage she recognizes the bulwark of Ilium. When she sees +him exposed to certain death, her anxiety overcomes her pride and she +beseeches him to come within the walls; and when at last her son has +succumbed, we find in her the same mingling of grief and of pride. Her +wild despair seems to be assuaged by the thought that her son died +gloriously. This heroic sentiment sustains her before the corpse of +Hector, and even in her lamentation she voices her calm courage. + + + + +IV + +WOMEN OF THE ODYSSEY + + +Ten years have passed since the fall of Ilium, and the various heroes of +the Greeks have met with diverse fortunes. Agamemnon, king of men, has +returned to his fatherland, but merely to find treason and death at the +hands of AEgisthus, the new lord of Clytemnestra, his wife. Menelaus, +after long wanderings, especially in Egypt, has reestablished his +kingdom in Sparta, with Helen as his queen. Odysseus, King of Ithaca, +had the longest and most perilous voyage homeward, and, after meeting +with various misadventures, has been detained for nearly eight long +years, consuming his own heart, in the island paradise of Calypso, +Meanwhile, on his own island, Ithaca, things have begun to go amiss. The +island chiefs, men of the younger generation, begin to woo Penelope and +to harass her son, Telemachus. The wooers, after being rebuffed for +years by the fair queen, are becoming insolent, quartering themselves +upon her, and devouring her substance. At this time the action of the +Odyssey begins. + +The determined time has now arrived when, by the counsels of the gods, +Odysseus is to be brought home to free his house, to avenge himself on +the wooers, and to recover his kingdom, Pallas Athena is the chief +agent in the restoration of Odysseus to his fatherland. She beseeches +Zeus that he may be delivered, and in accordance with this prayer Hermes +is sent to Calypso to bid her release Odysseus. Meanwhile, the goddess, +in human form, visits Telemachus in Ithaca, and urges the young prince +to withstand the suitors who are devastating his house, and to go in +search of his father. Touched by the words of the goddess, youth rapidly +gives way to manhood, and Telemachus determines to assert his rights and +to find his father. + +After the departure of the goddess, the prince enters the court where +the suitors are gathered, listening to the singing of the renowned +minstrel Phemius; and his song was of the pitiful return of the Achaeans. +We now have our first vision of discreet Penelope. From her upper +chamber she hears the glorious strain, and she descends the high stairs +from her apartments, accompanied by two of her handmaids. "Now, when the +fair lady had come unto the wooers, she stood by the doorpost of the +well-builded roof, holding up her glistening tire before her face; and a +faithful maiden stood on either side of her." She begs Phemius to cease +from this sorrowful strain, which wastes her heart within her breast, +since to her, above all women, hath come a sorrow comfortless, because +she holds in constant memory so dear a head,--even that man whose fame +is noised abroad from Hellas to mid-Argos. Telemachus gently rebukes his +mother for interrupting the song of the minstrel, and bids her return to +her chamber and to her own housewiferies, the loom and distaff, and bid +the handmaids ply their tasks. Then in amaze she goes back to her +chamber, for she lays up the wise saying of her son in her heart. She +ascends to the upper chamber with the women, her handmaids, and there +bewails Odysseus, her dear lord, till gray-eyed Athena casts sweet sleep +upon her eyelids. + +Telemachus begins to assert himself before the violent suitors. When +night falls and each goes to his own house to lie down to rest, the +young prince is attended to his chamber by the aged Euryclea, who had +nursed him when a little one. She bears the burning torches, and +prepares the chamber for her young master; and when he takes off his +soft doublet, she folds and smooths it and hangs it on a pin by the +jointed bedstead. Then she goes forth from the room, and there, all +night long, wrapped in a fleece of wool, Telemachus meditates in his +heart upon the journey that Athena has shown him. + +The next day, after a stormy meeting of the assembly, Telemachus +secretly sets sail for Pylus, accompanied by the goddess Athena, in the +form of Mentor. Only Euryclea, the youth's faithful nurse, knows of his +journey, and she has taken a great oath not to reveal it to his mother +till the eleventh or twelfth day. Nestor graciously receives Telemachus +at Pylus, and, as he himself has no news of Odysseus, sends him on to +Sparta, to King Menelaus, in the company of his own son, Pisistratus. +The young men are graciously received by Menelaus and Helen, and +Telemachus learns that Odysseus was a captive on an island of the deep +in the halls of the nymph Calypso. + +Meanwhile, the suitors in Ithaca learn of Telemachus's departure and lay +an ambush to intercept him on his return. Discreet Penelope, too, learns +by chance of his absence, and of the plots of the wooers, and her heart +melts within her at the thought of danger to her child. The good nurse +Euryclea tells her of Telemachus's plan, and lulls her queen's grief. +Penelope returns to her chamber and prays to Athena to save her dear son +and ward off from him the malice of the suitors. As she lies there in +her upper chamber, fasting, and tasting neither meat nor drink, and +musing over the fate of her dear son, gray-eyed Athena makes a phantom +in the likeness of Penelope's sister, Iphthime, and sends her to comfort +Penelope amid her sorrow and lamenting. Reassured by the phantom +concerning her son, the devoted matron begs for news of her husband, +pleading to know whether he be alive or dead, but this information is +denied her. Yet the heart of the disconsolate wife and mother is +cheered, so sweet was the vision that came to her in the dead of night. + +Homer now transports us to an assembly of the gods. Athena tells the +tale of the many woes of Odysseus, and Zeus commands Hermes, the +messenger god, to bid Calypso release Odysseus and start him on his +voyage to the Phaeacians, who are destined to return the wanderer to his +own dear country. Hermes quickly reaches the far-off isle of Ogygia, +where was the grotto of the nymph of the braided tresses. The fair +goddess at once knows him, and, after giving him entertainment, inquires +his message. Calypso regretfully and well-nigh rebelliously receives the +command of Zeus, and complains of the jealousy of the gods, who forbid +goddesses openly to mate with men. Yet, as none can make void the +purpose of Zeus, she will obey the command. Hermes departs, and the +nymph goes on her way to the great-hearted Odysseus. She finds him +sitting on the shore; his eyes were never dry of tears, his sweet life +was ebbing away as he mourned for his return, and through his tears he +looked wistfully over the unharvested deep. Calypso bids him sorrow no +more, for she will send him away, and directs him how to prepare a barge +on which to make the voyage. Four days are devoted to the making of the +barge, and on the fifth the goddess sends him on his way, providing him +with food and drink for his journey, and causing a gentle wind to blow. + +Goodly Odysseus joyously sets his sail to the breeze, and keeps his eye +on the star Orion, which the fair goddess had bidden him to keep ever on +his left as he traverses the deep. + +Seventeen days he sails placidly along, and on the eighteenth appear the +shadowy hills of the land of the Phaeacians, whither he is bound. Then +spies him his old enemy, Poseidon, and the earth shaker gathers the +clouds and rouses the storms, and down speeds night from heaven. The +great waves smite down upon Odysseus, and he loses the helm from his +hand and the mast is broken. He is thrown from his raft; but, again +clutching it, clambers upon it, avoiding grim death. Woman is again +destined to be the means of salvation for the hero. Ino of the fair +ankles, daughter of Cadmus, in time past a mortal maiden, but now a sea +nymph, Leucothea, marks his dire straits and takes pity upon him, and +gives him her veil to wind about him when he throws himself into the +deep. When his raft is at last broken asunder, he wraps the veil about +him; and for two days and nights it bears him up until at length he +makes the rugged shore. Throwing the veil into the stream, to be wafted +back to fair-ankled Ino, Odysseus, bruised and battered, clambers among +the reeds on the bank. He finds a resting place underneath two olive +trees, and Athena sheds sweet sleep upon his eyelids. + +That same night, the daughter of the king of the Phaeacians, Nausicaa, +beautiful like the goddesses, was sleeping in a sumptuous chamber. For +it was to the island domain of King Alcinous, Scheria, land of the +Phaeacians, that Odysseus had come. To the palace of the king went +Athena, devising a return for the great-hearted Odysseus. + +"She betook her to the rich-wrought bower, wherein was sleeping a maiden +like to the gods in form and comeliness, Nausicaa, the daughter of +Alcinous, high of heart. Beside her, on each hand of the pillars of the +door, were two handmaids, dowered with beauty from the Graces, and the +shining doors were shut. + +"But the goddess, fleet as the breath of the wind, swept toward the +couch of the maiden, and stood above her head." + +In the semblance of Nausicaa's favorite girl friend and comrade, the +goddess addresses her: + +"'Nausicaa, how hath thy mother so heedless a maiden to her daughter? +Lo! thou hast shining raiment that lies by thee uncared for, and thy +marriage day is near at hand, when thou thyself must needs go +beautifully clad, and have garments to give to them who shall lead thee +to the house of the bridegroom. And, behold, these are the things whence +a good report goes abroad among men, wherein a father and lady mother +take delight. But come, let us arise and go a-washing with the breaking +of the day, and I will follow thee to be thy mate in the toil, that +without delay thou mayst get thee ready, since truly thou art not long +to be a maiden. Lo! already they are wooing thee, the noblest youths of +all the Phaeacians, among that people whence thou thyself dost draw thy +lineage. So come, beseech thy noble father betimes in the morning to +furnish thee with mules and a wain to carry the men's raiment, and the +robes, and the shining coverlets. Yea, and for thyself it is seemlier +far to go thus than on foot, for the places where we must wash are a +great way from the town.'" + +So spake the gray-eyed Athena, and departed to Olympus, seat of the +gods. + +"Anon came the throned Dawn, and awakened Nausicaa of the fair robes, +who straightway marvelled on the dream, and went through the halls to +tell her parents, her father dear and her mother. And she found them +within, her mother sitting by the hearth with the women, her handmaids, +spinning yarn of sea-purple stain, but her father she met as he was +going forth to the renowned kings in their council, whither the noble +Phaeacians called him. Standing close by her dear father, she spake, +saying: 'Father, dear, couldst thou not lend me a high wagon with strong +wheels, that I may take the goodly raiment to the river to wash, so much +as I have lying soiled? Yea, and it is seemly that thou thyself, when +thou art with the princes in council, shouldst have fresh raiment to +wear. Also, there are five dear sons of thine in the halls, two married, +but three are lusty bachelors, and these are always eager for new-washen +garments wherein to go to the dances; for all these things have I taken +thought.' + +"This she said, because she was ashamed to speak of glad marriage to her +father; but he saw all and answered, saying: + +"'Neither the mules nor aught else do I grudge thee, my child. Go thy +ways, and the thralls shall get thee ready a high wagon with good +wheels, and fitted with an upper frame.'" + +So, in obedience to the king's command, the mule team is made ready in +the courtyard, and the maiden and her mother store in the wagon the +raiment, a basket filled with all manner of food, and wine in a goatskin +bottle, and olive oil in a golden cruse, that the princess and her +maidens might anoint themselves after the bath. Then Nausicaa herself +takes the whip and the reins, and she and her attendants start off for a +joyous holiday. When they reach the stream of the river, the maidens +unharness the mules and turn them loose to graze on the honey-sweet +clover. Then they take out the garments, wash and cleanse them from all +stains, and spread them out along the shore to dry. Work over, they +bathe, anoint themselves with olive oil, and partake of their noonday +meal on the river banks. Now for an afternoon of maidenly pastime. They +indulge in the choral game of ball, laying aside their headdresses, and +among them Nausicaa of the white arms, who outshone in beauty her maiden +company, began the song. + +But Athena is overruling this girlish frolic, for the rescue of her +hero. The princess throws the ball at one of her companions, but it +misses her and falls into the eddying river, whereat the maidens all +raise a piercing scream, as only maidens can. Odysseus is awakened, and, +sitting up, wonders into what sort of land he is come; surely it was the +shrill cry of maidens, but whether of nymphs or of mortals he cannot +tell. He will make essay, however; and, tearing a leafy bough from a +tree to cover him, he sallies forth from the thicket like a +mountain-bred lion. Loathsome and terrible, being disfigured by the +brine of the sea, does he appear to the maidens, and they flee cowering +here and there about the shore. Only Alcinous's daughter stands firm, +for Athena gives her courage of heart and takes all trembling from her +limbs. Odysseus does not venture to approach in the attitude of a +suppliant, but, standing aloof, beseeches her compassion with sweet and +cunning words: + +"I supplicate thee, O queen, whether thou art a goddess or a mortal! If +indeed thou art a goddess of them that keep the wide heaven, then to +Artemis, the daughter of great Zeus, I mainly liken thee, for beauty and +stature and shapeliness. But if thou art one of the daughters of men who +dwell on earth, thrice blessed are thy father and thy lady mother, and +thrice blessed thy brethren. Surely their souls ever glow with gladness +for thy sake each time they see thee entering the dance, so fair a +flower of maidens! But he is of heart the most blessed beyond all other +who shall prevail with gifts of wooing, and lead thee to his home. Never +have mine eyes beheld such an one among mortals, neither man nor woman; +great awe comes upon me as I look on thee. + +"But, queen, have pity on me; for, after many trials and sore, to thee +first of all am I come, and of the other folk who hold this city and +land I know no man. Nay, show me the town, give me an old garment to +cast about me, if thou hadst, when thou camest here, any wrap for the +linen. And may the gods grant thee all thy heart's desire: a husband and +a home, and a mind at one with his may they give--a good gift; for there +is nothing mightier and nobler than when man and wife are of one heart +and mind in a house, a grief to their foes, and to their friends great +joy, but their own hearts know it best." + +Then Nausicaa of the white arms answered him, and said: "Stranger, +forasmuch as thou seemest no evil man nor foolish--and it is Olympian +Zeus himself that giveth weal to men, to the good and to the evil, to +each one as he will, and this thy lot doubtless is of him, and so thou +must in any wise endure it:--now, since thou hast come to our city and +our land, thou shalt not lack raiment, nor aught else that is the due of +a hapless suppliant, when he has met them who can befriend him. And I +will show thee the town, and name the name of the people. The Phaeacians +hold this city and land, and I am the daughter of Alcinous, great of +heart, on whom all the might and force of the Phaeacians depend." + +The princess then calls her maidens and bids them give the stranger meat +and drink, and olive oil for his bath, and raiment to put on. And when +he had bathed and anointed himself, and had put on the raiment, Athena +"made him greater and more mighty to behold, and from his head caused +deep, curling locks to flow, like the hyacinth flower," shedding grace +about his head and shoulders. + +"Then to the shore of the sea went Odysseus apart, and sat down, glowing +in beauty and grace; and the princess marvelled at him, and spake among +her fair-tressed maidens, saying: + +"'Listen, my white-armed maidens, and I will say somewhat. Not without +the will of all the gods who hold Olympus hath this man come among the +godlike Phaeacians. Erewhile he seemed to me uncomely, but now he is like +the gods that keep the wide heaven. Would that such an one might be +called my husband, dwelling here, and that it might please him here to +abide! But come, my maidens, give the stranger meat and drink.'" + +Food is set before the famishing Odysseus, and, after his hunger is +appeased, Nausicaa prepares for the homeward return. She addresses the +hero, and gives him full directions how to reach her father's palace; +part of the way he may accompany her, but not when they approach a +populous part of the city; for she dreads the unfriendly comments of +loungers and passers-by. + +[Illustration 80 _CIRCE After the painting by Henri P. Motte. The myth +of Circe turning the companions of Ulysses into swines shows the +religious belief, in ancient Greece, in magical transformation of human +beings into animals._] + +"And some one of the baser sort might meet me and say: 'Who is this that +goes with Nausicaa, this tall and goodly stranger? Where found she him? +Her husband he will be, her very own. Either she has taken in some +shipwrecked wanderer of strange men, for no men dwell near us; or some +god has come in answer to her instant prayer; from heaven has he +descended, and will have her to wife for evermore. Better so, if herself +she has ranged abroad and found a lord from a strange land; for verily +she holds in no regard the Phaeacians here in this country, the many men +and noble who are her wooers.' So will they speak, and this would turn +to my reproach. Yea, and I myself would think it blame of another +maiden who did such things in despite of her friends, her father and +mother being still alive, and was conversant with men before the day of +open wedlock. But, stranger, heed well what I say, that as soon as may +be thou mayst gain at my father's hands an escort and a safe return. +Thou shalt find a fair grove of Athena, a poplar grove near the road, +and a spring wells forth therein, and a meadow lies all around. There is +my father's demesne, and his fruitful close, within the sound of a man's +shout from the city. Sit thee down there, and wait until such time as we +may have come into the city and reached the house of my father. But when +thou deemest that we are got to the palace, then go up to the city of +the Phaeacians, and ask for the house of my father Alcinous, high of +heart. It is easily known, and a young child could be thy guide, for +nowise like it are builded the houses of the Phaeacians, so goodly is the +palace of the hero Alcinous. But when thou art within the shadow of the +halls and the court, pass quickly through the great chamber, till thou +comest to my mother, who sits at the hearth in the light of the fire, +weaving yarn of sea-purple stain, a wonder to behold. Her chair is +leaned against a pillar, and her maidens sit behind her. And there my +father's throne leans close to hers, wherein he sits and drinks his +wine, like an immortal. Pass thou by him, and cast thy hands about my +mother's knees, that thou mayst see quickly and with joy the day of thy +returning, even if thou art from a very far country. If but her heart be +kindly disposed toward thee, then is there hope that thou shalt see thy +friends, and come to thy well-builded house and to thine own country." +The clever maiden had already learned where lies the real seat of +authority. + +Soon stranger and maiden part, and Nausicaa drives to the gateway of the +palace, and her brothers loose the mules from the car and carry the +raiment within; then the maiden passes to her chamber, where her +attendant Eurymedusa meets her and prepares her supper. And at this +point Nausicaa slips out of the main thread of the story, for maidens +were not allowed to take part in the public functions with which the +king entertained his guest. + +When Odysseus has met with a favorable reception from the royal pair, +the queen recognizes the garments which he wears, and this leads to the +story of his rescue, but as yet he withholds his name. Alcinous is +inclined to censure his daughter for not bringing the rescued one to the +house when she returned with her maidens, but Odysseus gallantly defends +the blameless maiden. And Alcinous, moved by his princely bearing, +expresses the wish that so goodly a man would wed his daughter, and be +called his son, there abiding. But the king does not insist, and the +invitation was probably merely a courteous form of expression customary +in those early days. + +Only one more glimpse do we have of the Princess Nausicaa. After a day +of athletic contests and various entertainments, Odysseus has arrayed +himself for the evening, and is going to join the chiefs at their wine. + +"And Nausicaa, dowered with beauty by the gods, stood by the doorpost of +the well-builded hall, and marvelled at Odysseus, beholding him before +her eyes, and she uttered her voice and spake to him winged words: + +"'Farewell, stranger, and even in thine own country bethink thee of me +upon a time, for that to me first thou owest the ransom of life.' + +"And Odysseus of many counsels answered her, saying: 'Nausicaa, daughter +of great-hearted Alcinous, yea, may Zeus, the thunderer, the lord of +Hera, grant me to reach my home and see the day of my returning; so +would I, even there, do thee worship as to a god, all my days for +evermore, for thou, lady, hast given me my life.'" + +Thus delicately did Odysseus make a patron saint of the pure-hearted +maiden, who had so innocently shown her fondness for him. + +Royally was Odysseus entertained by King Alcinous and his noble-hearted +queen, Arete, daughter of his brother, who "was honored by him as no +other woman in the world is honored, of all that nowadays keep house +under the hand of their lords. Thus she hath, and hath ever had, all +worship heartily from her dear children and from her lord Alcinous and +from all the folk, who look on her as on a goddess, and greet her with +reverent speech when she goes about the town. Yea, for she, too, hath no +lack of understanding. To whomsoever she shows favor, even if they be +men, she ends their feuds." + +After the feast, Demodocus the minstrel sang the story of the Wooden +Horse; and at the memory of all he had suffered, the heart of Odysseus +melted and the tears wet his cheeks beneath his eyelids. His host marked +his grief, and begged him to tell the story of his adventures. Odysseus +complied by giving an account of his wanderings, from the fall of Troy +up to his arrival among the Phaeacians. The hero had struggled time and +again against men, against giants and monsters, against the forces of +nature, and finally against an adversary yet more powerful--the love of +goddesses. + +Among his adventures was the story of his trip to the isle of AEa, where +dwelt Circe, an awful goddess, of mortal speech, own sister of the +wizard AEetes, and aunt of the more terrible enchantress Medea. She dwelt +in a house of polished stone, and all round her palace mountain-bred +wolves and lions were roaming, whom she herself had bewitched with evil +drugs. As half his band approached the house, they heard Circe singing +in a sweet voice as she passed to and fro before the great web, +imperishable, such as is the handiwork of goddesses, fine of woof and +full of grace and splendor; truly a fascinating goddess was she, though +rather gruesome in her surroundings. When the comrades of Odysseus +called to her, she graciously invited them in. "So she led them in and +set them upon chairs and high seats, and made them a mess of cheese and +barley meal and yellow honey with Pramnian wine, and mixed harmful drugs +with the food to make them utterly forget their own country. Now, when +she had given them the cup and they had drunk it off, presently she +smote them with a wand, and in the sties of the swine she penned them. +So they had the head and voice, the bristles and the shape, of swine, +but their mind abode even as of old. Thus were they penned there +weeping, and Circe flung them acorns and mast and fruit of the cornel +tree to eat, whereon wallowing swine do always batten." + +Only one had been wise enough not to enter, and he rushed back to tell +the tale to his lord. Odysseus started off alone to rescue his comrades; +and Hermes met him on the way, in the likeness of a young man, and gave +him _moly_, a magic herb, and full directions for its use, to ward off +enchantment. + +Fair Circe receives him most graciously and prepares also for him the +magic potion, but for once her charm fails. He draws his sword to slay +her, and then she becomes the suppliant. She has found her match, and at +once, as if she were a mortal, falls in love with him. Her bonhomie is +now her greatest charm. She swears a great oath not to harm him or his +companions, and restores to the natural form those whom she had already +bewitched. Royal entertainment and gracious hospitality and words of +counsel are now the order of the day--attendant nymphs, delicious +baths, and sumptuous banquets. So there they remained for a full year, +feasting on abundant flesh and sweetest wine. + +Lady Circe proved herself to be the counsellor and friend of Odysseus, +and showed him how to carry out his fond desire of visiting the realm of +Hades, to seek the spirit of Theban Tiresias, that he might unfold to +the wanderer his future. Then, clad in a great, shining robe, light of +woof and gracious, with a fair golden girdle about her waist, and a veil +upon her head, she bade farewell to Odysseus and his crew, and sent a +favoring wind as a kindly escort to the dark-prowed ship. + +During his descent into Hades, Odysseus discourses with the Theban seer, +who makes known to him his destiny, and also with the wraith of his +mother, who tells him that faithful Penelope abides with steadfast +spirit in his halls, and wearily for her the nights wane always and the +days in the shedding of tears; and how she herself was reft of sweet +life through her sore longing for him. + +And, after her, there appears a great company of the famous women of +heroic times, wives and daughters of mighty men, who had been beloved of +gods and illustrious mortals,--Tyro, ancestress of Nestor's house; and +Antiope, mother of Amphion and Zethus, founders of seven-gated Thebes; +and Alcmene, mother of Heracles; and Epicaste, mother of Oedipus, who +was wedded to her own son; and lovely Chloris, wife of Neleus; and Leda, +mother of Castor and Pollux; and Iphimedia, and Phaedra, and Procris, and +Maera, and Clymene, and hateful Eriphyle, and innumerable other wives and +daughters of heroes,--Homer's _Catalogue of Famous Women_, who had +exerted mighty influence in heroic times. + +Upon Odysseus's return to the island of AEa, Circe greets them, and once +more they enjoy meat and bread in plenty and dark red wine. And our +hero Circe leads apart and makes him sit down, and lays herself at his +feet and asks all his tale. She then warns him of the dangers he has yet +to encounter, and tells him how to meet them. Then, with words of +farewell, she sends the travellers on their voyage with a favoring +breeze. First, Odysseus encounters the Sirens, whose enchanting strains +he enjoys while he is bound tight to the mast, and the ears of his +companions are deafened with wax; he evades the Clashing Rocks, escapes +Scylla and Charybdis; and at last, on the Isle of the Sun, his comrades +slaughter and devour the sacred cattle of Helios--in violation of the +warnings of Tiresias and Circe. All are in consequence lost in a +shipwreck, save Odysseus, who, after floating about for ten days on a +raft, reaches the island of Ogygia, abode of the fair nymph Calypso, who +holds him as her beloved for eight long years and would make him +immortal. + +Thus the tale ended--all are spellbound throughout the shadowy halls at +the story, and Alcinous and his courtiers offer all manner of gifts to +Odysseus. The next day, a ship is got ready for its voyage to far-off +Ithaca; the gifts are stored on board, a farewell feast is held, and +Odysseus bids farewell to his gracious hosts: + +"My lord Alcinous, most notable of all the people, pour ye the drink +offering, and send me safe upon my way; and as for you, fare ye well. +For now have I all that my heart desired, an escort and loving gifts. +May the gods of heaven give me good fortune with them, and may I find my +noble wife in my home with my friends unharmed, while ye, for your part, +abide here and make glad your gentle wives and children; and may the +gods vouchsafe all manner of good, and may no evil come nigh the +people!" + +Then, after a grateful farewell to Queen Arete, the hero is conducted to +the waiting ship, and there left reclining upon the soft rugs that have +been spread for him, and soon a sound sleep, very sweet, falls upon his +eyelids. + +When Odysseus awakes, he is in his dear native land, though he does not +recognize it until the goddess Athena appears and tells him how he is to +regain wife and kingdom. For us, the rest of the story centres about +Queen Penelope, who for so many, m'any years has been awaiting the +return of her lord. + +Odysseus, disguised by the goddess in the form of an aged beggar, goes +to the hut of the swineherd Eumaeus, with whose aid the plot for the +destruction of the wooers is to be carried out; and Athena summons +Telemachus to return from Lacedaemon to meet his father and bear his part +in the final scenes. When the young man returns to the palace, after his +interview with his father, "the nurse Euryclea saw him far before the +rest, as she was strewing skin coverlets upon the carven chairs; and +straightway she drew near him, weeping, and all the other maidens of +Odysseus, of the hardy heart, gathered about him, and kissed him +lovingly on the head and shoulders. Now wise Penelope came forth from +her chamber, like Artemis or golden Aphrodite, and cast her arms about +her dear son, and fell a-weeping, and kissed his face and both his +beautiful eyes, and wept aloud, and spake to him winged words: + +"'Thou art come, Telemachus, sweet light of mine eyes; methought I should +see thee never again, after thou hadst gone in thy ship to Pylus, +secretly, and without my will, to seek tidings of thy dear father. Come +now, tell me, what sign didst thou get of him?'" + +Telemachus tells his mother of his journey, and his friend Theoclymenus, +who has the gift of second-sight, prophesies the speedy return of +Odysseus. Soon the hero himself appears as a beggar in his own halls, +and is roughly treated by the haughty wooers. He soundly whips the +braggart beggar Irus, and the story of his presence is noised throughout +the house. + +Constant Penelope is ever anxious to hear some word of her lord, and +every wandering stranger with a tale to tell could win rich gifts from +her by devising some story of Odysseus. She has heard of the beggar in +her halls, and summons him to her presence and questions him, and tells +him of her grief and her longing for more news of the absent one. When +crafty Odysseus fashioned a story of his entertaining her lord in Crete, +her tears flowed as she listened, and she wept for her own lord who was +sitting by her. The disguised hero had compassion for his wife; but he +craftily hid his tears, and described the appearance of Odysseus so +fully that she could not deny the certain likeness. + +Then the aged nurse Euryclea, who had tended him in his youth, is asked +to wash the feet of the old man. As the crone makes ready the caldron, a +sudden fear seizes Odysseus lest when she handles his foot she might +know the scar of the wound that the boar had dealt him with its white +tusk in his boyhood. When the old woman took the scarred limb, she knew +it by the touch, and grief and joy seized her, and she called him +Odysseus, her dear child. Then would she have revealed the glad news to +Penelope, had Odysseus not seized her by the throat and made her swear +to keep his presence secret until the slaying of the lordly wooers. + +Next day occurs the famous trial of the bow of Odysseus, which none of +the suitors can draw; then Odysseus gets the bow into his hands, strings +it, sends the arrow through the axheads, and finally, leaping on the +stone threshold, deals his shafts among the wooers. The wretched +company are all slaughtered, the faithless women of the household are +hanged, and ominous silence reigns over the palace of Odysseus. + +Euryclea hastens to the upper chamber to bring to Queen Penelope the +good news that Odysseus has surely come and has slain the haughty +wooers. The fair lady can with difficulty believe the tidings, but she +is finally persuaded to go down to see the wooers dead and him that slew +them. + +"With the word, she went down from the upper chamber, and much her heart +debated whether she should stand apart and question her dear lord or +draw nigh and clasp his head and hands. But when she had come within and +had crossed the threshold of stone, she sat down over against Odysseus, +in the light of the fire, by the further wall. Now, he was sitting by +the tall pillar, looking down and waiting to know if perchance his noble +wife would speak to him, when her eyes beheld him. But she sat long in +silence, and amazement came upon her soul, and now she would look upon +him steadfastly with her eyes, and now again she knew him not, for that +he was clad in vile raiment. And Telemachus rebuked her, and spake and +hailed her: + +"'Mother mine, ill mother, of an ungentle heart, why turnest thou thus +away from my father, and dost not sit by him and question him and ask +him all? No other woman in the world would harden her heart to stand +thus aloof from her lord, who, after much travail and sore, had come to +her in the twentieth year to his own country. But thy heart is ever +harder than stone.' + +"Then wise Penelope answered him, saying: 'Child, my mind is amazed +within me, and I have no strength to speak, or to ask him aught, nay, or +to look on him face to face. But if in truth this be Odysseus, and he +hath indeed come home, verily we shall be aware of each other the more +surely; for we have tokens that we twain know of, even we, secret from +all others.' + +"So she spake, and the steadfast, goodly Odysseus smiled, and quickly he +spake to Telemachus winged words: 'Telemachus, leave now thy mother to +make trial of me within the chambers; so shall she soon come to a better +knowledge than heretofore.' + +"Meanwhile, the housedame Eurynome had bathed the great-hearted Odysseus +within his house, and anointed him with olive oil, and cast about him a +goodly mantle and a doublet. Moreover, Athena shed great beauty from his +head downwards, and made him greater and more mighty to behold, and from +his head caused deep, curling locks to flow, like the hyacinth flower. +And as when some skilful man overlays gold upon silver, one that +Hephaestus and Pallas Athena have taught all manner of craft, and full of +grace is his handiwork, even so did Athena shed grace about his head and +shoulders; and forth from the bath he came, in form like to the +immortals. Then he sat down again on the high seat, whence he had +arisen, over against his wife, and spake to her, saying: + +"'Strange lady, surely to thee, above all womankind, the Olympians have +given a heart that cannot be softened. No other woman in the world would +harden her heart to stand thus aloof from her husband, who, after much +travail and sore, had come to her, in the twentieth year, to his own +country.--Nay, come, nurse strew a bed for me to lie all alone, for +assuredly her spirit within her is as iron.' + +"Then wise Penelope answered him again: 'Strange man, I have no proud +thoughts, nor do I think scorn of thee, nor am I too greatly astonished, +but I know right well what manner of man thou wert when thou wentest +forth out of Ithaca, on the long-oared galley.--But come, Euryclea, +spread for him the good bedstead outside the stablished bridal chamber +that he built himself. Thither bring ye forth the good bedstead, and +cast bedding thereon, even fleeces and rugs and shining blankets.' + +"So she spake and made trial of her lord, but Odysseus in sore +displeasure spake to his true wife, saying: 'Verily, a bitter word is +this, lady, that thou hast spoken. Who has set my bed otherwhere? Hard +would it be for one, how skilled soever, unless a god were to come that +might easily set it in another place, if so he would. But of men there +is none living, howsoever strong in his youth, that could lightly +upheave it; for a great marvel is wrought in the fashion of the bed, and +it was I that made it, and none other. There was growing a bush of +olive, long of leaf, and most goodly of growth, within the inner court, +and the stem as large as a pillar. Round about this I built the chamber, +till I had finished it, with stones close set, and I roofed it over well +and added thereto compacted doors fitting well. Next I sheared off all +the light wood of the long-leaved olive, and rough-hewed the trunk +upwards from the root, and smoothed it around with the adze, well and +skilfully, and made straight the line thereto and so fashioned it into +the bedpost, and I bored it all with the auger. Beginning from this +headpost, I wrought at the bedstead till I had finished it, and made it +fair with inlaid work of gold and of silver and of ivory. Then I made +fast therein a bright purple band of oxhide. Even so I declare to thee +this token, and I know not, lady, if the bedstead be yet fast in its +place, or if some man has cut away the stem of the olive tree and set +the bedstead otherwhere.' + +"So he spake, and at once her knees were loosened, and her heart melted +within her, as she knew the sure tokens that Odysseus showed her. Then +she fell a-weeping, and ran straight towards him and cast her hands +about his neck, and kissed his head and spake, saying: + +"'Murmur not against me, Odysseus, for thou wert ever at other times the +wisest of men. It is the gods that gave us sorrow, the gods who were +jealous that we should abide together and have joy of our youth and come +to the threshold of old age. So now be not wroth with me hereat nor full +of indignation because I did not welcome thee gladly as now, when I +first saw thee. For always my heart within my breast shuddered for fear +lest some man should come and deceive me with his words, for many there +be that devise gainful schemes and evil. Nay, even Argive Helen, +daughter of Zeus, would not have lain with a stranger, and taken him for +a lover, had she known that the warlike sons of the Achaeans would bring +her home again to her own dear country. Howsoever, it was the god that +set her upon this shameful deed; nor ever, ere that, did she lay up in +her heart the thought of this folly, a bitter folly, whence on us, too, +first came sorrow. But now that thou hast told all the sure tokens of +our bed, which never was seen by mortal man, save by thee and me, and +one maiden only, the daughter of Actor, that my father gave me ere yet I +had come hither, she who kept the doors of our strong bridal chamber, +even now dost thou bend my soul, all ungentle as it is.' + +"Thus she spake, and in his heart she stirred yet a greater longing to +lament, and he wept as he embraced his beloved wife and true. And even +as when the sight of land is welcome to swimmers, whose well-wrought +ship Poseidon hath smitten on the deep, all driven with the wind and +swelling waves, and but a remnant hath escaped the gray sea water and +swum to the shore, and their bodies are all crusted with the brine, and +gladly have they set foot on land and escaped an evil end; so welcome +to her was the sight of her lord, and her white arms she would never +quite let go from his neck. + +"Now when the twain had taken their fill of sweet love, they had delight +in the tales which they told one to the other. The fair lady spake of +all that she had endured in the halls at the sight of the ruinous throng +of wooers, who for her sake slew many cattle, kine, and goodly sheep; +and many a cask of wine was broached. And, in turn, Odysseus, of the +seed of Zeus, recounted all the griefs he had wrought on men, and all +his own travail and sorrow; and she was delighted with the story, and +sweet sleep fell not upon her eyelids till the tale was ended." + +Filled with incidents of domestic life in heroic times, the Odyssey +presents us a galaxy of women, if not more impressive, at any rate more +brilliant than that of the Iliad. Of these attractive figures, who +should first merit our consideration, if not the heroine of the poem? + +Queen, wife, mother, the sentiment which most characterizes Penelope is +love of husband, child, and home; her chief intellectual trait is +prudence. We find in her the rare combination of warmth of temperament +and sanity of judgment. Her sense of prudence does not exclude depth of +devotion, longings for the absent one, and outbursts of indignation at +the wrongs inflicted on her son. Her love for Odysseus is intense and +constant. There is a beautiful legend that when Odysseus came to carry +off his bride, her father entreated her to remain with him in his old +age. The chariot is ready to bear her away, and the maiden pauses just a +moment, hesitating 'twixt love and duty. Odysseus gives her her choice; +but, drawing down her veil, she signifies that where her lover goes +there will she go. This intensity of affection marks the twenty long +years of separation. Every night, she bewails Odysseus, her dear lord, +till gray-eyed Athena casts sweet sleep upon her eyelids. She ever longs +for, though at times despairs of, his return; and she inquires of every +stranger, that she may learn something of the wanderer. Penelope is also +a devoted mother. Ever anxious about her son, she grieves for him when +absent, and when at home guards him as far as possible from the +insolence of the wooers. In her obedience to her son, she seems to have +followed the Greek custom expected of a widow. + +In her relations with the wooers, Penelope adopted the only attitude +which was possible for a woman who would wait indefinitely for the +return of her lord. Parents and son, Greek custom and precedents, all +expected that a widow should remarry after so long an interval. And the +wooers were insolent, overwhelming the palace and rapidly making away +with the patrimony of Telemachus. Hence, only by coquettish dallying +could she postpone the evil day. + +In all things Penelope was a model housewife, ever engaged in feminine +tasks, overseeing her maidens at their work, watching over the younger +servants with the solicitude of a mother, and observing toward the aged +slave the deference of a daughter. But when the uncivil Melantho is +deficient in respect, the queen calls her severely to a sense of her +duty. When her husband returns, for whom she has waited during twenty +long years of widowhood, she does not throw herself straightway into his +arms. She fears a god may deceive her, and, the better to preserve for +Odysseus the treasures of the tenderness stored up in her heart, she +devises every cunning test to make sure it is really he. Never was there +in woman's heart a more ardent flame of love and devotion; never in a +woman's head intelligence so subtle, judgment so sure. When we fully +appreciate the charm of Penelope's character, we better understand how +the hero should sacrifice the devotion of a goddess for the love of such +a woman. + +"These two meet at last together, he after his long wanderings, and she +after having suffered the insistence of suitors in her palace; and this +is the pathos of the Odyssey. The woman, in spite of her withered youth +and tearful years of widowhood, is still expectant of her lord. He, +unconquered by the pleasures cast across his path, unterrified by all +the dangers he endures, clings in thought to the bride whom he led +forth, a blushing maiden, from her father's halls. O just, subtle, and +mighty Homer! There is nothing of Greek here more than of Hebrew, or of +Latin, or of German. It is pure humanity." + +Closely interwoven with the plot of the Odyssey is the aged and touching +figure of the faithful slave Euryclea, who by her devotion has become a +member of the family she serves. Taken captive in her girlhood, she had +nursed Odysseus in his childhood, and, later, his own son, Telemachus. +Thus she is to both a second mother. She assists the queen in managing +the house, in bringing up her son, in succoring the stranger. When she +recognizes her master, how ravishing is her joy, how she longs to share +it with her mistress! Yet she knows how to keep a secret. + +Circe and Calypso are styled goddesses, yet they are brought down to +earth in their love for Odysseus, and are thoroughly human in their +traits. Calypso feeds on ambrosia and nectar, and lives in a mysterious +grotto on an enchanted island; yet she loves like any mortal woman, and +bitter is her wail when she receives the command of the gods to let +Odysseus go. The enchantress Circe is much more dangerous, and takes a +ghoulish delight in metamorphosing men into swine; yet, when she falls +in love with Odysseus, she is the queenly lady, considerate of his +comrades, and in every way his guide, philosopher, and friend. Unlike +Calypso, she seeks not to detain Odysseus against the will of the gods, +but after the expiration of a year sends him on his way. + +To return to the domestic heroines: Queen Arete of Phaeacia is, like +Penelope, an example of the elevated position held by women in the royal +houses of heroic times. She exerts over the subjects of her husband the +same influence she exercises in the family circle. Her children share +the reverence and affection she has from husband and people. To her +Odysseus makes supplication; for if he win her favor, sure is his return +to his native land; she bids her people prepare gifts for her guest +friend at his departure, and to her Odysseus extends the pledging cup in +saying farewell. + +Where can one find phrases sufficiently subtle, expressions sufficiently +delicate, to reproduce the sweet picture of Nausicaa? Of all the +creations of poetic fancy, none equals her in perennial charm. "She is +simply," says Symonds, "the most perfect maiden, the purest, freshest +lightest-hearted girl of Greek romance." This immortal child of the +poetic imagination will, with two real women,--Lesbian Sappho, and Mary, +Queen of Scots,--have lovers in every age and in every clime. Though +merely a poet's fancy, Nausicaa is absolutely human and full of life, +and thus differs from the heroine of _The Tempest_, who of all poetic +creations most resembles her. Note her naive grace and charm, her +girlish vivacity and joy, at the beginning of the scene; and when the +occasion demands it, the girl becomes the woman, and with unaffected +simplicity and dignity she addresses the hero. No wonder that Odysseus +should seem the Prince Charming for whom she had been waiting; and there +may have been a slight chill of disappointment when, in expressing his +gratitude for his deliverance, he made her his patron saint instead of +his sweetheart. Yet, no doubt, she soon learned that the unknown hero +was the great Odysseus, husband of faithful Penelope, and hers was too +buoyant, too healthy a nature to pine away and die at the shattering of +a dream. Then, even if he had been a widower, he was too old for this +bright beauty. But what an ideal father-in-law he would make! And if the +young Telemachus should only come to Scheria!--and how do we know that +he did not later arrive there, sent a-courting by Odysseus after the +restoration of his realm? Eustathius preserves a tradition, based on +such good authorities as Hellanicus and Aristotle, that Telemachus +actually did wed the Princess Nausicaa; and the Athenian orator +Andocides claimed to be a descendant of this illustrious pair. + +So beautiful a legend could not escape treatment by later poets. Alcman, +one of the earliest lyric composers, describes in a poem the meeting of +Odysseus and Nausicaa, and Sophocles wrote a drama entitled _Nausicaa_, +or _The Washers_; and there is a tradition that, contrary to his usual +custom, the poet himself "appeared as an actor, winning much applause by +his beauty and grace in the dancing and rhythmic ball play, in the +character of Nausicaa herself." Lucian names her among the heroines of +mythical times who, through their goodness of heart, humanity, +gentleness of demeanor, and compassion toward the needy, deserve to rank +as patterns of womanly virtue. + +With such brilliant pictures of domestic life--the queens Penelope, +Helen, and Arete, exerting a womanly influence in the palaces, the +goddess-lovers Circe and Calypso on their enchanted islands, the slave +Euryclea tenderly caring for mistress and young master, and the maiden +Nausicaa, engaged in occupation and in pastime with her girl +friends--the Odyssey is a mirror reflecting the character of the Heroic +Age of Greece. + + + + +V + +THE LYRIC AGE + + +From the fascinating visions of the heroic past as they are presented in +the Homeric poems, we must now prepare to descend to the actualities of +life as they disclose themselves at the dawn of Greek history. Hesiod, +the epic poet of Boeotia, constitutes the bridge, as regards social +conditions, between the Heroic Age and the early historical periods of +the various peoples and cities of Greece. He describes the actual +conditions about him, and gives us glimpses of the life of the Greek +people which prepare us for the great changes that have taken place +through the overturning of monarchies, the spread of commerce and +colonization, and the awakening of the common people to a sense of their +rights and their power. Hence we may expect to find in his poetry much +light on the status of woman in remote times. + +Hesiod is usually ascribed to the second half of the ninth century +before the Christian Era. He lived at Ascra, near Mount Helicon, in +Boeotia, the original home of the AEolians. Amid agricultural +surroundings the poet grew up. Defrauded by his brother Perses of part +of his inheritance, he experienced hardships that quickened his sympathy +for the plain people and led him to reflection on life and its problems. +He was commissioned by the Muses, who appeared to him on Mount Helicon, +to _utter true things to men_--a phrase which strikes the keynote to his +poetry, for he dealt in realities and sought to alleviate the social +conditions of his times. His principal works are the _Works and Days_ +and the _Theogony_; there was also a Hesiodic _Catalogue of Women_, +attested by many allusions in classical writers, but, unfortunately for +our purpose, altogether lost to us. Very probably in this work, Hesiod +or his school told of the aristocratic women of Greek mythology, from +whose union with gods had sprung heroes. Lacking this, Hesiod is to us +"the poet of the Helots," and we gain from him only knowledge of the +common people of Boeotia and their manner of life. + +Hesiod's estimate of women is vastly inferior to that of Homer. Homer, +who sang for aristocratic ladies at the court of kings, has introduced +us into a society where women presided over their houses with grace and +dignity, and softened and refined the rough, warlike manners of men. +Hesiod, the poet of the plain people, is impressed with the hopelessness +of the conditions about him. The people are oppressed by the nobles; it +is impossible for them to obtain justice; the world seems all wrong. And +in seeking the causes of existing evils, the poet traces them back to +the one great evil which the gods have inflicted upon men; and that +is--woman. + +This indictment first finds expression in his version, of the myth of +Pandora, the Mother Eve of Greek legend. + +Hesiod tells us in this poem that in old days the human race had the use +of fire, and in gratitude to the gods offered burnt sacrifice. But +Prometheus had defrauded the gods of their just share of the sacrifices +and had compelled Zeus to be content with merely the bones and fat; and, +in return for this deception, Zeus devised grievous troubles for mortals +by depriving them of fire. Prometheus then stole fire from heaven. +Zeus, angered at being outwitted by the crafty Prometheus, determined to +inflict on men a bane from which they would not quickly recover. He +straightway commanded Hephaestus to mix earth and water, to endow the +plastic form with human voice and powers, and to liken it to a heavenly +goddess--virginal, winning, and fair. Athena was commanded to teach her +the domestic virtues; Aphrodite, to endow her with beauty, eager desire, +and passion that wastes the bodies of mortals; and Hermes, to bestow on +her a shameless mind and a treacherous nature. All obeyed the command of +Zeus, and in this manner was fashioned the first woman. Then Athena +added a girdle and ornaments; the Graces and Persuasion hung their +golden chains over her body, and the Hours wove for her garlands of +spring flowers. The name given this fascinating creature was Pandora, +because each of the gods had bestowed on her gifts to make her a fatal +bane unto mortals. + +Hermes then led her down to earth to present her to Epimetheus, whom his +brother Prometheus had bidden never to receive any presents from +Olympian Zeus. Epimetheus, however, was captivated by Pandora's beauty +and received her, and only after the evil befell did he remember his +brother's command. Until the advent of woman, men, it is said, had lived +secure from trouble, free from wearisome labor, and safe from painful +diseases that bring death to mankind. But now Pandora with her hands +lifted the lid from the great jar with which the gods had dowered her, +the great jar wherein these evils had been securely imprisoned, and let +them loose upon the earth. With the sorrows, hope had been confined; but +when they were loosed, hope flew not forth, for too soon Pandora closed +the lid of the vessel. Hence, laments Hesiod, hopeless is the lot of +humanity, while innumerable ills pass hither and thither among hopeless +men. Such is the mythus of the fall of man, as imagined by the early +Greeks. Man was punished for rebelling against the will of heaven. Woman +is the instrument of his chastisement, thrust upon him by the angry +deity. She possesses every charm, every allurement, but her very +fascination is a chief cause of ill to man. He in his folly receives +her, and thence befall him all the ills of life. The whole argument of +Hesiod in this passage indicates that he regarded woman as "a necessary +deduction from the happiness of life," as "the rift in the lute that +spoils its music." Contrasted with the Hebrew story, the Greek +represents woman as closing the door of hope to man; while the Hebrew +version sees in her seed the hope of the salvation that is to overcome +the evils of the fall. Even stronger is Hesiod's invective against the +female sex in the _Theogony_, where he repeats the story of Pandora, and +concludes with the following reflections: + + "From her the sex of tender woman springs; + Pernicious is the race; the woman tribe + Dwells upon earth, a mighty bane to men; + No mates for wasting want but luxury; + And as within the close-roofed hive, the drones, + Helpers of sloth, are pampered by the bees; + These all the day, till sinks the ruddy sun, + Haste on the wing, 'their murmuring labors ply,' + And still cement the white and waxen comb; + Those lurk within the covered hive, and reap + With glutted maw the fruits of others' toil; + Such evil did the Thunderer send to man + In woman's form, and so he gave the sex, + Ill helpmates of intolerable toils. + Yet more of ill instead of good he gave: + The man who shunning wedlock thinks to shun + The vexing cares that haunt the woman-state, + And lonely waxes old, shall feel the want + Of one to foster his declining years; + Though not his life be needy, yet his death + Shall scatter his possessions to strange heirs, + And aliens from his blood. Or if his lot + Be marriage and his spouse of modest fame + Congenial to his heart, e'en then shall ill + Forever struggle with the partial good, + And cling to his condition. But the man + Who gains the woman of injurious kind + Lives bearing in his secret soul and heart + Inevitable sorrow: ills so deep + As all the balms of medicine cannot cure." + +This passage contains in brief Hesiod's general ideas concerning woman. +Pandora brought infinite ills to mortals, for from her sprang the tribe +of woman, "a mighty bane to men." If a man marry, he will be sorry; and +if he refrain from marriage, he will regret it. A wretched old age +awaits the bachelor; and his possessions, at his death, are dissipated +by indifferent kindred. Even if he marry, and get a good wife, sorrows +and blessings are mingled in his lot; while if his wife be bad, ills so +deep are his "as all the balms of medicine cannot cure." So woman is a +being whose presence is a necessary evil; without her, man's destiny is +not complete, but he must endure the ills she brings for the sake of the +possible blessing that may come by sharing one's lot with her. A man, +says the bard of Ascra, cannot be too cautious in choosing his helpmate, +as the following sage counsel indicates: + + "Take to thy house a woman for thy bride + When in the ripeness of thy manhood's pride; + Thrice ten thy sum of years, the nuptial prime; + Nor fall far short nor far exceed the time. + Four years the ripening virgin shall consume, + And wed the fifth of her expanding bloom. + A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste; + Chief be some neighboring maid by thee embraced; + Look circumspect and long; lest thou be found + The merry mock of all the dwellers round. + No better lot has Providence assigned + Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind; + Nor can a worse befall than when thy fate + Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate. + She with no torch of mere material flame + Shall burn to tinder thy care-wasted frame; + Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within + And age unripe in bloom of years begin." + +The vein of contempt for woman which runs through the verses of Hesiod +finds many echoes in later writers, which indicates that in this +transition period, especially in Ionian Greece, evil influences were at +work, causing men to rebel against the shackles of wedded life and to +fail to realize the happiness they desired in the home and in the +family. It seems strange that Hesiod, in describing farm duties, should +not tell us more of the important function of the housewife. Yet in one +passage he merely emphasizes the importance of starting with "a house, +a wife, and an ox to plow," and in other passages speaks disparagingly +of woman and her work. So that even in lines where he might well have +commended her virtues the words of praise are left unsaid. + +The two centuries of Greek history following Hesiod are chiefly known to +us through the lyric poets, as epic poetry declined and the writing of +history had not yet begun. Lyric poetry is an index to the hearts of the +people: for in lyric poetry are expressed the thoughts and feelings of +reflective man. Woman is the great mainspring of existence; she it is +who is the general cause of man's thoughts, emotions, passions, joys, +and sorrows. Hence, as lyric poetry is the poetry of the heart, we find +recorded in the verses of Grecian lyrists man's attitude toward woman in +this period of "storm and stress" in the development of Greek +nationality. + +Archilochus is the father of iambic poetry, and he made it the medium of +expression of personal passion and satire. With all the ardor of his +nature, he loved Neobule, daughter of Lycambes, of the island of Paros, +where the poet had made his home. Certain fragments of his poems, still +extant, indicate the intensity of the flame with which he was consumed. +Archilochus has left us an exquisite picture of his loved one, clad in +all the beauty and grace a poetic lover could portray, with a rose and a +myrtle branch in her hand, and her tresses falling caressingly over her +shoulders. He sighed "were it to touch but her hand," and she seems at +first to have returned his affection. The lovers were betrothed, but +suddenly the father objected, and the match was broken off. Love +immediately turned into hate, and passion changed into rage. Thereupon, +as Horace says: + + _"Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo,"_ + +Archilochus used the iambic metre as his weapon of attack. As his love +had been ardent, so, when betrayed, his rage was uncontrollable. Every +possible taunt was cast at those who had deceived him. "Each verse he +wrote was polished and pointed like an arrow head. Each line was steeped +in the poison of hideous charges against his sweetheart, her sister, and +her father. The set of poems which he produced, and, as it would appear, +recited publicly at the festival of Demeter, was so charged with wit and +fire that the country rang with them. The daughters of Lycambes, +tradition avers, went straightway and hanged themselves--unable to +endure the flight of fiery serpents that had fallen upon them; for, to +quote the words of Browning, Archilochus had the art of writing verse +that 'bit into the live man's flesh like parchment,' that sent him +wandering, branded and forever shamed, about his native fields and +streets." + +Archilochus's verses indicate that, in the eighth century before our +era, there was in Greece a certain freedom of intercourse between the +sexes, and that love was, at times at least, the basis for betrothal; it +also shows the absolute control of the father over the hand of his +daughter. The poet's story is also the earliest we have of love +betrayed, and the name of Neobule is inextricably intertwined with the +rise of satiric verse. + +A different note is struck by Archilochus's contemporary, Semonides of +Amorgus, who takes up and continues the tradition of Hesiod in speaking +of woman in tones of contempt and disparagement. He composed a +celebrated satire on woman, in which her various temperaments are +ascribed to a kinship with different domestic animals,--the hog, the +fox, the dog, the ass, the mare, the ape,--or are compared to mud, sea +water, and the bee. + +Semonides first deals with the class of women of the hog variety: "God +made the mind of woman in the beginning of different qualities; for one +he fashioned like a bristly hog, in whose house everything tumbles about +in disorder, bespattered with mud, and rolls upon the ground; she, +dirty, with unwashed clothes, sits and grows fat on a dungheap." + +The woman like mud is thus satirized: "This woman is ignorant of +everything, both good and bad; her only accomplishment is eating: cold +though the winters be, she is too stupid to draw near the fire." + +Here is the poet's picture of the woman who resembles the sea: "She has +two minds; when she laughs and is glad, the stranger seeing her at home +will give her praise--there is nothing better than this on the earth, +no, nor fairer; but another day she is unbearable, not to be looked at +or approached, for she is raging mad. To friend and foe she is alike +implacable and odious. Thus, as the sea is often calm and innocent, a +great delight to sailors in summertime, and oftentimes again is +frantic, tearing along with roaring billows, so is this woman in her +temper." + +The woman who resembles a mare offers other disagreeable qualities: She +is "delicate and long-haired, unfit for drudgery or toil; she would not +touch the mill, or lift the sieve, or clean the house out! She bathes +twice or thrice a day, and anoints herself with myrrh; then she wears +her hair combed out long and wavy, dressed with flowers. It follows that +this woman is a rare sight to one's guests; but to her husband she is a +curse, unless he be a tyrant who prides himself on such expensive +luxuries." + +The ape-like wife is perhaps the worst of the lot: "This one, above all, +has Zeus given as the greatest evil to men. Her face is most hateful. +Such a woman goes through the city a laughing-stock to all the men. +Short of neck, with narrow hips, withered of limb, she moves about with +difficulty. O wretched man, who weds such a woman! She knows every +cunning art, just like an ape, nor is ridicule a concern to her. To no +one would she do a kindness, but every day she schemes to this end,--how +she may work some one the greatest injury." + +But at last we reach the bee: "The man who gets her is lucky; to her +alone belongs no censure; one's household goods thrive and increase +under her management; loving, with a loving spouse, she grows old, the +mother of a fair and famous race. She is preeminent among all women, and +a heavenly grace attends her. She cares not to sit among the women when +they indulge in lascivious chatter. Such wives are the best and wisest +mates Zeus grants to men." + +Only one woman in ten has been found in some measure desirable, and the +poet concludes with a lengthy and comprehensive dunciad of the female +sex, the gist of which is as follows: "Zeus made this supreme +evil--woman: even though she seem to be a blessing, when a man has +wedded one she becomes a plague." + +How much truth is there in Semonides's views on the women of his time? +The poet agrees with Hesiod in regarding woman as a necessary evil. Nine +women out of ten he finds altogether bad, and the tenth is prized only +for her domestic virtues. Industrious, quiet, economical, the mother of +children, she is merely the good housewife, which seems to have been the +primitive ideal of the perfect woman. The poem treats of women of the +middle class, and is important in showing the freedom of movement, and +appearance in public, of the married woman. She is not shut up in the +harem; but in the use of her tongue, and in her capacity as a busybody, +there seems to be no restraint upon her. Semonides's range of vision was +narrow, and he probably knew not much beyond his own little island, but +we may credit him with expressing the prevalent views of the honest +burghers of Amorgus. + +Phocylides of Miletus, a successor of Semonides by rather more than a +century, composed in the same strain an epigrammatic satire on woman. It +is manifestly an imitation of the tirade of Semonides. + +"The tribe of women," says he, "is of these four kinds,--that of a dog, +that of a bee, that of a burly sow, and that of a long-maned mare. This +last is manageable, quick, fond of gadding about, fine of figure; the +sow kind is neither good nor bad; that of the dog is difficult and +snarling; but the bee-like woman is a good housekeeper, and knows how to +work. This desirable marriage, pray to obtain, dear friend." + +The bitterest of all the observations against woman by the iambic +writers, however, is that of Hipponax, a brilliant satirist of the sixth +century before Christ, He says: + +"Two happy days a woman brings a man: the first, when he marries her; +the second, when he bears her to the grave." + +Theognis is another of the poets of Greece who took a gloomy view of +life, and was not happy in his matrimonial ties. He laments that +marriages in his native town of Megara are made for money, and avers +that such marriages are the bane of the city. Says Theognis: + +"Rams and asses, Cyrnus, and horses, we choose of good breed, and wish +them to have good pedigrees; but a noble man does not hesitate to wed a +baseborn girl if she bring him much money; nor does a noble woman refuse +to be the wife of a base but wealthy man, but she chooses the rich +instead of the noble. For they honor money; and the noble weds the +baseborn, and the base the highborn; wealth has mixed the race. So, do +not wonder, Polypaides, that the race of the citizens deteriorates, for +the bad is mixed with the good." + +To sum up this cursory survey of the iambic poets, we find that in their +period woman is still regarded as the determining factor of man's weal +or woe, but that there exists in the sex every variety of woman which +lack of education and, especially, lack of appreciation can produce. +Woman is prized by man only for her domestic virtues; and any endeavor +she may make to step beyond the narrow circle of the home is resented by +the lords of creation. Man looks down on her as his inferior, and gives +her no share in his larger life. Among the aristocratic the bane of +wealth has entered, and marriages of convenience are the prevailing +custom. + +When we pass from the iambic to the elegiac poets, we begin to note the +causes why wedded life, especially among the Ionian Greeks, does not +present the beautiful pictures of domestic bliss and conjugal +comradeship so attractive in heroic times. The martial elegists show +how woman could still inspire man to deeds of valor, but the erotic +poets give us glimpses of the root of the evil that was undermining the +very foundations of domestic life. The Greek woman did not develop under +enlarged conditions with the same rapidity as the Greek man; the wife +was expected to be merely the mother of her husband's children and the +keeper of his house; for companionship and pleasure he looked elsewhere. +The free woman, or the hetaera, has entered upon the stage. Poets were +inspired by love, but romantic love between husband and wife is being +replaced by the love of the beautiful and highly educated "companion," +or the natural place of the highborn woman is being invaded by the baser +passion for "those fair and stately youths, with their virgin looks and +maiden modesty "--two classes that were to play so large a role in +society in the greatest days of Greece, and who were to bring about its +downfall. + +In the fragments of Alcman are many allusions to his passion for his +sweetheart Megalostrata; and many of the elegies of Mimnermus are said +to have been addressed to a flute player, Nanno, who, according to one +account, did not return his passion. The following, translated by +Symonds, shows the intensity of his love: + + "What's life or pleasure wanting Aphrodite? + When to the gold-haired goddess cold am I, + When love and love's soft gifts no more delight me, + Nor stolen dalliance, then I fain would die! + Ah! fair and lovely bloom the flowers of youth; + On man and maids they beautifully smile: + But soon comes doleful eld, who, void of ruth, + Indifferently afflicts the fair and vile. + Then cares wear out the heart; old eyes forlorn + Scarce serve the very sunshine to behold-- + Unloved of youths, of every maid the scorn-- + So hard a lot gods lay upon the old." + +Even from Solon the Sage, maker of constitutions, we possess some +amorous verses, of so questionable a character that it would hardly be +fitting to present them in this volume. They are ascribed to his early +youth. They afforded much comfort to the libertines of antiquity, who +were glad to be able to cite so respectable an exemplar; but the good +people were scandalized by these couplets. + +Ibycus resembles Sappho in the intensity of his passion and in his +conception of Eros as a concrete existence. "Love once again looking +upon me from his cloud-black brows, with languishing glances drives me +by enchantments of all kinds to the endless nets of Cypris. Verily, I +tremble at his onset as a chariot horse, which hath won prizes, in old +age goes grudgingly to try his speed in the swift race of cars." + +Anacreon, to English readers the best known of the erotic poets of +Greece, had as his mistress the golden-haired Eurypyle. He was very +susceptible to the influence of love, and, owing to the grace and +sweetness and ease of expression in his verses, has won an enduring +fame. Many of his verses and numerous imitations of his poems are +extant, and in these love is the constant theme. + +Stesichorus was the composer of love poems with a plot, which were +highly popular among the ladies of ancient days. As forerunners of the +Greek Romance they possess unique literary importance, and as love +stories of an early day they throw much light on the status and ideals +of woman. Aristoxenus had preserved an outline of the plot of the +_Calyce:_ "The maiden Calyce having fallen madly in love with a youth, +prays to Apollo that she may become his lawful wife; and when he +continues to be indifferent to her, she commits suicide." Ancient +critics favorably comment on the purity and modesty of the maiden, and +the story indicates that marriages were not always a matter of +arrangement, that love at times determined one's choice, and that to the +ancient highborn maiden death was preferable to dishonor. Another of +these romantic poems, called _Rhadina_, tells also a tale of unhappy +love, how a Samian brother and sister were put to death by a cruel +tyrant because the sister resisted his advances. + +Yet we cannot hold that woman had in this period universally assumed a +lower status than that accorded her in the Homeric poems. Among Ionian +peoples, this was doubtless true; but among AEolians and Dorians, woman +had not only attained a greater degree of freedom than was permitted her +in the Heroic Age, but had also shown herself the equal of man in +literary and aesthetic pursuits. In this transition age, the name of one +woman--Sappho--presents itself as the bright morning star in the history +of cultured womanhood. + + + + +VI + +SAPPHO + + +Toward the close of the seventh century before Christ, a singular +phenomenon presented itself in the history of Greek womanhood. +Heretofore Greek women have been beautiful; they have been fascinating; +they have exerted great influence on the course of events; but it cannot +be said that they have been intellectual. At the time mentioned, there +occurred an unusual movement in the intellectual realm. This remarkable +movement centres about the name of the first great historical woman of +Greece--Lesbian Sappho, "the Tenth Muse." In the history of universal +woman, Sappho holds a position altogether unique; for she is not only +regarded as the greatest of lyric poets, but she was also the founder of +the first woman's club of which we have any record. Sappho consecrated +herself heart and soul to the elevation of her sex. As poetry and art +constitute the natural channels for the aesthetic cultivation of woman, +she trained her pupils to be poets like herself. The result of her +lifelong devotion to the service of Aphrodite and the Muses was that she +herself not only achieved an immortal reputation as a poet, but through +her inspiring influence her pupils carried the love of poetry and of +intellectual and artistic pursuits back to their distant homes. Hence, +it is not surprising to learn that from this time there were to be +found here and there in the Greek world women who in intellectual +pursuits were the peers of their male compeers, and that there should be +found among women the nine terrestrial Muses, so called as a counterpart +to the celestial Nine. + +Sappho's unique greatness is best appreciated when we consider how she +has been regarded by the great men of antiquity and of modern times. + +Among the Greeks, she possessed the unique renown of being called "The +Poetess," just as Homer was "The Poet." Solon, hearing one of her poems, +prayed that he might not see death until he had learned it. Plato +numbered her among the wise. Aristotle quotes without reservation a +judgment that placed her in the same rank as Homer and Archilochus. +Plutarch likens her "to the heart of a volcano," and says that the grace +of her poems acted on her listeners like an enchantment, and that when +he read them he set aside the drinking cup in very shame. Strabo called +her "a wonderful something," and says that "at no period within memory +has any woman been known who, in any way, even the least degree, could +be compared to her for poetry." Demetrius of Phaleron adds his word of +praise: "Wherefore Sappho is eloquent and sweet when she sings of beauty +and of love and spring, and of the kingfisher; and every beautiful +expression is woven into her poetry besides what she herself invented." + +Writers in the Greek Anthology continually sing her praises, calling her +"the Tenth Muse," "pride of Hellas," "comrade of Apollo," "child of +Aphrodite and Eros," "nursling of the Graces and Persuasion." Nor have +modern critics been less restrained in their praises, notwithstanding +the fact that they possess merely a handful of fragments by which to +judge "The Poetess." Addison, for example, says: "Among the mutilated +poets of antiquity there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as +those of Sappho." John Addington Symonds is even more enthusiastic. "The +world has suffered no greater literary loss," says he, "than the loss of +Sappho's poems. So perfect are the smallest fragments preserved, that we +muse in a sad rapture of astonishment to think what the complete poems +must have been." And Swinburne, her best modern interpreter, calls +Sappho "the unapproachable poetess," and says: "Her remaining verses are +the supreme success, the final achievement, of the poetic art." + +Sappho was at the zenith of her fame about the beginning of the sixth +century before the Christian era. Her home was at Mytilene, on the +island of Lesbos. The lapse of twenty-five centuries has left us few +authentic records of her life. There is a tradition that she was born at +Eresus, on the island of Lesbos, and later established herself in the +capital city, Mytilene. She was of a wealthy and aristocratic family. +Herodotus says that she was the daughter of Scamandronymus, and Suidas +states that her mother's name was Cleis, that she was the wife of a rich +citizen of Andros, Cercylas or Cercolas by name, and that she had a +daughter named after her grandmother, Cleis. Sappho refers to a daughter +by this name in one of the extant fragments, but none of these other +statements are corroborated. She had two brothers, Larichus, a public +cupbearer at Mytilene,--an office reserved for noble youths,--and +Charaxus, a wine merchant, of whom we shall speak more fully later. From +one source we learn that she went into exile to Sicily along with other +aristocrats of Lesbos, but the date is a matter of conjecture. Pittacus +was tyrant of Mytilene at this time, and Sappho probably returned to +Lesbos at the time when he granted amnesty to political exiles. How +long she lived we cannot tell, while how and when she died are also +unknown. Judging from the allusions of the writers in the Anthology, her +tomb, erected in the city of her adoption, was for centuries afterward +regularly visited by her votaries. + +These are the few facts we can positively state regarding the life of +Sappho; but myth and legend have supplied what was lacking, and those +scandalmongers, the Greek comic poets, have woven all sorts of stories +about her manner of life. These stories centre chiefly about the names +of three men,--Alcaeus and Anacreon, the poets, and Phaon, the mythical +boatman of Mytilene, endowed by Aphrodite with extraordinary and +irresistible beauty. + +Alcaeus, the poet of love and wine and war, was a native of Mytilene, and +a contemporary of Sappho, and the two poets no doubt knew each other +well. The comic poets made them lovers. There is still extant the +opening of a poem which Alcaeus addressed to Sappho: + + "Violet-crowned, chaste, sweet-smiling Sappho, + I fain would speak; but bashfulness forbids." + +To which she replied: + + "Had thy wish been pure and manly, + And no evil on thy tongue, + Shame had not possessed thine eyelids; + From thy lips the right had rung." + +Anacreon, the lyric poet, was also represented as a lover of Sappho; and +two poems are preserved, one of which he is said to have addressed to +her, while the other is said to be her reply. But there is no doubt +whatever that Anacreon flourished at least a generation after Sappho, so +that the two could never have met. It seems to have been one of the +stock motifs of the comic poets to represent Greek lyrists as being +lovers of the Lesbian; thus Diphilus, in his _Sappho_, pictured +Archilochus and Hipponax, her predecessors by a generation, as her +lovers. + +The story of Sappho's love for Phaon and her leap from the Leucadian +rock in consequence of his disdaining her, though it has been so long +implicitly believed, rests on no historical basis. The perpetuation of +the story is due chiefly to Ovid, who, in his epistle, _Sappho to +Phaon_, tells of her unquenchable love and of her determination to +attempt the leap. The story is best told by Addison: + +"Sappho, the Lesbian, in love with Phaon, arrived at the temple of +Apollo, habited like a bride, in garments white as snow. She wore a +garland of myrtle on her head, and carried in her hand the little +musical instrument of her own invention. After having sung a hymn to +Apollo, she hung up her garland on one side of his altar, and her harp +on the other. She then tucked up her vestments, like a Spartan virgin, +and amidst thousands of spectators, who were anxious for her safety and +offered up vows for her deliverance, marched directly forward to the +utmost summit of the promontory, where, after having repeated a stanza +of her own verses, she threw herself off the rock with such an +intrepidity as was never observed before in any who had attempted that +leap. Many who were present related that they saw her fall into the sea, +from whence she never rose again; though there were others who affirmed +that she never came to the bottom of her leap, but that she was changed +to a swan as she fell, and that they saw her hovering in the air under +that shape. But whether or not the whiteness and fluttering of her +garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she +might not really be metamorphosed into that musical and melancholy bird, +is still a doubt among the Lesbians." + +Modern critics justly set aside the whole story as fabulous, explaining +it as derived from the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis, who in the Greek +version was called Phaethon or Phaon. The leap from the Leucadian +rock--the promontory of Santa Maura, or Leucate, in Sicily, known to +this day as "Sappho's Leap"--was used by other poets, notably +Stesichorus and Anacreon, as a metaphorical expression to denote +complete despair, and Sappho herself may have used it in this sense. The +legend did not connect itself with Sappho until two centuries after her +death, and then only in the comic poets; hence it can have no basis in +fact. The tradition of Sappho's AEolian grave, preserved in the +Anthology, indicates strongly that she died a peaceful death on her own +island. "Sappho," says Edwin Arnold, "loved, and loved more than once, +to the point of desperate sorrow; though it did not come to the mad and +fatal leap from Leucate, as the unnecessary legend pretends. There are, +nevertheless, worse steeps than Leucate down which the heart may fall; +and colder seas of despair than the Adriatic in which to engulf it." + +The whole story of her love for Phaon is an instance of how her name was +maligned by the comic poets of the later Attic school. It was impossible +for the Athenians, who kept their women in seclusion, to understand how +a woman could enjoy the freedom of life and movement that Sappho enjoyed +and yet remain chaste. Consequently, she became a sort of stock +character of the licentious drama, and even modern writers have used her +name as the synonym for the brilliant, beautiful, but licentious woman. +As says Daudet, who of all recent writers has done most to degrade the +name: "The word Sappho itself, by the force of rolling descent through +ages, is encrusted with unclean legends, and has degenerated from the +name of a goddess to that of a malady." The Greek comic poets invented +the misrepresentation; the early Christian writers accepted it, and +exaggerated it in their tirades against heathenism; and thus the +tradition that Sappho was a woman of low moral character became fixed. + +Only in the present century have the ancient calumnies against Sappho +been seriously investigated. A German scholar, Friedrich Gottlieb +Welcker, was the first to show that they were based on altogether +insufficient evidence. Colonel Mure, with great lack of gallantry, +endeavored, without success, to expose fallacies in Welcker's arguments. +Professor Comparetti has more recently gone laboriously over the whole +ground, and his work substantiates in the main the conclusions of +Welcker. The whole tendency of modern scholarship is to vindicate the +name of Sappho. + +We cannot claim that Sappho was a woman of austere virtue; but she was +one of the best of her race, and there is no trace of wantonness in any +stanza of hers preserved to us. She repulsed Alcaeus when he made +improper advances, while a recently discovered papyrus fragment shows +how keenly she felt a brother's disgrace, and this aversion to the +dishonorable would hardly have existed had her own life been open to +censure. + +Sappho's brother Charaxus, who was a Lesbian wine merchant, fell +violently in love with the famous courtesan Rhodopis, then a slave in +Naucratis, and subsequently the most noted beauty of her day. He +ransomed her from slavery, devoted himself exclusively to her whims, and +squandered all his substance upon her maintenance. Sappho was violently +incensed at his conduct, and resorted to verse for the expression of her +anger and humiliation. According to the story in Ovid, Charaxus was +fiercely provoked by her ill treatment of him, and would listen to no +attempts at reconciliation made by his poet-sister after her anger had +cooled, though she reproached herself for the estrangement and did all +she could to win him back. + +A twenty-line fragment of a poem, found a few years ago among the +Oxyrhynchus papyri, in a reference to the poet's brother, in its tone of +reproach, in its expression of a desire for reconciliation, in dialect +and in metre, indicates its origin as a part of an ode addressed by +Sappho to her brother Charaxus. It is conceived by its editors and +translators to be one of her vain appeals that he would forget the past: + + "Sweet Nereids, grant to me + That home unscathed my brother may return, + And every end for which his soul shall yearn, + Accomplished see! + + "And thou, immortal Queen, + Blot out the past, that thus his friends may know + Joy, shame his foes--nay, rather, let no foe + By us be seen! + + "And may he have the will + To me his sister some regard to show, + To assuage the pain he brought, whose cruel blow + My soul did kill, + + "Yea, mine, for that ill name + Whose biting edge, to shun the festal throng + Compelling, ceased a while; yet back ere long + To goad us came!" + +Was Sappho's beauty a myth? Greek standards of feminine beauty included +height and stateliness. Homer celebrates the characteristic beauty of +Lesbian women in speaking of seven Lesbian captives whom Agamemnon +offered to Achilles, "surpassing womankind in beauty." Plato, in the +Phaedrus, calls Sappho "beautiful," but he was probably referring to the +sweetness of her songs. Democharis, in the Anthology, in an epigram on a +statue of Sappho, speaks of her bright eyes and compares her beauty +with that of Aphrodite. According to Maximus of Tyre, who preserves the +traditions of the comic poets, she was "small and dark," a phrase +immortalized by Swinburne: + + "The small dark body's Lesbian loveliness, + That held the fire eternal." + +The problem, therefore, is whether she conformed to the Greek ideal of +beauty or was small and dark. Our only evidence in this matter is that +furnished by art. The portrait of Sappho is preserved on coins of +Mytilene, which present a face exquisite in contour. A fifth century +vase, preserved in Munich, gives us representations of Alcaeus and +Sappho, in which Sappho is taller than Alcaeus, of imposing figure and +exceedingly beautiful. She was frequently portrayed in plastic art. +According to Cicero, a bronze statue of Sappho, made by Silanion, stood +in the prytaneum at Syracuse, and was stolen by Verres. In the fifth +century of our era, there was a statue of her in the gymnasium of +Zeuxippus, in Byzantium. The Vatican bust is that of a woman with Greek +features, but, of course, lends no corroborating testimony as to her +size and complexion. + +Alma-Tadema has fixed the current tradition in his ideal representation +of Sappho's school at Lesbos--a marble exedra on the seashore at +Mytilene. The poetess is seated on the front row of seats, with her +favorite pupil, Erinna, standing by her side. Her chin rests on her +hands as she leans forward against the desk, listening intently as +Alcaeus plays the lyre. She is small, dark, beautiful, intense; and the +artist has "subtly caught the prophetic light of her soul, her eager +intellect, her unconscious grace, and the slumbering passion in her +eloquent eyes." + +[Illustration 120 _SAPPHO IN HER SCHOOL OF POETRY IN LESBOS. After the +painting by Hector Leroux. Wharton, in his great_ Memoir of Sappho, +_says she "seems to have been the centre of society in +Mitylene,--capital of Lesbos,--a kind of aesthetic club devoted to the +service of the Muses. Around her gathered maidens from even +comparatively distant places, attracted by her fame, to study, under her +guidance, all that related to poetry and music". In the memoir he +defends her character and speaks of "the fervor of her love and the +purity of her life." The_ Encyclopedia Britannica _ranks her as +"incomparably the greatest poetess the world has ever seen."_] + +Let us now consider the conditions under which Sappho's genius blossomed +to fruition. + +There is a legend that after the Thracian women's murder of Orpheus, the +mythical singer of Hellas, his head and his lyre were thrown into the +sea and were wafted upon its waves to the island of Lesbos. This legend +is an allegory of the island's supremacy in song, and of the unbroken +continuity of lyric poetry from its budding in prehistoric times up to +its full flower among the Lesbian poets of the sixth century before the +Christian era. Every condition existed in Lesbos for the fostering of +the love of beauty and the cultivation of all the refinements of life. +The land itself presented mountain and coast, hill and dale, in pleasing +and harmonious variety, while about it billowed a brilliant sapphire +sea. The island was renowned for the salubrity of its climate, the +purity of its atmosphere, and the transparency of its skies. Its +inhabitants, owing to the variety of the products of the soil and their +attention to commerce, enjoyed unbounded prosperity. They gave +themselves up to the enjoyments of life, and cultivated everything that +contributed to luxury, elegance, and material well-being. The men +devoted their energies to politics and war and the pursuits of pleasure. +The women, who were remarkable for their beauty and grace, enjoyed a +freedom and rank accorded them nowhere else in Greece. Symonds thus +vividly describes the free and artistic life of AEolian women: + +"AEolian women were not confined to the harem, like Ionians, or subjected +to the rigorous discipline of the Spartans. While mixing freely with +male society, they were highly educated, and accustomed to express their +sentiments to an extent unknown elsewhere in history--until, indeed, the +present time. The Lesbian ladies applied themselves successfully to +literature. They formed clubs for the cultivation of poetry and music. +They studied the art of beauty, and sought to refine metrical form and +diction. Nor did they confine themselves to the scientific side of art. +Unrestrained by public opinion, and avid for the beautiful, they +cultivated their senses and emotions, and developed their wildest +passions. All the luxuries and elegancies of life which the climate and +the rich valleys of Lesbos could afford were at their disposal; +exquisite gardens in which the rose and hyacinth spread perfume; river +beds ablaze with the oleander and wild pomegranate; olive groves and +fountains, where the cyclamen and violet flowered with feathery +maiden-hair; pine-shadowed coves, where they might bathe in the calm of +a tideless sea; fruits such as only the southern sea and sea wind can +mature; marble cliffs, starred with jonquil and anemone in spring, +aromatic with myrtle and lentisk and samphire and wild rosemary through +all the months; nightingales that sang in May; temples dim with dusky +gold and bright with ivory; statues and frescoes of heroic forms. In +such scenes as these, the Lesbian poets lived and thought of love. When +we read their poems, we seem to have the perfumes, colors, sounds, and +lights of that luxurious land distilled in verse." + +Amid such surroundings, burning Sappho sang: + + "Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven, + Songs that break the heart of the earth with pity, + Hearing, to hear them." + +The complete works of Sappho must have been considerable. She was the +greatest erotic poet of antiquity, the chief composer of epithalamia, or +wedding songs, the writer of epigrams and elegies, invocatory hymns, +iambics, and monodies. Nine books of her lyric odes existed in ancient +times, and were known to Horace, who frequently imitated her style and +metre, and who doubtless at times in his odes directly translated her +poems. But of all this we have only two poems which may be said to be in +any way complete: a considerable portion of the ode to her brother +Charaxus, already quoted, and somewhat over a hundred and fifty +fragments, the total comprising not more than three hundred lines. +Within the last few months, Doctor Schubart, of the Egyptian Section of +the Royal Museum in Berlin, has discovered in papyri, recently added to +its collection, several hitherto unknown poems of Sappho. + +"Few, indeed, but those roses," as says Meleager, in the Anthology, are +the precious verses spared to us in spite of the unholy zeal of +antipaganism. And, strange to relate, we are indebted for what we have +to the quotations of grammarians and lexicographers, who preserved the +verses, not usually for their poetic beauty, but to illustrate a point +in syntax or metre. But, though so few and fragmentary, they are, as +Professor Palgrave says, "grains of golden sand which the torrent of +Time has carried down to us." + +Sappho wrote in the AEolic dialect, noted for the soft quality of its +vowel sounds; and her poems were undoubtedly written for recitation to +the accompaniment of the lyre, being the earliest specimens of the song +or ballad so popular in modern times. + +Predecessors of the melic poetry of Sappho are to be found in the chants +and hymns in honor of Apollo prevalent throughout Greece, in the popular +songs of Hellas, and in the songs sung in the home and at religious +festivals by Lesbian men and women,--children's rhymes, songs at vintage +festivals, plaints of shepherds expressive of rustic love, epithalamia +or bridal songs, dirges, threnodies and laments for Adonis, typifying +the passing of spring and summer. + +The form and melody of Sappho's poems are due to the fact that they were +to accompany vocal and instrumental music, which, thanks to the +innovations of Terpander of Lesbos, was at that time exquisitely adapted +to the purposes of the lyric. Terpander introduced the seven-stringed +lyre, or cithara, with its compass of a diapason, or Greek octave, and +this became the peculiar instrument of Sappho and her school. The choice +of the musical measure determined the tone of the poem. Terpander united +the music of Asia Minor with that of Greece proper, and the resulting +product of AEolian poetry was the union of Oriental voluptuousness with +Greek self-restraint and art. Of Sappho's numerous songs, two odes alone +are presented to us in anything like their entirety, one dedicated to +the service of Aphrodite, and the other composed in honor of a girl +friend, Anactoria. Dionysius of Halicarnassus embodies the first in one +of his rhetorical works, as a perfect illustration of the elaborately +finished style of poetry, and comments on the fact that its grace and +beauty lie in the subtle harmony between the words and the ideas. Edwin +Arnold renders it as follows: + + "Splendor-throned Queen, immortal Aphrodite, + Daughter of Jove, Enchantress, I implore thee + Vex not my soul with agonies and anguish; + Slay me not, Goddess! + Come in thy pity--come, if I have prayed thee; + Come at the cry of my sorrow; in the old times + Oft thou hast heard, and left thy father's heaven, + Left the gold houses, + Yoking thy chariot. Swiftly did the doves fly, + Swiftly they brought thee, waving plumes of wonder-- + Waving their dark plumes all across the aether, + All down the azure. + Very soon they lighted. Then didst thou, Divine one, + Laugh a bright laugh from lips and eyes immortal, + Ask me 'What ailed me--wherefore out of heaven, + Thus I had called thee? + What was it made me madden in my heart so?' + Question me smiling--say to me, 'My Sappho, + Who is it wrongs thee? Tell me who refuses + Thee, vainly sighing. + Be it who it may be, he that flies shall follow; + He that rejects gifts, he shall bring thee many; + He that hates now shall love thee dearly, madly-- + Aye, though thou wouldst not' + So once again come, Mistress; and, releasing + Me from my sadness, give me what I sue for, + Grant me my prayer, and be as heretofore now + Friend and protectress." + +The ode to Anactoria is quoted by the author of the treatise on _The +Sublime_ as an illustration of the perfection of the sublime in poetry. +John Addington Symonds thus renders it in English: + + "Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful + Man who sits and gazes at thee before him, + Close beside thee sits, and in silence hears thee + Silverly speaking, + Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only + Stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble I + For should I but see thee a little moment, + Straight is my voice hushed; + Yea, my tongue is broken, and through and through me + 'Neath the flesh impalpable fire runs tingling; + Nothing see mine eyes, and a noise of roaring + Waves in my ear sounds; + Sweat runs down in rivers, a tremor seizes + All my limbs, and paler than grass in autumn, + Caught by pains of menacing death, I falter, + Lost in the love-trance." + +Epithalamia, or wedding songs, were the most numerous of all Sappho's +works, and in them she attained an excellence unequalled by any other +poet. Catullus, in despair, seems to have been content with adapting in +his marriage odes well-known songs of Sappho. The poet seems to have +described all the stages in the ceremony--the Greek maidens leading the +pale bride to the expectant bridegroom, chanting their simple chorus to +Hymen, the god of marriage. At one time, they sing the approach of the +bridegroom: + + "Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters, + Hymenaeus! + Like Ares comes the bridegroom, + Hymenaeus! + Taller far than a tall man, + Hymenaeus!" + +But their thoughts are all for the rejoicing bride, who blushes "as +sweet as the apple on the end of the bough." + + "O fair--O sweet! + As the sweet apple blooms high on the bough, + High as the highest, forgot of the gatherers: + So thou:-- + Yet not so: nor forgot of the gatherers; + High o'er their reach in the golden air, + O sweet--O fair!" + +We shall arrange the briefer fragments according to subject, not +according to metre, in order that through them we may gain a clear +conception of Sappho's attitude toward life and nature, that we may know +the poetess in her love and friendship, her longings and her sorrows, +her sensibility to the influences of nature and art. + +Her conception of love has been already noticed in the longer poems just +quoted. A number of the fragments indicate a similar intensity of +emotion. Thus she says: + + "Lo, Love once more, the limb-dissolving king, + The bitter-sweet, impracticable thing, + Wild-beast-like rends me with fierce quivering." + +In another: + + "Lo, Love once more my soul within me rends + Like wind that on the mountain oak descends." + +A being so intense as Sappho, with sensibilities so refined and +intuitions so keen, naturally possessed an ardent love of nature. Her +power of expressing its charm is shown in a number of fragments. Every +aspect of nature seems to have appealed to her. + +Of the morning she says: + + "Early uprose the golden-sandalled Dawn." + +And of the evening: + + "Evening, all things thou bringest + Which Dawn spreads apart from each other; + The lamb and the kid thou bringest, + Thou bringest the boy to his mother." + +And of the night: + + "And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night" + +She sings to us also of the + + "Rainbow, shot with a thousand hues." + +And of the stars: + + "Stars that shine around the refulgent full moon + Pale, and hide their glory of lesser lustre + When she pours her silvery plenilunar + Light on the orbed earth." + +And again of the moon and the Pleiades: + + "The moon has left the sky; + Lost is the Pleiads' light; + It is midnight + And time slips by; + But on my couch alone I lie." + +Trees and flowers and plants appeal to her as if they were endowed with +life, and by her mention of them she calls up to the imagination a +tropical summer with its attendant recreations. Thus she sings of the +breeze murmuring cool through the apple boughs: + + "From the sound of cool waters heard through the green boughs + Of the fruit-bearing trees, + And the rustling breeze, + Deep sleep, as a trance, down over me flows." + +Sappho loves flowers with a personal sympathy. She feels for the +hyacinth: + + "As when the shepherds on the hills + Tread under foot the hyacinth, + And on the ground the purple flower lies crushed." + +She sings also of the golden pulse that grows on the shores, and of the +pure, soft bloom of the grass trampled under foot by the Cretan women as +they dance round the fair altar of Aphrodite. The rose seems to have +been her favorite flower, for, says Philostratus, "Sappho loves the +rose, and always crowns it with some praise, likening beautiful maidens +to it." + +The birds, too, found in her a most sympathetic friend. Her ear is open +to: + + "Spring's messenger, the sweet-voiced nightingale," + +and she pities the wood-doves as "their heart turns cold and their wings +fall," under the stroke from the arrow of the archer. + +Sappho's love for nature is only surpassed by her love for art, for +splendor and festivity, as they appeal to the aesthetic nature. She loves +her lyre, the song and the dance, garlands, purple robes, and all that +attended the worship of Aphrodite and the Muses. Her lyre she thus +addresses: + + "Come, then, my lyre divine! + Let speech be thine." + +And to Aphrodite she utters this appeal: + + "Come, Queen of Cyprus, pour the stream + Of nectar, mingled lusciously + With merriment, in cups of gold." + +She also calls about her the Muses and the Graces: + + "Hither come, ye dainty Graces + And ye fair-haired Muses now!" + +And again: + + "Come, rosy-armed, chaste Graces! come, + Daughter of Jove." + +And yet again: + + "Hither, hither come, ye Muses! + Leave the golden sky." + +In the worship of Aphrodite and the Graces, garlands are appropriate for +the devotees: + + "Of foliage and flowers love-laden + Twine wreaths for thy flowing hair + With thine own soft fingers, maiden, + Weave garlands of parsley fair; + + "For flowers are sweet, and the Graces + On suppliants wreathed with may + Look down from their heavenly places, + But turn from the crownless away." + +Such was the joy of the devotees of the Muses. Sappho believed in the +adornment of the soul as well as of the body, and she thus addresses one +who neglected the services of the Muses: + + "Yea, thou shalt die, + And lie + Dumb in the silent tomb; + Nor of thy name + Shall there be any fame + In ages yet to be or years to come; + For of the flowering Rose, + Which on Pieria blows, + Thou hast no share: + But in sad Hades' house + Unknown, inglorious + 'Mid the dark shades that wander there + Shalt thou flit forth and haunt the filmy air." + +"I think there will be memory of us yet in after days," said Sappho, and +the sentiment is one which later poets have often imitated. Thus the +poetess had intimations of the immortality that is justly hers, and the +reader will heartily enter into the spirit of Swinburne's paraphrase: + + "I, Sappho, shall be one with all these things, + With all things high forever; and my face + Seen once, my songs once heard in a strange place, + Cleave to men's lives, and waste the days thereof + In gladness, and much sadness and long love." + +Sappho sings of love and its manifestations, of longing and passion, of +grief and regret, of natural beauty in sea and sky, by day and by night, +of the birds and trees and flowers, and "all this is told us in language +at once overpowering and delicate, in verse as symmetrical as it is +exquisite, free, and fervid, through metaphor simple or sublime; each +word, each line, expressive of the writer's inmost sense; with an art +that, in its Greek constraint, comparison, and sweetness, and in its +Oriental fervor, is faultless and unerring." + +Not only as a poet is Sappho of interest to the women of our day, but +also because she was the founder of the first woman's club of which we +have knowledge. This Lesbian literary club did not engage, however, in +the study of current topics, or seek to gather sheaves of knowledge from +the field of science and history, but was consecrated strictly to the +service of the Muses. Sappho attracted by her fame young women of Lesbos +and of neighboring cities. She gathered them about her, gave them +instruction in poetry and music, and incited them to the cultivation of +all the arts and graces. Many of these maidens from a distance doubtless +sought the society of Sappho because they were weary of the low drudgery +and monotonous routine of home life that fell to the lot of women in +Ionian cities, and because they felt the need of a freer atmosphere and +more inspiring surroundings. + +Sappho eagerly sought to elevate her sex. She showed them that, through +the more perfect training of mind and body, their horizon would be +enlarged, their resources for happiness increased, and their homes +become centres of inspiring influences for husband and children. + +Never was there a teacher more eager to possess her pupils' love and +confidence. Maximus of Tyre compares her relations with her girl friends +to Socrates's relations with young men. At times, men have seen fit to +censure these intimate friendships of Socrates and Sappho with their +pupils, and to see in them immoral relations such as characterized the +passionate devotion of many Greek men to beautiful youths; but there is +no ground for such imputations. While manifesting the beauty and +sweetness and satisfaction in woman's love for woman, Sappho did not +attempt to make this love a substitute for the love of men. She herself +was married; and there are intimations in her poems that certain of her +girl friends exchanged the pleasures of aesthetic comradeship for the +joys of wedded life. + +From the fragments of her songs, we know the names of at least fourteen +of her pupils, and it pleases the fancy to attempt to reconstruct a +picture of that delightful band of girl friends, who spent their days in +the study of poetry and music and their evenings in every elevating form +of recreation. A writer has thus sketched the picture: "Let us call +around her in fancy the maidens who have come from different parts of +Greece to learn of her. Anactoria is here from Miletus, Eunica from +Salamis, Gongyle from Colophon, and others from Pamphylia, and the isle +of Telos. Erinna and Damophyla study together the composition of Sapphic +metres. Atthis learns how to strike the harp with the plectrum, Sappho's +invention; Mnasidica embroiders a sacred robe for the temple. The +teacher meanwhile corrects the measures of the one, the notes of +another, the strophes of a third; then summons all from their work, to +rehearse together some sacred chorus or temple ritual; then stops to +read a verse of her own, or to denounce a rival preceptress. Throughout +her intercourse with these maidens her conduct is characterized by +passionate love, as between equals in mind and heart, and is expressed +in fervid and high-wrought language embodying a purity that cannot be +misunderstood or cavilled away." + + + + +VII + +THE SPARTAN WOMAN + + +It was from Sparta that Paris in the Heroic Age bore away to his +Phrygian home Argive Helen, fairest of mortals, the Greek ideal of +feminine beauty and charm. But never since that fateful day--as, indeed, +never before it--was there in Sparta any woman to compare with her; for +the Spartan maidens of historical times, though comely and vigorous and +noted for physical beauty, were cast in a firmer, sturdier mould than +that which characterized Helen, the flower of grace and loveliness. Yet +the traveller in Sparta in her prime must have marvelled at the splendid +maidens and matrons he saw amid the hills of Lacedaemon--trained in +athletic exercises, fleet of foot, vigorous and well-proportioned, and +showing in their very bearing how important they were to the well-being +of the State. + +In Sparta, woman was the equal of man--in Athens, his inferior. In this +fact lies the secret of the training that was given her, for the +character of the education of woman is an index to the position assigned +her by the spirit of the State. Spartan legislation concerning woman was +controlled by one idea--to develop in the maiden the mother-to-be. This +idea is so beautiful, so profound, that, after all the centuries which +have elapsed, one cannot find a better principle for feminine education. +Like mother, like son--and the Spartan ideal of the son was the warrior +strong, brave, and resolute, enduring hardship and living solely for +the State. Hence the mother must be strong, brave, and resolute, +sacrificing every womanly tenderness to the prevailing conception of +patriotism. + +Great is the contrast between the women of the various peoples of +Greece. The Achaean woman, in Homeric times, played no prominent part in +public affairs; her home was her palace, and she manifested those +domestic traits and womanly qualities that in this day still constitute +womanly charm. The life of the Ionian woman was a secluded one; she was +under the domination of the sterner sex, and compelled to devote herself +largely to the varied duties of the household. The AEolian woman, on the +contrary, had asserted her freedom, and lived on terms of social and +intellectual comradeship with men. She devoted herself to the +cultivation of every womanly grace, and was the earnest follower of +Aphrodite and the Muses. In contrast to these, the Spartan woman +presents an altogether unique type. She was merely a creature of the +State, the cultivation of her higher nature being under the control of a +rigid system. As such, she contributed in a large degree to the public +welfare, but it was at the sacrifice of many feminine attributes. In +her, natural affection and womanly sympathy were sacrificed to a single +virtue--patriotism. But one function was emphasized--that of motherhood. +All her training was devoted to but one end--that of producing soldiers. +The life of the individual was strictly subordinated to the good of the +State. Such a system evolved a remarkable type of womanhood, and the +Spartan matron has won an immortal name in history. + +From the central mass of the mountain system of the Peloponnesus in +Arcadia, two chains, Taygetus and Parnon, detach themselves and extend +southward, terminating in the two dangerous promontories of Taenarum and +Malea. Between the two ridges the river Eurotas winds its way in a +southeasterly course. In the undulating valley formed by the bed of the +stream, and shut in by the mountain ranges, lay ancient Sparta. The +country, by nature and climate, was such as to make men hardy and +determined. Euripides styles it "a country rich in productions, but +difficult to cultivate; shut in on all sides by a barrier of stern +mountains; almost inaccessible to the foe." Its hidden situation in the +Eurotas valley made it a well-guarded camp, and the Dorian conquerors of +the Peloponnesus, surrounded by enemies and threatened by warlike +neighbors, soon saw that the only hope of holding their conquests and +extending their power lay in the maintenance of a warlike race. + +Lycurgus, usually reputed to have lived in the ninth century before +Christ, was the founder of the legislation which constituted the +greatness of Sparta. He was one of the originators of the principle, so +characteristic of antiquity and in such contrast to the spirit of modern +times: "The citizen is born and lives for the State; to it his time, his +strength, and all his powers belong." Nowhere was this maxim so rigidly +enforced as at Sparta. Lycurgus established institutions of a public +nature which gave a centralized administration of the most rigid sort, +and regulations relating to private life which would develop a warlike +type of citizen, the whole system tending to make Sparta supreme in the +Peloponnesus, and her soldiers invincible in war. To accomplish this +end, the daily life of every individual, both male and female, was under +the control of the State. The effect of such a system on the character +has been happily expressed by Rousseau: "He strengthened the citizen by +taking away the human traits from the man." + +Lycurgus saw that the salvation of Sparta depended on its citizens being +a nation of warriors. Only by being always ready for war and by +possessing an invincible body of soldiery could the State fulfil its +destiny in the work of the world. He realized further that the natural +antecedent of a nation of men strong physically and intellectually is a +race of healthy, sturdy, able-bodied women. Hence his training of the +daughters of Sparta was the corner-stone of his system. Valuing woman +only for her fruitfulness, his legislation in regard to her had but one +object in view--fitting her to be the mother of a powerful race of men. +Maidens, therefore, as well as youths, were subjected to the most rigid +physical training. + +From the moment of birth, the Spartan boy or girl was in the hands of +the State. The infant was exposed in the place of public assembly, and +if the elders considered it frail and unpromising, or for any reason +regarded its existence of no value to the State, the child was thrown +off a cliff of Mount Taygetus,--a usage shocking to modern +sensibilities, but accepted as a necessity by Plato, Aristotle, and +other ancient philosophers. The able-bodied child was restored to its +mother, and she directed the early training of her charge under the eye +of the magistrates. Though the Spartan girl was not, as the youth, +removed altogether from the mother at the age of seven and brought up in +the barracks, yet her training was scarcely less severe than that of the +boys. The feminine tasks of spinning and weaving, customary for free +women of other peoples, were by the Spartans committed to female slaves, +and the State so ordered the lives of the free maidens that they might +become in the future the mothers of robust children. "He [Lycurgus] +directed the maidens," says Plutarch, "to exercise themselves with +wrestling, running, throwing the quoit, and casting the dart, to the +end that the fruit they conceived might in strong and healthy bodies +take firmer root and find better growth." These gymnastic exercises they +practised in public, clad in little else save their own modesty, thus +overcoming fear of exposure to the air, as well as overgreat tenderness +and shyness. Similarly clad, they took part in processions along with +the young men, and were trained in singing and dancing in the public +choruses. This carefully regulated comradeship between youths and +maidens was encouraged with a view to stimulating the young men to deeds +of valor. The maidens on these occasions would make, by means of jests, +befitting reflections on the young men who had misbehaved themselves in +the wars, and would sing encomiums upon those who had done gallant +actions. Thus the young men were spurred on to greater endeavor by the +dread of feminine ridicule, and were inspired by feminine praise to the +performance of great deeds. It was always the part of the Spartan +maiden, then, to keep bright the fires of patriotism and heroic +endeavor. The mother, by precept and example, taught the daughter to +repress every emotion of womanly tenderness, to elevate the State to the +first place in her heart and life, and to find her destiny in bearing +brave sons to defend her country. Thus admitted to the freedom of +companionship with their brothers in the games and processions, and +stimulated by the instructions of their mothers, they early caught the +spirit and purpose which animated one and all--the spirit of unselfish +patriotism. It was natural, therefore, that they accepted without a +murmur the tyranny of a single idea and found in it their glory and +pride. Many stories are told of their remarkable devotion to the State. +A Spartan mother who has lost her boy in battle exclaims: "Did I not +bear him that he might die for Sparta?" To another, waiting for tidings +of the battle, comes a messenger announcing that her five sons have +perished. "You contemptible slave," she replies, "that is not what I +wish to hear. How fares my country?" On hearing that Sparta is +victorious, she adds, without a tremor: "Willingly, then, do I hear of +the death of my sons." + +Marriage is the determining factor in the economic conditions of +society, and the regulations prescribed concerning it are an excellent +index to the character of any people. Under the Lycurgan system, +marriage was strictly under the control of the State. The goddess of +love was practically banished from Sparta. Only one temple to Aphrodite +stood in Lacedaemon; and in this the goddess was represented armed, not +with her magic girdle, but with a sword, and seated with a veil over her +head and fetters upon her feet, symbolizing that she was under +restraint. History records many instances of affection between husband +and wife, but considerations of love did not enter into the marriage +contract. No frail woman was allowed to marry. The age of marriage was +fixed at the period which was considered best for the perfection of the +offspring, usually about thirty years in the case of the men, and about +twenty for the maidens. Plutarch describes in uncolored language the +chief features of the marriage relations of the Spartans: + +"In their marriages, the husband carried off his bride by a sort of +force; nor were brides ever small and of tender years, but in their full +bloom and ripeness. After this, she who superintended the wedding comes +and clips the hair of the bride close round her head, dresses her up in +man's clothes, and leaves her upon a mattress in the dark; afterward +comes the bridegroom, in his everyday clothes, sober and composed, as +having supped at the common table; and entering privately into the room +where the bride lies, unties her virgin zone, and takes her to himself; +and after staying some time together, he returns composedly to his own +apartment, to sleep as usual with the other young men. And so he +continues to do, spending his days and indeed his nights with them, +visiting his bride in fear and shame and with circumspection, when he +thought he should not be observed; she also, on her part, using her wit +to help to find favorable opportunities for their meeting, when company +was out of the way. In this manner they lived a long time, insomuch that +they sometimes had children by their wives before ever they saw their +faces by daylight. Their interviews being thus difficult and rare, +served not only for continual exercise of their self-control, but +brought them together with their bodies healthy and vigorous, and their +affections fresh and lively, unsated and undulled by easy access and +long continuance with each other, while their partings were always early +enough to leave behind unextinguished in each of them some remaining +fire of longing and mutual delight. + +"After guarding marriage with this modesty and reserve, Lycurgus was +equally careful to banish empty and womanish jealousy. For this object, +excluding all licentious disorders, he made it nevertheless honorable +for men to give the use of their wives to those whom they should think +fit, that so they might have children by them; ridiculing those in whose +opinion such favors are so unfit for participation as to fight and shed +blood and go to war therefor. Lycurgus allowed a man, who was advanced +in years and had a young wife, to recommend some virtuous and approved +young man, that she might have a child by him, who might inherit the +good qualities of the father, and be a son to himself. On the other +side, an honest man who had love for a married woman upon account of her +modesty and the well-favoredness of her children might, without +formality, beg her company of her husband, that he might raise, as it +were, from this plot of good ground worthy and well-allied children for +himself." + +Regulations such as these, though shocking to modern sensibilities, seem +not to have been detrimental to public morals while Sparta submitted to +the severe austerity of the laws. It seems surprising that, while a +woman might lawfully be the recognized wife of two husbands, no such +duplication of spouses was allowed to a man. This rule is illustrated by +its one historical exception In the case of King Anaxandrides, who, says +Herodotus, when the royal Heraclidaean line of Eurystheus was in danger +of becoming extinct, married his niece, who bore him no children. The +people besought him to divorce her, and to contract another marriage; +but, owing to his love for his wife, he positively refused. Upon this, +they made a suggestion to him as follows: "Since then we perceive thou +art firmly attached to the wife whom thou now hast, consent to do this, +and set not thyself against it, lest the Spartans take some counsel +against thee other than might be wished. We do not ask of thee the +putting away of the wife thou now hast; but do thou give to her all that +thou givest now, and at the same time take to thy house another wife in +addition to this one, to bear thee children." When they spoke to him +after this manner, Anaxandrides consented, and from this time forth he +kept two separate households, having two wives, a thing which, we are +told, was not by any means after the Spartan fashion. + +Every inducement was offered to encourage matrimony, and bachelors were +the objects of general scorn and derision. "Those who continued +bachelors," says Plutarch, "were in a degree disfranchised by law; for +they were excluded from the sight of the public processions in which the +young men and maidens danced naked, and in the winter-time the officers +compelled them to walk naked round the market place, singing, as they +went, a certain song to their own disgrace, that they justly suffered +this punishment for disobeying the laws." Furthermore, at a certain +festival the women themselves sought to bring these misguided +individuals to a proper sense of their duty by dragging them round an +altar and continually inflicting blows upon them. Without doubt, the +maidens were all inclined to matrimony, as it enhanced their influence +and enabled them to fulfil their mission; and the rulers were ever ready +to provide husbands for them. + +A kind of disgrace attached to childlessness. Men who were not fathers +were denied the respect and observance which the young men of Sparta +regularly paid their elders. On one occasion, Dercyllidas, a commander +of great renown, entered an assembly. A young Spartan, contrary to +custom, failed to rise at his approach. The veteran soldier was +surprised. "You have no sons," said the youth, "who will one day pay the +same honor to me." And public opinion justified the excuse. + +The effects of the athletic training upon the physical nature of woman +were most commendable. The Spartan maiden was renowned throughout Greece +for preeminence in vigor of body and beauty of form. Even the Athenian +was impressed by this. Lysistrata, in the play of Aristophanes, in +greeting Lampito, the delegate from Sparta, who has come to a women's +conference, speaks thus: + +"O dearest Laconian, O Lampito, welcome! How beautiful you look, +sweetest one! What a fresh color! How vigorous your body is! What +beautiful breasts you have! Why, you could throttle an ox!" To this +greeting comes the reply: + +"Yes, I think I could, by Castor and Pollux! for I practise gymnastics +and leap high." + +Ideals of beauty differ in different ages and countries, and there is no +doubt that Lampito was a magnificent specimen of woman; yet it may be +doubted whether such masculine vigor is consonant with the highest moral +and spiritual development, which, after all, is the chief factor in +womanly charm. Spartan women were in demand everywhere as nurses, and +were universally respected for their vigor and prowess; yet it was the +equally healthy, but more graceful, Ionian woman who was chosen as the +model of the statues of the goddess of love and beauty. + +Spartan discipline produced beautiful animals, but any system which +dulled the sensibilities could hardly inculcate that grace and sweetness +and warmth of temperament which are essential to beauty. + +As to the moral nature of the Spartan woman, there is no doubt that the +unselfish devotion to the State, and the subordination of individual +inclination to the good of the whole, would tend to promote a rigid +morality. Yet the free intercourse between the sexes shocked the +Athenians; and Euripides, in the _Andromache_, has put into the mouth of +Peleus a severe indictment of the Spartan woman: + + "Though one should essay, + Virtuous could daughter of Sparta never be. + They gad abroad with young men from their homes, + And--with bare thighs and loose, disgirdled vesture-Race, + wrestle with them--things intolerable + To me! And is it wonder-worthy then + That ye train not your women to be chaste?" + +The Spartan laws, it is true, permitted and encouraged certain practices +regarded as morally wrong in this day, yet that which was lawful could +not well be considered immoral. Xenophon and Plutarch were ardent +admirers of the Spartan system, and strongly affirm the uprightness and +nobility of the Spartans. Plutarch tells an incident to illustrate +Spartan virtue in the old days. Geradas, a very ancient Spartan, being +asked by a stranger what punishment their law had appointed for +adulterers, answered: "There are no adulterers in our country." "But," +replied the stranger, "suppose there were." "Then," answered he, "the +offender would have to give the plaintiff a bull with a neck so long +that he might drink from the top of Taygetus of the Eurotas River below +it." The man, surprised at this, said: "Why, 'tis impossible to find +such a bull." Geradas smilingly replied: "It is as impossible to find an +adulterer in Sparta." + +Though we have to recognize much in the Spartan polity which is +repugnant to our ideas of the sacredness of family ties, yet we must +feel the utmost respect for the Spartan matron in the best days of +Lacedaemon. This rigid system provided for four or five centuries "a +succession of the strongest men that possibly ever existed on the face +of the earth," and the strength of character of the mothers made the +sons what they were. Only the Roman matron can be fitly compared to the +Spartan mother. + +It is not surprising that such mothers possessed an influence envied +throughout Greece. "You Spartan women are the only ones who rule over +men," said a stranger to Gorgo, wife of Leonidas. "True," she rejoined; +"for we are the only ones who are the mothers of men." + +For several centuries, owing to her peculiar discipline, Sparta was, +excepting Athens, the foremost State of Greece. But time is an enemy +often not taken sufficiently into consideration by men who establish +peculiar systems. And Lycurgus, who wished to make his system perpetual, +did not fully consider the disintegrating effects which time exerts on +all things temporal. "_Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret_ +[You may repress natural propensities by force, but they will be +certain to reappear]," says Horace, the wisest of Roman satirists; and +the Spartan polity had attempted to repress nature in men and women and +to control it by law. The great fault in the Lacedaemonian constitution +was in effect the violation of the eternal laws which assign to each +creature his role in the harmony of the world. Men are made for war, but +they are made for peace as well. Therefore, as Lycurgus made the city an +armed camp, in periods of peace the Spartan man "rusted like an unused +sword in its scabbard," and in idleness at home or in garrison duty +abroad fell an easy victim to avarice and lust. + +In his legislation concerning women, Lycurgus violated natural +propensities to an even greater extent than he had in his laws governing +the conduct of men. Woman was destined primarily for domestic life. She +was created to bear children; but her kingdom is the home, with its +manifold duties, and rearing children is as much her function as bearing +them. Yet the Spartan lad was taken forcibly from his mother at the +tender age of seven, and the Spartan maiden, while living at home, was +subject to stringent regulations formulated and enforced by the State. + +Woman is intuitively interested in domestic duties, in housekeeping and +clothes mending, and in caring for the innumerable wants of husband and +children. Yet the _Syssitia_, or public meals, deprived her of the +society of husband and sons, and took from her domestic cares because +they were deemed too menial for a free Spartan. "Female slaves," averred +Lycurgus, "are good enough to sit at home spinning and weaving; but who +can expect a splendid offspring--the appropriate mission and duty of a +free Spartan woman toward her country--from mothers brought up in such +occupations?" + +Although the Spartan system prescribed rigid discipline for the Spartan +woman up to the time of motherhood, after that time it left her life +altogether unregulated by law. Plato, who was in many respects a great +admirer of the Spartans, criticises this singular defect. He found fault +with a system which regarded woman only as a mother, and consequently, +when children had been born and turned over to the State, did not by law +provide occupation for the mothers or in any way regulate their conduct. +There was nothing to restrain their luxury or keep them loyal to duty +and probity. Higher culture was discouraged, intercourse with strangers +was forbidden, and woman was left largely to her own devices for +employment and recreation; but she was deprived in large measure of the +usual feminine occupations. During the old days, when the State was the +all in all of the citizens, and the mothers were urging on husbands and +sons to valiant deeds, the evils of the Lycurgan system did not show +themselves; but when the crisis came, and Sparta lost her supremacy in +Greek affairs, then old manners gave way, vice and weakness rushed in, +and men and women alike were debauched and evil. + +Aristotle, who was at his zenith during the latter part of the fourth +century before Christ, is severe in his denunciations of the license of +the Spartan women. This he regards as defeating the intention of the +Spartan constitution and subversive of the good order of the State. He +argues that, while Lycurgus sought to make the whole State hardy and +temperate, and succeeded in the case of the men, he had not done so with +the women, who lived in every sort of intemperance and luxury. He +charges that the Spartan men are under the domination of their +wives--Ares being ever susceptible to the wishes and inclinations of +Aphrodite. And the result is the same, he adds, "whether women rule or +the rulers are ruled by women." He also attacks the courage of the +women, stating that in a Theban invasion they had been utterly useless +and caused more confusion than the enemy. He finds them prone to +avarice, and regrets that, owing to the inequality of the laws governing +property, more than two-fifths of the whole country was already in the +hands of women. + +Nature in the end asserted herself, and the evils inherent in the +Lycurgan system brought about the fall of the State. Sparta had +sacrificed the liberties of her citizens, she had despised the laws of +nature in the destiny and education of women, she had banished the arts, +and had sought to keep out every humanizing influence. Consequently, +when that constitution, inflexible and in certain respects immoral and +unnatural, was impaired, her decline was rapid. Sad it is that Aristotle +should have perceived in the immorality, the greed, the misconduct, of +the women, one of the causes of the fall of Sparta! + +Sparta had become degenerate, but she was not to die without a final +struggle. In the middle of the third century before Christ, two kings of +Sparta, inspired by the stories of her early days, endeavored to +overcome the luxury and vice that were rampant and to restore the State +to its primitive simplicity and greatness. In their meritorious efforts +to accomplish the impossible, they enlisted the efforts of noble women, +who by their self-sacrificing devotion cast a momentary radiance over +the dying State. + +The earliest of these two kings was the young and gentle Agis. In the +corrupt state of society he saw need of reforms, and wished to begin at +the root of the evil by annulling debts and redistributing the land. One +of the first counsellors whom he consulted in his projected reforms was +his mother, Agesistrata, a woman of great wealth and power, who had +many of the Spartans in her debt and would be seriously affected by the +change. Yet, becoming conscious of the need of reforms, she, with the +grandmother of the young king, entered heartily into his plans to +restore the greatness of Sparta. Agesistrata urged other aristocratic +women to join in the movement, "knowing well that the Lacedaemonian wives +always had great power with their husbands." These, however, violently +opposed the scheme, because at this time most of the money of Sparta was +in the women's hands and was the main support of their credit and power. +Leonidas, the other king, was the head of the opposition, and a deadly +struggle followed between Agis and Leonidas--the one standing for the +people, the other for the aristocrats. Agis was at first successful, and +Leonidas was deposed, Cleombrotus, his son-in-law, being elevated to the +kingship in his stead. Another woman now comes to the front. Chilonis, +Cleombrotus's wife and Leonidas's daughter, seeing her aged father in +exile and distress, leaves her husband in the height of his power and +devotes herself to her aged father. + +However, the wheel of fortune again turns, and Leonidas is restored to +power. Agis and Cleombrotus flee for their lives, and become +suppliants--the one at the temple of the Brazen House, the other at the +temple of Poseidon. Leonidas, being more incensed against his +son-in-law, leaves Agis for the time and goes with his soldiers to +Cleombrotus's sanctuary to reproach him for having conspired with his +enemies, usurped his throne, and driven him from his country. Chilonis, +perceiving the great danger threatening her husband, leaves her father +and seeks to aid and comfort the fugitive. Plutarch thus tells her +story: + +"Cleombrotus, having little to say for himself, sat silent. His wife, +Chilonis, the daughter of Leonidas, had chosen to follow her father in +his sufferings; for when Cleombrotus usurped the kingdom, she forsook +him and wholly devoted herself to comforting her father in his +affliction; whilst he still remained in Sparta, she remained also, as a +suppliant, with him; and when he fled, she fled with him, bewailing his +misfortune, and extremely displeased with Cleombrotus. But now, upon +this turn of fortune, she changed in like manner, and was seen sitting +now, as a suppliant, with her husband, embracing him with her arms, and +having her two little children beside her. All men were full of wonder +at the piety and tender affection of the young woman, who, pointing to +her robes and her hair, both alike neglected and unattended to, said to +Leonidas: 'I am not brought, my father, to this condition you see me in, +on account of the present misfortune of Cleombrotus; my mourning habit +is long since familiar to me; it was put on to condole with you in your +banishment; and now you are restored to your country, and to your +kingdom, must I still remain in grief and misery? Or would you have me +attired in my royal ornaments, that I may rejoice with you when you have +killed, within my arms, the man to whom you gave me for a wife? Either +Cleombrotus must appease you by mine and my children's tears, or he must +suffer a punishment greater than you propose for his faults, and shall +see me, whom he loves so well, die before him. To what end should I +live, or how shall I appear among the Spartan women, when it shall so +manifestly be seen that I have not been able to move to compassion +either a husband or a father? I was born, it seems, to participate in +the ill fortune and in the disgrace, both as a wife and a daughter, of +those nearest and dearest to me. As for Cleombrotus, I sufficiently +surrendered any honorable plea on his behalf when I forsook him to +follow you; but you yourself offer the fairest excuse for his +proceedings, by showing to the world that for the sake of a kingdom it +is just to kill a son-in-law and be regardless of a daughter.' Chilonis, +having ended this lamentation, rested her face on her husband's head, +and looked round with her weeping and woe-begone eyes upon those who +stood before her. + +"Leonidas, touched with compassion, withdrew a while to advise with his +friends; then, returning, bade Cleombrotus leave the sanctuary and go +into banishment; 'Chilonis,' he said, 'ought to stay with him, it not +being just that she should forsake a father whose affection had granted +to her the life of a husband.' But all he could say would not prevail. +She rose up immediately, and taking one of her children in her arms, +gave the other to her husband, and making her reverence to the altar of +the deity, went out and followed him. So that, in a word, if Cleombrotus +were not utterly blinded by ambition, he would surely choose to be +banished with so excellent a woman rather than without her to possess a +kingdom." + +Having disposed of Cleombrotus, Leonidas next proceeded to consider how +he might entrap Agis. Agis, however, held his sanctuary until he was +finally betrayed by the treachery of three pretended friends, Amphares, +Damochares, and Arcesilaus. He was led off to prison and executed. + +Plutarch says: "Immediately after he was dead, Amphares went out of the +prison gate, where he found Agesistrata, who, believing him still the +same friend as before, threw herself at his feet. He gently raised her +up, and assured her she need not fear any further violence or danger of +death for her son, and that, if she pleased, she might go in and see +him. She begged her mother might also have the favor to be admitted, and +he replied that nobody should hinder it. When they were entered, he +commanded the gate should again be locked, and Archidamia, the +grandmother, to be first introduced; she was now grown to be very old, +and had lived all her days in the highest repute among her fellows. As +soon as Amphares thought she was despatched, he told Agesistrata she +might now go in if she pleased. She entered; and beholding her son's +body stretched on the ground, and her mother's hanging by the neck, the +first thing she did was, with her own hand, to assist the officers in +taking down the body; then, covering it decently, she laid it out by her +son's, whom then embracing, and kissing his cheeks, 'O my son,' said +she, 'it was thy too great mercy and goodness which brought thee and us +to ruin.' Amphares, who stood watching behind the door, on hearing this, +broke in, and said angrily to her, 'Since you approve so well of your +son's actions, it is fit you should partake in his reward.' She, rising +up to offer herself to the noose, said only, 'I pray that it may redound +to the good of Sparta.'" + +Thus was defeated the first effort for the reformation of Sparta. In the +city's long history, Agis was the first king who had been put to death +by the order of the ephors. When the bodies of the gentle king and his +noble mother and grandmother were exposed, the horror of the people knew +no bounds, and the aged Leonidas and Amphares became the objects of +public detestation. + +The second attempt at the reformation of Sparta is also remarkable for +the unselfishness and nobility of the women who took part. + +After the execution of King Agis, his wife, Agiatis, was compelled by +Leonidas to become the wife of his son Cleomenes, though the latter was +as yet too young to marry. As Agiatis was the heiress of the great +estate of her father, Gylippus, the old king was unwilling that she +should be the wife of anyone but his son. Agiatis was, says Plutarch, +"in person the most youthful and beautiful woman in all Greece, and +well-conducted in her habits of life." She resisted the union as long as +she could; but when forced to marry, she became to the youth a kind and +obliging wife. Cleomenes loved her very dearly, and often asked her +about the reforms of Agis; and she did not fail to inspire him with the +lofty ideals of her former gentle and high-minded husband. Cleomenes +himself, in consequence, fell in love with the old ways, and, after +Leonidas's death, attempted to carry out the reforms in which Agis had +failed. His mother, Cratesiclea, was also very zealous to promote his +ambitions; and in order that she might effectually assist him in his +plans, she accepted as her husband one of the foremost in wealth and +power among the citizens. With her help, the king succeeded in breaking +the power of the ephors, and a return to the system of Lycurgus was +partially accomplished. But Cleomenes had aroused a formidable enemy in +the person of Aratus, head of the Achaean League. He carried into Achaea +the war against Aratus, and made himself master of almost all +Peloponnesus, but, through the persistence of his enemies, almost as +quickly lost that territory. In the midst of his misfortunes, he +received news of the death of his wife, to whom he was devotedly +attached. "This news afflicted him extremely," says Plutarch, "and he +grieved as a young man would do, for the loss of a very beautiful and +excellent wife." When all seemed lost, he received promise of assistance +from King Ptolemy of Egypt, but only on condition that he send the +latter his mother and children as hostages. Plutarch thus continues the +story: + +"Now Ptolemy, the King of Egypt, promised him assistance, but demanded +his mother and children for hostages. This, for a considerable time, he +was ashamed to discover to his mother; and though he often went to her +on purpose, and was just upon the discourse, yet he still refrained, and +kept it to himself; so that she began to suspect, and asked his friend +whether Cleomenes had something to say to her which he was afraid to +speak. At last, Cleomenes venturing to tell her, she laughed aloud, and +said: 'Was this the thing that you had so often a mind to tell me, but +were afraid? Make haste and put me on shipboard, and send this carcass +where it may be most serviceable to Sparta, before age destroys it +unprofitably here,' Therefore, all things being provided for the voyage, +they went by land to Taenarum, and the army waited on them. Cratesiclea, +when she was ready to go on board, took Cleomenes aside into Poseidon's +temple, and, embracing him, who was much dejected and extremely +discomposed, she said: 'Go to, King of Sparta; when we come forth at the +door, let none see us weep or show any passion that is unworthy of +Sparta, for that alone is in our power; as for success or +disappointment, those wait on us as the deity decrees,' Having this +said, and composed her countenance, she went to the ship with her little +grandson, and bade the pilot put out at once to sea. When she came to +Egypt, and understood that Ptolemy entertained proposals and overtures +of peace from Antigonus, and that Cleomenes, though the Achaeans invited +and urged him to an agreement, was afraid for her sake to come to any +without Ptolemy's consent, she wrote to him, advising him to do that +which was most becoming and most profitable for Sparta, and not, for the +sake of an old woman and a little child, stand always in fear of +Ptolemy. This character she maintained in her misfortunes." + +Cleomenes, however, soon realized how little reliance is to be put in +the favors of princes. Antigonus of Syria took the part of Aratus +against him, and Ptolemy, who had been ever ready to help the valiant +Spartan, did not care to invite the hostility of a greater foe. +Cleomenes was defeated by Antigonus, and became an exile at the court of +Ptolemy, but it proved to be a prison instead of a home. Upon the death +of the elder Ptolemy, his son kept Cleomenes and his friends under +restraint, and, to please Antigonus, purposed putting them to death. +Cleomenes and his companions, knowing that a tragic end awaited them, +determined to break through their prison bars and to rouse the populace +to a revolt against Ptolemy. They easily made their escape, but the +people could not be persuaded to undertake any struggle for liberty; and +so the devoted band resolved to die. Then each one killed himself, +except Panteus, the youngest and handsomest of them all, who was +selected by Cleomenes to wait till the rest were dead, so that he might +perform for them the last offices. He carefully arranged all the bodies +of his comrades, and then, kissing his beloved king and throwing his +arms about him, slew himself. The news of this sad event, having spread +through the city, finally reached the aged mother, Cratesiclea, who, +though a woman of great spirit, could hardly bear up against the weight +of this affliction, especially as she knew that an equally tragic fate +awaited her grandchildren. + +The Egyptian king ordered that Cleomenes's body should be flayed, and +that his children, his mother, and the women that were with her, should +be put to death. Among these was the wife of Panteus, still very young +and exquisitely beautiful, who had but lately been married. Her parents +would not suffer her to embark with Panteus for Egypt so soon after they +had been married, though she eagerly desired it, and her father had shut +her up and kept her forcibly at home. But she found means of escape. A +few days after Panteus's departure, she slipped out by night, mounted a +horse and rode to Taenarum, and there embarked on a vessel sailing for +Egypt, where she soon found her husband, and with him cheerfully endured +all the sufferings and hardships that befell them in a hostile country. +She was now the moral support of the whole company of helpless women. +She moved about among them, comforting and consoling. She gave her hand +to Cratesiclea, as the latter was being led out by the soldiers to +execution, held up her robe, and begged her to be courageous, being +herself not in the least afraid of death, and desiring nothing else than +to be killed before the children were put to death. When they reached +the place of execution, the children were first killed before +Cratesiclea's eyes; and afterward she herself suffered death, with these +pathetic words on her lips: "O children, whither are you gone?" +Panteus's wife, as her husband did for the men, performed the last +offices for the women. In silence and perfect composure, she looked +after every one that was slain, and laid out the bodies as decently as +circumstances would permit. And then, after all were killed, adjusting +her own robe so that she might fall becomingly, she courageously +submitted to the stroke of the executioner. + +Thus ended the second great movement for the reformation of Sparta, and +henceforth Sparta, as an independent State; disappears from history. The +story of the fall of Sparta owes its human interest chiefly to the women +involved, and Plutarch recognizes this fact when, in concluding his +story of Cleomenes, he, with the Greek dramatic contests before his +mind, says: "Thus Lacedaemon, exhibiting a dramatic contest in which the +women vied with the men, showed in her last days that virtue cannot be +insulted by fortune." + +Chilonis, Agesistrata, Agiatis, Cratesiclea, the wife of Panteus,--what +a pity that we do not know her name!--constitute the most admirable +feminine group that Greek history offers us. What especially charms us +is that they unite with the strength and self-abnegation of the ancient +Spartan matron a sweetness, a tenderness, a womanliness, which we have +not been accustomed to attribute to Spartan women. They are Spartans, +but they are, above all, women. + + + + +VIII + +THE ATHENIAN WOMAN + + +Divergent views have been entertained by writers who have discussed the +social position of woman at Athens and the estimation in which she was +held by man. Many scholars have asserted that women were held in a +durance not unlike that of the Oriental harem, that their life was a +species of vassalage, and that they were treated with contempt by the +other sex; while the few have contended that there existed a degree of +emancipation differing but slightly from that of the female sex in +modern times. As is usually the case, the truth lies in the golden mean +between these two extremes; and a careful perusal of Greek authors, with +the judgment directed to the spirit of their references to women rather +than to a literal interpretation of disparate passages, will show that +the status of the freeborn Athenian woman, while by no means ideal or +conforming to our present standards, was far better than is usually +conceded by the writers upon Greek life. + +It cannot be denied, however, that the social position of the Athenian +woman was far inferior to that of the woman of the Heroic Age, and that, +despite the boasted democracy and freedom of thought of the period, +woman's status in the years of republican Athens was a reproach to the +advanced culture and love of the good and the beautiful of which the +city of the violet crown was the exponent. There had been a revolution +in the habits of life of the Greeks since the days when Homer sang of +the women of heroic Greece, and the student does not have to search far +to discover the principal causes of the change. + +The chief of these is the Greek idea of the city-state, which reached +its highest development in Athens. Citizenship was, as a rule, +hereditary, and every possible legal measure was taken to preserve its +purity. The main principle of this hereditary citizenship was that the +union from which the child was sprung must be one recognized by the +State. This was accomplished by requiring a legitimate marriage, either +through betrothal by a parent or guardian, or through assignment by a +magistrate. Pericles revised the old conditions, which had become lax +during the tyranny, by passing a measure limiting citizenship to those +who were born of two Athenian parents. Greater stress was laid on the +citizenship of the mother than on that of the father, as the child was +regarded as belonging naturally to the mother. It was possible to +increase the citizen body by a vote of the people; but in the best days +of Athens her citizenship was regarded as so high a privilege that the +franchise was most jealously guarded. Consequently, in the fifth century +we see in Athens and Attica a population of about four hundred thousand, +of which not more than fifty thousand were citizens; the rest consisted +of minors, of resident aliens numbering some fifteen thousand, and of +slaves, of whom there were about two hundred thousand in the Periclean +Age. + +To preserve the purity of the citizenship in so large a population of +residents, increased by thousands of visitors and strangers who +frequented the metropolis, every precaution was taken that the daughters +of Athens should not be wedded to foreigners, and that no spurious +offspring should be palmed off on the State. Hence marriage by a citizen +was restricted to a union with a legitimate Athenian maiden with full +birthright. The marriage of an Athenian maiden with a stranger, or of a +citizen with a foreigner, was strictly forbidden, and the offspring of +such a union was illegitimate. + +Under such a conception of polity, marriage lay at the very basis of the +State; and respect for the local deities, obligations of citizenship, +and regard for one's race and lineage, demanded that every safeguard +should be thrown about it, and that the women of Athens should conform +to those enactments and customs which would fit them to be the mothers +of citizens and would keep from them every entangling intrigue with +strangers. + +The result of this polity was a singular phenomenon: there were in +Athens two classes of women--one carefully secluded and restricted, +under the rigid surveillance of law and custom; the other, free to do +whatever it pleased, except to marry citizens. Yet the latter class +would gladly have exchanged places with the former; while the former, no +doubt, envied the freedom and social accomplishments of the latter. The +one class consisted of the highborn matrons of Athens, glorying in their +birthright, and rulers of the home; the other, of the resident aliens of +the female sex, unmarried, emancipated intellectually as untrammelled +morally, who could become the "companions" of the great men of the city. +Thus, owing to the Athenian conception of the city-state, the natural +functions of woman--domesticity and companionship, which should be +united in one person, were divided, the Athenian man looking to his wife +merely for the care of the home and the bearing and rearing of children, +and to the hetaera for comradeship and intellectual sympathy. This evil +was the canker-worm which gnawed out the core of the social life of +Athens and caused the unhappiness of the female sex. + +At the birth of a girl in Athens, woollen fillets were hung upon the +door of the house to indicate the sex of the child, the olive wreath +being used to proclaim the birth of a boy. This custom demonstrates the +relative importance of son and daughter in the eyes of the parents and +the public. The son was destined for all the victories that public life +and the prestige of the State can give; therefore, the olive, symbol of +victory, served to make known his advent. The daughter's life was to be +one of domestic duties, hence the band of wool, with its connotation of +spinning and weaving, was a fitting emblem of the career for which the +babe was destined. The plan of a Greek house indicates how secluded +woman's whole life was to be. In the interior part of the Greek mansion, +separated from the front of the building by a door, lay the +_gyncaeconitis_, or women's apartments, usually built around a court. +Here were bedrooms, dining-rooms, the nursery, the rooms for spinning +and weaving, where the lady of the house sat at her wheel. This was, in +brief, the feminine domain. + +In the seclusion of the _gyncaeconitis_, the girl-child was reared by its +mother and nurse. Her playthings--dishes, toy spindles, and dolls--were +such as to cultivate her taste for domestic duties. No regular public +and systematized instruction was provided for a girl; no education was +deemed necessary, for her life was to be devoted to the household, away +from the world of affairs. But though there were no schools for maidens +to attend, reading and writing and the fundamentals of knowledge were +regularly imparted by a loving mother or a faithful nurse. The frescoed +walls made the girls acquainted with the stories of mythology, and music +and the recitation of poetry were frequent sources of instruction and +recreation in the homes of the well-to-do. The maidens were, above all, +made proficient in the strictly feminine arts of housekeeping, spinning, +weaving, and embroidery. They were rigidly excluded from any intercourse +with the other sex, and their contact with the outside world was +confined to participation in the religious festivals, which occupied so +large a part in the everyday life of the Greeks. "When I was seven years +of age," says the chorus of Athenian women in the _Lysistrata_ of +Aristophanes, "I carried the mystic box in the procession; then, when I +was ten, I ground the cakes for our patron goddess; and, clad in a +saffron-colored robe, I was the bear at the Brauronian festival; and I +carried the sacred basket when I became a beautiful girl." Such were the +opportunities granted to the highborn Athenian maiden for occasional +glimpses of the splendor and activity of her native city; and can we +doubt that on such occasions she was impressed by the sublimity of the +temples and works of art, and that there were cast many modest glances +at the handsome youths on horseback, who, in turn, were fascinated by +the beauty and freshness of these tenderly nurtured maidens? + +The seclusion of Athenian girls and the careful rearing which they +received at the hands of mothers and nurses were such as to fit them to +rule the home. The Athenian maiden was noted throughout Hellas for her +modesty and sweetness. The intelligence was not cultivated, but the +heart and sensibilities had ample scope for development in the duties +and recreations of the _gynaeconitis_ and in the participation in +religious exercises. Such a simple and peaceful rearing tended to +preserve the delicacy of the soul and to keep unstained innocence and +purity. When comparison is instituted with the Spartan system, +preference must be given to the Athenian method of education, with all +its defects. The sweet modesty imparted by seclusion was far more +womanly than the boldness of bearing acquired by athletic exercises in +the presence of young men. The Spartan system trained the woman for +public life, to be the patriotic mother of warriors; the Athenian system +prepared the maiden to be the guardian of the home, the affectionate and +devoted mother. + +When the maiden reached the age of fifteen, her parents began +negotiations for her marriage. An Athenian marriage was essentially a +matter of convenience, and was usually arranged by contract between the +respective fathers of the youth and maiden. Equality of birth and +fortune were generally the chief considerations in the selection of the +son-in-law or the daughter-in-law; and in an atmosphere where the +attractions of a maiden were so little known, a professional matchmaker +frequently brought the interested parties together. Thus the rustic +Strepsiades, in Aristophanes's _Clouds_, expresses the wish that the +feminine matchmaker had perished miserably who had induced him to marry +the haughty, luxurious, citified niece of aristocratic Megacles, son of +Megacles. + +The Homeric custom of bringing valuable presents or of performing +valiant deeds to win a maiden's hand had long passed away, and, in the +great days of Athens, the father had to provide a dowry consisting +partly of cash, partly of clothes, jewelry, and slaves. Solon, who, as +Plutarch tells us, wished to have marriages contracted from motives of +pure love or kind affection, and to further the birth of children, +rather than for mercenary considerations, decreed that no dowries should +be given and that the bride should have only three changes of clothes; +but this good custom had passed away with the era of simple living. So +distinctly was the dowry the indispensable condition of marriage, that +poor girls were often endowed by generous relatives, or the State +itself would provide a wedding portion for the daughters of men +deserving well of their country. For example, when the Athenians heard +that the granddaughter of Aristogiton, the Tyrannicide, was in needy +circumstances in the isle of Lemnos, and was so poor that nobody would +marry her, they brought her back to Athens, married her to a man of good +birth, and gave her a farm at Potamos for a marriage portion. The dowry +was generally secured to the wife by rigid restrictions; in most cases +of separation, the dowry reverted to the wife's parents; and though the +husband's fortune might be confiscated, the marriage portion of the wife +was exempt. + +Of the ceremonies and formalities of marriage, the solemn betrothal was +the first and most important, as it established the legality of the +union; and it was at this ceremony that the dowry was settled upon the +bride. In the presence of the two families, the father of the maiden +addressed the bridegroom in the following formula: "That legitimate +children may be born, I present you my daughter." The betrothed then +exchanged vows by clasping their right hands or by embracing each other, +and the maiden received a gift from her affianced as a token of love. +The marriage usually followed close upon the betrothal. + +The favorite month for the ceremony was named Gamelion, or the "marriage +month"; this included part of our January and part of February. On the +eve of the wedding, the good will of the divinities protecting marriage, +especially Zeus Teleios, Hera Teleia, and Artemis Eukleia, was invoked +by prayer and sacrifices. + +Strange to say, the wedding itself, though given a religious character +by its attendant ceremonies, was neither a religious nor a legal act. +The legality of the marriage was established by the betrothal, while +its religious aspect was found solely in the rites in honor of the +marriage gods. + +A second ceremony, universally observed, was the bridal bath, taken +individually by both bride and bridegroom previously to their union. In +Athens, from time immemorial, the water for this bath was taken from the +sacred fountain, Callirrhoe, called since its enclosure by Pisistratus +"Enneacrunus," or "the Nine Spouts." Authorities differ as to whether a +boy or a girl served as water carrier on this occasion; but the latter +supposition is supported by an archaic picture on a hydria, representing +the holy fountain Callirrhoe flowing from the head of a lion under a +Doric superstructure. A girl, holding in her hand branches of laurel or +myrtle, looks musingly down on a hydria, which is being filled with the +bridal water. Five other maidens are grouped about the fountain, some +with empty pitchers awaiting their turn, others about to go home with +their filled pitchers. No doubt it is in the month of marriage, and many +maidens are preparing for the happy event. + +On the wedding day, toward dark, a feast was held at the parental home, +at which were gathered all the bridal party--for this was one of the few +occasions in Athenian life when men and women dined together. Here the +bride and groom appeared, clad in purple and crowned with flowers sacred +to Aphrodite. The distinctive mark of the bride was the veil, which +covered her head and partly concealed her face. All the guests wore +wreaths in honor of the joyous event. With her own hand the bride +plucked the poppies and sesame which were to crown her forehead, for it +would have been an ill omen to wear a nuptial wreath that had been +purchased. + +Soon the banquet is concluded with libations and prayer, just as night +begins to fall. Then the bride leaves the festively adorned parental +home, and takes her place in a chariot, between the bridegroom and his +best man, for the wedding journey to her new abode. The place of honor +in the procession that follows is held by the bride's mother, who walks +behind the chariot, carrying the wedding torches, which have been +kindled at the family hearth, that the bride may have the sacred fire of +her own home continued in her new dwelling. The festal company join in +singing the wedding song to Hymenaeus to the sound of flutes as the +chariot leads slowly toward the bridegroom's house. At the close of the +_Birds_ of Aristophanes, when occurs the wedding of Pisthetaerus and +Basileia, the chorus attends the wedded pair with the following lines: + + "Jupiter, that god sublime, + When the Fates in former time + Matched him with the Queen of Heaven + At a solemn banquet given, + Such a feast was held above, + And the charming God of Love + Being present in command, + As a bridegroom took his stand + With the golden reins in hand, + Hymen, Hymen, Ho!" + +The new home, like that of the bride's father, is adorned with garlands +of laurel and ivy--the laurel for the husband, as the symbol of victory, +and the delicate and graceful ivy for the bride, embodying her +attachment for her husband, as that of the ivy for the sturdy oak. At +the door, the bridegroom's mother is awaiting the young couple, with the +burning torches in her hand. As the spouses enter, a shower of +sweetmeats is poured upon their heads, partly in jest, partly to +symbolize the abundance and prosperity invoked upon them. To typify the +bride's new duties as mistress of the house, a pestle used for bruising +corn has been hung up near the bridal chamber; and in conformity to +another custom, prevailing since the days of Solon, she is expected to +eat a quince, which was considered to be a symbol of fruitfulness. Soon +the bridegroom's mother attends the couple to the _thalamos_, or nuptial +chamber, where, for the first time, the bride unveils herself to her +husband. Meanwhile, before the door, the bride's attendants, crowned +with hyacinth, join in the epithalamium, or marriage hymn, a +characteristic specimen of which we possess in the bridal hymn to Helen, +by Theocritus: + + "Slumberest so soon, sweet bridegroom? + Art thou overfond of sleep? + Or hast thou leaden-weighted limbs? + Or hast thou drunk too deep + When thou didst fling thee to thy lair? + Betimes thou shouldst have sped, + If sleep were all thy purpose, + Unto thy bachelor's bed, + And left her in her mother's arms, + To nestle and to play, + A girl among her girlish mates, + Till deep into the day:-- + For not alone for this night, + Nor for the next alone, + But through the days and through the years + Thou hast her for thine own." + +And it ends thus: + + "Sleep on, and love and longing + Breathe in each other's breast, + But fail not when the morn returns + To rouse you from your rest; + With dawn shall we be stirring, + When, lifting high his fair + And feathered neck, the earliest bird + To clarion to the dawn is heard. + O God of brides and bridals, + Sing, 'Happy, happy pair!'" + +A fragment of Anacreon has preserved for us an example of the morning +nuptial chant, sung by the chorus to greet the bride and groom on their +awakening: + +"Aphrodite, queen of goddesses; Love, powerful conqueror; Hymen, source +of life: it is of you that I sing in my verses. 'Tis of you I chant, +Love, Hymen, and Aphrodite. Behold, young man, behold thy wife! Arise, O +Straticlus, favored of Aphrodite, husband of Myrilla, admire thy bride! +Her freshness, her grace, her charms, make her shine among all women. +The rose is queen of flowers; Myrilla is a rose midst her companions. +Mayst thou see grow in thy house a son like to thee!" + +Then begins a second fete day for the bridal pair. Husband and wife +receive visits and gifts from relatives and friends, and exchange +presents with each other. The festivities are concluded with a banquet +in the husband's home, at which the wife's position in the clan of her +husband's family is recognized; and she may now appear without her veil, +as the mistress of her new home. + +Wedding scenes are frequently the subject of illustration in antique +art. The most remarkable of these is the splendid wall painting known as +the _Aldobrandini Wedding_, preserved in the Vatican. It represents, +painted on one surface, three different scenes of the marriage ceremony. +The central picture represents a chamber of the _gynoe onitis_, where +the bride, chastely veiled, reclines on a beautiful couch; "Peitho, the +goddess of persuasion, sits by her side, as appears from the crown on +her head and from the many-folded peplus falling over her back. She +pleads the bridegroom's cause, and seems to encourage the timorous +maiden. A third female figure, to the left of the group, leaning on a +piece of a column, seems to expect the girl's surrender; for she is +pouring ointment from an alabastron into a vase made of shell, so as to +have it ready for use after the bridal bath. Most likely she represents +the second handmaiden of Aphrodite, Charis, who, according to the myth, +bathed and anointed her mistress with ambrosial oil in the holy grove of +Paphos. The pillar at the back of Charis indicates the partition wall +between this chamber and the one next to it on the left. We here see a +large basin filled with water, standing on a columnar base. The water is +perhaps that of the well Callirrhoe, fetched by the young girl standing +close by for the nuptial bath. The girl seems to look inquiringly at the +matronly figure approaching the basin on the other side, and putting her +fingers into the water as if to test its warmth. Her sublime form and +priestly dress, together with the leaf-shaped instrument in her hand +(probably the instrument used at lustrations), seem to portray her as +Hera Teleia, the protecting goddess of marriage, in the act of examining +and blessing the bridal bath. The third scene of the picture is placed +at the entrance of the bride's house. The bridegroom, crowned with vine +branches, is sitting on the threshold, as if listening impatiently for +the close of the ceremony inside the house. In front of him is a group +of three maidens, one of whom seems to be making an offering at a +portable altar, while the other two begin the hymenaeus to the +accompaniment of the cithara." + +With the completion of the marriage ceremonies, the maiden has passed +from the _gynaeconitis_ of her father to that of her husband; but, though +still under masculine control, she is absolute mistress of her limited +sphere; yet she is expected to refrain from manifesting interest in the +public affairs of her husband and to confine her attention to her +domestic duties. + + "Good women must abide within the house; + Those whom we meet abroad are nothing worth," + +writes the poet; and this couplet expresses the Athenian husband's idea +of the wife's proper sphere of activity. His life is essentially an +outdoor one. The market place, a the law courts, the numerous colonnades, +are the centres of his activity, where he passes his time in attending +to business, in discussing politics, in telling or hearing some new +thing. His recreations consist in visiting the _palaestrae_ or the +_gymnasia_, the clubhouses of ancient Greece, and in participating with +his chosen friends in banquets at which beautiful flute players and +cultivated hetaerae afford pastime and amusement. He passes but little +time at home. + +Meanwhile, the wife superintends the slaves and assigns them their +several duties; she looks after the stores, utensils, and furnishings of +the household; she presides over the kitchen; she nurses the sick; and, +above all, she devotes her attention to the careful rearing of the +children, whose prattle breaks the otherwise monotonous existence of the +women's apartments. Occasionally, she visits her friends, or receives +them in her house; but the gathering of women was discouraged by the +husbands, who believed the effect of gossip to be matrimonial +discontent. + +Religious ceremonies occupied a large part of feminine life, and women +over sixty might attend any funerals to which inclination called them; +and funerals among the Greeks, save in isolated cases, were not +hopelessly solemn affairs. These elderly women were also privileged to +attend memorial exercises in honor of the distinguished dead, and it was +on an occasion such as this that Thucydides puts into the mouth of +Pericles the famous dictum, expressing so aptly the Athenian conception +of the ideal woman: "The best wife is the one of whom the least is said, +either of good or evil." The tortoise was the symbol of feminine +life--the creature that never goes out of her shell. Lycurgus draws a +dramatic picture of the receipt of the news at Athens of the fateful +day at Chaeronea, when the Athenian women stood in the doors of their +houses, making inquiries concerning husbands and brothers and fathers, +but not, as might have been expected, gathering in the streets to +discuss the terrible tidings. + +Although their opportunities for social life were so limited, the +Athenian women devoted much time to their toilet. Bathing was a daily +habit, and was attended by anointing with oils and fragrant essences. +The dignity and grace of Athenian dress are admirably illustrated by the +drapery of the female forms which support the roof of the southern +portico of the Erechtheum. The tunic, with its overhanging _diplois_, +fastened round the hips by means of a girdle, was gracefully arranged in +symmetrical folds. Linen was usually the material employed, and white +was the favorite color among modest Greek women; yet particolored +Oriental garments were also worn. Dresses were frequently adorned with +inwoven patterns and attached borders and embroideries. The outer +garment was the mantle, or _peplos_, shaped like a shawl and capable of +a variety of picturesque drapings. The headdress of women was simple. +Hats were not worn, except on journeys, and, beyond the customary veil, +the chief ornament was a band for holding together the plentiful hair. +This was frequently knotted at the top of the head and fastened by pins +of gold and silver, the tops of which were shaped like the pineapple or +the lotus flower; sometimes the front hair was arranged in small +ringlets, while the back hair partly fell smoothly over the neck, and +partly descended below the shoulders in long curls. Frequently, ribbons +were used to bind the hair, adorned, where it rested on the forehead, +with a plaque of metal formed like a frontal, called the _stephane_; or +a band of cloth or leather was used, broad in the centre and growing +narrower at the ends, styled _sphendone_ from its similarity to a +sling. Sandals were the usual form of footwear, and variety was given by +the length and graceful folding of the straps. Exquisite simplicity was +also seen in the jewelry. The chief ornament was the necklace; these +were sometimes composed of balls of gold and garnets intermingled, or of +emeralds alternating with fine pearls and attached by little chains. +Bracelets owe their Greek name to the form they were generally +given--that of a serpent. They were usually worn on the wrist, sometimes +on the upper arm, and sometimes even about the ankle. At times, +bracelets were merely circlets of gold. Sometimes they were adorned with +medallions at intervals, sometimes they were set with emeralds, garnets, +or pearls. The ear-rings were of graceful form, sometimes representing a +swan in black enamel, with bill, wings, feet, and tail of gold, +sometimes a dove on a delicate pedestal, a bunch of grapes with a golden +stem, or a sphinx, or a panther's head. The clasps or buckles which +bound the tunic or the peplus, usually shaped in the form of an arc, +exhibited rare beauty. Rings, set with carnelian, agate, sardonyx, +amethyst, and other gems, and brooches of every variety, completed the +ornaments in the jewel cases of the Athenian women. + +In disclosing the secrets of the Athenian toilet, love of truth compels +us to state that these fair dames had recourse to the use of cosmetics, +perhaps to overcome the paleness of complexion incident to lack of +outdoor life. Cheeks and lips were given a ruddy hue by the use of +_minium_, or the root of the alkanet; eyebrows were darkened by applying +pulverized antimony; and dark hair could be changed to blonde by the use +of a certain powder, which gave a golden tint, much sung of by poets. + +When one reads of the great attention paid by the Athenian women to the +cultivation of grace of form, of taste in dress, and of beauty of +feature, it is hard to realize that such charms were confined to the +women's apartments, and merely revealed themselves to the outside world +on festive occasions. + +Though the gallantry of modern times was not a part of the habitual +equipment of an Athenian gentleman, yet he was very careful as to his +behavior in the presence of ladies. There was strict observance of the +etiquette which controlled the relations of the sexes. No gentleman +would enter an abode of women in the absence of the master, and +unbecoming language in the presence of women was a gross offence. The +husband carefully abstained in his wife's presence from doing anything +that might lower her estimation of his dignity. A certain distance was +apparently maintained between married persons, and cordial familiarity +was sometimes sacrificed to love of social forms. No doubt, too, fine +breeding and true courtesy were generally shown the wife and ruler of +his home by the Athenian husband who, like Agathon in the _Symposium_ of +Plato, exhibited the most delicate tact and sentiment in his treatment +of men. + +In the peaceful atmosphere of the home, the Athenian gentlewoman was +expected to live an irreproachable life. Infidelity on the part of the +husband was regarded as a venial office, but the wife who violated her +marriage vows was punished with the most terrible disgrace. Should she +marry again, the man who ventured to wed her was disfranchised. She was +to all intents and purposes an outcast from society. If she appeared in +a temple, she might be subjected to any indignity short of death. +Furthermore, a man could divorce his wife on the slightest pretext; +while the wife, to obtain a divorce, was compelled to lodge with the +archon a complaint against her husband and a prayer for the return of +her dowry, and in the ensuing process she was subjected to many delays +and inconveniences. Then, as she was still a minor in the eyes of the +law, a wife who had left her husband was obliged to return to a state of +tutelage under her father or brother; and many a suffering wife endured +in silence neglect or ill usage rather than thus return to her father's +control. Yet many a high-spirited woman revolted against the +infidelities of her husband. The saddest incident of this marital +inequality that we find in Greek literature is the story of Alcibiades's +wife, Hipparete, and her case shows how difficult it was for a wife to +assert her rights. Hipparete's early death leaves on the reader the +impression that her heart was broken by her brilliant husband's +inconstancy and brutality. + +"Hipparete," writes Plutarch, "was a virtuous and dutiful wife, but at +last growing impatient because of the outrages done to her by her +husband's continual entertaining of hetaerae, strangers as well as +Athenians, she departed from him and retired to her brother's house. +Alcibiades seemed not at all concerned at this, and lived on still in +the same luxury; but the law required that she should deliver to the +archon, in person, and not by proxy, the instrument by which she claimed +a divorce; and when, in obedience thereto, she presented herself before +the archon to perform this, Alcibiades came in, caught her up, and +carried her home through the market place, no one daring to oppose him +or to take her from him. She continued with him till her death, which +happened not long after, when Alcibiades had gone to Ephesus." + +We find in Xenophon's remarkable treatise on _Domestic Economy_ an +interesting description of the method pursued by a model Greek gentleman +in training for her domestic duties his young wife, a tender girl of +fifteen, reared under the strictest restraint to the end that she might +"see as little, hear as little, and ask as few questions as possible." + +He was not content that his young wife should simply know the ordinary +household duties of spinning and weaving, and directing her maid, but he +wished to educate her so that she might have larger conceptions of her +sphere as well as the ability to understand what was desirable for the +happiness of both. The account which the model husband, Ischomachus, +gives in his dialogue with Socrates of his experience in wife training +throws many sidelights on the marriage relations of the Athenians and +the philosophy of their system. As soon as the child-wife was properly +domesticated, so that she dared to converse freely, her husband began to +talk to her of their mutual responsibilities and to inculcate those +lessons which would be to their mutual advantage. She was now, he goes +on, the mistress of his house; henceforth everything should be theirs in +common--the caring for their fortune, as well as the education of the +children whom the gods might grant them. He will never question which of +them has done the more to increase their common store, but each shall +strive to contribute largely to that fortune. + +The young wife, in her astonishment at such words, asks: "How can I help +you in this, or wherein can the little power I have do you any good? For +my mother told me that both my fortune as well as yours was wholly at +your command, and that it must be my chief care to live virtuously and +soberly." + +ISCHOMACHUS.--This is true, good wife; but it is the part of a sober +husband and virtuous wife not only to preserve the fortune they are +possessed of, but to contribute equally to improve it. + +WIFE.--And what do you see in me that you believe me capable of +assisting in the improvement of your fortune? ISCHOMACHUS.--Use your +endeavor, good wife, to do those things which are acceptable to the gods +and are appointed by the law for you to do. + +WIFE.--And what are those things, dear husband? + +Ischomachus then enumerates the things which are acceptable to the gods +and appointed by the law, and determines the limits which separate the +duties of man from those of woman. He says: "The wisdom of the divinity +has prepared the union of the two sexes, and has made of marriage an +association useful to each one,--a union which will secure for them, in +their children, support in their old age. + +"It is man's duty to acquire food, to be busied with field work, to care +for flocks, and to defend himself against enemies. Therefore the god has +given him strength and courage. The woman must care for and prepare the +food, weave garments, and rear the children. Therefore the god has given +her a delicate physique which will keep her in the home, an exquisite +tenderness of heart which brings about her maternal care and love and a +watchful vigilance for the safety of her little ones. + +"Since they are united for their common advantage, they are endowed with +the same faculties of memory and diligence. Both are endowed with the +same force of soul to refrain from things harmful, and the one who +practises this virtue the more has, by the grace of the divinity, the +better recompense. However," he adds, "as they are not equally perfect, +they have the more occasion for each other's assistance; for when man +and woman are thus united, what the one has occasion for is supplied by +the other." + +Ischomachus then shows that in well performing their respective +functions husband and wife conform themselves to the rules of the good +and the beautiful. If the wife leave the home, or the husband remain +there, he or she is violating the laws of nature. He compares the duties +of the wife to those of the queen bee, which, without leaving the hive, +extends her activity around her, sends others to the field, receives and +stores away provisions as they are brought, watches over the +construction of cells, and brings up the little bees. + +There is one duty of which he tells her with hesitation--the caring for +the slaves when they may be ill. But to his great joy she responds: +"That is surely an act of charity, and becoming every good-natured +mistress, for we cannot oblige people more than by helping them when +they are sick. This will surely engage the love of our servants to us +and make them doubly diligent to us on every occasion." + +He answers: "By reason of the good care and tenderness of the queen bee, +all the rest of the hive are so affectionate to her, that whenever she +is disposed to go abroad the whole colony belonging to her accompany and +attend upon their queen." + +The thought of being queen startles the young girl, whose education has +taught her that passive obedience is the first duty of a wife. Her +husband has placed in her hands a sceptre which she thinks herself +unable to wield. She therefore says: + +"Dear Ischomachus, tell me, is not the business of the mistress bee what +you ought to do rather than myself? or have you not a share in it? For +my keeping at home and directing my servants will be of little account, +unless you send home such provisions as are necessary to employ us." + +ISCHOMACHUS.--And my providence would be of little use, unless there is +one at home who is ready to receive and take care of those goods that I +send home. Have you not observed what pity people show to those who are +punished by being sentenced to pour water into sieves until they are +full? The occasion of pity is because those people labor in vain. + +WIFE.--I esteem those people to be truly miserable who have no benefit +from their labors. + +[Illustration 176 _THE GRECIAN TOILETTE From an antique vase The Greek +women took great care of their bodies. It was their habit after bathing +to anoint themselves with perfume, pastes or liquids, pomades, and oils. +Nos. 1, 2 and 6 exhibits the basin, supplied with perfumed water. The +figure at No. 6 is washing from her hair the color of powder which had +been applied the evening before. The colors used might be black, red, +silver, gold, or any other tint, according to taste. The eyebrows were +tinted to harmonize. Nos. 9 and 10 represent the application of oil, +which followed completion of the coiffure. Nos. 3 and 4 exhibit the +slave's simple dress and the rich transparent costume of the lady. The +mirrors, Nos. 4, 5, and 11, were framed in ivory or chiselled silver, +ornamented with precious stones. One of the fetes in honor of Minerva +was that of the Parasols, which were often made of silk, see No. 7._] + +ISCHOMACHUS.--Suppose, dear wife, you take into your service one who can +neither card nor spin, and you teach her to do those things, will it not +be an honor to you? Or if you take a servant who is negligent and does +not understand how to do her business, or has been given to pilfering, +and you make her diligent and instruct her in the manners of a good +servant, and teach her honesty, will you not rejoice in your success, +and will you not be pleased with your action? So, when you see your +servants sober and discreet, you should encourage and show them favor. +But those who are incorrigible and will not follow your directions you +must punish. Consider how laudable it will be for you to excel others in +the well-ordering of your house. Be therefore diligent, virtuous, and +modest, and give your necessary attendance on me, your children, and +your house, and your name shall be honorably esteemed, even after your +death; for it is not the beauty of your face and form, but your virtue +and goodness, which will bring you honor and esteem that will last +forever." + +Thus does he conclude his first discourse with his wife on the subject +of her duties, and she is diligent to learn and to practise what has +been taught her. When, a little later, he asks her to find him a parcel +which he had brought home, and she, with flushed cheeks and troubled +look, has to confess that she is unable to find it, he takes this +occasion to talk to her on order and harmony in all things. He tells her +not to be grieved over her failure to find the parcel, as it is his +fault for not having assigned a definite place for each thing. He shows +her how everything is perfectly arranged in a chorus, in a large army, +and in the crew of a vessel, that all may be done harmoniously and in +order. "Let us therefore fix upon a proper place where our stores may be +laid up, not only in security, but where they may be so disposed that we +may know where to look for every particular thing. By this means, we +shall know what we gain and what we lose; and in surveying our +storehouses, we shall be able to judge what is necessary to be brought +in or what may want repairing and what will be impaired by keeping." +With the simplicity natural to men of high intelligence, he does not +hesitate to confess that he finds beauty even in kitchen utensils +orderly arranged. + +The young wife is enchanted at his idea, and they go through the house +assigning a place for each thing; they distribute duties to the slaves, +and give them other instructions, with the endeavor to win their +affections and elevate their characters. Ischomachus then tells her that +all care will be useless if the mistress of the house do not watch to +see that the established order is not disturbed. Comparing her to +magistrates who make the laws of a city respected, he adds: "This, dear +wife, I chiefly commend to you, that you may look upon yourself as chief +overseer of the laws within our house." + +He tells her that it is within her jurisdiction to oversee everything in +the house, as a garrison commander inspects his soldiers; that she has +as great power in her own home as a queen, to distribute rewards to the +virtuous and diligent and to punish those who deserve it. He desires her +not to be displeased that he has intrusted more to her than to any of +the servants, for they have not the same incentive to preserve those +things which are not their own but hers. + +Up to this time, it is the loving and inexperienced child who has been +conversing with her husband. Now, it is the woman, the mistress of the +house, who says: + +"It would have been a great grief to me if, instead of those good rules +you instruct me in for the welfare of our house, you had directed me to +have no regard to the possessions I am endowed with; for as it is +natural for a good woman to be careful and diligent about her own +children rather than to have a disregard for them, so it is no less +agreeable and pleasant to a woman, who has any share of sense, to look +after the affairs of her family rather than to neglect them." + +The great Socrates admires much the wisdom of his friend's wife, and +adds, asking Ischomachus to continue the narrative: "It is far more +delightful to hear the virtuous woman described than if the famous +painter Zeuxis were to show me the portrait of the fairest woman in the +world." + +This dialogue between husband and wife is doubtless typical of the +relations between married couples in the Athenian household, and in the +girl-wife one may recognize the innocence and ingenuousness of the +average maiden of fifteen transferred from the seclusion of her girlhood +life at home to the seclusion of married life in her husband's house. It +is noticeable that in the training provided by Ischomachus no provision +whatever is made for intellectual discipline, or for social obligations, +which leaves the reader to infer that the career of the wife was to be a +purely domestic one, and that her aspirations must be confined within +the walls of her house. + +While such implicit obedience was the rule, however, there were notable +exceptions to such ingenuousness on the part of the wife, and there were +doubtless many instances where the wife was the ruling power of the +household because of mental superiority, domineering disposition, or +amount of dower. Human nature is much the same the world over, and +strong personality in women demanded expression in ancient as well as in +modern times. It is also true that there were instances of beautiful +affection between husband and wife, though the fact that such were much +talked of proves that conjugal love was the exception, not the rule. + +It is a pity that we do not know more of the wives and sisters and +mothers of great Athenians, as the few of whom we know are of unusual +interest. Many wives enjoyed the hearty admiration and companionship of +their husbands. Cimon, in spite of occasional lapses on his part, had an +unusually passionate affection for his wife, Isodice, and was filled +with bitterest grief at her death. Socrates mentions Niceratus as "one +who was in love with his wife and loved by her." There is a pleasing +anecdote of Themistocles, told us by Plutarch, which shows where in his +household lay the seat of authority. "Laughing at his own son, who got +his mother, and, through his mother, his father also, to indulge him, he +told him he had the most power of anyone in Greece, 'for the Athenians +command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother +commands me, and you command your mother.'" + +Plutarch also relates of the great statesman that of two who made love +to his daughter, he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, +saying that he desired a man without riches rather than riches without a +man! The most pleasing, however, among the wives of great Athenians is +the wife of Phocion, the incorruptible, as she is presented to us in the +pages of Plutarch. The latter describes Phocion's simple way of living, +and speaks of his wife as employed in kneading bread with her own +hands. "She was," he continues, "renowned no less among the Athenians +for her virtues and simple living than was Phocion for his probity." It +happened once when the people were entertained with a new tragedy, that +the actor, as he was about to enter the stage to perform the part of a +queen, demanded to have a number of attendants, sumptuously dressed, to +follow in his train; and when they were not provided, he became sullen +and refused to act, keeping the audience waiting, till at last +Melanthius, who had to furnish the chorus, pushed him on the stage, +crying out: "What! don't you know that Phocion's wife is never attended +by more than a single waiting-woman, but you must needs be grand, and +fill our women's heads with vanity?" This speech, spoken loud enough to +be heard, was received with great applause. Phocion's wife herself once +said to a visitor from Ionia, who showed her all her rich ornaments made +of gold and set with jewels, her wreaths, necklaces, and the like: "For +my part, all my ornament is my husband Phocion, now for the twentieth +year in office as general at Athens." + +Aristotle said many things which are quoted as suggesting his low +estimate of the weaker sex, but he loved with great tenderness his wife +Pythias, niece and adopted daughter of his friend Hermias, ruler of +Atarneus and Assos in Mysia. When she died after a few brief years of +wedded life, Aristotle gave directions that at his own death the two +bodies should be placed side by side in the same tomb. When his own +death came, he left behind a second wife, Herpyllis, whose virtues he +esteemed, and he besought his friends to care for her, and to provide +her with another husband should she wish to marry again. + +These instances of domestic affection dissolve the cold logic of rigid +theory, and prove how, in spite of legislation and convention, love is +lord of all, and that among the Athenians happy married life was not +unknown. + +Nor was the strong-minded woman altogether lacking in Athens, for there +was Elpinice, sister of Cimon, who, taking the Spartan women as her +model, went about alone, and did many other things which shocked the +staid Athenian matrons. Unpleasant remarks were made about her--as in +the case of every woman who defies convention: among them, that she was +over intimate with Polygnotus the painter, who portrayed her as Laodice +in his fresco of the Trojan women in the Stoa Poikile. But the essence +of this scandal may have been merely that she served the painter as a +model, at a time when few women would have dared to visit an artist's +studio. To her brother Cimon she proved a devoted sister. Once, when he +was on trial for his life, she pleaded with Pericles so earnestly that +acquittal was the result; and later she arranged with this great rival +the negotiations that led to Cimon's return from banishment. So lovable +was she that Callias, one of the richest men in Athens, fell violently +in love with her, and offered to pay the fine to which her father was +condemned, if he could obtain the daughter in marriage; and with +Elpinice's own consent, Cimon betrothed her to Callias. + +We have reserved a brief consideration of the best known of all Athenian +women, one who defies all out notions regarding the prevailing +conventions--Xanthippe, wife of the philosopher Socrates. From all +accounts, it seems likely that she was an aristocratic lady, in reduced +circumstances, who had married Socrates when advanced in life, she +herself being beyond the years at which women usually marry, yet a score +of years younger than her husband. Socrates once said he married her for +the excitement of conquest, just as one would enjoy the breaking of a +high-spirited horse; but, at any rate, the philosopher was worsted, and +Xanthippe ruled the household. Xanthippe has acquired the reputation of +being the typical scold of antiquity. Doubtless this reputation is not +without foundation, yet she should have our sympathy, for the strangest +and most difficult of husbands fell to her lot. Her naturally infirm +temper must have been tried beyond endurance by the calm unconcern of +her husband toward the domestic problem of "making both ends meet." +Ugly, careless of dress, keeping bad company, given to trances, utterly +neglectful of his family--can one be surprised that the wife of such a +man should lose all patience with him, and through repeated failures to +improve him should by degrees become an arch termagant? Yet the stories +of Xanthippe's temper rest on uncertain authority, and her reputation +may be due largely to the fact that it was necessary for the +story mongers to provide a foil for the always serene and placid +philosopher. Plato, the most reliable authority, tells us nothing +disparaging of Xanthippe, and the violent grief he attributes to her at +the last parting suggests a high degree of affection for her phlegmatic +spouse. Socrates preferred philosophical discussions with his friends to +the society of his wife in his last hours of life, but he committed her +and her children tenderly to their care. Thus parted the ill-assorted +pair, each of whom has attained world-wide celebrity--the one as the +world's philosopher, the other as the proverbial shrew. + +In the early days of the Athenian democracy, women were powerful +influences in civic matters, as is instanced in the case of Cylon and +his conspirators, all of whom were ruthlessly slain except those who +fell at the feet of the archons' wives, who in pity saved them. +Herodotus tells a story which shows the intense interest of the +Athenian women in public affairs in early times. There was always great +rivalry between Athens and the neighboring island of AEgina. At one time, +the Athenians demanded of the AEginetans the fulfilment of certain +conditions regarding the statues of Attic olive wood which the latter +had stolen from the Epidaurians. "The people of AEgina refused; and the +members of an expedition sent against them, attempting to drag away the +sacred statues with ropes, were seized with madness and destroyed, one +after another, so that only one man returned alive to Athens. This man, +recounting the disasters, was surrounded by the women whose husbands had +been killed, and each one pierced him with the bodkin that fastened her +garment; so that he died under their hands. The conduct of these women +filled the Athenians with horror, and, as a punishment, they obliged all +the women of Athens to give up the Dorian dress which they wore, and +instead to clothe themselves with the Ionian tunic, which had no need of +any pin to fasten it." + +Under the tyrants, the women of aristocratic families throughout Hellas +possessed an influence which was lost under the levelling process of +democracy. Pisistratus, after his first banishment, furthered the +reestablishment of his tyranny by wedding the daughter of Megacles, and +thus winning for himself the influence of the powerful Alcmaeonidae. He +worshipped Athena as his patron goddess, and, to give proper religious +sanction to his return, arranged a singular ceremony, which Herodotus +regards as "the most ridiculous that was ever imagined," but which +introduces to us the most beautiful Athenian maiden of the times: + +"In the Paeanian tribe, there was a woman named Phya, four cubits tall, +and in other respects handsome. Having dressed this woman in a complete +suit of armor, and placed her in a chariot, and instructed her how to +assume a becoming demeanor, the followers of Pisistratus drove her to +the city, having sent heralds before to proclaim: 'O Athenians, welcome +back Pisistratus, whom Athena herself, honoring above all men, now +conducts back to her own citadel!' Thus the report was spread about that +the goddess Athena was bringing back Pisistratus; and the people, +believing it to be true, paid worship to the woman, and allowed +Pisistratus to return." The return was most happily effected, and, soon +after, the usurper celebrated the marriage of this "counterfeit +presentment" of the goddess to one of his sons. + +Woman was to continue to play a fateful part in the history of the +usurped power of Pisistratus. The tyrant ill-treated his young wife, and +this threw her father, Megacles, again into the party of the opposition. +Pisistratus was once more driven from Athens, and this time from Attica +as well. But he returned a third time, and established his power so +firmly that at his death he bequeathed it to his sons unimpaired. +Hippias and Hipparchus ruled wisely at first, and carried on the many +public works in which Pisistratus had engaged; but their downfall +finally came through an insult to a highborn Athenian maiden, and the +story as told by Thucydides shows how highly a sister's honor was +cherished at Athens. + +Harmodius, an aristocratic young Athenian, had rejected the friendship +of Hipparchus, preferring that of Aristogiton, a citizen of modest +station. The tyrant basely avenged himself. After summoning a sister of +Harmodius to come to take part in a certain procession as bearer of one +of the sacred vessels, Hippias and Hipparchus publicly rejected the +maiden when she presented herself in her festal dress, asserting that +they had not invited her to participate, as she was unworthy of the +honor. + +Harmodius was very indignant at this insult, and with his friend, who +was equally incensed, formed a plot which led to the death of +Hipparchus, though Harmodius was also killed in the prosecution of the +plan. Aristogiton was put to the torture; and tradition relates that +Leaena, his mistress, was also tortured, and fearing lest in her agony +she might betray any of the conspirators bit off her tongue. After the +expulsion of the Pisistratidae, the Athenians honored her memory by a +bronze statue of a lioness without a tongue, which was set up on the +Acropolis. The Athenians by this act showed their delight in a play on +names, as _Leaena_ is the Greek word for "lioness." + +The Athenian woman has never had the reputation for patriotism that +characterized her Spartan sister, yet at times she showed an almost +superhuman devotion to the State. After the sack of Athens by Mardonius +and his troops in the Persian War, a senator, Lycidas, advised his +fellow countrymen to accept the terms which were offered them by the +Persian general. The Athenians in scorn stoned to death the man who +could suggest such a cowardly deed. And the women, hearing what their +husbands had done, passed the word on to one another, and, gathering +together, they went of their own accord to the house of Lycidas and +inflicted the same punishment on his wife and children--a cruel act, but +one showing their love of country and their hatred of treason. + +These women, who could be so ruthless when patriotism was involved, knew +how to be genuine comforters when their own loved ones were in trouble. +The orator Andocides and his companions were tried and imprisoned for +impiety in violating the Eleusinian mysteries. "When," says Isocrates, +"we had all been bound in the same chamber, and it was night, and the +prison had been closed, there came to one his mother, to another his +sister, to another his wife and children, and there was woe and +lamentation as they wept over their misfortunes." + +In so brilliant a race, it was impossible that some women should not +rise above the surface and, by extraordinary virtue and by intellectual +and spiritual endowments of a high order, win the lasting regard of +men. + + + + +IX + +ASPASIA + + +The period in Greek history when the intellectual and artistic life of +Hellas reached its zenith is known as the Golden Age of Pericles. The +lofty ideals of this greatest of Greek statesmen incited him to make +Athens the seat of a mighty empire that should spread the noblest and +most elevating influences throughout all Hellas. He called to his +assistance all the great men of his native city, and made also the fine +arts serve as handmaidens of Athens and contribute to her power and +splendor. Every condition was present for the realization of an +intellectual and artistic epoch such as the world had never witnessed. +At the disposal of Pericles was an inexhaustible treasury--the +accumulation of the tribute of subject allies. The quarries of +Pentelicon offered in great abundance the material necessary for the +erection of public buildings which might express in sensuous form the +noblest ideals of the Greek race. There were in Athens statesmen, +philosophers, artists, dramatists, historians, men preeminent in all +departments of the higher life. Foremost among these was Pericles's +friend and counsellor, Phidias, a "king in the domain of art, as +Pericles was in political life." + +"What an age it was, truly, when, as the companions of Pericles, there +were assembled in one city Sophocles and Euripides, Herodotus and +Thucydides, Meton and Hippocrates, Aristophanes and Phidias, Socrates +and Anaxagoras, Appollodorus and Zeuxis, Polygnotus and Parrhasius;--in +a city which had but lately lost AEschylus, and was soon to possess +Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle; a city which, moreover, to make the +illustrious dead its own, erected statues to their memory!" + +"What should we expect the pupils of such masters to be? What they +were,--the masters of Greece. Thucydides says that Athens was at this +time the instructress of Greece, as she was the source of its supplies. +Behold this fine democracy going from the theatre of Sophocles to the +Parthenon of Phidias, or to the Bema where Pericles speaks to them in +the language of the gods; listening to Herodotus, who recounts the great +collision between Europe and Asia; Hippocrates of Cos, and the Athenian +Meton, of whom one founded the science of medicine, and the other, +mathematical astronomy; Anaxagoras, who eliminates the idea of God as +distinct from matter; Socrates, who establishes the principles of +morals! What lessons were these! Art, history, poetry, philosophy--all +take a sublime flight. There is no place for second-rate talent here. +The art that Athens honors most is the greatest of all +arts--architecture; her poetry is the drama--the highest expression of +poetic genius, for it unites all forms in itself, as architecture calls +all the other arts to its service. At this fortunate moment all is +great, the power of Athens as well as the genius of the eminent men who +guide the city and do it honor." + +Such, in brief, is the picture of Athens in her greatest days, as drawn +by an eminent historian. The splendor and supremacy of the city in this +epoch were largely due to the constructive genius of one man--Pericles; +and if we study his private life to the end that we may discover the +formative influences which contributed to his greatness, we find that +the chief source of his inspiration was a woman--the Milesian Aspasia, +the most brilliant and cultured woman of classic times. + +Aspasia ranks as one of the most remarkable women of all antiquity; and +her ascendency as one of the foremost of her sex is due to the fact that +she is the only woman whose name appears in the brilliant galaxy of the +Periclean age and that the greatest leaders in that coterie of great men +were glad to acknowledge their indebtedness to her for Instruction and +inspiration. She is the only woman prominent in the life of Athens of +whom much is known to us, and she has won for herself a place altogether +unique in the history of Greek womanhood. + +She was the daughter of one Axiochus, and was born and reared in +Miletus, the most pleasure-loving and artistic of the cities of Asia +Minor. The story of her childhood and youth is a closed book, but we +know that she was carefully trained in rhetoric, music, and the fine +arts, and became the possessor of every feminine accomplishment. Her +preceptress is said to have been the celebrated Thargelia, also of +Miletus, who exerted her power for the Great King during the Persian War +and finally married one of the kings in Thessaly. How Aspasia was drawn +to Athens is not known, but the most probable theory is that she settled +there as a young and brilliant teacher of rhetoric, following the +precedent established by Anaxagoras in philosophy and by Protagoras and +other men in rhetoric, who found in Athens the most profitable field for +the exercise of their talents. Here Aspasia gathered about her all the +learned and accomplished men of Athens. She was no mere creature of +pleasure, who ministered to luxury and lust; but by her beauty and +culture she sought to draw to her the first men of the town, that she +might learn of them as they of her. "Nor was it long before it was +recognized that she enchained the souls of men by no mere arts of +deception of which she had learned the trick. Hers was a lofty and +richly endowed nature, with a perfect sense of the beautiful, and hers a +harmonious and felicitous development. For the first time, the treasures +of Hellenic culture were found in the possession of a woman, surrounded +by the grace of her womanhood, a phenomenon which all men looked upon +with eyes of wonder. She was able to converse with irresistible grace on +politics, philosophy, and art, so that the most serious Athenians, even +such men as Socrates, sought her out in order to listen to her +conversation." + +There could be nothing more natural than that when Pericles and Aspasia +met the soul of each should discover in the other its affinity, Pericles +was married to an Athenian kinswoman, but they did not find conjugal +life altogether congenial, and by mutual agreement their marriage ties +were dissolved and Pericles found for his wife another husband. He then +took Aspasia to his home and called her his wife. They could not wed, +for she was a foreigner, and their union in consequence lacked civil +sanction; yet it was a real marriage in all but in name, based on the +truest and tenderest affection, and dissolved only by death. + +So remarkable was Pericles's devotion to Aspasia, that Plutarch records, +as an indication of its sincerity, that the great Athenian kissed +Aspasia upon going out in the morning and upon his return home--clearly +an unusual occurrence in Athenian homes, or it would not have seemed +worthy of mention. The possession of so rare a woman was doubtless in +many respects invaluable to the great statesman. Plutarch states that +the latter was first attracted to the Milesian by her wisdom and +political sagacity. Socrates, who confessed also his own indebtedness +to Aspasia, states that she was Pericles's teacher in the art of +rhetoric, and could even write his speeches. Pericles was a reserved +man, who devoted himself strictly to his official cares and refrained +from social intercourse with those about him. Hence he found in Aspasia +not only the delight of his leisure moments and a sympathizing friend +and counsellor hi his perplexities, but also the link that connected him +with the daily life about him. She knew how to be at ease in every kind +of society; how to keep informed of everything that took place in the +city that Pericles should know; how to keep in touch with the great +movements throughout Hellas and to make them contribute to the glory of +Athens: and in all these, and in many other respects, she proved of use +to him in his political life. + +It is probable that Aspasia was still in her twenties when Pericles +first met her, while he himself was much older. She must have possessed +a fascinating personality which at once captivated the great statesman; +but, aside from her intellectual gifts, it is difficult in this day to +analyze her charm. There is no positive evidence that she was beautiful, +according to Greek standards, though this is the natural inference. +Ancient writers call her the good, the wise, the eloquent; they speak of +her "honey-colored" or golden hair, of her "silvery voice," of her +"small, high-arched foot," but no writer of the time has expressly said +that she was beautiful. In the museums of Europe, there are various +busts on which her name is inscribed, but they impress us rather by the +expression of earnest and deep thought, by the delicacy and distinction +of the features, than by mere beauty. Her charm lay, no doubt, rather in +her wisdom, her vivacity, her sweetness of utterance, than in perfection +of form and feature. Aspasia made the home of Pericles the first salon +that history has made known to us; and what woman ever gathered about +her a more brilliant coterie of friends? With Phidias and his group of +eminent artists, she talked of the embellishment of the Acropolis with +beautiful temples and statues; with Anaxagoras and Socrates, she +discussed the problems of philosophy and the narrow conservatism of the +Athenians; with Sophocles and Euripides, she conversed concerning the +works of the dramatists and the ideal women presented in their plays. +Herodotus, perhaps, was the inimitable story teller of this learned +circle, and the melancholy Thucydides dwelt on the dark tragedy +underlying human events; no doubt the satirical Aristophanes sometimes +attended, for the Platonic dialogues show us the social side of his +nature, and, while in his plays he scorns the philosophical set, he +found among them intellectual companionship; and the young and gay +Alcibiades was doubtless frequently present, talking with the hostess of +the latest events in the high life of the city, of betrothals and +marriages, of scandals and escapades. + +One of the sons of Pericles scoffed at this circle of intellectual +lights, and made fun of their metaphysical speculations and learned +talk; but this merely indicates that such a salon was an innovation in +Athens, and, therefore, led to harsh criticism and unseemly gossip on +the part of those who could not appreciate its privileges. Music, +poetry, and wit relieved the serious discussion of politics, philosophy, +and literature. The salon of Aspasia must have been altogether decorous, +for many men broke the traditions of their fathers and brought their +wives to converse about wifely duties with the famous hetaera. She seems +to have thought earnestly and deeply on the duties and destiny of woman, +to have realized how contracted were the lives of Athenian women, and to +have wished to better their condition, AEschines, in one of his +dialogues, gives us in her conversation with Xenophon and his wife +Philesia a glimpse of her method. + +"Tell me, Philesia," said Aspasia, "whether if your neighbor had a piece +of gold of more value than your own, you would not choose it before your +own?" "Yes," answered Philesia. "If she had a gown, or any of the female +ornaments, better than yours, would not you choose them rather than your +own?" "Yes," answered she. "But," said Aspasia, "if she had a husband of +more merit than your own, would not you choose the former?" Upon this, +Philesia blushed. Aspasia then addressed herself to Xenophon. "If your +neighbor, Xenophon, had a horse better than your own, would you not +choose him preferably to your own?" "Yes," answered he. "If he had an +estate or a farm of more value than your own, which would you choose?" +"The former," answered he; "that is, that which is of more value." "But +if his wife were better than your own, would not you choose your +neighbor's?" Xenophon was silent upon this question. Aspasia therefore +proceeded thus: "Since both of you, then, have refused to answer me in +that point only which I wanted you to satisfy me in, I will tell you +myself what you both think: you, Philesia, would have the best of +husbands, and you, Xenophon, the best of wives. And, therefore, if you +do not endeavor that there be not a better husband and wife in the world +than yourselves, you will always be wishing for that which you shall +think best: you, Xenophon, will wish you might be married to the best of +wives, and Philesia, that she might have the best of husbands." + +Thus this brilliant and withal domestic woman would counsel women to be +the best of wives, and men the most considerate of husbands, that each +might find in the joys of home and in conjugal harmony their greatest +felicity. Doubtless many a wife went away from her with higher +conceptions of wifely duty than custom had taught her, and sought to +make her home a more congenial retreat for her husband. Many, however, +looked askance at these gatherings of men and women and could see +nothing but evil in their violations of custom. Husbands, too, saw in +these novel proceedings dangerous tendencies; for if their wives became +emancipated, there would be a limit to their own pleasant indulgences. +It was Aspasia who preeminently labored to this end. The status of woman +at Athens was far from ideal, and the need tor reform was great; and if +we endeavor to discover who was chiefly responsible for the agitation +which had for its purpose the emancipation of woman from the thraldom in +which she was held, we find that it was the wise and far-seeing Aspasia. + +Owing to the intellectual awakening at Athens during the Periclean Age +and the influx of new ideas from the various Hellenic countries, a +liberal party had arisen in the city, chiefly under the leadership of +Pericles and Anaxagoras--a radical party, headed by men of culture and +science, who taught that knowledge was power, who despised the +established religion, and who set at naught the domestic manners of the +day by seeking to elevate woman. Socrates, also, was heartily in +sympathy with the objects of this party, as was the dramatist Euripides. +On the other side were the ultra-conservatives, of whom Cimon and +Aristophanes were representatives. The latter frequently made Pericles, +Aspasia, Socrates, and Euripides the subjects of his satire. These +Tories of the day saw in the tenets of the new party the subversion of +all the principles of the old democracy, and they fought most bitterly +to preserve established institutions. Toward the close of Xenophon's +treatise on _Domestic Economy_, Critobulus, who has been impressed by +the story of Ischomachus, wishes to learn how he too, may educate his +young wife, and Socrates advises him to consult with Aspasia. The +profound deference in which she was held by all the philosophers is a +further indication that from her they had derived many of their advanced +ideas regarding the relations of the sexes. Hence while positive +evidence is lacking, incidental touches and sidelights on the Woman +Question point unerringly to the one great woman of ancient Athens as +the originator of the first movement for the emancipation of woman +recorded in history. + +As Aspasia, through her intercourse with the great, had attained +unbounded influence in the State, and as her circle was the exponent of +the ideas which offended the conventional spirit, it was natural that +she should be involved in the storm of criticism that befell the leaders +of thought. As a woman who had stepped out of the beaten track of +womanhood, she was made the subject of the coarsest slanders. She was +called the Hera to this Zeus, Pericles, the Omphale, the Deianira of the +Heracles of the day; her girl friends and pupils, who enjoyed the same +liberty she claimed for herself, were most violently defamed; she was +said to have induced, for the basest of reasons, Pericles to bring on +the Peloponnesian and Samian wars. The comic poets, as the chief organs +of the opposition, engaged in this most merciless and unjust tirade +against the party of the philosophers. None of their charges, however, +can be said to have had any basis in fact, and all may easily be +accounted for when the envy and hatred of the ignorant toward the +beautiful and accomplished and independent woman is taken into +consideration. In the Athens of the fifth century before our era, when +people were just beginning to break away from the narrow conservatism +of centuries, a woman who enjoyed an unheard-of degree of liberty, and +because of her talents was regarded with admiration by the greatest men +of the city, might well be the target for the grossest abuse. A vicious +woman would be the last to undertake, as did Aspasia, the study of +philosophy, which, with Socrates, was the study of virtue. + +The party of the philosophers suffered for their opinions, Phidias was +accused of theft, and died in prison; Anaxagoras, to escape the charges +against him, went into voluntary exile; and Aspasia was brought to trial +on a charge of impiety, which merely meant that she, as others of her +circle, set at naught the polytheism of the multitude, and recognized +but one creative mind in the government of the universe, an accusation +under which Socrates later suffered martyrdom. She was brought before +the judges, and Pericles pleaded her cause. Plutarch says that he +pleaded with tears; and as the people could not resist the emotion of +their great leader, she was acquitted. + +Perides's last days were passed in the gloom of the outbreak of the +Peloponnesian War, of the plague that depopulated the city, and of the +discontent of his beloved people. No brilliant sun ever had a more +gloomy setting. Yet in his last moments his thoughts were of the two +beloved objects that had absorbed his tenderest affections. "Athens has +intrusted her greatness and Aspasia her happiness to me," Pericles said, +when dying; and there could be no stronger testimony to the purity of +Aspasia's character, to the influence of her life on his, to the role +she had played in that Golden Age of Athens. + +Athens and Aspasia--these were linked in the thoughts of the dying +statesman; and as he made the one great, so he made the other immortal. +Had his life not been blessed with union with hers, had his temperament +not been sweetened by her companionship, had his policy not been moulded +partly by her counsel and her wisdom, had his taste not been made so +subtle and refined by communion with her artistic temperament, Athens +would not have been embellished by the works of art which have made that +city the unapproachable ruler in the domain of the spirit. Woman's +influence, where it has counted most, has always been a silent one, and +has worked through man. Is not Aspasia worthy of the laurel wreath for +the results of her life on "the city of the violet crown"? + + + + +X + +APHRODITE PANDEMUS + + +For the proper understanding of the status of woman among the Greeks of +ancient times, it becomes necessary for the historian of Greek womanhood +to call attention to a conspicuous social phenomenon pervading the life +of all the nations of antiquity, but nowhere else so marked a feature of +the higher life as in the lands of Hellas--a phenomenon bringing about +social conditions that divided the female population of Greece into two +sharply distinguished classes: the citizen-woman and the courtesan or +mistress. + +This notable aspect of Greek life is due to the fact that the ancient +Hellene, as a rule, sought recreation and pleasure, not at the domestic +hearth, but in the society of clever women, who had not only cultivated +their physical charms, but had also trained their intellects and +sensibilities so as to become _virtuosi_ in all the arts of pleasure. +Their pleasing forms of intercourse, their light and vivacious +conversation, lent to association with them a peculiar seductiveness and +fascination. + +To designate this class of women in a manner which would distinguish +them from the citizen-women on the one hand and the debased prostitute +on the other, they were euphemistically called "hetaerae," or companions. +The term _hetaerae_ had been originally a most honorable one, and Sappho +had used it, in the highest and best sense, of her girl friends as +implying companions of like rank and interests. It is not known when it +was first used with sinister suggestion, but, like our word _mistress_, +it fell from its honorable estate and became the usual term to describe +these women of pleasure. + +The causes of the extent of hetairism among the Greeks are to be found +in their religious conceptions, their political institutions, and the +innate sensualism of the Greek peoples. + +The Greeks were worshippers of the productive forces of nature as +manifested in animal and plant life. Aphrodite is the female and +Dionysius the male personification of the generative principles, and in +consequence the religious ceremonials of these two deities assumed at +times a most licentious aspect. In course of time, a distinction arose +in the conception of Aphrodite, expressed by the surname applied to her. +Thus Aphrodite Urania came to be generally regarded as the goddess of +the highest love, especially of wedded love and fruitfulness, in +contrast to Aphrodite Pandemus, the goddess of sensual lust and the +patron deity of courtesans. + +We could hardly expect high moral ideas in regard to sexual relations +among the Greeks, whose deities were so lax. Zeus himself was given to +illicit intercourse with mortal maidens and was continually arousing the +jealousy of his prudent wife, the Lady Hera. Aphrodite was not faithful +to her liege lord, Hephaestus, but was given to escapades with the +warlike Ares. Apollo had his mortal loves, and Hades abducted the +beautiful Proserpina. A people who from their childhood were taught such +stories could hardly be expected to be more moral than their deities. + +As has been shown in a previous chapter, the Greek conception of the +city-state lay at the basis of laws and customs which repressed the +citizen-woman and prevented proper attention to her education and to +the full and well-rounded cultivation of womanly graces. The State +hedged itself about with the most rigid safeguards to preserve the +purity of the citizen blood. Stringent laws were passed prohibiting any +citizen-man from marrying a stranger-woman, or any stranger-man from +marrying a citizen-woman. To enforce these laws, it was necessary to +keep the wives and daughters of the State within the narrow bounds of +the gynaeceum; and they were forbidden a knowledge of public affairs, +which would make them more interesting to men. Hence the limitations of +their culture made it impossible for them to be in every sense the +companions of their husbands. But it is not natural for men to be +deprived of the sympathy and inspiration that is found in association +with cultivated women; hence there was, especially in Athens, a peculiar +sphere for the cultivated hetaera. The men of the city recognized the +need of feminine society in their recreations, in their political life, +and on military expeditions. The hetaera entered this sphere, from which +the citizen-woman was excluded. + +A further reason for the predominance of hetairism is seen in the +artistic impulses of the Greek people. These courtesans made an art of +the life of pleasure. Cultivating every feminine grace, carefully +attentive to all the little niceties of social intercourse, studying in +every way how to be agreeable to the men, adepts in conversation, +devotees of the Muses and the Graces, they knew how to make their +relations with men answer to all the impulses of a beauty-loving people. +And as the Greeks found aesthetic satisfaction in their masterpieces of +prose and poetry, in their works of architecture and sculpture and +painting, so they found it in their association with the hetaerae. + +Owing to such conditions, there arose a most unnatural division of the +admitted functions of woman in the world-order. Says the great orator +Demosthenes: "We take a hetaera for our pleasure, a concubine for daily +attention to our physical wants, a wife to give us legitimate children +and a respected house"--an utterance narrowly defining the status of the +hetaera as contrasted with that of the honorable wife. The latter was the +housewife and mother, nothing more, though surrounded by all the +dignities and privileges of her high station; the former was the +companion, the comrade in whose society were found recreation and +sympathy and intellectual delight, but she was outside the pale of +society, not respected, yet not altogether despised. + +It is difficult to ascertain the beginnings of hetairism among the +Greeks. There is a noteworthy absence of it in the Homeric poems, though +the Greek chieftains frequently had concubines, who were slaves captured +in war. + +Allusions in the lyric poets show that as early as the sixth century +before our era the hetaera had made her appearance. The earliest +reference to the social evil in the history of Athens is found in the +administration of the lawgiver Solon, who was the first to legalize +prostitution. With the avowed purpose of forestalling the seduction of +virgins and wives, he bought slave girls in the markets of Asia Minor +and placed them in public houses in Athens. This regulation for the +protection of the home was generally regarded as deserving of praise. +Thus speaks the comic poet Philemon: + + "But you did well for every man, O Solon: + For they do say you were the first to see + The justice of a public-spirited measure, + The saviour of the State (and it is fit + For me to utter this avowal, Solon); + You, seeing that the State was full of men, + Young, and possessed of all the natural appetites, + And wandering in their lusts where they'd no business. + + Bought women and in certain spots did place them, + Common to be and ready for all comers. + They naked stood: look well at them, my youth,-- + Do not deceive yourself; aren't you well off? + You're ready, so are they: the door is open-- + The price an obol: enter straight--there's + No nonsense here, no cheat or trickery; + But do just what you like, how you like. + You're off: wish her good-bye; she's no more claim on you." + +In the early days antedating the Persian War, before the Athenians had +been corrupted by power and by extensive intercourse with the outside +world, it was regarded as shameful for a married man to associate with a +hetaera. When the husband was guilty of such conduct, the insulted wife +could obtain a decree of separation, which involved the return to the +wife's family of the full dowry, while the enmity of the wife's kindred +was visited upon the unfaithful husband. During the Golden Age of +Pericles, however, Athens departed from her earlier simplicity, and the +increase of wealth and the influx of foreigners swept away the +old-fashioned standards of morality. The influence of Pericles and +Aspasia on smaller minds seems to have been unfortunate. Reverential +regard for the marriage bond became a thing of the past, and hetairism +became the common practice. Almost all the great men of Athens had +relations with hetaersae; the young men gave themselves up to the life of +pleasure; and with the disruption of family ties began the downfall of +the State. + +In Corinth, hetairism was invested with all the sanctity of religion, +and these votaries of pleasure enjoyed a distinction accorded them in no +other Greek city. When Xerxes was advancing against Hellas with his vast +armament, the courtesans of Corinth betook themselves in solemn +procession to the temple of Aphrodite, the patron deity of the city, and +implored her aid for the preservation of the fatherland, dedicating +their services to her in return for a favorable answer to their prayers, +and vowing to reward with their unpurchased embraces the victorious +warriors upon their return. The goddess was supposed to have heard their +petitions, and out of gratitude the Corinthians dedicated to Aphrodite a +painting, in which were represented various hetaerae who had supplicated +the goddess, while beneath were inscribed the following verses of +Simonides: + + "These damsels, in behalf of Greece, and all + Their gallant countrymen, stood nobly forth, + Praying to Venus, the all-powerful goddess; + Nor was the queen of beauty willing ever + To leave the citadel of Greece to fall + Beneath the arrows of the unwarlike Persians." + +Private individuals frequently vowed, upon the fortunate issue of some +undertaking, to dedicate to the goddess of love a certain number of +hetaerae. These votaries of Aphrodite were called _hierodulae_, or temple +attendants. Pindar in his immortal verses thus describes them: + + "O hospitable damsels, fairest train + Of soft Persuasion,-- + Ornament of the wealthy Corinth, + Bearing in willing hands the golden drops + That from the frankincense distil, and flying + To the fair mother of the Loves, + Who dwelleth in the sky, + The lovely Venus,--you do bring to us + Comfort and hope in danger, that we may + Hereafter, in the delicate beds of Love, + Reap the long-wished-for fruits of joy + Lovely and necessary to all mortal men." + +Strabo states that there were over a thousand _hierodulae_ in the Corinth +of his day. Because of the enormous number of such damsels and of the +respect which was accorded them, Corinth became the most noted hetaera +city. Here dwelt the wealthiest and most beautiful hetaerae. As the most +important commercial centre of Greece, the city was the abiding place of +wealthy merchants and travellers; these fell victims to the voluptuous +and licentious life of the place, and the vast fortunes accumulated by +the professional courtesans were acquired by the ruin of many a +merchant. The expression "Corinthian maiden" denoted the acme of +voluptuousness, and to "Corinthianize" became synonymous with leading +the most dissolute life. + +In other prominent commercial centres of Hellas and of the Greek +colonies hetairism also flourished. Piraeus, the harbor of Athens, had +its demi-monde quarter, and the number of courtesans in Athens and its +harbor town was only surpassed by that of Corinth. + +The inland cities were much more moral in this regard. From Sparta, in +its best days, hetaerae were rigidly excluded. Plutarch records a saying +of the Spartans, that when Aphrodite passed over the Eurotas River she +put off her gewgaws and female ornaments, and for the sake of Lycurgus +armed herself with shield and spear. This _Venus armata_ of the +Spartans, as well as their sturdy morals, forbade the presence of the +seductive strangers in their midst; but Ares was ever susceptible to +Aphrodite, and the Spartan warrior, when located in the voluptuous +Ionian cities, frequently forgot his early training, and fell a victim +to his environment. + +There were in Athens, in the fifth and fourth centuries, four classes of +hetaerae, graded according to political standing. The first and lowest +class was that of the public prostitute--slaves bought by the State for +the public houses, which were taxed for the benefit of the city and were +under the supervision of city inspectors. These unfortunate women were +gathered from the slave markets of Samos, Lesbos, Cyprus, and the +Ionian cities, where every year large numbers of wretched human beings, +who had been torn from their homes, usually as a result of war, were +exposed for sale. These included many young girls who had been taken +captive in the sacking of cities or had been stolen from their homes by +the fiends in human form who made it a business to secure maidens of +promising beauty or charm for the bawdy houses of the Greek cities. From +these markets, too, came usually the hetaerae of the second class, who +were likewise slaves, but were the property of panders or procuresses, +who bought girls of tender age and educated them for the sake of the +wealth to be acquired from traffic in lust. Aged and faded hetaerae, who +had passed their lives in gross licentiousness and had finally lost +their hold on the public, especially devoted themselves to this horrible +trade. They owned their own houses, and had in conjunction with them +regular schools or institutes for the training of hetaerae. In these +institutes the girls were trained in physical culture, in music and +dancing, and frequently in all the branches of learning that were +popular at the time. They became experts in all the arts of pleasure, +and were offered every advantage that would make them pleasing to men. +From these institutes often emerged young women who played an important +role in the social and intellectual life of the day, as Leontium, +Gnathaena, Pythionice, and others. The names of certain of these +establishments are preserved, as those of Nicarete, of Bacchis, and of +the Thracian Sinope, who removed her institute from AEgina to Athens. +Girls in such establishments remained at all times in the relation of +slaves, and were compelled always to surrender to the mistresses or the +panders the funds they collected from the sale of their favors. As young +girls they acted as musicians or dancers at the banquets of the men, +and as they developed into womanhood they entered upon their careers as +regular courtesans. Often they were hired out for a considerable time; +or if a good purchaser presented himself, they were sold outright, and +lived as the kept mistress of a single lover. From him they usually +obtained their freedom, in time, either as a mark of favor, or as the +readiest means of ridding himself of a burden when the lover had wearied +of the hetaera's charm. + +Slave girls who obtained their freedom belonged to the third and most +numerous hetaera class; they lived on a fully independent footing, and +conducted their business on their own account. This class attached +themselves especially to young and inexperienced men, preferably to +youths who were still under parental control. They frequented the +schools of rhetoricians and philosophers and the studios of artists, and +sought in every way possible to make themselves interesting and +indispensable to men. The _jeunesse doree_ of the day found in +association with these young and beautiful and independent damsels their +especial delight. At the banquets and drinking bouts of the young men, +they were invited to take part; and the gay and frivolous youths would +assemble in numbers at their houses, or take them on pleasure trips in +the suburbs of the city, and would frequently engage in serenades and +torchlight processions in their honor. Such a life was full of pitfalls +for the young men, and they frequently brought down on themselves the +rage of parents for their intercourse with these sirens. The avarice and +greed of women of this class was such that they led their lovers into +every form of deceit to obtain for them money and presents. To purloin +and sell a mother's jewels and to contract debts in a father's name were +frequent devices to which youths resorted whose parents kept a tight +hold on the purse strings. These heroines of the demi-monde also sought +to draw their lovers away from serious pursuits. Lucian, in his +_Dialogues of Courtesans_, recounts an interesting conversation between +two hetaerae, Chelidonion [Little Swallow] and Drosis [Dewdrop], about a +youth whom his father had suddenly checked in his wild career and placed +in the hands of a wise and artful tutor, to the end that he might be +drawn away from his wild associations and given instruction in +philosophy. + +The fourth and most elevated hetaera class was that of freeborn women, +who were attracted to this calling because of dissatisfaction with the +restraint of home and longing for the ease and independent life which it +seemed to offer. Frequently, the daughters of citizens, through the +poverty or greed of their parents, or their own wilfulness, were driven +to a life of shame. Usually, they changed their names, to bring +forgetfulness of their former standing, and they sought by outward +splendor to make up for the loss of virtue. To us in this day such a +change seems most disgraceful; but to the Greeks it appeared to be in +many instances nothing more serious than a change of patron goddess. +Thus the maiden transferred herself from the protection of one of the +austere virgin goddesses, Artemis and Athena, to that of the gracious +and seductive Paphian goddess; or the widow, who with the death of her +husband had lost her means of subsistence, would renounce Hera, the +goddess of wedded love, for the frivolous and light-minded Aphrodite. +This transfer was usually accompanied with solemn religious ceremonies, +Greek epigrammatists frequently give us a poetical treatment of such +life histories, and we thereby gain glimpses into the woes of many a +feminine heart; thus we have a pathetic genre picture of a maiden, who, +weary of the spindle and the service of Athena, betakes herself to the +patron goddess of the hetaerae and pledges to her for her protection a +tithe of all her earnings in her new calling. + +The giving of votive offerings to Aphrodite for successes and rich gains +in their dealings with men was a customary act of "pious" hetaerae. Toilet +articles which enhance beauty, and costly gifts, such as statues, were +frequently dedicated to the goddess. The hetaerae who followed in the wake +of the Athenian army led by Pericles to Samos built a temple to +Aphrodite from the tithes of their gains. This giving of votive +offerings is frequently the subject of Greek epigrams. + +The daughters or widows of citizens constituted but the smaller number +of hetaerae of this class. The larger number were stranger-women, chiefly +from Ionia, who came to Athens, attracted by its prominence in politics +and the arts, that they might play their role on a larger and more +brilliant stage. In the various cities of Asia Minor, there were groups +of freeborn women who had broken away from the conventional bonds and +had devoted themselves to intellectual and artistic pursuits and to the +cultivation of every personal grace and charm. It was natural that they +and others like them from other parts of Hellas should flock to Athens. +Such women, though they were politically only resident aliens, were +granted great freedom and had the benefit of all the intellectual +advantages the city afforded. Marriage was the only political sin these +beautiful and cultivated strangers could commit; they might do anything +else that they liked. Hence they entered into relations with citizens as +"companions," and soon became an important factor in the social life of +the day. Bringing with them from their homes all the attractions and +graces that attended the service of the Muses, they undoubtedly +exercised a beneficial influence on the social customs and manners, but +they also contributed much to the general demoralization of the Athenian +people. + +From the number of these women of foreign birth came the most beautiful +and distinguished, as also the most selfish and proud, representatives +of the hetaera class. Through their beauty and the outward splendor of +their station they posed as veritable priestesses of Aphrodite, while +through their intellectual brilliancy and their social charms they +exercised a great influence over the daily life of the Athenians. + +To this class belonged the celebrated "daughters of the people," for +whose favor the most prominent and dignified men of the State became +suppliants. As Propertius sang of Lais, they could literally boast that +"all Hellas lay before their doors." Among these hetaerae we see the high +life of the day on a most brilliant scale. Their dwellings were most +sumptuous in their appointments; the walls were painted in frescoes, +pieces of statuary and rich tapestries embellished their apartments, +while the grounds about their houses were laid off with flower beds and +beautiful fountains. Their apparel was of the richest fabrics and was +made up in the most fashionable styles. They possessed numberless jewels +and ornaments of enormous value. They never appeared in public without +an imposing cortege of female slaves and eunuchs. Much of the etiquette +of the courts of princes was maintained in their establishments. + +To keep up this elaborate state, they sold their favors at almost +shameless prices. Thus the elder Lais, Gnathaena, and Phryne were +celebrated for their incredible demands. There is a story that the +orator Demosthenes made a trip to Corinth and paid ten thousand drachmae +for a single evening with the younger Lais. As has been intimated, +Corinth possessed the most voluptuous, Athens the most highly cultivated +hetaerae. The excessive charges of "the Corinthian maiden" gave occasion +for the proverb: "Not every man can journey to Corinth." Not only the +celebrated beauties made such exorbitant demands, but even the ordinary +courtesans asked prices which forbade to men of moderate means +intercourse with them. + +Beauty and wealth were the factors which determined the social status of +the hetaerae, and with the fading of beauty and the squandering of their +gains many celebrated hetaerae fell from the highest to the lowest +station. + +The principal classification of the queens of the demi-monde, however, +was into "domestic" and "learned" hetaerae. The former attracted chiefly +by their beauty and their social grace; the latter, by their native wit, +their vivacity, and their intellectual endowments. These gifted women +entered into intimate relations with the philosophers and rhetoricians +of the day; they visited the lecture halls, devoted themselves to +earnest study, and carried on their prostitution under the protection of +philosophy. They allied themselves with the various philosophical +schools, and by their manner of bestowing their favors sought to advance +the interests of the sect they espoused. + +They found, too, in the pursuit of philosophy the justification of their +calling. The hetaerae of the Academy claimed that they were merely putting +into practice Plato's doctrine of the community of women. The followers +of the Cyrenaic school, with its doctrine of moderation in the pursuit +of pleasure, maintained that they carried out the maxims of Aristippus +in their pursuit of the joys of love. The female adherents of the +Cynics, or "the Bitches," as they were called, sought to surpass one +another in taking the beasts as models of imitation. The Dialecticians +found in their system the widest range for feminine cleverness of +speech, and defended hetairism with the greatest subtlety and the most +ingenious sophism. The feminine Epicureans saw in the teachings of their +school, with its doctrine of friendship and of the broadest cultivation +of the sensibilities, the fullest justification for the pursuit of +sexual enjoyment, and they sought to illustrate the greatest +voluptuousness and refinement in their methods of gratifying animal +passion. + +The hetaerae of the various schools surpassed the men in their imitation +of the jargon and the manners of the leading lights of their systems. +Many of the philosophers yielded themselves readily to the seductions of +their beautiful and clever adherents; yet there were some choice spirits +who deplored the demoralizing tendencies which hetairism brought into +serious pursuits, and protested in no uncertain language. + +These philosopher-hetaerae were indisputably the most interesting +phenomenon in the social life of ancient times, to which the later Greek +world and modern times afford no adequate parallel. They were present +always at theatrical exhibitions and on all public occasions when +respectable women remained at home. They took an absorbing interest in +politics and in all public affairs; they discussed with the citizens the +burning questions of the day; they criticised the acts of statesmen, the +speeches of orators, the dramas of the poets, the productions of +painters and sculptors. They exerted, in a word, an enormous influence +for good or ill on the social and political life of the day; while they +themselves had the consciousness of a mission to perform in having in +their hands the real power of their sex. + +Almost every great man in Athens had his "companion," usually in +addition to a lawful wife. Plato had Archeanassa, to whom he wrote +sonnets; but we know not what were her attractions. "For dear to me +Theoris is," sings Sophocles; and we should like to know more of +Archippa, to whom he left his fortune. Aristotle had his Herpyllis, and +the eloquent Isocrates his Metaneira. Speusippus, Plato's successor, +found a "companion" in Lasthenia, and Epicurus in Leontium. It is +difficult to believe that all these for whom the learned men of the day +showed such regard were vicious women; in fact, some of them are +described as noble and high-minded. + + "She was a citizen, without a guardian + Or any near relations, and her manner + Pure, and on virtue's strictest model form'd, + A genuine mistress [Greek: heraira]: for the rest of the crew + Bring into disrepute, by their vile manner, + A name which in itself has nothing wrong." + +But if the careers of the learned hetaerae were influential, they did not +equal in brilliancy and power those of the more celebrated domestic +hetaerae. The vastness of the influence of this latter class is best shown +by naming the prominent rulers of various periods who were under the +domination of their "companions." We have in an earlier chapter called +attention to the work of Thargelia in moulding Persian sentiment before +the invasions of Darius and Xerxes, and to the influence of Aspasia +during the Periclean Age. Many later hetaerae played prominent roles in +the courts of princes and kings, and not infrequently enjoyed royal +honors, Leaena, Myrrhine, and Lamia were favorites of Demetrius the +Besieger, and the latter shared with him all except the throne. Thais, +for a time beloved of Alexander the Great, and at whose nod he set fire +to the palace of the Persian kings, later bore two sons and a daughter +to Ptolemy Soter, the first Macedonian king of Egypt. Pythionice and +Glycera were in high favor at the court of Harpalus. Hieronymus of +Syracuse elevated a beautiful prostitute named Pytho from the bawdy +house to his palace and throne. Ptolemy Philadelphus was celebrated for +the number of his mistresses, among them being a Didyma, a Blistyche, a +Stratonice, a Myrtion. Ptolemy Philopator was under the degrading +influence of an Agathoclea, daughter of the procuress Oenanthe, both of +whom, in the trenchant phrase of Plutarch, trod diadems under their feet +and were finally murdered by the Alexandrian mob. + +Some hetaerae inspired such regard that they were honored with public +monuments. The first instance of this in Athens was in the case of +Leaena, who, after the murder of the tyrant Hipparchus, bit out her +tongue rather than reveal the accomplices of her lover, Aristogiton. The +Athenians at this early date felt a reluctance to erect a statue +representing a hetaera, but they placed on the Acropolis a bronze lioness +to commemorate perpetually the name of Leaena, and to preserve the memory +of her noble deed. In honor of Phryne there was a marble statue at +Thespian sculptured by Praxiteles, as well as another of gold at Delphi. +In Sparta, in her degenerate days, there was a monument to the +celebrated hetaera Cottine. There were also famous statues of Lais, +Glycera, Pythionice, Neaera, Clino, Blistyche, Stratonice, and other +women of pleasure. To Lamia, the renowned flute player, and to her +rival, Leaena of Corinth, favorites of Demetrius the Besieger, the +servile Athenians erected temples, in which they were revered as +goddesses. There was also in Athens a most beautiful and costly tomb in +honor of Pythionice, erected by the Macedonian governor Harpalus, +described by Pausanias as "the best worth seeing of all ancient tombs." +Such are instances of the tributes offered by the beauty-loving Greeks +to these beautiful but light-minded women, who were regarded as +incarnations, as it were, of the goddess Aphrodite herself. + + "'Tis not for nothing that where'er we go + We find a temple of hetaerae there, + But nowhere one to any wedded wife," + +sings one of the poets of the Anthology. + +The characteristic traits of these reigning queens of the demi-monde +were in almost all cases the same. The principal attributes of their +characters were selfishness and greed. With all their outward good +nature and apparent warmth of disposition, they were at all times +"marble-hearted," cold, incapable of any noble emotion, and impervious +to the stirrings of true love. There are a few exceptional cases of +self-sacrificing devotion, as of Leaena, and of Timandra, who stood by +Alcibiades in all his misfortune, but their exceeding rarity proves the +rule. A few were of good character and were faithful to the relations +which they had formed; many were merely fair and frail; while most of +them descended to the lowest depths of corruption and depravity. While +the deportment of those hetaerae who cultivated every womanly charm +presents much that is attractive, yet their manner of life has been +aptly compared to baskets of noxious weeds and garbage, covered over +with roses. Extravagance, debauchery, and dissolute habits were sure to +work out in time the attendant ills of wretchedness, destitution, and +penury. Realizing that for them there was possible no such thing as true +love and domestic happiness, they became rapacious and vindictive, +cynical and ill-tempered. Nothing could be mare fearful than the +pictures which the comic poets and satirists draw of some of these +women; Anaxilas, for example, thus describes them as a class: + + "The man whoe'er has loved a courtesan, + Will say that no more lawless, worthless race + Can anywhere be found: for what ferocious, + Unsociable she-dragon, what Chimaera, + Though it breathe fire from its mouth, what Charybdis, + What three-headed Scylla, dog o' the sea, + Or hydra, sphynx, or raging lioness, + Or viper, or winged harpy (greedy race), + Could go beyond those most accursed harlots? + There is no monster greater. They alone + Surpass all other evils put together." + +Their outward behavior and manner were characterized by great elegance. +One comic poet remarks that they took their food most delicately and not +like the citizen-women, who "stuffed their cheeks and tore off the +meat." Their speech, however, was unrestrained, and they delighted in +indelicate witticisms and _doubles entendres_. Machon made a collection +of the witty remarks of the most celebrated hetaerae, in his book of +anecdotes. In Athenaeus we also have specimens of their witticisms. +Sinope of AEgina was particularly famous for her coarse wit, and had many +clever encounters with the brilliant men of her day. To preserve or to +enhance their natural beauty, the hetaerae were given to the use of +cosmetics. Eubulus, in a fragment, thus represents a citizen-woman +reviling the much-hated class: + + "By Jove, we are not painted with vermilion, + Nor with dark mulberry juice, as you are often: + And then, if in the summer you go out, + Two rivulets of dark, discolored hue + Flow from your eyes, and sweat drops from your jaws + And makes a scarlet furrow down your neck, + And the light hair which wantons o'er your face + Seems gray, so thickly is it plastered o'er." + +The secret mysteries of hetairism, which were celebrated chiefly by the +Lesbian and Samlan hetaerae and which occasioned a hetasra literature, +prepared in part by such members of the craft as Philaenis, Elephantine, +Niko, and others, constitute an important aspect of our subject, which +must be briefly noticed. Suffice it to say that the women of pleasure of +Lesbos and Samos excelled in the invention and practice of shameful, +unnatural arts, and that the lasciviousness of the Lesbian courtesans +led to the loathsome form of lust known as "Lesbian love," which has +become proverbial. + +Plutarch expressly distinguishes from the hetaerae a class known as +"emancipated women," whose preeminent virtue, however, was certainly not +modesty. To this class belonged many of the flower girls, wreath +weavers, painters' and sculptors' models, who earned a living by means +of their good looks, though they did not follow a life of shame. The +best known representative of this class was Glycera, whom Goethe has +immortalized. She was a native of Sicyon, and supported herself by the +sale of flower wreaths, which she knew how to make most artistically, +for use at banquets, funerals, and for adornment of the door of one's +sweetheart. The painter Pausias, likewise a native of Sicyon, loved her +passionately and used to enter into competition with her, whether she +could wreathe flowers more artistically than he himself could paint +them. He painted a portrait which represented her seated with a flower +wreath; it was so excellent that the Roman general Lucullus, after the +Mithridatic War, when he was making a collection of statues and +paintings, paid two talents for a copy. + +It is not strange that many of the hetaerae, noted for their superlative +beauty and for their cultivation of art and literature and the +refinements of life, should attain historical celebrity and, as +heroines of the demi-monde, should influence for weal or woe the +destinies of Greece. We shall briefly notice important incidents in the +careers of a few of the members of this prominent class. + +Gnathaena, daughter of the panderess Sinope, was one of the most +keen-witted and clever of Athenian hetaerae. She was noted for her happy +play on words. She also devised a set of rules for the conduct of +dinners and banquets, which lovers had to observe when they visited her +or her daughter, Gnathaenion. In this she imitated the most cultured +hosts of Athens, and exhibited a regard for social forms which throws a +commendable light on the deportment of the more cultivated hetaerae. +Gnathaenion, the daughter, was for some time the favorite of the comic +poet Diphilus, and he had many a brilliant passage of repartee with the +mother on the occasion of his visits to the daughter. + +Melitta was another famous hetaerae, beloved for her beautiful figure and +voice as well as for her pleasing conversation and sprightliness. As +each of her lovers said, "the fair Melitta was his madness," she was +also called Mania. She was one of the many favorites of Demetrius the +Besieger. More celebrated, however, than Melitta as a favorite of +Demetrius was the beautiful Lamia, the most renowned flute player of +antiquity. She was the daughter of a prominent Athenian citizen, by name +Cleanor, and, choosing to follow the independent life of a hetaerae, she +made her native city the first scene of her exploits. From here she +journeyed to Alexandria, where by her art and her beauty she speedily +won recognition at the court of Ptolemy. Accompanying Ptolemy Soter in +his naval war against Antigonus and Demetrius, she fell a prisoner into +the hands of the latter. Although her youth and beauty were already on +the wane, she succeeded in captivating Demetrius, who was much younger +than herself, so that, as Plutarch states, he appeared to be actually +her lover, while with other women he was only the object of love. Lamia +ruled him completely and led him into many excesses. Thus he once +compelled the Athenians to collect for him at short notice two hundred +and fifty talents, and when it was finally brought to him he sent it +straightway to Lamia and her companions, "for pin money," Lamia herself +on one occasion exacted from the citizens an enormous sum of money to +prepare a magnificent banquet for Demetrius. This banquet, because of +the exorbitant expenses which it occasioned, was so extraordinarily +notorious that Lycurgus of Samos wrote a book about it. On this account, +a comic poet characterized Lamia as the true _Helepolis_, or city +destroyer, the name of one of the most famous engines of war of +Demetrius. Demetrius remained passionately enamored of her, even after +her beauty had faded. As a means of flattering Demetrius, the Athenians +erected altars to her, made propitiatory offerings, and celebrated her +festival. The Thebans went so far as to erect a temple in her honor, and +worshipped her as Aphrodite Lamia. + +Pythionice, the favorite of Harpalus, the friend and confidant of +Alexander the Great, partook of honors which rivalled those of Lamia. +During the most brilliant period of Harpalus's career, Pythionice was +summoned to Babylon, where she shared his honors and bore the title of a +queen of Babylon. A letter from the historian Theopompus to Alexander is +extant, in which he speaks of the passionate devotion of Harpalus to his +favorite, and thus alludes to her: "To this Pythionice, a slave of the +flute player Bacchis, who in turn was a slave of the hetaera Sinope, +Harpalus erected two monuments, one at Athens and one at Babylon, at a +cost of more than two hundred talents, which seemed cheap to that +spend-thrift; and, in addition, he had a precinct and a sanctuary +dedicated to her, which he named the temple and altar of Aphrodite +Pythionice. She bore him a daughter, and died before the sudden change +which came in his fortunes." + +Another favorite of Harpalus, and later of the celebrated deformed comic +poet Menander, was Glycera, the daughter of Thalassis. She was a native +of Athens, and passed most of her time in the company of litterateurs +and philosophers. The Megarian philosopher Stilpo once accused her, at a +banquet, of misleading the youth through her seductive art. She made the +reply: "Stilpo, we are in this under like condemnation. It is said of +you that you impart to your pupils profitless and eristic sophisms, of +me that I teach them erotic sophisms." Some of Glycera's letters to her +poet lover Menander, still extant, show how warm a sympathy existed +between the two, and how delicate a sentiment could characterize such a +union. + +One of the names of hetaerae famous in both ancient and modern times is +that of Lais, which belonged to two Greek women celebrated for their +extraordinary beauty, who are differentiated by being known as Lais the +Elder and Lais the Younger. + +The elder and indisputably more famous of the two was the daughter of +that hetaera, Timandra, who remained faithful to Alcibiades in his evil +fortunes. As a seven-year-old maiden, Lais was taken captive by the +Athenians during the sack of her birthplace, Hyccara in Sicily, and was +brought as a slave to Corinth. Here she was early initiated into the +arts of gallantry and was given a thorough training in the culture of +the day. + +The physical charms of Lais developed into a beauty rarely witnessed. +Her bosom was of such indescribable perfection that sculptors and +painters took it as a model in their creations of the ideal female +form. She was regarded as surpassing not only all her contemporaries, +but also all the famous beauties of earlier times; and later ages +regarded her as the prototype of womanly beauty, and delighted in giving +lengthy and minute descriptions of her charms, as, for example, that by +the sophist Aristaenetus in the first of his fifty erotic epistles. + +Soon after her first appearance, Lais was talked of, was celebrated, was +deified, in all Hellenic lands. It was considered good fortune, as a +Greek poet expressed it, that Lais, the most beautiful of her sex, +adopted the hetaera life; for were she not accessible to all, there would +have been in Greece a conflict comparable only to that over Argive +Helen. + +The reputation of her beauty occasioned in a short time a formidable +immigration to Corinth of the most wealthy and distinguished men, partly +to enjoy her favor, partly to gaze in wonder at her charms, and partly +to study this paragon of female beauty for imitation in works of art. +From the homage that she received, and especially the wealth that was +poured at her feet by her lovers, she was soon rendered so proud and +selfish that she secluded herself from all except the richest. Her proud +heart, however, was not entirely closed to emotions of love. She took a +fancy to the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, in spite of his filth and +brusqueness; and AElian tells the story of her inclination for a young +athlete, Eubatas of Cyrene, who had come to Corinth for the games, +leaving behind a most beautiful and beloved wife. "When Lais became +acquainted with Eubatas of Cyrene," says AElian, "she was so enamored of +him that she made a proposal of marriage. In order not to bring down on +himself the vengeance of the powerful hetaera, he became betrothed to +her, but yet continued to live a continent life. At the conclusion of +the games, he had to fulfil his promise. But after he had been declared +victor, in order to avoid the appearance of breaking faith with the +courtesan, he had a picture of Lais painted, and took it with him to +Cyrene, affirming that he had not broken his promise, but had brought +Lais home with him. As a reward for his fidelity, his virtuous wife in +Cyrene had a statue erected in his honor." + +Aristippus, the founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, tried in +vain to win the love of this beautiful hetaera, though, of all her +lovers, he passed the most time in her society, and on her lavished +considerable sums of money. + +Lais gained much knowledge from intercourse with this learned +philosopher, so that she ranked not only as the most beautiful, but also +as one of the most brilliant women of her time. She allied herself with +the Cyrenaic school, whose system of philosophy appealed to her much +more naturally than did the gross system of her favorite, Diogenes, who +on his side sought in every way to win the celebrated beauty to +Cynicism. Lais had nothing but contempt, however, for the moral claims +of philosophy. "I do not understand," she said, "what is meant by the +austerity of philosophers; for they of this fine name are as much in my +power as the rest of the citizens." + +The charms of Lais, though so unapproachable in their bloom, yet proved +transient, and pitiable was the metamorphosis which the brilliancy of +the famous beauty underwent with their fading. Wealthy admirers became +fewer and fewer, and finally they ceased to appear, and with them her +resources failed. The once proud beauty became the plaything of every +man. She sought to drown her sorrow in the wine cup--a practice +altogether too common among Greek women of disreputable life. At this +sad period of her career, Lais dedicated her mirror, as being an +unpleasant reminder of her lost beauty, to the goddess to whose service +she had devoted her life. In her later years, she followed the vile +trade of a procuress. + +After her death, the Corinthians remembered what a reputation it had +given their city to be the abiding place of so famous a woman, and they +erected to her a mausoleum at Craneion, a cypress grove near the city, +on which a lioness tearing a kid in pieces symbolized the rapacity of +the deceased hetaera. + +Lais the Younger was a contemporary of the orator Demosthenes and the +painter Apelles, and flourished nearly a century after her more +celebrated namesake. She too lived at Corinth, and was famous for her +beauty and her association with distinguished men. She was born out of +wedlock, and the names of both her father and mother are unknown. As she +grew up, a waif in the dissolute city, Apelles, the celebrated painter, +is said to have been the first to have noticed her budding beauty and to +have educated her. According to the prevailing tradition, Apelles saw +her when, as a young girl, she was drawing water from the fountain +Pirene, and was at once so captivated by her beauty that he took her +with him to a banquet whither he was going. When his friends jestingly +reproached him because, instead of bringing a hetaera, as was usual, he +had brought a child to the feast, he rejoined: "Be not surprised. I will +show her again to you before three years have passed; you can then see +how beautiful and vivacious she has become." + +Before this period had passed, Lais became the most celebrated hetaera of +the city. Her name was on everyone's lips, in the baths, in the +theatres, and on the streets and public squares. Her fame spread +throughout Hellas, and the richest men of Hellas flocked to Corinth. +She was surpassed in the number and prominence of her lovers only by her +contemporary, Phryne of Athens. + +When at the height of her triumph, this celebrated and petted hetaera, +"who inflamed all Hellas with love, and for whose favors two seas +contended," suddenly disappeared from the scene of her conquests. A +Thessalian, by name Hippolochus, had taught her the meaning of true +love. She fled with him from the company of her other lovers, and lived +in honorable marriage in Thessaly. Her beauty, however, caused a sad +ending to this pleasing romance. From envy and jealousy, the Thessalian +women enticed her into the temple of Aphrodite and there stoned her to +death. Some historians relate that she had many Thessalian lovers; this +aroused the jealousy of the women, and they took her life at a festival +of Aphrodite at which no men were present. After her murder, a +pestilence is said to have broken out in Thessaly, which did not end +until in expiation a temple had been erected to Aphrodite. + +Phryne was the most beautiful woman of all antiquity. She was born at +Thespiae in Boeotia, but flourished at Athens toward the latter part of +the fourth century before our era. The name Phryne belongs essentially +to the history of Greek art, for all her life was associated with the +activities of the most eminent painters and sculptors. In her youth she +was loved by the sculptor Praxiteles. Pausanias tells a story how "once +when Phryne asked for the most beautiful of his works, Praxiteles, +lover-like, promised to give it to her, but would not tell which he +thought the most beautiful. So a servant of Phryne ran in, declaring +that the sculptor's studio had caught fire, and that most, but not all, +of his works had perished. Praxiteles at once ran for the door, +protesting that all his labor was lost if the flames had reached the +_Satyr_ and the _Love_. But Phryne bade him stay and be of good cheer, +telling him that he had suffered no loss, but had only been entrapped +into saying which were the most beautiful of his works. So she chose the +_Love_." + +Either this or a similar statue of Eros was dedicated by Phryne in +Thespiae, the city of her birth. Later, Praxiteles made of her a statue +of gold, which was set up at Delphi between those of two kings. She also +served as his model for the celebrated Aphrodite of Cnidos, which Pliny +describes as "the finest statue, not only by Praxiteles, but in the +whole world." The inhabitants of Cnidos placed the image, which they +believed had been made under the direct inspiration of the goddess of +love herself, in a beautiful shrine surrounded by myrtle trees, so +arranged that the figure might be seen from many different points of +view; "and from all sides," adds Pliny, "it was equally admired." Hither +came Greeks from all parts of the world merely to behold the statue and +to worship at the shrine of the goddess. King Nicomedes of Bithynia, in +his eagerness to possess the statue, offered to pay for it the whole +public debt of the island, which was enormous; but the Cnidians +preferred to suffer anything rather than give up their treasure; and +with good reason, "for by that statue Praxiteles made Cnidos famous." +Writers of epigrams were fond of extolling the statue; and many of the +extant statues of Venus are but replicas or adaptations of this great +prototype, modelled after the form of Phryne. The most celebrated copy +of the Cnidian statue is in the Vatican, disfigured, however, by false +drapery. The statue gives us some idea of the superlative beauty of +Phryne. It is very pure, very unconscious of its charms, and captivates +the beholder by its simple grace and naturalness. Lucian, the aesthetic +critic, in the construction of his ideal statue selected for description +the head of the Aphrodite of Cnidos. He particularly admired the finely +pencilled telling him that he had suffered no loss, but had only been +entrapped into saying which were the most beautiful of his works. So she +chose the _Love_." + +Either this or a similar statue of Eros was dedicated by Phryne in +Thespiae, the city of her birth. Later, Praxiteles made of her a statue +of gold, which was set up at Delphi between those of two kings. She also +served as his model for the celebrated Aphrodite of Cnidos, which Pliny +describes as "the finest statue, not only by Praxiteles, but in the +whole world." The inhabitants of Cnidos placed the image, which they +believed had been made under the direct inspiration of the goddess of +love herself, in a beautiful shrine surrounded by myrtle trees, so +arranged that the figure might be seen from many different points of +view; "and from all sides," adds Pliny, "it was equally admired." Hither +came Greeks from all parts of the world merely to behold the statue and +to worship at the shrine of the goddess. King Nicomedes of Bithynia, in +his eagerness to possess the statue, offered to pay for it the whole +public debt of the island, which was enormous; but the Cnidians +preferred to suffer anything rather than give up their treasure; and +with good reason, "for by that statue Praxiteles made Cnidos famous." +Writers of epigrams were fond of extolling the statue; and many of the +extant statues of Venus are but replicas or adaptations of this great +prototype, modelled after the form of Phryne. The most celebrated copy +of the Cnidian statue is in the Vatican, disfigured, however, by false +drapery. The statue gives us some idea of the superlative beauty of +Phryne. It is very pure, very unconscious of its charms, and captivates +the beholder by its simple grace and naturalness. Lucian, the aesthetic +critic, in the construction of his ideal statue selected for description +the head of the Aphrodite of Cnidos. He particularly admired the finely +pencilled eyebrows and the melting gaze of the eyes, with their sweet, +joyous expression. + +Phryne, with a modesty one would not expect in a woman of her class, was +very careful to keep her beautiful figure concealed, avoiding the public +baths and having her body always enveloped in a long and graceful tunic. +But on two occasions the beauty-loving Greeks had displayed to them the +charms of her person. The first was at the solemn assembly at Eleusis, +on the feast of the Poseidonia. Having loosened her beautiful hair and +let fall her drapery, Phryne plunged into the sea in the sight of all +the assembled Greeks. Apelles, the painter, transported with admiration +at the sight, retired at once to his studio and transferred to canvas +the mental image which was indelibly impressed upon his fancy; and the +resulting picture was the _Aphrodite Anadyomene_, the most celebrated of +his paintings. + +The second exhibition was before the austere court of the Heliasts. +Phryne had been cited to appear before the tribunal on the charge of +profaning the Eleusinian mysteries, and Hyperides, the brilliant young +orator, was her advocate. Failing to move the judges by his arguments, +he tore the tunic from her bosom and revealed to them the perfection of +her figure. The judges, beholding as it were the goddess of love +incarnate, and moved by a superstitious fear, could not dare to condemn +to death "a prophetess and priestess of Aphrodite." They saw and they +pardoned, and, amid the applause of the people, Phryne was carried in +triumph to the temple of Aphrodite. To us in this day such a scene +appears highly theatrical, but Aphrodite is no longer esteemed among +men, and the Greek worship of beauty is something not understood in this +material age. + +Phryne's life was by no means free from blame, and as the result of her +popularity she acquired great riches. She is said to have offered to +rebuild the walls of Thebes, which had been torn down by Alexander, on +condition that she might place on them the inscription: _Alexander +destroyed Thebes; but Phryne, the hetaera, rebuilt it;_ but the offer was +rejected, showing that though the times were corrupt, yet shame had not +altogether departed from men. + +One cannot emphasize in too trenchant terms the demoralizing influences +of hetairism on the social life of the Greeks, or fail to see in the +gross immorality of the sexes one of the paramount causes of the +downfall of the Greek peoples. + +Yet it is a truism that feminine shamelessness was most advantageous for +the arts of sculpture and painting. Sensuousness is close akin to +sensuality, and from their passion for these "priestesses of Aphrodite" +the Greek artists, without doubt, derived much of their inspiration, +while the opportunities which hetairism offered for the study of the +female form enabled Praxiteles and his contemporaries and successors to +produce masterpieces which equalled in idealism the works of aesthetic +art produced in the preceding century. + +To become the ideal for the painter and the sculptor was the greatest +ambition of the beautiful and cultivated hetaera. In permitting the +artist to portray her charms she not only performed a lasting service +for art, but she also rendered herself celebrated and immortal. The fame +of her beauty was spread throughout all Hellenic lands, and the national +devotion to the goddess Aphrodite was at once extended to her earthly +counterpart. If she united intellectual brilliancy with beauty, fortune +at once cast its most precious gifts at her feet. The most celebrated +men of every city contested for her favors, poets made her the theme of +their verses, artists portrayed her charms with chisel and with brush, +and the wealthy filled her coffers with gold and precious stones. + + + + +XI + +THE WOMAN QUESTION IN ANCIENT ATHENS + + +Anyone who makes a careful perusal of the philosophical literature of +Athens in the fourth century before our era will be struck with the +amount of attention that has been paid to the question of the social and +domestic position of woman. If he trace the subject back, he will +observe that in the dramatic literature of the latter part of the +previous century the same problems received the consideration of +Euripides and Aristophanes. And the conviction will be forced upon him +that this agitation was rooted in a sociological movement of great +import, and that the dramatic and philosophical writers merely gave a +literary form to the debates which profoundly stirred Athenian society +in the fifth century. + +This discussion of woman's rights is a subject of perennial interest, +and the underlying currents in such movements are usually the same in +every age. They take their rise, too, not in the efforts of +philanthropic men who recognize that the status of woman is not what it +should be, but in the efforts of the members of the sex themselves, who +are sufficiently intelligent to see that they, while having an abundant +share of the burdens, have not a fair share of the emoluments of life, +and consequently endeavor to better the conditions which environ +themselves and their sisters. + +In this chapter we shall make a study of the dramatists and philosophers +of Athens, in so far as they give insight into the social life of the +city in its most important epoch, and outline what they contribute to +our knowledge of Greek woman and the ever-present Woman Question. + +For the early part of this brilliant period we must rely on the ideal +pictures of tragedy for the higher side, and the ribald travesties of +comedy for the lower side of feminine life, AEschylus flourished just +before and during the glorious period following the Persian War,--the +good days before the influx of foreigners and the new education +corrupted the life and undermined the faith of the citizens. In his +seven extant plays he has presented to us only three feminine characters +of any importance,--Clytemnestra, Electra, and Cassandra,--all belonging +to the cycle of tragedies treating of the fate of King Agamemnon and his +royal house at Mycenae. The dramatist's pictures of home life show his +high conception of the ability and the importance of women and of the +large part they play in human history. His Clytemnestra is a ruling +queen exercising all the functions of royalty, but her powerful nature +has been debased by grief and sin. She identifies herself with the +"ancient bitter Alastor," who visits on Agamemnon the curse of his +house. She is self-sufficingness, adamantine purpose, studied craft, and +cold disdain incarnate. With fulsome speech and consummate flattery she +welcomes her husband home; and when the deed is done and he lies dead by +her hand, in exultant tones she rejoices in the blood upon her robe as +"a cornfield in the dews of spring." Truly she is the most powerful +portrait of feminine guilt that dramatic literature affords us. AEschylus +drew his scenery and his characters largely from the conditions of the +Heroic Age as pictured by Homer, and was little affected by the current +of everyday life about him. + +As AEschylus has given us Clytemnestra for an ideal type of feminine +power and wickedness, so Sophocles has presented two immortal heroines, +Antigone and Electra, who are statuesque in the beauty and grandeur of +their characters. In Antigone we observe two fundamental +qualities,--enthusiasm in the performance of duty, and intensity of +domestic affection, as seen in her efforts to reconcile her brothers, +Polynices and Eteocles, her desire to shield her sister Ismene, her +self-sacrifice for the sake of her brother Polynices, and her filial +devotion to her aged father. Electra also is an ideal type of sisterly +love. Ill-treated by her unnatural mother, abused by the cowardly and +brutal tyrant who had usurped her father's place, only one ray of hope +was left her, that her brother Orestes would return to avenge their +wrongs upon the guilty pair. When the deed is done, and Orestes is +pursued by the Furies, she proves herself a devoted and unselfish +sister. In these two characters we have sublime conceptions of heroic +devotion to duty, but the more human womanly traits have been lost in +the poet's delineation of them as the embodiment of lofty ideals. + +Mahaffy finds in these two heroines something hard and masculine, traits +which would not stir the sympathies of the reader or hearer and lead to +emulation. He prefers Sophocles's Deianira and Tecmessa as being "truly +'female women,' as Homer would say, gentle and loving, not above +jealousy, and for that reason a finer and clearer contrast to the heroes +than are the coarser and more dominant heroines." ... "If these +criticisms be just," he adds, "they will show that, in the most perfect +and exclusive Athenian society--that is to say, among Thucydides's and +Sophocles's set, the ideal of female character had degenerated; that to +these men, whose affections were centred on very different objects, the +notion of a true heroine was no longer natural, but was supplanted by a +hard and masculine type. The old free, noble woman, whom AEschylus had, +in early days, still known, was banished from their city life to make +way for the domestic slave of the Attic household, called 'mistress,' +but as such contrasted with the 'companions,' who gradually supplanted +her in Athenian society." + +The types of womanhood presented by AEschylus and Sophocles belonged to a +state of society which had passed away, and were too remote from the +life of their own day to be ideals for the daughters of Athens. These +dramatists did not touch upon the problems which were then engaging the +thoughts of enlightened men and women. There is nothing in AEschylus, +absorbed as he was in the problems of destiny, to show that he felt the +many weighty problems that confronted the social life of his time; and +the serene Sophocles gives no hint that the world about him was not the +best of all possible worlds. But how was it with the sombre and +melancholy Euripides? What insight does he give us into the social life +of the times? + +There was a famous saying of Sophocles that "he himself represented men +as they ought to be--Euripides, men as they are." This means that +Euripides, while making the old legends the foundation of his tragedies, +attributed to his heroes and heroines the faults and passions of +ordinary men and women and utilized his plots to present the problems +which confronted society as he knew it. As a follower of Anaxagoras and +a member of the party of philosophers, he was dissatisfied with the +conditions of life about him, and endeavored, through his dramas, to +assist the movements for reform. He was, in many respects, a daring +innovator, and this explains the bitter hostility which Aristophanes, +the ultra-conservative, exhibited toward him. The glaring fault in +Athenian social life was the status of woman, and to the solution of +this problem Euripides bent all his energies. He used woman and the +moral conflicts originating through the relations of the sexes as a +_motif_ for his poetry, and the whole body of his plays is a commentary +on the Woman Question. He found in the portrayal of woman a new field +for his genius, as well as a new means of advocating an unpopular but +righteous cause. + +Yet we are confronted by the prevailing opinion that Euripides was a +woman hater who utilized his tragedies to present his unfavorable +opinion of the sex. This view, presented by many modern writers, rests, +however, on false assumptions. To exhibit the low views of woman held by +the men of his day, the poet attributes to certain of his characters +condemnations of the sex as a whole; and these are taken to be +expressions of the personal opinion of the author. Thus Hippolytus +engages in a lengthy tirade beginning: + + "Why hast thou given a home beneath the sun, + Zeus, unto woman, specious curse to man?" + +[Illustration 232 _PHRYNE After the painting by Henry I. Siemiradsky. +Phryne, with a modesty one would not expect in a woman of her class, was +very careful to keep her beautiful figure concealed, avoiding the public +baths and having her body always enveloped in a long and graceful tunic. +But on two occasions the beauty-loving Greeks had displayed to them the +charms of her person. The fist was at the solemn assembly at Eleusis, on +the feast of the Poseidonia. Having loosened her beautiful hair and let +fall her drapery, Phryne plunged into the sea in the sight of all the +assembled Greeks._ + +_Phryne was of very humble origin, and originally obtained her +livelihood by gathering capers; but her beauty afterward gained great +wealth for her. At Delphi there was erected a statue in gold of her._] + +But Hippolytus throughout is characterized as a pronounced misogynist, +and this and similar passages found their inspiration in the characters +and the situation and produce a well-defined dramatic effect. +Furthermore, while the poet's unfavorable opinions of women are +frequently cited out of their connection, his complimentary expressions +are lost sight of. In contrast to the harsh criticisms of men who vent +their spleen against those whom they have injured, or of women who find +fault with their sex where the dramatic purpose justifies the +expressions used, there can be cited passages in which maidenly modesty +and wifely fidelity are commended; or one might quote the deeply +emotional words of Admetus or Theseus concerning the joys of happy +married life, or the tender expressions which fathers, like Agamemnon, +utter in reference to their daughters. In the fragments also occur +passages friendly and unfriendly to woman, but, as these are without +their context, it is difficult to judge them fairly. Hence the +conclusion from a study of the dialogues of Euripides is that every +unfavorable judgment of woman finds its full justification in the +economy of the drama; nowhere is there convincing indication that the +poet himself had any hatred for the sex. + +If we turn from the dialogues to the choruses, we may expect to find the +author's true opinions, and here occur no traces whatever of unfriendly +criticism. Male choruses sing of the unbounded happiness which is gained +in the possession of a good wife; female choruses sing of entrancing +love, of the blessings of a happy married life, while faithlessness and +sinful passion are condemned. They refer at times to evil report +concerning women, but always with indignation and in manifest effort to +correct a wrong judgment. Thus, for example, the chorus of the _Ion_: + + "Mark--ye whose strains of slander + Scourge evermore + Woman in song, and brand her + Wanton and whore,-- + How high in virtue's place + We pass men's lawless race, + Nor spit in viper-lays your venom-store. + But let the Muse of taunting + On men's heads pour + Her indignation, chanting + Her treason-lore; + Sing of the outraged maid; + Tell of the wife betrayed + Of him who hath displayed his false heart's core--" + +The nature of the characters of Euripides is the most important of all +the testimony of the plays as evidence of the social life of Athens, +since the poet drew them from real life, and consequently his men and +his women are necessarily fair specimens of the men and women to be +found in Athenian society. It is noticeable that the men are, as a rule, +far inferior to the women, both in manners and in nobility of character, +and are not to be compared with the heroes of AEschylus and Sophocles. +Hippolytus is indeed a notable example of youthful purity; Pylades, of +unselfish friendship; Achilles, of courtly chivalry; Ion, of youthful +piety; Theseus, of devoted patriotism; and the peasant husband of +Electra, of knightly regard; but the majority of the male characters are +selfish, quarrelsome, and ordinary. How different do we find the case +when we consider the dramatist's women! + +Differing from his countrymen in the conception of the character, +capabilities, and rights of woman, Euripides has in his plays presented +ideals of a womanhood which would give woman something higher to live +for than the drudgery of household duties, and would raise the sex in +the estimation of men. Heroism in everyday life is the lesson he +constantly teaches by the examples of such women as Alcestis, the +devoted wife and mother; as Polyxena, the brave martyr-maiden; as +Andromache, faithful in thraldom to the memory of her valiant husband; +as Macaria and Iphigenia, sacrificing themselves for the sake of a great +cause; and as Electra, the devoted sister. Nowhere can one find a longer +catalogue of noble women, not heroines of prehistoric days living in a +golden age, but women who in character and sentiments were like to those +met with every day in every community. Euripides's heart was burdened by +the sorrows and wrongs of the sex; and he combated the social system +which was at the root of the evil, not by violent assaults upon it, not +by seeking to overturn that which was the product of centuries and was +a natural result of the Greek idea of the city-state, but by showing +women how they could better their condition and by giving men more +exalted ideas of the nature of woman. Says Mr. Arthur S. Way, the +translator and ardent advocate of Euripides, who, of all Greek scholars, +has most profoundly and sympathetically investigated this question: + +"Euripides set himself to appeal to human hearts as he found them, to +exalt men's estimate of woman, to redeem women from despair of +themselves, by uplifting before them inspiring ideals of womanhood which +might be types and examples for all time. And, first, he gave them those +transcendent four--who in the union of the sweetness and lovable +gentleness of the pure womanly with the magnificent exaltation of the +highest heroism are unapproached by Homer's Penelope and Andromache, or +by Sophocles's Antigone. He gave them Alcestis, who surrendered her life +freely, not so much for her husband as for wifely duty's sake, and never +flinched nor faltered as the horror of great darkness swallowed her up, +but by strength of a mother's love stayed up the feet that were sinking +into Hades, till her dying breath had made her children's future sure, +and then in death's grasp quietly laid her hand, and so was drawn down, +faintly and ever more faintly murmuring love. He gave them Iphigenia, +who, summoned from the cloistered shelter of her home as to a bridal, +found herself set without warning before the altar of death, and yet +shrank and shuddered only till the full import of the great sacrifice +demanded dawned upon her, and then sprang full-statured to the height of +a godlike resolve; who grasped in her pure hands the scales of national +justice, who bore up with her slender wrists the fate of her fatherland, +and sang the triumph pasan of Hellas as she paced to death. He gave them +Macaria, who attained a height of selfless heroism unimagined till that +hour, in that unasked she gave her life for the salvation of a noble +house and of alien helpers; who refused to hearken to the suggestion +which whispered a hope of escape, but with unreverted eyes turned from +all joys and all hopes of young life, and spent her last breath in +consolation and encouragement to those who clung with adoring love and +passionate tears about her parting feet. He gave them Polyxena, the most +pathetic figure of all, sustained by no proud consciousness of salvation +wrought from suffering, but only welcoming death as an angel of +deliverance from shame and long regrets, who stood on the grave-mound, +arrayed in spotless innocence, with modest lips that calmly made in the +name of honor their last request, and so gave her throat to the sword, +while the fierce men who but now had clamored for her blood acclaimed +her of all maidens noblest of soul. + +"He brought before them women in all the relations of life, everywhere +surpassing the men in goodness, in constancy, in wisdom, in counsel. +They watched the ministering angel who sat by a brother's bed, and wiped +the dew of agony from his brow and the foam of madness from his lips; +they held their breath while a gentle-hearted priestess bemoaned to her +unknown brother the cruel destiny which even then drew her to the verge +of fratricide. They saw the wife who hailed a death of fire to be +reunited to her slain lord, and the wife who devoted herself to save, or +die with, her husband. They heard one mother plead the cause of honor +and right against cold statecraft; they listened as another besought her +doomed sons to be reconciled. They thrilled beholding the princess-slave +whose love was stronger than death and whose highborn spirit flashed +defiance to a treacherous foe; and that other, who, remembering her +hero-husband, would not suffer the imminent death to make herself or +her children play a craven part, but mingled proud scorn of the +murderous usurper with regrets for hopes foregone. In the noble words of +Professor Mahaffy: 'These are the women who have so raised the ideal of +the sex, that in looking upon them the world has passed from neglect to +courtesy, from courtesy to veneration; these are they, who, across many +centuries, first of frivolity and sensuality, then of rudeness and +barbarism, join hands with the ideals of our religion and our chivalry, +the martyred saints, the chaste and holy virgins of romance--nay, more, +with the true wives, the devoted mothers, of our own day.' + +"But there are female characters in his plays which have been pointed to +as proving a very different attitude toward women. Of these, Phaedra was +the best-abused by his enemies, who wilfully shut their eyes to her true +character. She is, by the very plot of the play, the helpless victim of +the malice of a goddess. With her brain beclouded by fever frenzy, she +agonizes for clear vision and wails for peace of mind. She is a +pure-souled, true-hearted woman, who tingles with shame and shudders +with horror at the hideous thing that has been born in her. She is +driven by the imminence of ruin to a desperate expedient to shield her +name from the unmerited dishonor which she might well believe, from the +ambiguously worded threat with which Hippolytus departed, was to be cast +upon her. He gave her cause to think that he would accuse her to his +father of a crime of which she knew herself innocent. In her despair, +she saw no help but to forestall him by an accusation equally false. + +"Medea and Creusa--even Clytemnestra and Hermione--are not portrayed as +transgressors without excuse: in each case, the audience heard the woman +plead her cause and proclaim the doctrine that woman has rights as well +as man, that what man avenges as the inexpiable wrong is not a light +offence against her. It may well be that they were not ripe for the +reception of ideas so unheard-of, that many of them mistook his drift; +but the seed sank in, to bear fruit in due time. + +"In each instance the sinner is a woman deeply wronged, or in sore +straits, or under daemoniac influence: there are no such gratuitously +wicked characters as Goneril, Lady Macbeth, or Tamora. Yet no one calls +Shakespeare a misogynist. Why, then, was it possible for Euripides's +enemies to charge him with being one, a charge doubtless echoed by a +good many thoughtless and stupid people in his day, but little +creditable to modern scholarship? For three reasons: first, the wilful +or obtuse misunderstanding of such characters as Phaedra--the +representation of these by Euripides was the main ground on which +Aristophanes alleged that the tendency of his plays was immoral. +Secondly, we occasionally come upon the censures of the faults and +foibles of women--their proneness to scandal, to uncharitable judgments +of their fellows, their pettiness, frivolity, and so forth. It must be +admitted, too, that the context sometimes justifies us in concluding +that the poet is uttering his own sentiments. It was, indeed, to be +expected that a thinker who had so high a conception of what women might +be should be painfully impressed by the contrast presented by what they +too often were. Nor is it matter for wonder that he should take +opportunities of bringing the same feeling home to them. It is not +enough to set noble ideals before people who are not yet conscious of +the incompatibility of their present habits and aims with the emulation +of those ideals. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, as indeed these +were, compared with the hideous presentments of female morality in which +Aristophanes revels, till his readers might imagine that pure and +temperate women were quite the exception in the Athens of his day. And +was he not a friend to women who gave, for the sake of his sisters for +whom heroic ideals might seem set too high, this winsome model, 'not too +fair and good for human nature's daily food'? + +"'Beauty wins not love for woman from the yokemate of her life: +Many an one by goodness wins it; for to each true-hearted wife, +Knit in love unto her husband, is Discretion's secret told. +These her gifts are: though her lord be all uncomely to behold, +To her heart and eyes shall he be comely, so her wit be sound; +('Tis not eyes that judge the _man_; within is true discernment found): +Whensoever he speaks, or holds his peace, shall she his sense commend, +Prompt with sweet suggestion when with speech he fain would please a friend: +Glad she is, if aught untoward hap, to show she feels his care: +Joy and sorrow of the husband aye the loyal wife will share: +Yea, if thou art sick, in spirit will thy wife be sick with thee, +Bear the half of all thy burdens--naught unsweet accounteth she: +For with those we love our duty bids us taste the cup of bliss +Not alone, the cup of sorrow also--what is love but this?'" + +The ill-deserved reputation of being a misogynist which attaches to +Euripides is due, not to his own plays, but to the satire and drollery +of his rival, the comedian Aristophanes, who, in B. C. 411 or 410, +produced the _Thesmophoriazusae_, a play so cleverly constructed that, +while it seemed to defend the female sex against the charges of +Euripides, really presented them in a more disgusting light. +Aristophanes represents the world of women as thrown into consternation +and revolt through the production of the tragedies of Euripides, such as +the _Hippolytus_, wherein the female sex is so severely arraigned. +Unable to endure his accusations, an assembly of women is called at the +Thesmophoria to plan the destruction of their arch enemy. Euripides, +however, hears of the assembly, and prevails on his father-in-law, +Mnesilochus, to disguise himself as a woman and seek admittance, that he +may plead the cause of the tragedian. The humor of the debate lies in +the fact that, after several women have roundly abused Euripides for +slandering their sex, Mnesilochus, attired in rustic female garb, +eloquently reminds them of the truths which Euripides might have +divulged had he chosen to do so. One sin after another is glibly and +facetiously piled up against the feminine record, until the few +calumnies attributed to Euripides seem insignificant beside the mountain +of crimes and foibles the supposed matron heaps up against her sisters. +The picture which Aristophanes, in his clever bit of satire, presents of +the women of his day is an exceedingly repulsive one. They are +represented as profligate, licentious, stupid, fond of drink, thieves +and liars. No other Greek writer has given them so base a character. But +we must remember that we are reading comedy. "The point of the +_Thesmophoriazusae_, so far as the women are concerned, is that, while +Aristophanes pretends to pillory Euripides for his abuse of them, his +own satire is far more searching and penetrates more deeply into the +secrets of domestic life." + +The grotesque distortion by Aristophanes of the character of the +philosopher Socrates is sufficiently well known; the contrast between +the sentiments which he attributes to Euripides and the tragic poet's +own views as presented in his plays is very striking; hence the pictures +that he draws of the life and manners of women must not be accepted +without important allowances. Aristophanes was writing to make people +laugh, not to reveal the secrets of the household, and his plays were +exclusively for an audience of men. Hence coarseness and buffoonery, as +elements of comic effect, are continually availed of, and Aristophanes +considered that he was witty in maligning the female sex. It would +clearly be unfair and even absurd to regard Aristophanes as an accurate +expositor of feminine life in Athens. But it is a noticeable fact that, +from B. C. 411 onward, there is, as seen in the extant plays of +Aristophanes, a marked prominence given to the female sex. Women, who +heretofore have played but a subordinate role in comedy, now frequently +have the principal parts. Comedy, more truly than any other department +of literature, reflects the current thought; and while the characters of +comedy play a role that is the reverse of actuality, comic invention +deals with real movements, and this intentional prominence of the +usually neglected sex can have but one interpretation: the Woman +Question had become a problem which profoundly engaged the attention of +the society of the time. + +It is a difficult task to attempt to trace in the comedies of +Aristophanes the thread of a social movement. He utilized the events and +opinions of the day for fun making, and did not greatly concern himself +with the serious aspects of social problems. He was an +ultra-conservative, and desired to bring the new thought of the day into +disrepute by exhibiting its ludicrous side. Hence he makes use of the +woman's rights movement to give free rein to his fancy, and to delight +the public with obscene jokes on the vices and weaknesses of women and +with clever caricatures of their leaders. Yet the attentive reader can +get glimpses here and there into the more serious aspects of the +question, and can recognize behind some of the distorted, caricatured +figures types which are not in themselves comic. + +The other two plays of Aristophanes in which women figure prominently +are the _Lysistrata_ and the _Ecclesiazusae_. In each of these the +company of women is directed by a leader who in talents and +aggressiveness is far superior to her fellows. These two have not the +many small weaknesses of the other dames; they have the collective +interest of their sex at heart; and they know how to form a plan and +how to carry it through. The other women, in spite of their +thoughtlessness and weakness of character, are dominated by the strong +personalities of their self-appointed leaders. Hence, by a study of the +controlling spirit of each play, in spite of the caricature in the +poet's delineation, we may be able to form some conception of the +currents of thought of the day as they affected women. + +Lysistrata is the wife of an Athenian magistrate, and has been strongly +affected by the ill success of the Peloponnesian War. She has meditated +long over the experiences of the female sex in general during the last +decade of the war. During the first ten years, the Grecian women had +borne in silence and without forming any opinions, in the narrow +confines of the home, the mistakes of their husbands; but gradually they +had observed how politics, in the hands of the men, was going from bad +to worse, and how want was increasing year by year. They began to ask +questions, to find fault in a mild way, though only with the result that +the men sent them back to their domestic duties with the brusque answer: +"War shall be a care to men." That which finally roused the women to +action was the realization that the men, in the face of events, had +unanimously recognized their own helplessness. Lysistrata therefore, in +Aristophanes's play, counsels the women to break their chains, seize the +reins of government, and bring the dreadful war to an end. She tells the +assembled women that they have carried a double burden in the war. As +mothers, they have borne sons whom they have been compelled to send +forth to death; while as wives, they have been deprived of their +husbands; even the maidens have grown old in single blessedness, on +account of the absence of men available as husbands. With such words as +these she arouses the spirit of her comrades. They, in turn, speak of +their virtues, their natural gifts, and their love for their native +country, to which they are so much indebted, and in duty to it they are +ready to turn their attention to things of war; for, say they: "The +Attic woman is no slave, and has sufficient courage to take up arms in +her country's cause: now, war shall be a care to women." + +These reflections have a decided importance in a consideration of the +social history of the times by suggesting how the female sex developed +under the trying conditions of war. + +In the poet's delineation of Lysistrata, the scene in which she +describes to the assembled Athenian and Laconian deputies their +political sins gains special importance. She possesses historical +insight. By recounting historical facts, she reminds them of what the +Laconians have done for the Athenians, and what the latter for the +Laconians, and awakens them to general Pan-Hellenic interests, for which +they should labor in common instead of weakening their power in +fratricidal war. In this address she characterizes herself as follows: +"I am a woman, it is true; but I have understanding; and of myself I am +not badly off in respect of intellect. By having often heard the remarks +of my father and my elders, I have not been ill educated." + +We have then in the _Lysistrata_ the women of the day led on in a great +patriotic movement by an educated and eloquent woman. The play exhibits +a constant battle of words between men and women, each grouped in a +chorus. The women seize the Acropolis and make themselves experts in the +science of war. Their plans succeed; and the husbands are reduced to a +terrible plight by the novel resolution adopted by their wives to bring +them to terms. Envoys at length come from the belligerent parties, and +peace is concluded under the direction of the clever Lysistrata. + +If from the unbridled drollery and serious moral of the drama we +endeavor to reach conclusions regarding the Woman Question, they will be +found to be about as follows. There were at this time certain prominent +women who were endeavoring to have the natural capabilities of the +female sex more justly esteemed, and energetic voices were being raised +against the humble status of woman in society and in public affairs. +This movement was quickened in the latter part of the century, owing to +the mistakes of the Peloponnesian War, but the efforts of women to +assert their rights were met by the violent opposition of the +conservative party. The leader in the _Lysistrata_, in her gift of +speech and breadth of understanding, typifies some historical women who +took a prominent part in the movement, and these were, probably, some +aristocratic ladies who had been influenced by Aspasia. + +The unique importance of the _Lysistrata_ consists in its portraiture of +the leaders of the woman's rights movement and in its suggestion of the +ambitious projects they were prepared to undertake. The _Ecclesiazusae_ +is, like the _Lysistrata_, a picture of woman's ascendency, but it goes +further in satirizing some of the schemes which in daily conversation +and in the works of the philosophers were being presented for bettering +the conditions of society and improving the status of women. The success +of such a play presupposes that the minds of the audience were prepared +for it by the informal discussion of such questions in everyday life. +The Athenian ladies, in the _Ecdesiazusae_, under the leadership of +Praxagora,--who is endowed with much the same gifts as Lysistrata, and +is, in fact, a replica of that clever woman,--disguise themselves as men +and crowd the public assembly; by means of the majority of votes which +they have thus fraudulently obtained, they overturn the government of +the men and proclaim the supremacy of the women in the State. +Praxagora, the leading agitator, is chosen _strategis_, and she +immediately proclaims, as the fundamental principles of the new State, +community of property and free trade between the sexes--ideas which were +prominent in the ideal _Republic_ of Plato and had been earlier +projected by Protagoras. "The point of the satire consists in this: that +the arguments by which the women get the upper hand all turn on their +avowed conservatism; men change and shift, women preserve their old +customs and will maintain the _ethos_ of the State; but no sooner have +they got authority than they show themselves more democratic than the +demagogues, more new-fangled in their political notions than the +philosophers. They upset time-honored institutions and make new ones to +suit their own caprices, squaring the laws according to the logic of +feminine instinct. Of course, speculations like those of Plato's +_Republic_ are satirized in the farcical scenes which illustrate the +consequences of this female revolution. But perhaps the finest point +about the comedy is its harmonious insight into the workings of women's +minds--a clear sense of what a topsy-turvy world we should have to live +in if women were the lawgivers and governors." + +We have thus briefly sketched the indications of the prevalence of the +Woman Question in Athens, as presented in the plays of Aristophanes. +This writer furthermore affords us many ludicrous pictures of woman in +private life, which indicate that the fair sex were not always as weak +as men would have them. The chorus of the _Thesmophoriazusae_ resent the +many ill things said of the race of women,--"that we are an utter evil +to men, and that all evils spring from us, strifes, quarrels, seditions, +painful grief, and war. Come, now, if we are an evil, why do you marry +us, if indeed we are really an evil, and forbid any of us either to go +out, or to be caught peeping out, but wish to guard the evil thing with +so great diligence? And if the wife should go out any whither, and you +then should discover her to be out of doors, you rage with madness, who +ought to offer libations and rejoice, if indeed you really find the evil +thing to be gone away from the house and do not find it at home. And if +we sleep in other peoples' houses, when we play and when we are tired, +everyone searches for this evil thing, going round about the beds. And +if we peep out of a window, everyone seeks to get a sight of the evil +thing. And if we retire again, being ashamed, so much the more does +everyone desire to see the evil thing peep out again. So manifestly are +we much better than you." As portrayed by Aristophanes, the women of his +day manifestly knew how to assert their equality. Feminine foibles and +weaknesses do not escape his satiric pen. Women are overfond of dress, +and no brilliant or prudent action can be expected of them, + + "Who sit deck'd out with flowers, and bearing robes + Of saffron hue, and richly border'd o'er + With loose Cimmerian vests and circling sandals." + +Furthermore, they are fond of drink, and this vice is mercilessly +satirized. The inexorable oath administered by Lysistrata to her +comrades, in entering upon their crusade to bring about peace, is one +which no Athenian woman would incur the penalty of breaking: "If I +violate my pledge, may the cup be filled with water!" + +Occasionally a man found he had married a wife who set aside his +conjugal authority and ruled the household. Thus Strepsiades, the +country gentleman of Aristophanes's _Clouds_, quarrelled with his +luxurious, city-bred wife, of the aristocratic house of Megacles, over +the naming of their son, which was the father's right, and, woman-like, +she carried her point; and this son she brought up to despise his +father's country ways and to squander his father's substance in horse +racing. + +Aristophanes was not the only comic poet who indulged in gibes at the +female sex, for the object of comedy was to amuse, and the Athenian +audience of men ever found delight in the portrayal of the weaknesses +and foibles of the opposite sex. Even his predecessor Susarion, who was +the first to compose comedy in verse, and is usually called the inventor +of comedy, gave expression to the current abuse: "Hear, O ye people! +Susarion says this, the son of Philinus, the Megarian, of Tripodiscus: +women are an evil; and yet, my countrymen, one cannot set up house +without evil; for to be married or not to be married is alike bad." It +is unfortunate for our purpose that so little survives of the numberless +plays of the Middle and New Comedy, especially the latter, for this +comedy of manners presented a close and faithful picture of domestic +life and would have been an almost inexhaustible mine of information on +Attic life in general, full as it was of illustrations of the manners, +feelings, prejudices, and ways of thinking of the Ancient Greeks. + +The fragments preserved to us are sufficient, however, to give us +glimpses of the manner in which woman was treated on the stage; and, +while there was much harsh criticism, it is gratifying to note that her +good qualities were at times recognized. Says the poet Antiphanes: + + "What! when you court concealment, will you tell + The matter to a woman? Just as well + Tell all the criers in the public squares I + 'Tis hard to say which of them louder blares." + +"Great Zeus," says another poet, "may I perish, if I ever spoke against +woman, the most precious of all acquisitions. For if Medea was an +objectionable person, surely Penelope was an excellent creature. Does +anyone abuse Clytemnestra? I oppose the admirable Alcestis. But perhaps +someone may abuse Phaedra; then I say, by Zeus! what a capital person +was.... Oh, dear! the catalogue of good women is already exhausted, +while there remains a crowd of bad ones that might be mentioned." +"Woman's a necessary and undying evil," says Philemon; and in another +fragment: + + "A good wife's duty 'tis, Nicostratus, + Not to command, but to obey her spouse; + Most mischievous a wife who rules her husband." + +Menander, the greatest representative of the New Comedy, has been +compared to a mirror, so clear were the images he presented of human +life. His epigrammatic sayings are justly famous, and many of them refer +to woman. "Manner, not money, makes a woman's charm," says he in one +passage; and in another: + + "When thou fair woman seest, marvel not; + Great beauty's oft to countless faults allied." + +"Where women are, there every ill is found," is still another +disparaging sentiment, as is his repetition of the frequent gibe at +marriage: + + "Marriage, if truth be told (of this be sure), + An evil is--but one we must endure." + +Yet the poet was also appreciative of the good qualities in woman, as is +seen in the sentiment: "A good woman is the rudder of her household;" +with which we may compare the words of another poet: + + "A sympathetic wife is man's chiefest treasure;" + +and at times Menander notes how even a woman of serious faults may prove +to be the greatest blessing: + + "How burdensome a wife extravagant; + Not as he would may he who's ta'en her live. + Yet this of good she has: she bears him children; + She watches o'er his couch, if he be sick, + With tender care; she's ever by his side + When fortune frowns; and should he chance to die, + The last sad rites with honor due she pays." + +Surely a touching portraiture of woman's gentle ministry, and worthy to +be compared with Scott's famous lines! In spite of the numerous +complaints against woman, the plays of the New Comedy usually ended in a +happy marriage--the wild youth falls in love with the penniless maiden, +reforms, discovers her to be wellborn, and wins over the angry parent; +then follow joyous wedding festivities, and happiness ever afterward. +Such is the usual course of the plot. Satirical reflections on woman, +especially when made in poetry, must not be taken too seriously; and +where romantic love is also the theme for song, we may be sure that +woman, though much abused, is yet tenderly regarded and highly esteemed +among men. + +A social movement for the emancipation of woman, which had occupied the +attention of thinking men and women of Athens in the latter half of the +fifth century before Christ, which had been started by Aspasia in her +salon, which had been discussed by Socrates and the Socratics, +especially AEschines, and which had brought about a battle royal between +the dramatists Euripides and Aristophanes, naturally called for +scientific treatment at the hands of the philosophers. The works of +Plato, Aristotle, and Xenophon accordingly devote much space to the +consideration of the Woman Question. The female sex, hitherto +"accustomed to live cowed and in obscurity,"--as Plato puts it,--justly +claimed more favorable conditions; and the philosophers who endeavored +to bring about a better social status asserted that woman deserved +proper recognition at the hands of men. + +Plato had taken seriously to heart the lessons of the Peloponnesian War. +He was keenly sensitive to the evils of democracy as then existent, and +recognized the need of governmental and social reform. He felt that in +the disregard of women at least half the citizen population had been +neglected, and we have in his works the strongest assertion of the +equality of the sexes. + +"And so," he says, in one of his dialogues, "in the administration of a +State, neither a woman as a woman nor a man as a man has any special +function, but the gifts of nature are equally diffused in both sexes; +all the pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also, and in all of +these woman is only a lesser man." "Very true." "Then are we to impose +all our enactments on men and none on women?" "That will never do." "One +woman has a gift of healing, another not; one is a musician, another is +not." "Very true." "And one woman has a turn for gymnastic and military +exercises, while another is unwarlike and hates gymnastics." "Beyond +question." "And one woman is a philosopher, and another is an enemy of +philosophy; one has spirit, and another is without spirit." "This is +also true." + +From these premises, recognizing the diversity of gifts among women and +the correspondence of their talents with those of men, though less in +degree, Plato affirms that women should receive a training similar to +that accorded to men; to them should be given the same education and +assigned the same duties, though the lighter tasks should fall to them +as being less strong physically. + +"There shall be compulsory education," says Plato, in his Laws, "for +females as well as males; they shall both go through the same exercises. +I assert, without fear of contradiction, that gymnastic exercises and +horsemanship are as suitable to women as to men. I further affirm that +nothing can be more absurd than the practice which prevails in our +country, of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their +strength and with one mind, for thus the State, instead of being a +whole, is reduced to a half." + +The view of Plato, as stated in his _Republic_, which aroused the most +hostile criticism was his theory of the community of women as well as of +property. But this grew out of the fundamental thesis in his theory of +government: that the State must be developed into a perfect unity. The +family as a private possession disturbed this unity, and must therefore +be dispensed with. + +This theory, however, proved too extreme, even for Plato himself, and in +his Laws he returns to the idea of marriage, but he follows the Spartan +system by putting marriage under the constant surveillance of +legislation. He wishes every man to contract that marriage which is most +beneficial to the State, not that which is most pleasing to himself. He +urges that people of opposing temperaments and of different conditions +in life should wed,--the stronger with the weaker, the richer with the +poorer,--"perceiving that the city ought to be well mingled, like a cup +in which the maddening wine is hot and fiery, but, when chastened by a +soberer god, receives a fair associate and becomes an excellent and +temperate drink." By such arguments he endeavors to beguile the spirits +of men into believing that the equability of their children's +disposition is of more importance than equality when they marry. + +The philosopher does not seem to see the humor in his proposal to bring +together contrary natures, nor the pain he would inflict on the parties +most concerned. With him the interest of the State is supreme, and to +that everything must yield. + +However, even amid such extreme doctrines we find wise counsel, inspired +by a more practical and humane spirit. Plato finds fault with the +prevailing custom of not giving young people an opportunity to become +acquainted with each other before marriage; and he recognizes, from the +excellent influence of the wife's activity in the home, how much she +might contribute to the well-being of the State if she were taken out of +seclusion and intimately associated with the life of her husband. + +The woman's rights movement reached its high-water mark in the works of +Plato. Thenceforth there were a gradual decline in the conception of +woman's capacities and a lessening of the demands for her emancipation. + +Aristotle is less generous than Plato in his concessions to woman. "The +male is by nature superior, and the female inferior; the one rules, the +other is ruled; this principle of necessity is extended to all mankind." +Thus he asserts woman's inferiority to man and he insists upon her +silent and passive obedience. The difference of functions and duties he +bases upon difference of nature. "The temperance and courage of a man +are other than those of a woman. For a man who is courageous only as a +woman is will seem timid, and a woman will seem impudent if she has +merely the reserve and modesty of an honest man. Thus, in a family, a +woman's duties differ from a man's--his it is to acquire, hers to +preserve." Each woman, however, has her part in the State, and should be +prepared for it. "In women the qualities of the body are beauty and +height; those of the soul are temperance and love of work, without +baseness. An individual and a State should desire each of these +qualities in both men and women." Yet, while asserting woman's +inferiority, Aristotle recognizes the sanctity of marriage and of the +family, and preaches to men faithfulness and regard and appreciation in +their attitude toward women. In his _Ethics_ he dwells with delicacy on +the affectionate regard husband and wife should each have for the other. +They should bear with and encourage each other in all the events of +life. And while he insists upon the limitations of woman's intelligence +and reasoning powers, he yet recognizes her superiority to man in +qualities of the heart; and when he wishes to give an example of +disinterested and ideal affection, it is woman who serves as his model. +On the whole, Aristotle draws a more pleasing picture of woman's +character and position than Plato, in spite of the greater equality +granted by the latter. Plato's philosophy was primarily the product of +imagination, Aristotle's of experience; Plato was essentially +theoretical, Aristotle practical. Hence the teachings of the Stagirite +were doubtless based on examples of conjugal unity and felicity which he +saw about him, and he extended to the Athenian people in general the +views of marital relations that prevailed in his own circle. + +Xenophon's treatise on _Domestic Economy_ was probably intended to be a +contribution to the current discussion of the Woman Question; in it he +sought to prove the falsity of the views of Plato and Aristotle, who +advocated greater freedom for woman, and at the same time endeavored to +reform existing conditions without materially changing them. In his +_Recollections of Socrates_, he expresses, as the views of that +philosopher, opinions of the high value of the sex, but only in purely +domestic relations. Socrates insists upon reverence for and obedience to +the mother, who watches over her children with tender affection and +unwearied solicitude; who, when they are capable of receiving +instruction, endeavors to instil into their minds the knowledge which +will best conduce to their future welfare. "For the man who is wanting +in respect to parents," he adds, "public punishments are appointed; the +laws yield him no longer their protection, neither is he permitted any +share in the administration; since they think no sacrifice offered by a +hand so impious can be acceptable to the gods or beneficial to man." +These and other passages show that the Socrates of Xenophon entertained +very delicate sentiments regarding the domestic life. He saw in woman +the diligent mother and industrious housekeeper, watchful of her house +and its management. He leaves her in her seclusion, occupied with her +quiet domestic duties, but at the same time he recognizes the charm as +well as the usefulness of her presence in the home. Her economy, +vigilance, and care are of inestimable value to her husband. He regards +marriage as a union in which husband and wife have each his or her own +duties as well as authority. His views are a contrast to those of his +time, when the rights were all on one side, while on the other were only +duty and submission. + +The _Domestic Economy_ of Xenophon is but an exposition and illustration +of the views which the author here attributes to Socrates. The most +remarkable feature in Xenophon's system of woman training is the utter +absence of any intellectual discipline. Manifestly, he did not believe +in the mental equality of the sexes. His was a purely industrial system +of education, one merely designed to fit woman for the duties of the +home. + +It is not improbable that in this work is embodied the view which +pleased the majority of the Athenian public regarding the aspirations of +women. Thus, after more than half a century of discussion, the agitation +for the emancipation of woman seems not to have accomplished any +demonstrable change in her social life, but to have resolved itself +merely into a plea for better equipment for her domestic duties. Yet +even this was something gained; and if all the husbands of Athens were +as conscientious as Ischomachus in training their wives for the duties +of home, and gave them the companionship which such an education +involved, there must have been marked improvement in the social status +of woman. + +Perhaps it was impossible for women to be accorded greater liberty of +action while the ancient conception of the city-state obtained. Woman's +harmonious development regularly keeps pace with her freedom, and the +intellectual possibilities of the sex are only limited by the +opportunities afforded. The men who were responsible for the system +could hurl their shafts of satire at the uncultivated women confined to +their apartments and their domestic cares; but whenever the least +liberty of action was granted those women, they proved themselves fully +equal to the men in intellectual capacity, and the Greek woman always +exceeded her brothers in moral sublimity and unselfishness. The root of +the evil was the system of government. Soon Philip and Alexander were to +put an end with their legions to the exclusiveness of the city-state, +and the Greek woman of the Hellenistic period was destined to enjoy +greater freedom and greater influence. + + + + +XII + +GREEK WOMAN IN RELIGION + + +More spiritual by nature, more inclined to mysticism, with keener +intuitions, woman has ever taken a more prominent part in religious +matters than man. Hence, even in such a country as Hellas, where woman +was excluded from so many lines of human activity, we find that in +religious observance she had equal freedom with man, and far exceeded +him in devoutness and religious fervor. The Greeks, though they had only +the light of nature to guide them, were essentially a spiritual people. +They saw the hand of the Unseen everywhere manifesting itself in natural +phenomena: they recognized divinities in the fertility of the soil, in +the stars of the heavens, in the crystal waters of the spring, in the +rain and in the storm cloud, in the winds of the forest. They even +personified abstractions, and deified emotions and virtues. Nor were +they merely content with inward piety, but endeavored in every way by +outward observance to worship the deities which were the creations of +their own myth-making faculties; and in all the religious ceremonials of +the Greeks woman played a prominent role. + +All the Greek peoples gloried in being of the same blood and language +and religion. Though widely separated politically and engaged in endless +wars among themselves, the chief bond of union known to them was the +common cult of some divinity and participation in the same religious +festivals. The oracles, the temples, the games, the processions in honor +of their gods, tended to maintain the unity of Greece and were the +promoters of national sentiment. Woman's part in these bonds of union +made her influential in the welfare of the common country, and religious +ceremonies were to her occasions in which she could feel herself an +essential factor in Greek life. + +In the childhood of the world, man, who reached conclusions by a long +process of reasoning, stood in awe of the intuitive faculty in woman +that enabled her to arrive at a truth without apparent effort. Hence the +spirit of divination was thought to be inherent in the sex, and women +were prophetesses from remote ages. Among pagan peoples, the earliest +manifestations of the prophetic instinct in woman were recognized in the +persons of certain seers to whom was given the name of Sibyls. The word +in its etymology signifies the "will of God," and was applied to the +inspired prophetesses of some deity, chiefly of Apollo. The Sibyls were +generally represented as maidens, dwelling in lonely caverns or by +sacred springs, who were possessed of the spirit of divination and gave +forth prophetic utterances while under the influence of enthusiastic +frenzy. Their number, their names, their countries, their times, are +matters about which we have no certain knowledge; but twelve are +mentioned by ancient writers, of whom three were certainly Greek--the +Delphian, the Erythrean, and the Samian. Herophila, the Erythrean Sibyl, +was the most celebrated of them all, and she is represented as wandering +from her Ionian home, by manifold journeyings, to Cumae, in Magna Graecia, +whence she became known as the Cumaean Sibyl. She it was whom AEneas +consulted before his descent into Hades, and who later sold to the last +Tarquin the prophetic books. It was believed that her age reached a +thousand years. + +Women also were priestesses at the oracles of Hellas, which were seats +of the worship of certain divinities, where prophecies were imparted to +inquiring souls through the instrumentality of the attendants of the +deity. The oldest and most venerated of the oracles was that of Zeus at +Dodona, mentioned by Homer. Here, among the prophetic oaks, priestesses +read the future in the rustling of the leaves and in the creaking of the +branches, in the bubbling of a spring and in the sounds made by brazen +cymbals hung near the sacred shrine. Herodotus visited this oracle, and +gives the names of the three priestesses who officiated in his time. +These priestesses--Promenia, Timarete, Nicandra--related to him a very +interesting story concerning the origin of the oracle. They traced its +sacred legends back to the worship in the famous temple of Thebes in +Egypt. Two doves, they said, flew away one day from the city of Thebes +and took their flight into distant lands. One alighted in Libya, on the +spot where the oracle of Jupiter Ammon was later established; while the +other, crossing the sea, flew as far as Dodona, where, perching on an +oak, in human voice she commanded those that heard her to establish +there an oracle of Zeus. For this reason the priestesses were known as +Peliades, or doves. When, however, Herodotus inquired of the priests in +Thebes about the tradition, they told a different story: that two +priestesses of their temple had once been carried off from Egypt by the +Phoenicians and sold into slavery, and that one of these priestesses +finally established herself at Dodona. So, whether dove or priestess, +the tradition of the Egyptian origin of the oracle seemed confirmed. + +Apollo, however, rather than Zeus, was the god of prophecy, and it was +generally in connection with his shrines that oracles were spoken. +Usually, fountains whose water was supposed to influence the workings of +the mind, or caverns whence escaped a gas producing delirium or +hallucination, were regarded as places where the divinity was present. +Hence there existed numerous oracles of Apollo in Greece proper and in +Asia Minor. The most celebrated of the latter was the oracle of the +Didymaean Apollo at Branchidae, near Miletus, where a priestess uttered +prophecies, seated on a wheel-shaped disk, after she had bathed the hem +of her robe and her feet in the sacred spring and had breathed the +vapors arising from it. + +The most illustrious of all the oracles of ancient Hellas was at Delphi, +which is situated, like a vast amphitheatre, above the beautiful plain +of Cirrha in Phocis, with the double summits of Parnassus forming the +background. Delphi became the centre of the Hellenic religion, and the +fame of its oracle extended as far as to Lydia in the east, and to Rome +and the Etruscans in the west. At first, a young maiden took the part of +the priestess of Apollo who gave the responses; but the authorities +realizing the dangers to which the beauty of the priestess might lead, a +woman of at least fifty years of age was later selected for the honor, +and finally, as one prophetess was not sufficient to answer the +questions of the vast crowd of pilgrims that assembled to consult the +oracle, three were chosen. The name given to the inspired priestess was +always the same, that of Pythia. + +To prepare the priestess for the ordeal which was to make known the will +of the god, she was kept fasting for a number of days--a condition +favorable to hallucinations, and then was given laurel leaves to chew +because of their narcotic virtue. Then the Pythia was seated on a +tripod, placed in the middle of the sanctuary, over an opening in the +ground whence mephitic vapors were escaping. Her head was crowned with +a garland made from the tree of Apollo, and about the tripod coiled a +snake, the emblem of the art of divination. The exhalations from the +abyss were deemed to be the very breath of the god, with which he +inspired his priestess. Soon she grew pale and trembled with convulsive +movements; her only utterances at first were groans and sighs; and now, +with eyes aflame, with hair dishevelled, and with foam on her lips, amid +shrieks of anguish she gave forth a few incoherent, disconnected words. +The god had at last spoken through his priestess. The words were +carefully written down by the attendant priest, who gave a rhythmic form +to the response, and thus a revelation of the future was made known to +the anxious inquirer. + +The Pythia was consulted by all the peoples of Greece, as well as by +kings and strangers from foreign lands. Colonies to Italy, to Africa, to +the regions about the Black Sea, were sent at her command; she +sanctioned laws; she taught Lycurgus that the best laws were those which +obliged rulers to rule well and subjects to obey well. To the conquered, +she counselled resignation and hope. Peoples lusting for conquest, she +bade revive their piety toward the gods and seek the mercy of heaven by +showing themselves merciful. She was also the guardian of individual +morality. To a king desiring peace of mind, she declared that his +unhappiness was due to his and his predecessors' wrong-doings, and +recommended the exercise of clemency when he returned home. Being asked: +"Who is the happiest of men?" she replied: "Phaedrus, who has died for +his country," A man named Glaucus wished to withhold a treasure which +had been confided to him, but decided first to get the sanction of the +oracle; the Pythia revealed to him the woes reserved for the perjured. +To the lot of Gyges, the wealthy and powerful king, she preferred that +of a poor Arcadian farmer who cultivated his plot of ground in peace of +mind. By pure and elevated moral teachings, the Pythia instructed the +bands of pilgrims who assembled at Delphi. Such was the power in the +hands of a woman. Frail and nervous, she yet represented a religious +institution the most influential in the pagan world; she largely +determined the destiny of Greeks and barbarians alike. The wisdom of +this oracular centre is generally ascribed in modern times to the +college of priests assembled at Delphi, who interpreted the responses of +the Pythia; but, whatever the nature of the mechanism by which this +oracle retained its influence for centuries, the people in general had, +for ages, perfect faith that the responses came directly from the god of +prophecy through his inspired priestess. It is undoubtedly true that the +Greeks, as well as the Hindoos, Gauls, and Germans, attributed to woman +the gift of second-sight; and the immaculate life which the Pythia was +required to lead attests the fact that to receive the inspiration of the +god of light there were needed a purity of heart and a devoutness of +spirit which could only be found in a woman. Strange to say, it was the +law that no woman could consult this oracle of Apollo, whose divine will +was revealed through a woman; women could, however, indirectly receive a +response through the mediation of a man. + +The Greeks were fond of the pomp and splendor of religious festivals. +They celebrated such festivals whenever occasion offered, and during +their continuance all regular occupations ceased. Plato saw in the +prevailing custom other advantages besides the purely religious effect. +"The gods," he says, "touched with compassion for the human race, which +nature condemns to labor, have provided for intervals of repose in the +regular succession of festivals instituted in their own honor." These +festivities were not only a feature of the national religion; they were +the schools of patriotism, of poetry, and of art. Each city had its own +special festivals, and there were also those national celebrations in +which all people joined. Zeus was the national deity of the Greeks; +Olympia was his most sacred seat; and the Olympian festival was the +greatest event in Greece. + +In the district of Elis, on the western side of the Peloponnesus, the +river Alpheus, after dashing and splashing down the mountains of +Arcadia, slackens its speed and meanders westwardly through the valley +in fantastic curves and windings. Soon it meets the quiet waters of the +Cladeus coming from the north. Between the two, and not far from their +confluence, lie the wooded slopes of Mount Cronion. In the triangular +space thus formed by the rivers and the mountain is situated the sacred +grove known as the Altis, the hallowed precinct of Olympian Zeus. Here +was his temple, and not far from it the shrine of his consort Hera; and +just outside the sacred precinct lay the racecourse, where were +celebrated the Olympic games which have made the name of Olympia famous +throughout the world. This was the national centre of Greece, where +citizens from all parts of the Greek world assembled to join in friendly +contests of physical prowess and poetry and song. The situation was +indeed a beautiful one. Northward and westward were the mountain peaks +of Achaea and the high tablelands of Arcadia; southward, the rugged +mountain chain of Messene; westward, the Ionian sea. The well-watered +valley, bounded by undulating hills, was covered with luxuriant +vegetation. The pine woods of Mount Cronion, the dense grove of plane +trees within and about the sacred precinct, the vine, the olive and the +myrtle of the valley, and the quiet waters of the sacred streams, were +elements that constituted a landscape of indescribable beauty, renowned +in ancient times and the delight of modern travellers. + +The festival in honor of Olympian Zeus recurred every four years, at the +time of the full moon following the summer solstice. Sacred heralds +carried to all parts of the Greek world the official message announcing +the festival, and a sacred truce was declared for a sufficient length of +time to allow all desirous of doing so to attend the gathering and to +return home. As the great day approached, men and youths, matrons and +maidens, set out to take part in or to witness the various features of +the festival. Cities sent sacred embassies, or _theoriae_, resplendent in +purple and gold, bearing offerings to the god. Artists and poets, +merchants and manufacturers, found in this gathering of the Greeks a +great mart in which they could make known their talents or their wares +and receive lucrative orders, the former for a statue or an ode, the +latter for the sale of their merchandise. Tents stood in rows upon the +plain, and everywhere were scenes of busy traffic or of social +entertainment. + +We are not concerned here with the various exercises that constituted +the festival, nor with the games which were celebrated in the stadium, +nor with the horse and chariot races in the hippodrome, except in so far +as women were participants; and their part was but slight. When the +games were held, a priestess of Demeter was present, seated on an altar +of white marble opposite the umpires' seats, but she was the only woman +to whom this privilege was granted. While their loved ones were +contending in the stadium, mothers and wives and sisters had to remain +on the southern bank of the Alpheus. Only one instance is recounted +where this rule was broken. "Pherenice, daughter of a celebrated +Rhodian wrestler, whose family boasted that they were descended from +Hercules, could not bear to leave her son while the contest was going +on, and disguising herself as a man, and pretending to be a teacher of +gymnastics, she mingled with the groups of gymnasts. When her son was +proclaimed victor, however, her feelings carried her away, and forgetful +of prudence she rushed to embrace her child. In her haste her robes +became disordered, and her sex was revealed. The law was explicit: every +woman found within the sacred precinct was condemned to death. +Nevertheless, the judges acquitted her, in recognition of the fame her +family had won; but to prevent any repetition of the occurrence, the +masters, as well as their pupils, had thenceforth to present themselves +naked." + +Women could, however, run their horses in the hippodrome and thus win a +prize, as was done by Cynisca, daughter of Archidamnus, King of Sparta, +who was the first woman that bred horses and gained a chariot victory at +Olympia. After her, other women, chiefly Spartans, won Olympic +victories, but none of them attained such fame as did Cynisca. So +honored was she by her people that a shrine was erected to her at her +death; there was also erected at Sparta a statue of the maiden Euryleon, +who won an Olympic victory with a two-horse chariot. + +Though excluded from the games at the great festival of Zeus, there were +yet some games at Olympia in which women took part. These were a feature +of the festival of Hera, whose temple was also in the Altis. At this +festival, sixteen women, duly appointed, wove a robe for the goddess and +conducted games called the Heraea, participated in by the maidens of Elis +and surrounding districts. Pausanias thus describes the spectacle: "The +games consist of a race between virgins. The virgins are not all of the +same age; but the youngest run first, the next in age run next, and the +eldest virgins run last of all. They run thus: their hair hangs down, +they wear a shirt that reaches to a little above the knee, the right +shoulder is bare to the breast. The course assigned to them for the +contest is the Olympic stadium; but the course is shortened by about +one-sixth of the stadium. The winners receive crowns of olive and a +share of the cow which is sacrificed to Hera; moreover, they are allowed +to dedicate statues of themselves, with their names engraved on them." + +From a consideration of woman's part in the religious ceremonials at the +national centres of Greece,--Delphi and Olympia,--we must now turn to +Athens, with whose festive calendar we are much better acquainted. The +Athenians were rightly characterized by the Apostle Paul as being very +religious. In all parts of the city were temples and statues; according +to one writer, it was easier to find there a god than a man. More than +eighty days out of each year were given up to religious festivities. +Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, was the patron goddess of Athens, and +the Acropolis was her sacred precinct; but other deities were +worshipped, even on the Acropolis, and throughout the city there were +shrines to numberless gods and goddesses. + +From earliest times, women were intimately associated with the worship +of Athena. Varro preserves a tradition which records that it was women's +votes that determined the choice of Athena over Poseidon as patron deity +of Athens. Originally, women took part in the public councils with men +and had a voice therein, and when the weighty question of the rivalry of +the two divinities came up they outvoted the men by a majority of one in +favor of the goddess. Poseidon was angered, and submerged the land of +Attica. To appease the god, the citizens deprived the women of the right +to vote and forbade them in future to transmit their names to their +children and to be called Athenians. But though their political rights +were thus sadly infringed and they were relegated to ignorance and +obscurity, they retained their part in the exercises of religion, +especially in the worship of their patron goddess. Little is known of +the various priestesses of Athena, who figured so prominently in the art +of Athens and who presided at the goddess's temples on the Acropolis. It +was an important office and was always held by a woman of great wisdom, +high moral character, and mature years. Under her direction were the +maidens of the city who were chosen from time to time from the noblest +families to take part in the festivals of the goddess. Pausanias gives +us a glimpse of the duties of certain of these maidens, and we could +wish that he had cleared up the mystery that surrounded their office. +"Two maidens," said he, "dwell not far from the temple of the Polias; +the Athenians call them Arrephorae. They are lodged for a time with the +goddess; but when the festival comes around, they perform the following +ceremony by night. They put on their heads the things which the +priestess of Athena gives them to carry, but what it is she gives is +known neither to her who gives nor to them who carry. Now, there is in +the city an enclosure, not far from the sanctuary of Aphrodite, called +Aphrodite in the Gardens, and there is a natural underground descent +through it. Down this way the maidens go. Below, they leave their +burdens; and getting something else which is wrapped up, they bring it +back. These maidens are then discharged and others are brought to the +Acropolis in their stead." Other maidens resided for a time on the +Acropolis, engaged in weaving the saffron-colored peplus which was to be +presented to the goddess at the Great Panathenaea--the most brilliant +festival of the Athenians. This was the highest honor that could be +conferred on Athenian maidens, and while engaged in this work they +shared in the deference shown the goddess. They dwelt with the great +priestess, and were under her immediate direction when they appeared in +public; they were clad in tunics of white, with cloaks of gold, and were +universally recognized as votaries of Athena. It has been conjectured +that the mysterious bundles which the Arrephorae carried down from the +Acropolis contained the remnants of the wool which had served to make +the peplus of the preceding year, and that they brought back the +material destined for the future peplus; but of this there is no +positive evidence. Certain it is, however, that the garment intended for +the goddess was a masterpiece of the textile art, woven of the finest +fabrics and embroidered in gold with scenes of Athena battling with the +gods against the giants, and of such other incidents as the State had +judged worthy to figure beside her exploits. Athena was, among her many +functions, also the goddess of weaving and other feminine arts, and as +such had a shrine on the Acropolis, where she was worshipped under the +title of Athena Ergane. Within this precinct were statues to Lysippe, +Timostrata, and Aristomache, maidens thus honored because of their skill +in womanly occupations. + +For the origin of the Panathenaea--the greatest of Athenian festivals--we +must go back to the heroic days of Athens when King Erechtheus dedicated +on the Acropolis the archaic wooden statue of Athena, reputed to have +fallen from heaven, and established the custom of offering to the image +once a year a new mantle, embroidered by noble maidens of the city. +Later, Theseus united the various tribes under one rule, with the +Acropolis as its centre, A festival to celebrate this event was united +with the festival to Athena, and the enlarged festival was known as the +Panathenaea, symbolizing the union and political power of Athens and the +sovereignty of the goddess. Pisistratus increased the splendor of this +festival, and, in the golden days of Athens after the Persian War, +Pericles added to its pomp and magnificence. He erected on the Acropolis +an imposing temple to the goddess, the Parthenon, and placed within it +her image of gold and ivory. The worship of Athena and the political +supremacy of Athens now became synonymous. Her festival was the highest +expression of the ideals of Athens in its greatest epoch. The greater +Panathenaae was Athens in its glory, possessed of an overflowing +treasury, supreme among the States of Greece, the exponent of poetry and +art and beauty. + +There was great rejoicing when the sacred peplus was at length completed +by the maidens, and there arrived the season of the festival, which was +to culminate on Athena's birthday, the twenty-seventh of the month +Boedromion, which corresponded nearly to our September. The earlier days +were spent in gymnastic games, horse and chariot races, and contests in +music and poetry. On the fifth and last day occurred the most brilliant +feature of the entire festival, the solemn procession which attended the +delivery of the sacred peplus to the priestess of Athena that she might +place it around the wooden image of the goddess. So important was this +procession that Phidias selected it as the theme to be portrayed on the +frieze of the Parthenon. The procession formed in the Outer Ceramicus, +just outside the principal gate of the city, and the peplus was placed +on a miniature ship (for which it served as a sail), which was set on +wheels and drawn by sailors. Through the market place, round the western +slope of the Areopagus, along its southern side, the procession wended +its way till it reached the western approach to the Acropolis. Then the +peplus was removed from the ship, and, borne by those chosen for this +service, it was carried at the head of the procession up the western +slope, through the Propylaea, and delivered to the magistrate appointed +to receive it before the temple of Athena. The frieze of the Parthenon +presents the most important details of the procession. Its western end +shows the stage of preparation--the flower of Athenian youth and +nobility preparing to mount or just mounting their steeds to join in the +cavalcade. As we turn to the northern and southern sides, we observe +that the procession has formed and is now in motion. The cavalcade is +composed of youthful horsemen, who move forward in compact array, with +all the dash and spirit of youth. Just ahead of the horsemen are the +chariots, driven by their charioteers, with the warriors either standing +by the driver or just stepping into the moving chariot. As the eastern +end of the temple is approached, restlessness of movement gives place to +solemnity, and impatient riders and charioteers are succeeded by more +stately figures. Elderly men, bearers of olive branches; representatives +of the foreign residents, carrying trays filled with offerings of cakes; +attendants, bearing on their shoulders vessels filled with the sacred +wine; musicians, playing on flutes or lyres-march in slow, measured +steps. In advance of them are the cows and sheep led to sacrifice, +conducted by a number of attendants. + +The frieze on the eastern end of the temple represents the culmination +of the festival. The crowning act is about to be performed, and the +solemnity becomes absolute. Figures at one end are balanced by +corresponding figures at the other, all advancing toward a common point. +First come slowly moving maidens, who are carrying the sacrificial +utensils--their noble birth manifesting itself in their dignity of +demeanor. The five maidens in the rear bear the ewers used in the +libations; those forming the central group carry, in pairs, large +objects resembling candlesticks, whose uses are not definitely known; +while in the lead, on each side, are two maidens, bearing nothing in +their hands--probably the Arrephorae, whose duties have been already +performed. Both in costume and in coiffure these maidens represent what +was characteristic of their age and sex in Athens during the supremacy +of Pericles. Next comes a group of men, probably the magistrates +appointed to await the arrival of the procession on the Acropolis. They +border the seated divinities who have assembled to do honor to Athens at +its greatest festival--seven figures on each side of the central slab, +directly over the door of the temple, whereon is represented the climax +of the solemn occasion,--the delivery of the new peplus to the priest or +magistrate, whose office it was to receive it; while at his side stands +the priestess of Athena, receiving from two attendants certain objects +of unknown significance. + +Other pieces of sculpture on the Acropolis magnify the office of woman +in the religious ceremonials in honor of the patron goddess. One of the +porticoes of the Erectheum represents maidens of dignified mien and +great beauty holding up the entablature with perfect ease and stately +grace. These figures are usually called Caryatides, a name applied by +the architect Vitruvius to designate figures of this kind; he ascribes +its origin to the destruction of the town of Carya, in the Peloponnesus, +by the Athenians, because it espoused the Persian side, the women of the +town being sold into slavery; but surely the Athenians would not have so +honored the disgraced women of a hostile city. Could they not portray, +in marble, the Arrephoric maidens, and could not the basket-like +burdens on their heads represent the burdens which they carried down +from the Acropolis, and those which they received instead? The +Athenians, indeed, called the figures merely _Korai_, or "the maidens." + +Furthermore, excavations at Athens made in 1886 brought to light a +number of statues of maidens, which now adorn one of the rooms of the +Acropolis Museum. They are all of one type,--life-size figures of young +women, all standing in the same attitude, with one arm extended from the +elbow, while the other hand holds the long and elegant drapery close +about the figure; their hair is elaborately arranged, and ringlets fall +over their necks and shoulders. These statues are relics of days before +the Persian War. The Persians sacked Athens in B.C. 480, and wrought +general havoc on the Acropolis, burning temples, throwing down columns, +demolishing statues. When the Athenians, flushed with victory, returned +to their ruined homes, they regarded as unhallowed all that had been +touched by the hands of the barbarian, and therefore, in building up +anew the Acropolis as the sacred precinct of Athena, they extended and +levelled its surface and filled in the hollows thus made with the debris +of the Acropolis--architectural blocks, statues, and vessels; and these +relics of pre-Persian art lay thus securely buried for ages, to be +revealed to modern eyes by the pickaxe of the archaeologist. Now, who are +these maidens, standing in conventional pose, with regular and finely +moulded features, and with richly adorned drapery and elaborate +headdress? They cannot represent priestesses of Athena, for the +priestess was always an elderly lady, who, after being chosen, held +office for the rest of her life. Nor can they represent the goddess +herself, for all her usual attributes--the aegis, the spear, the helmet, +the snake--are absent. Hence we probably have in these statues +portraits of votaries of Athena, young women of the aristocratic +families of Athens, who placed statues of themselves in the sacred +precinct of the goddess to serve as symbols of perpetual homage. + +Finally, certain maidens of Athens of the Heroic Age were later deified +and themselves given sacred precincts on the Acropolis. King Cecrops had +three daughters--- Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosus. When Erectheus, the +son of Earth by Hephaestus, was born, half of his form being like that of +a snake,--a sign of his origin,--the child was put into a chest by +Athena, who then gave it to the daughters of Cecrops to take care of, at +the same time forbidding them to open it. Aglauros and Herse disobeyed, +and, in terror at the serpent-shaped child, went mad and threw +themselves from the rock of the Acropolis. Pandrosus, the faithful +maiden, was rewarded by being made the first priestess of Athena, and +was later honored by having a sanctuary of her own, next to that of the +goddess; while Aglauros had to rest content with a cavern on the +northern slope of the Acropolis, near where she had thrown herself down. + +The celebrations in honor of Dionysus, the god of luxuriant fertility +and especially of the grape, were exceedingly simple at first, according +to Plutarch, being merely "a rustic procession carrying a vine-wreathed +jar and a basket of figs"; but later there was a festival at every stage +in the growth of the grape and in the making of the wine, and especially +at the approach of vintage time, and when the vintage was put into the +press. There were processions and rustic dances, and all the usual +features of the carnival, as the revellers became more and more under +the influence of the god. In these revels, women consecrated to this +divinity, and called Bacchantes or Maenads, formed a special group. The +symbol of their worship was a thyrsus--a pole ending with a bunch of +vine or ivy leaves, or with a pine cone and a fillet. At intervals the +procession would stop, and one of the revellers would mount a wagon or a +platform and recount to those below, disguised as Pans and Satyrs, the +adventures of the god of wine and joy. From these rustic masquerades +emerged in time both Tragedy and Comedy. + +Of the festivals in the city, the Anthesteria, or Feast of Flowers, was +of most interest to the fair sex. This festival occurred in the +spring--when the preceding year's wine was tasted for the first +time--and lasted three days. Its principal feature was the Feast of +Beakers, which began at sunset with a great procession. Those who took +part in it appeared, wearing wreaths of ivy and bearing torches, in the +Outer Ceramicus. This festival was in the especial charge of the +king-archon, and the wife of that magistrate played the chief role in +the ceremonies. Maidens and matrons appeared, disguised as Horae, Nymphs, +or Bacchantes, and crowded round the triumphant car on which the ancient +image of Dionysus, was conveyed to the town. At a certain stage in the +procession, the king-archon's wife, known as the Basilissa, was given a +seat in the car, beside the image of Dionysus, for on this day she was +the symbolical bride of the god. Thus, on this joyous wedding day, the +nuptial procession conducted the car to the temple of the god in Limnai. + +In the inmost shrine of the temple a mystic sacrifice for the welfare of +the State was offered by the Basilissa and the fourteen ladies of honor +expressly appointed by the archon for this purpose. After the sacrifice, +with which numerous secret ceremonies were connected, the mystic union +of Dionysus, and the Basilissa was celebrated, symbolizing the sacred +marriage of the god with his much-loved city. On the following day, +among other ceremonies, the ladies of honor offered sacrifices to +Dionysus, on various specially erected altars. + +These were joyous occasions; there were, however, sombre Dionysia, which +were celebrated by night, in the winter season, when the god was thought +to be absent or dead; because the vine was then withered and lifeless. +Such celebrations commemorated only grief and regret. At this season, +women of Athens left their homes and sought the slopes of Mount +Parnassus, to join the women of Delphi in savage rites celebrating the +sufferings of Dionysus. In these Bacchantes, religious fervor was +transformed into the wildest delirium. "With dishevelled hair and torn +garments they ran through the woods, bearing torches and beating +cymbals, with savage screams and violent gestures. A nervous excitement +brought distraction to the senses and to the mind, and showed itself in +wild language and gestures, and the coarsest excesses were acts of +devotion. When the Maenads danced madly through the woods, with serpents +wreathed about their arms, or a dagger in their hands, with which they +struck at those whom they met; when intoxication and the sight of blood +drove the excited throng to frenzy--it was the god acting in them, and +consecrating them as his priestesses. Woe to the man who should come +upon these mysteries! he was torn to pieces; even animals were thus +killed, and the Maenads devoured their quivering flesh and drank their +warm blood." In the ardor inspired by their mad orgies, these votaries +did not distinguish between man and beast, and a mother once tore to +pieces her son, whom she mistook for a young lion, and proudly placed on +the end of her thyrsus the bleeding head of her offspring. Euripides, in +his _Bacchanals_, has drawn a sombre picture of the excesses into which +the wine god led his inspired followers. Similar orgies, which took +their rise in Lydia, were held on the summits of Taygetus and in the +plains of Macedon and Thrace. + +Though certain Attic women, under the frenzy of religious enthusiasm, +would join the Delphian women in their wild rites of Dionysus, this +orgiastic worship was never popular at Athens. The Athenian ladies much +preferred the worship of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and of +domestic life. + +The Thesmophoria, the festival in honor of Demeter and her daughter, +Persephone, contrasted greatly with the Panathenaea. The latter was +public and was participated in by all; the former was secret, and only +married women could take part in it. The Panathenaea celebrated the +political and intellectual supremacy of the State, as symbolized in its +patron goddess; the Thesmophoria was the festival of domestic life, held +in honor of the goddess of virtuous marriage and the author of the +earth's fertility. + +This festival was celebrated in October, at the period of the autumnal +sowing. Every citizen of Athens who possessed property to the amount of +three talents was compelled to furnish his wife with sufficient money to +enable her to celebrate the Thesmophoria; this was the extent of male +participation. For many days, the women had to prepare themselves for +the solemn rites by fasting, abstinence, and purifications; two of their +number were chosen from each tribe by their companions to prepare and +preside over the various features of the celebration. On the first day +of the Thesmophoria, the women went to the primitive seat of the +celebration at Halimus, near the promontory of Colias, not in a formal +procession, but in small groups, and at the hour of nightfall. The comic +side of the Demeter festivals exhibited itself on the way, as the +participants recognized each other with jests and raillery, recalling by +this the pleasantries with which the maiden lambe caused Demeter to +smile, when the latter was afflicted with melancholy over the loss of +her daughter; and woe to the man who met these women! for he became the +victim of the most scornful mockery and sarcasm. At Halimus, in the +sanctuary of Demeter, the mysteries were celebrated by night; the +following day was spent in taking purifying baths in the sea and in +playing and dancing on the shore. After enjoying their freedom here for +a day or more, the women set out in a long procession for Athens, while +priestesses bore in caskets on their heads the _Thesmai_, or the laws of +Demeter, whence the festival took its name. + +The remainder of the celebration took place in the city, either in the +sanctuary of Demeter or on the Pnyx, which was on this occasion +exclusively turned over to the women for the celebration. The first day +after their return was called the "day of fasting," for during the whole +day the women sat in deep mourning on the ground and took no food +whatsoever, while they sang dirges and observed other customs common in +case of death; they also sacrificed swine to the infernal deities. The +rites of the next day were of a more general character. The name given +the day was "Calligenia," signifying "bearer of a fair offspring," and +on this day they offered a sacrifice to Demeter and prayed her to give +to women the blessing of fair children. We know but little of the +sacrifices, dances, and merry games which occupied this final day of the +festival. This worship of Demeter was one of the most elevating +influences in the social life of Athens; and the Thesmophoria was but a +prelude to the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, into which women +as well as men were initiated. + +The ceremonies at Eleusis seem to have consisted primarily in a dramatic +representation of the beautiful legend of Demeter and Persephone, from +which many moral lessons could be drawn. Homer has preserved to us this +legend in the Homeric hymn beginning: + +"I begin to sing fair-haired Demeter, a hallowed goddess,--herself and +her slim-ankled daughter whom Hades snatched away from golden-sworded +Demeter, renowned for fruits, as the maiden sported with the +deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus, culling flowers through the soft +meadow--roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, hyacinths, the iris +and the narcissus, which Earth, at the command of Zeus, favoring the +All-Receiver [Hades], brought forth as a snare to the maiden. From its +root an hundred heads sprung forth, and the whole wide heaven above was +scented with its fragrance, and the whole earth laughed, and the briny +wave of the sea. And the girl stretched out both her hands to seize the +pretty plaything, when the wide-winged earth yawned in the Mysian plain +where the all-receiving king, the many-named son of Cronus, leaped forth +with his immortal steeds and snatched her away, unwilling, in his golden +chariot, weeping and shrieking aloud, calling upon her father, the son +of Cronus." + +The hymn then recounts how the goddess-mother roamed for nine days over +the earth, seeking her lost daughter, till on the tenth she learned the +truth from the all-seeing Sun. Angered at Zeus for permitting the +violence, she wandered about among men in the form of an old woman, till +at length, at Eleusis, in Attica, she was kindly received at the house +of King Celeus, and acted as nurse for his newborn son, Demophon. She +would have made the lad immortal by giving him a bath of fire; but being +surprised and prevented by the mother, she revealed her deity, and +caused to be erected in her honor a temple, in which she gave herself up +to her sorrow. In anger, she made the earth barren, and would not allow +the crops to spring up again until her daughter was allowed to spend +two-thirds of the year with her mother among the Immortals, devoting +the remaining third to her gloomy spouse in the realms of Hades. Upon +her return to Olympus, Demeter left the gift of corn, of agriculture, +and of her holy mysteries, with her host, and sent Triptolemus the +Eleusinian about the earth to make known to men the knowledge of +agriculture, of civil order, and of holy wedlock. Thus the worship of +Demeter, as the founder of law and order and marriage, became prevalent, +and exerted a most helpful influence throughout Hellas. + +The mysteries of Eleusis inculcated the moral lessons which would +promote right living among the people. They were in charge of a +priesthood consisting of both men and women. The chief priest, the +hierophant, was a man of irreproachable character, and held the office +for life on condition of celibacy. The priestesses had in charge +especially the initiation of the women, but their duties were not +restricted to this. + +The candidates for initiation, the Mystai, had to spend a year in +preparation. Homicides, courtesans, barbarians, all who had any stain +upon their lives, were excluded from these rites; only Hellenes "of pure +soul and pure hands" were eligible for initiation. On the days preceding +the festival, expiatory ceremonies were performed, of which the most +notable was one in which a girl or boy, styled "the child of the +hearth," performed certain rites of purification for those who were +desirous of being admitted into the mysteries. Finally, on the twentieth +day of the month Boedromion, corresponding nearly to our September, the +great procession set forth from Athens for Eleusis, along the Sacred +Way. In this procession the women took part in great numbers, and it +afforded excellent opportunities for the display of beautiful toilettes. +Aristocratic ladies were usually driven in chariots. As the crowd of +pilgrims passed over the Cephissus Bridge, there was, as in the +Thesmophoria, much banter and raillery in memory of the manner in which +the goddess was once diverted from her grief; and all along the road +there were stations for sacrifices and oblations, where the maidens +engaged in singing and graceful dances. Eleusis was finally reached at +night by torchlight, and the following days were spent by the initiated +in their religious duties and by the candidates in further preparation. + +We have unfortunately but meagre glimpses into the Eleusinian mysteries, +and cannot follow the order of ceremonies. Suffice it to say that, +besides promoting good living and happiness in this life, they gave hope +for the life to come. "The man purified by initiation," says Pindar, +"has understood before his death the beginning and end of life, and +after death dwells with the gods." + +In Polygnotus's famous painting of the infernal regions, in the Lesche +at Delphi, two women were represented trying to carry water in jars that +have no bottoms; an inscription states that they were never initiated, +and the moral was "that without initiation life is altogether wasted and +lost." In the worship of Demeter and in the Eleusinian mysteries there +was everything to appeal to woman--the sanctity of marriage, deified +motherhood, exaltation of the home and of domestic duties--and the zeal +manifested by Athenian women in these religious rites doubtless promoted +a feminine piety and a natural devoutness which ennobled the Athenian +home and softened parental discipline. + +The Thesmophoria was the festival of the married women; but young girls +and even children had their festivals in the Brauronia and the +Artemisia, celebrated in honor of Artemis, the special patron of +virgins. The Brauronia was celebrated every fifth year, in the little +town of Brauron. Chosen Athenian maidens between the ages of five and +ten years, dressed in saffron-colored garments, went in solemn +procession to the sanctuary of the goddess, where they performed a +propitiatory rite, in which they imitated bears, an animal sacred to +Artemis. Every maiden of Athens, before she could marry, must have once +taken part in this festival and consecrated herself to the goddess. +There was also a precinct of Artemis Brauronia on the Acropolis, and +doubtless this ceremony was also performed there. Almost everywhere this +virgin goddess was revered by young girls as the guardian of their +maiden years, and before marriage it was the custom that the bride +should dedicate to Artemis a lock of her hair, her girdle, and her +maiden tunic. + +Maidens also took part in the worship of the twin brother of Artemis, +Apollo, in the island of Delos, which was the birthplace of the god and +goddess. The celebration was a festival of youth and beauty, of poetry +and art. Aristocratic maidens of Athens joined with those of the seat of +the Delphian confederacy over which Athens presided in making the +occasion emphasize the power and splendor of Athens in the height of its +greatness. + +"Once every five years, in the spring, a solemn festival recalled the +anniversary of the birth of the god. The maidens of Delos, wearing their +richest attire, and crowned with flowers, united in joyous chorus around +the altar, and represented in sacred dances the story of the birth of +Apollo. Others, with garlands of flowers in their hands, went to hang +them on the ancient statue of the goddess, which Theseus had, according +to tradition, brought from Crete to Delos. From all parts of Greece, +from the islands, and from Asia, solemn embassies, sacred _theoriae_, +landed in the harbor. The most brilliant was that of the Athenians, who +were long the suzerains of the island. Each year, a State vessel, the +Paralian galley, conveyed the sacred embassy to Delos; the crew was +composed of free men, the vessel decked with flowers. At the moment of +its departure, the whole town was purified; the priests of Apollo +bestowed on the galley a solemn benediction, and the law forbade that +the purified town should be defiled by any sentence of death until the +return of the vessel. The members of the embassy were chosen from the +chief families of the city, and they were accompanied by a chorus of +young men and maidens, who were to chant the sacred hymns in honor of +Apollo and perform around the altar of the Horns, one of the marvels of +Delos and of the world, an ancient and solemn dance--the _geranos_. The +day of the arrival of these theoriae was a festival in Delos. Amid the +acclamations of an enthusiastic crowd, the embassy disembarked in the +harbor; and such was the joy and impatience of the people, that +sometimes its members had not even time to don their robes of ceremony +and to crown themselves with flowers. Over the bridge wound the sacred +procession of the Athenians, with its splendidly dressed musicians, its +chorus chanting the sacred hymns, its rich offerings destined for the +god; received at the end of the bridge by the official charged with the +reception of these pious embassies, it pursued its way to the temple, +there to present its offerings and prayers, and to pour out on the altar +the blood of its hecatombs. During the rest of the day, feasts were +provided for the people, and games and contests filled the island with +the sounds of rejoicing." + +After the celebration, the Paralia returned to Athens, bearing homeward +the beautiful maidens who had done honor to the god and had added to the +glory of their native city. + +Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and of pleasure, also had her festivals +in which women took part. Certain of these were of a lascivious +character and were celebrated chiefly by the demi-monde; they were held +especially at the temple of Aphrodite Pandemus on the promontory of +Colias. But the ladies of Athens took part in the Adonia, in honor of +Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite. The ceremonies of the first day were of a +mournful character, as they commemorated the death of Adonis; but the +second day was one of rejoicing and entertainment, as Adonis was +conceived of as returning to life to spend six months with Aphrodite. In +his death and resurrection the changes of the seasons were poetically +symbolized. Women of the leading families were expected to participate +in the magnificent solemnities, which took place at the summer solstice. +A long procession of priests and of maidens acting as canephorse, +bearing vases for libations, baskets, perfumes, and flowers, approached +a colossal catafalque, over which were spread beautiful purple +coverlets. On these lay a statue of Adonis, pale in death, but still +beautifull Over this mournful figure a beautiful woman gave expression in +every way to the most bitter grief and sang a hymn to Adonis, telling +his sad story. The women round about were clad in mourning and +celebrated the plaintive funeral dance; while on all sides was heard the +mournful cry: "Alas! alas! Adonis is dead!" + +The hymn or psalm to Adonis was a distinguished and most popular feature +of the celebration of the Adonia; Theocritus, in Idyl XV., gives its +rendering on the occasion when Arsinoe, queen of Ptolemy Philadelphus, +decorated the image of Adonis. In a later chapter of the present +volume,--that on The Alexandrian Woman,--an English version of this +psalm is given, into which the spirit of the original is most aptly +infused; and in connection therewith is a lively and forceful picture of +the attitude and manners of the ladies of the day. + + + + +XIII + +GREEK WOMEN AND THE HIGHER EDUCATION + + +It is by no means a matter of surprise that among a people so highly +cultured as the Greeks there should be women of the highest intellectual +attainments. Sappho has already furnished us an example, and her +ascendency over her pupils was such as to start a train of influences +that stimulated her sex in every part of Hellas to engage in the study +and composition of poetry. + +Furthermore, among the famous men of Hellas there were, from time to +time, ardent advocates of the higher education of women. As early as the +seventh century before the Christian era, Cleobulus, one of the seven +sages of Greece, insisted that maidens should have the same intellectual +training as youths, and illustrated his doctrine in the careful +education of his daughter, Cleobuline, who became a poetess of wide +renown. + +Pythagoras, who in the sixth century founded his celebrated +philosophical sect in Southern Italy, fully recognized the equality of +the sexes and devised a system of education for women, which made his +feminine followers not only most efficient in all domestic relations, +but also preeminent in philosophical and literary culture. Plato spent +considerable time in Magna Graecia, and became imbued with the spirit of +Pythagorean philosophy. He must have been impressed with its elevating +influence on the status of woman, for in his _Dialogues_ he urged that +women should receive the same education as men, and he himself admitted +members of the gentler sex to the lectures of the Academy. + +After Plato's time, accordingly, we find many women engaged in the study +of philosophy, not only among the Academicians, but also in the other +philosophical schools, especially the Cyrenaic, the Megarian, and the +Epicurean. The Peripatetic and the Stoic doctrines seem not to have +appealed to the fair sex. + +Alexander's empire, in overthrowing the exclusive State laws of the +various cities, accomplished much for the emancipation of women, and +from that time forward we find women engaged in almost all the branches +of the higher learning. In Alexandria, especially, the daughters of +scholars pursued studies in philosophy, in philology, and in +archaeology, and some of them became celebrated. In the Graeco-Roman +period, Plutarch was a constant advocate of female education, and the +circle of learned women that he has made known to us indicates how +general was the spread of education among the women of his day. + +Aspasia had set the fashion for hetaarae in Athens to devote attention to +rhetoric and philosophy; consequently, many of the blue-stockings of +Greece belonged to the hetaera class. Some acquaintance with the higher +learning, however, became fashionable also in the retirement of the +gynaeceum, and many maidens and matrons of honorable station employed +their leisure moments in reading the works of philosophers and poets, +and received, if not public, at least private instruction from +professional lecturers. + +The variety of intellectual pursuits among the women was marked. Poetry +was their natural field, and philosophy appealed to them as being the +most learned vocation of the times. Even in the Heroic Age, women were +skilled in the uses of plants for purposes of witchcraft and of healing; +and in historic times, when medicine became a science, women engaged in +various medical pursuits. Similar tastes led many also to follow the +different branches of natural science, and in Alexandrian times, when +philology was the prevailing study, history and grammar and literary +criticism became favorite studies with the daughters of the learned. + +In a previous chapter, we have described the Lesbian Sappho's seminary +of the Muses, to which maidens flocked from all Hellenic lands for the +study of poetry and art. The natural beauties of the isle of Lesbos, the +luxurious life of the aristocratic classes, the brilliancy and zeal of +Sappho herself, and her ardent affection for her girl friends, were +influences favorable to the pursuits of the Muses and the Graces. + +It is not surprising that, amid such surroundings and with such a +teacher, women should acquire a love of poetry and of all that appeals +to the aesthetic nature. There is a vague tradition that there were +seventy-six women poets among the Ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, the +names of but few of these are preserved to us. We have authentic +information concerning only the nine most distinguished poetesses, to +whom the Greeks gave the title of the Terrestrial Muses. + +The second of the nine Terrestrial Muses--for Sappho was, of course, the +first--was the poetess's favorite and most promising pupil, Erinna of +the isle of Telos. She aroused among Greek poets a most respectful and +tender sentiment, and they frequently sounded her praises. Her most +noted production was a poem called _The Distaff_, and the poets compared +it to the honeycomb, which the gracious bee had gathered from the +flowers of Helicon; they perceived in this production of a maiden the +freshness and perfume of spring, and they likened her delicate notes to +the sweet voice of a swan as he sings his death song--a comparison only +too just, for she died at the tender age of nineteen years. A poet of +the Anthology thus laments her untimely taking-off: + + "These are Erinna's songs: how sweet, though slight! + For she was but a girl of nineteen years:-- + Yet stronger far than what most men can write: + Had death delayed, what fame had equalled hers?" + +The names of the next two of the Terrestrial Nine are closely associated +with that of Pindar of Thebes,--Myrtis and Corinna, the one the +instructor, the other the rival, of the great composer. Myrtis was the +eldest of the three, and probably gave instruction to her younger +contemporaries. She later entered the lists in a poetic contest with +Pindar, and for this she was censured by Corinna. The younger woman, who +defeated Pindar five times in poetic contests, gave her rival some good +advice, by which he profited in his later productions. She reproached +him for devoting too much attention to the form and neglecting the soul +of the poem. When, following her counsel, Pindar brought to her a poem +abounding in mythological allusions, Corinna smiled, and remarked to him +that in future he should "sow by the handful, not with the whole sack." + +Pausanias saw the tomb of Corinna in a conspicuous part of her native +town of Tanagra; and also a picture of her in the gymnasium, +representing her binding a fillet about her head in honor of the victory +she had gained over Pindar at Thebes. But he ungallantly ascribes her +victory partly to her dialect--for she composed not in Doric, like +Pindar, but in a dialect which AEolians would understand--and partly to +her beauty; for, judging from her portrait, she was the fairest woman of +her time. + +Telesilla of Argos was not only a poet, but an antique Joan of Arc as +well. Being of feeble constitution, she was told by the oracle to devote +herself to the service of the Muses, and in this salutary mental +exercise she found health and preeminence among her fellows. Famous +hymns to Apollo and to Artemis were composed by her. Her love of beauty +also inspired her with noble ideals of patriotism and self-sacrifice, +and in the crisis of the war between her native town and Sparta she +armed her countrywomen and led them forth to victory against the enemy. +As a memorial of this noble action, her statue was erected in the temple +of Aphrodite at Argos. + +Praxilla of Sicyon was placed by ancient critics by the side of Anacreon +for the softness and delicacy of her verses, and she was honored in her +native city with a statue from the hand of Lysippus. She sang beautiful +songs of Aphrodite and retold in passionate verse the legend of Adonis. + +The next name on this immortal list takes us to Locris, in Italy, and +down to the fourth century before Christ. Like Sappho, Nossis "of +womanly accents" is a love poetess, and twelve epigrams attributed to +her are found in the Anthology. Her poetry was symbolized by the +_fleur-de-lis_ with its penetrating perfume. In praising the portrait of +her child she sees the reflection of her own beauty, and in the epitaph +which she composed for her tomb she declares herself equal to Sappho; +hence humility cannot be classed among the many virtues which caused her +to be adored by her contemporaries. + +The little poems of Anyte of Tegea and Moero of Byzantium, the last two +of the Terrestrial Nine, are often symbolized by the lilies for their +purity and delicacy. These poets flourished in the third century of our +era. Antipater surnames Anyte "a feminine Homer"; rather should she be +called "a feminine Simonides," though even this is too high praise. Her +soul was simple and pure, and her sweet sentiments are reflected in a +style as limpid as a running stream. Charm and freshness characterize +her invitation to some passer-by to repose under the trees and taste of +the cool water; deep and melancholy emotions pervade the poem in which +she bewails the death of a young maiden; and a masculine philosophy of +life is manifest in the epitaph of a slave whom death has made equal +with the Great King. Moero's range was not so great, nor her touch so +delicate. A heroic poem, _Mnemosyne_, was the most ambitious of her +works; she also composed elegies and epigrams, and two of the latter +have been preserved to us, revealing a soul sensitive to natural beauty. + +Here and there, other names and occasional verses of Greek poetesses are +found--Cleobuline of Rhodes, Megalostrata and Clitagora, of Sparta, and +others; but they did not attain the fame of the Terrestrial Muses. + +As the verses of the Greek women were to be sung to the accompaniment of +the lyre, the daughters of the Muses were as celebrated in music as they +were in poetry. Nor were the maidens of Greece without distinction in +other arts. It is in part to a Corinthian maiden that legend ascribes +the invention of modelling in clay. Cora, daughter of Butades, is about +to say farewell--perhaps forever--to her lover, who is going on a long +journey. The light of a lamp throws his shadow on the wall, and, to +preserve at least this image of him, she deftly sketches the outline of +the shadow. Her father, with the instinct of an artist, observes the +outline and fills it in with potter's clay, and then bakes the model +which he has obtained. There are no names recorded of Greek women who +were sculptors, but doubtless in the studio of many an artist a +daughter delighted in assisting him at his work. + +Many Greek women distinguished themselves in painting. Timarete, the +daughter of Micon, produced an image of Artemis, which was long to be +seen at Ephesus; it was one of the most ancient monuments of this art, +and the goddess was probably represented under a strange and symbolic +form, such as she had in her sanctuary in Ephesus. Eleusis possessed a +painting made by Irene, daughter of Cratinus, representing the figure of +a young girl, perhaps a priestess initiated into the mysteries of the +great goddesses. Calypso, Alcisthene, Aristarete, and Olympias are the +names of other female painters, whose memories at least have been +preserved. + +The most celebrated of all, however, was Lalla, a native of the city of +Cyzicus, to which Apollo had accorded the gift of arts. Though she +worked with extreme rapidity, this did not detract from the merits of +her work, and she was considered the first painter of her time. Painting +with pencil and on ivory were equally familiar to her. The portraits +which she painted were principally of persons of her own sex. Pliny +mentions a portrait, which was at Naples during his life, in which Lalla +had represented an old woman. He adds that she had reproduced in this +her own picture reflected in a mirror. There has been found at Pompeii a +painting of an artist which is believed to be a portrait of Lalla, +probably painted by herself. It represents a young woman seated on a +stool on a little porch, with her eyes fixed on a statue of Bacchus, +which she is reproducing on a tablet held by a child. In her right hand +is a pencil, which she plunges into a small box evidently containing her +colors; in her left hand she holds a palette. Her garments are elegantly +draped around her; a band encircles her waving hair, which falls over +her neck and shoulders, A deep, intellectual look illuminates her +delicate features. If this be really a picture of Lalla, she was +wonderfully beautiful. + +Not only in poetry and the fine arts, but also in philosophy and +intellectual pursuits did the Greek woman show herself capable of great +achievements. In the schools of Pythagoras, established at Croton in +Magna Graecia, women were freely admitted and took a prominent part in +the exercises, together with their husbands and brothers. + +There is a tradition that the ascendency of Pythagoras at Croton was so +great that the ladies of the city brought their rich apparel, their +jewels, necklaces and bracelets, to the temple of Hera, and dedicated +them as an offering to domestic virtue, vowing that henceforth prudence +and modesty, not luxurious apparel, were to be the true ornaments of +their sex. Whether this story be true or not, there is no doubt that +Pythagoras had a large number of women among his disciples, and that the +"Pythagorean Women" attained throughout the Greek world a great and +enviable reputation. Pythagoras's friendly attitude toward the sex was +probably in part the result of his cordial relations with the Delphian +priestess Aristoclea, renowned for her amiability and her wisdom, with +whom he carried on a learned correspondence. The general results of his +teachings upon woman were a high ideal of feminine morality, careful +attention to household duties, and the elevation of the conception of +motherhood, especially in the careful rearing of children. + +Existing fragments of the works of "Pythagorean Women" indicate their +lofty views of moral perfection and harmony, and their practical +judgment in everyday affairs. _Sophrosyne_ is constantly commended as +the chief feminine virtue, a term connoting moderation, +self-containedness, modesty, and wifely fidelity--in a word, all that +is essentially womanly. + +The Neo-pythagorean philosopher, Iamblichus, in his biography of +Pythagoras mentions fifteen celebrated women of the School. Other +writers name other female adepts in Pythagorean philosophy, who lived +during and after the time of Pythagoras. The number was so large that +the comic poets Alexis and Cratinus the Younger, who, like most +Athenians, had a genuine contempt for blue-stockings, made them the +object of much drollery and ridicule. + +Of all the Pythagorean Women, none attained such exalted rank as +Pythagoras's wife, the high-minded Theano. She combined virtue and +wisdom in such perfect harmony that she was regarded in antiquity not +only as the foremost representative of feminine scholarship, but also as +the brilliant prototype of true womanhood. Of the life of Theano we know +only a few characteristic incidents, and these give insight into her +character mainly by relating "sayings" uttered by her on certain +occasions. She was once asked for what she wished to be distinguished. +She replied by quoting a verse of Homer (II. 1:31): "Minding the spindle +and tending my marriage bed." Another time, she was asked what most +became a wife; she answered: "to live entirely for her husband."--Again, +she was asked what was love; "the sickness of a longing soul," was her +answer. Once, while she was throwing off her mantle, it happened that +her arm was exposed. A gentleman, struck by its beauty and shapeliness, +exclaimed: "What a beautiful arm!" "But not for the public gaze," +replied the wise Theano, while she hastily adjusted her robes. This +remark has been quoted by Plutarch, by two Church Fathers, Clement of +Alexandria and Theodoret, and by the Byzantine authoress Anna Comnena, +as a noteworthy apothegm, tending to promote womanly modesty and +reserve. + +Theano was both prose writer and poetess. Of a long epic poem written by +her in hexameters we have not even a fragment; of her philosophical +works, there are still extant three letters of great charm and a +fragment of a philosophic and didactic work _On Piety_. This fragment is +too short for us to distinguish in it anything more than the highly +developed reasoning power of the author; in her letters, however, +discussing the rearing of children, the treatment of servants, and the +suppression of jealousy, the sentiments are forceful, and the style has +a familiar grace and tenderness. The relics that we have abound in +axiomatic expressions, emphasizing womanly virtues and manifesting the +lofty morality and high culture of the writer. + +After the death of Pythagoras, Theano, in conjunction with her two sons, +Telauges and Mnesarchus, kept up the secret order; and Theano, as +teacher and as writer, promulgated her husband's doctrines. The time and +circumstances of her death are unknown. + +Theano's three daughters followed in their mothers footsteps. Myia, the +most distinguished, had been so carefully reared and was of such +preeminent virtue that she was chosen as a virgin to lead the chorus of +maidens, and as a wife the chorus of matrons, at all the sacred +festivals of Croton, and she knelt at the head of her companions before +the altars of the gods. She was the wife of Malon, the celebrated +athlete, also of the Pythagorean order; their union was in all respects +a happy one. Myia was also a writer, but we have only one letter +attributed to her. Her work in the spirit of her father was so brilliant +that she spread the fame of his teachings throughout all Hellenic lands. +There was probably an extensive literature about her in antiquity, for +Lucian, several centuries later, says he had much to tell of her, but +that her history was already generally known. + +Not without distinction were also Myia's sisters, of whom Arignote +attained a great reputation as a philosopher and writer of epigrams, +while Damo distinguished herself by her fidelity to her father's dying +request. The story goes that he consigned to her his most precious +treasure,--his memoirs,--with the injunction that she should keep them +secret from all who were not of the family. Though offered large sums +for them, she never yielded, preferring poverty to disobedience. At her +death she turned the works over to her daughter Bistalia, with the same +mandate her father had given herself. The granddaughter remained equally +faithful, and these invaluable works perished with the family. Some +ancient writers mention as another daughter of Pythagoras, Theano the +Younger, of Thurii, but, according to Suidas, she was a daughter of +Lycophron. She was a clever philosopher and a prolific authoress. + +Other Pythagorean Women of whom we know more than the mere name are +Phintys, Perictyone, Melissa, Ptolemais, and Timycha. Phintys wrote a +book _On Womanly Virtue_; Perictyone--often erroneously identified with +the mother of Plato--composed a work _On Wisdom_, much prized by +Aristotle, and another _Concerning the Harmony of Women_,--that is, +concerning the accord of life and thought, of feelings and actions, the +right relations between body and spirit. Fragments of these works show +the Pythagorean idea concerning the mission of woman. They connect the +duties of woman with the propensities and faculties peculiarly her own. +To the men, they leave the defence of the country and the administration +of public affairs; to the women, they assign the government of the +home, the guardianship of the family hearth, and the education of +children. Personality is regarded as the dominating virtue of +man--chastity, of woman. + +Melissa is known only by a short fragment on feminine love of adornment; +and Ptolemais was a specialist in music and an authority on the +Pythagorean theory of music in its relation to life. Of Timycha we have +a characteristic story. She lived in the time of Dionysius of Syracuse. +A party of Pythagorean pilgrims, while on their way to Metapontum to +celebrate certain rites, were attacked by a band of Syracusans. They at +first fled; but when they saw they must pass through a field of beans, +they suddenly stopped and fought till the last one was killed. The +Syracusans shortly after came upon Mylias of Croton and his wife, +Timycha, who, on account of her delicate condition, had been left behind +by the rest of their party. They were arrested and brought before the +tyrant. Dionysius promised them liberty and an escort to their +destination if they would tell him why the deceased Pythagoreans refused +to tread on the beans. But they refused to tell. Dionysius's curiosity +was all the more excited, and he had the husband taken aside, that he +might question the wife alone, feeling convinced that he could compel +her to answer his question. Threatened with the torture, and fearing +lest in her weakness she might be overcome, Timycha bit out her tongue +rather than reveal the secrets of her order. + +In these Pythagorean Women, we observe the perfect blending of +intellectual beauty with moral elevation. Perhaps no later age has +presented a higher ideal of feminine perfection. Their system of culture +taught them how to pursue at the same time the most abstruse +philosophical speculations and the most insignificant duties of +practical life, and the higher learning in their hands never led to a +sacrifice of true womanliness. + +Passing from Croton to Athens, Socrates, the father of the various +philosophical schools, had no female disciples, so far as we are +informed; but he is credited with saying that he learned the ait of love +from the priestess Diotima, and that of eloquence from Aspasia. Xenophon +also recounts a lengthy conversation of Socrates with the hetsera +Theodota concerning the art of winning men. His most eminent disciple, +Plato, had numerous pupils of the gentler sex. Plato possessed in large +measure the _ewig weibliche_, which Goethe deems an essential element in +all great men. As a young man he was given to composing love poems, but +the names of his youthful sweethearts are not known. His visits to +Southern Italy made him sympathetic with woman's literary aspirations; +and when he opened the door of the Academy to them, women flocked to his +lecture room from various cities of Hellas. It was the first known +instance in Athens of women engaging in philosophy. + +The female members of the Academy did not attain to such distinction as +did the Pythagorean Women. The latter were of Dorian blood, and lived, +according to the rules of their order, in the greatest simplicity and +industry; the former were chiefly of Ionian stock and were more inclined +to lives of ease and luxury. Consequently, they did not cultivate those +domestic virtues which made the Pythagorean Women so superior. Athens +was not the place for feminine ambition to receive proper recognition, +and the honorable maids and matrons could not, if they wished, pursue +the study of philosophy in association with the male sex; hence the +feminine element of the Academy was composed of strangers, who were +attracted to Athens by the fame of the philosopher. + +Of Plato's immediate family, only his sister Potone, the mother of his +pupil and successor Speusippus, appears to have engaged in +philosophical studies. Of the strangers associated with the Academy, +under Plato and later under Speusippus, two gained especial +distinction--Axiothea and Lasthenia. + +Axiothea, who was also called Phlisia, was a native of Phlius, a small +Peloponnesian town in the district of Sicyon, whence came the poetess +Praxilla. The story goes that some works of Plato fell into the maiden's +hands, and she read them with great zeal and industry. His _Republic_ +finally aroused her enthusiasm to such a pitch that her desire for +personal instruction from the philosopher could no longer be resisted. +So she assumed masculine attire, made the journey alone to Athens, and +was received into the Academy. She continued the use of men's clothing, +and for a long time concealed her sex, becoming one of the most +prominent and zealous members of the school. Plato was so impressed with +her ability that, as tradition says, he would postpone his lectures if +Axiothea chanced to be absent. When he was asked the reason for such an +interruption, he replied: "The intellect sufficient to grasp the subject +is not yet present"--meaning Axiothea. She frequented the Academy also +under Speusippus, and became herself a teacher of philosophy. Nothing +but What is commendable is known of her, but her reputation has suffered +from the association of her name with that of Lasthenia. The latter came +from Arcadia to Athens to hear Plato, attracted, as was her fellow +student, by the fame of the philosopher. The prevailing life of the +stranger-women in Athens, however, undermined her moral principles, and +she played in the Academy a similar role to that played by Leontium +later among the Epicureans. Speusippus himself was her lover. Though +better known for her adventures as a hetaera, she also possessed some +reputation as a philosopher. Dionysius once wrote to Speusippus: "One +can also learn philosophy from your Arcadian pupil." + +The Cyrenaic School, founded by Aristippus, the forerunner of the +Epicurean in its doctrine of pleasure, naturally attracted women, +especially courtesans, into its membership. The celebrated Lais the +Elder was numbered among the Cyrenaics; but there were also high-minded +women among its disciples. + +Arete, daughter of Aristippus, continued the latter's teachings after +his death. Her father had given her a most thorough education, and +himself instructed her in philosophy. She was taught to despise riches +and luxury and to observe moderation in all things. Aristippus once +said: "The greatest thing which my daughter Arete has to thank me for is +that I have taught her to set a value on nothing she can do without." +Arete was also learned in natural history and in other branches of +science. She passed her time partly in Athens, partly in Cyrene and +other Greek cities; and wherever she went she aroused great interest by +the charm of her beauty and amiability. There is no reproach whatever +upon her good name: she appears to have been an ingenuous, highly +endowed woman, devoted to science and philosophy. As head of the +Cyrenaic School after her father's death, she had many distinguished +pupils, among them Theodorus and Aristippus the Younger. She was a +prolific writer; forty works are attributed to her, on philosophy, on +agriculture, on the wars of the Athenians, on the life of Socrates, and +various other subjects, showing the wide range of her interests. She +died at Cyrene, in the seventy-seventh year of her age; and in the +inscription over her grave she was styled a "light of Hellas." + +The coarse doctrines of the Cynic school, founded by Antisthenes, were +not attractive to women, yet the school had one female representative +who has become famous and has been in recent years the subject of a racy +romantic poem. This Cynic was Hipparchia. + +The ugly and ill-shapen Crates of Thebes was one of the successors of +Antisthenes. A beautiful and popular maiden, Hipparchia, with her +brother Metrocles, heard the lectures of Crates, and she was so +captivated by his teachings and his manner of life that she became not +only his most zealous disciple, but fell violently in love with her +teacher. She scorned all her younger, richer, more handsome suitors, and +declared that she would have only Crates. She threatened to kill herself +if her parents did not secure Crates for her husband. They tried to +dissuade her; even Crates, at the request of her parents, sought to make +her abandon her purpose. Yet every effort was fruitless. Finally Crates, +throwing off his clothing, appeared before her and said: "Such is the +shape of your bridegroom: this is all he possesses. Take careful counsel +with yourself, for you cannot become my wife unless you accept my whole +manner of life. Ponder it well, that you may later have no pretext for +ill feeling." "Already a long time," answered the maiden, "have I +anticipated this and thought over it; I can nowhere on earth find a +richer or handsomer husband than you. Take me, then, with you, wherever +you may go." Seeing that her mind was made up, the parents finally gave +their consent to the marriage of their daughter with the philosopher. + +Crates, as a true Cynic, straightway led his wife into one of the +colonnades, and publicly celebrated his nuptials. Hipparchia entered +fully into the manner of life of her husband. She clad herself in coarse +garments like his, accompanied him everywhere, and bore many privations. +Many cynical sophisms and apothegms are attributed to Hipparchia, who +became one of the most prominent members of the school. We know but +little of her later life, beyond the fact that she was the mother of one +son, Pasicles, and of several daughters. + +The Megarian school of philosophy, founded by Euclides of Megara, a +pupil of Socrates, practised dialectic, and was called the Eristic, or +disputatious, sect. The art of disputation appealed to the female sex, +and a number of women allied themselves with this school. The first +female Dialecticians were the five daughters of Diodorus, an eminent +disciple of Euclides, and they conferred much honor on the school. Argia +was the most celebrated of the sisters for her mental endowments and +dialectic skill, but unfortunately there are but scant records of the +philosophical activity of Argia and her four sisters, Artemisia, +Menexena, Theognis, and Pantaclea. Hieronymus commends the five for +their modesty as well as for their intellectual attainments, and they +must have aroused general enthusiasm, as Philo, a disciple of their +father, wrote a book about them. Euclides was succeeded by Stilpo as +head of the school, and among his hearers was Nicarete of Megara, the +daughter of prominent parents, who became renowned for her cleverness +and profound learning. She adopted the hetaera life, and was the +"companion" of Stilpo himself. The relation was tender and enduring, but +she did not restrict herself to one lover. Her favors, however, were not +to be won, as usual, by the payment of gold, but through the invention +or solution of a difficult sophism. + +The philosophy of Epicurus was a comfortable and pleasing doctrine for +people of light morals, and in consequence we meet with the names of a +large number of young and beautiful hetaerae who infested the Gardens of +Epicurus, among whom were a Boidion, Hedia, Nicidion, Erotion, +Marmarion, and the celebrated Leontium. Their presence gave the enemies +of the Epicurean sect justification for characterizing their philosophy +as a system of immorality; and the strict moralist and academician +Plutarch violently censured the Epicureans "who lived with the hetaera +Hedeia or Leontium, spat in the face of virtue, and found the _summum +bonum_ in the flesh and in sensuality." While nothing but the names of +the other Epicurean hetaeras have survived, Leontium, by her varied +accomplishments, has won an abiding prominence in the intellectual +world. + +Leontium, "the little lioness," is indisputably the most remarkable and +attractive personality in the philosophical demi-monde of Ancient +Greece. Of her home and her family, history is silent; but she was the +product of a hetaera seminary which imparted to its pupils a thorough +intellectual discipline in addition to the secrets of "gallantry" and +the knowledge of cosmetic arts. When she became a favorite of Epicurus +and began to study philosophy, she continued the practice of hetairism, +which occasioned great vexation to the master, not because he deplored +her light morals, but because he was himself passionately enamored of +the highly gifted maiden. The aged and broken Epicurus could not attach +to himself alone the high-spirited creature, who preferred the beautiful +and wealthy Timarchus. One of her early lovers was the poet Hermesianax +of Colophon, to whom she owed her literary training. He dedicated to her +three books of elegies, entitled _Leontium_, fragments of which are +extant. Leontium's fame is due most of all to her activity as an +authoress. Theophrastus the Peripatetic published a work _On Marriage_ +in which he severely handled the female sex. Leontium wrote a reply in +which she displayed so much subtlety, learning, and argumentative power +that Theophrastus was thoroughly routed. This work caused general +admiration, Cicero commends it, and Pliny pays a tribute to its +excellence. Unfortunately for our study of the social status of Greek +women, the work is lost. Leontium had a daughter, Danae by name, who was +also a hetaera and a consistent Epicurean. She became the favorite of +Sophron, Prefect of Ephesus. + +Though the Epicurean hetaerae have brought reproach upon the sect, yet +there were honorable women of irreproachable reputation who became +members of the school. The chief of these was Themista, wife of Leontius +of Lampsacus, styled by Strabo "the most excellent man of the city." +Epicurus became acquainted with the couple during his four years' +sojourn in Lampsacus and was much influenced by their learning and +culture. He won them to his system of philosophy, and he ever afterward +carried on a most industrious correspondence with them, and especially +with Themista. Her name became widely known both within and without +Epicurean circles. The Church Father Lactantius regarded her as a model +of feminine culture and as the only true philosopher among the heathen +Greeks. Themista was very active as an author, and there was in +antiquity an extensive Themista literature, which has entirely +disappeared. + +As the various schools of philosophy thus far mentioned began to lose +their hold upon mankind, there were two tendencies manifest among +thoughtful people: the first, to doubt whether it was possible to +ascertain truth,--the spirit of scepticism; the second, to combine from +earlier systems whatever seemed most worthy of credence,--the spirit of +eclecticism. + +The two systems which appealed most to enlightened pagans during the +earlier Christian centuries were those of Pythagoras and Plato, which +offered many points of likeness. By the union of these with certain +Hebraic or Oriental elements, there arose the philosophical amalgam +known as Neo-platonism. Plotinus is regarded as the founder of this +system in the third century of our era. Through his attractive +personality and the timeliness of his teachings, Plotinus rapidly gained +a great following among the learned, especially philosophers, statesmen, +physicians, and ladies of high social station. He passed many years in +Rome, where a large number of noble ladies, including the Empress +Salomina, were among his hearers. From Rome, Neo-platonism spread over +the Empire; and in the beginning of the fourth century, we find the +theosophist Iamblichus, who united the Neo-platonic philosophy with +thaumaturgy, attracting to himself large numbers of highly cultured men +and women, who still clung to paganism. Syria was the centre of this +movement, which reached across Asia Minor and became popular even in +Athens and Alexandria. Among the followers of Iamblichus in Asia was an +excellent and learned woman, who became celebrated by her intense +devotion to this philosophy. Sosipatra was the beautiful and +noble-hearted wife of Eustathius, Prefect of Cappadocia. After the death +of Eustathius, she became the wife of a kinsman, by name Philometor, and +dedicated the rest of her life to the promotion of science and +philosophy and to the education of her children, whom she herself +instructed and of whom she made ardent and intelligent disciples of +Neo-platonism. At Athens, where philosophical studies had for a long +period declined, Platonism was revived by the Emperor Julian the +Apostate, who appointed Plutarchus the first head of the New Academy. +Plutarchus had a daughter, Asclepigenia by name, who had been initiated +into all the mysteries of Neo-platonism and thaumaturgy, and who played +a prominent role in the new school. It is related of her that after the +death of her father she kept alive the knowledge of the great orgies and +all the secret lore of thaumaturgy. In association with her brother +Hierius, she became the head of the New Academy, and through her +personality and her lectures she exercised a great influence over the +philosophic youth of the day. Her daughter, Asclepigenia the Younger, +was likewise a devoted Neo-platonist, and continued the traditions of +the school. But the appearance of the two Asclepigenias in the history +of philosophy cannot be regarded as of much importance, as the system of +thaumaturgy which they advocated was scientifically worthless. + +About the same time, however, there lived in Alexandria a beautiful and +learned pagan, who ranks as the last brilliant star in the philosophical +firmament before the twilight of the gods. Charles Kingsley's historical +romance, _Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face_, has depicted in an +impressive manner the womanly graces, the learning, the elevating +influence, and the tragic fate, of the last of the Greek women, and has +made the name of Hypatia a household word. His vivid portrayal of social +life in Alexandria at the dawn of the fifth century brings out most +strongly the phases of the closing conflict between paganism and +Christianity, and invests with an atmosphere of aerial clearness and +radiance the heroine, who almost singly and alone fights the battle for +the old gods. + +About the year 370, to Theon, a noted astronomer and mathematician of +Alexandria, a daughter was born, to whom he gave the name Hypatia. The +child very early exhibited extraordinary intellectual endowments, and +Theon himself took charge of her education. She rapidly mastered his own +favorite subjects of mathematics and astronomy, and the most celebrated +teachers of the day were called in to give her instruction in the +various branches of rhetoric and philosophy. All the ancient +philosophical systems were pursued by the devoted and zealous maiden, +and the prevailing system of the time, that of Neo-platonism, appealed +especially to her spirit. + +As she attained to womanhood, Hypatia united with the charm of +extraordinary beauty all the rarest traits of spirit and character. She +became the object of flattering regard on the part of the cultured; the +common people reverenced her as a superior being, and even the +Christians respected her learning and her demeanor. Hypatia was worthy +of all the admiration that she excited. Amid the widespread corruption +of the age, she lived as spotless as a vestal. The philosophy she +professed preserved her from pollution and inspired her with the love of +beauty, truth, and goodness. + +With her intense devotion to the gods of her fathers, with her +extraordinary endowments and wide learning, with her preeminent virtues +and the charm of her whole personality, this celebrated maiden appeared +to the pagan world as a higher being sent by the gods to defend the +ancient faith against the subverting teachings of the Christians,--a +herald, who with the weapons of exalted wisdom and moral sublimity +should win the victory and restore the worship of the gods to its former +splendor. This was also the ambition of the virgin philosopher. + +Hypatia's early womanhood was passed in the period when hostility to +paganism reached its height. She was barely twenty-one when Theodosius +I. issued an edict commanding the destruction of heathen temples and +images at Alexandria, and from this time the patriarchs of the city +endeavored to exercise both spiritual and temporal authority and to root +out every vestige of paganism. + +Against such an opposition Hypatia sought to contend. Her weapons were +not carnal, but intellectual. By a spread of the knowledge of Greek +philosophy and literature, she sought to quicken the sensibilities of +the people and to reawaken a reverence for the Greek gods. It seemed at +first as if her efforts would be crowned with success. Her lecture hall +was crowded with the clever and intellectual men of the day, and many +came from distant parts, attracted by the reputation of her beauty and +learning. Hypatia soon surpassed all her contemporaries in wisdom and +influence, and rapidly became the soul of the rather numerous pagan +community at Alexandria. This remarkable maiden was honored with a +devotion which almost bordered on idolatry. Orestes, the prefect of the +city, though professedly a Christian, often came to her for counsel. The +learned and eloquent Synesius of Cyrene, afterward a Church Father, was +one of her devoted followers, and even after his conversion to +Christianity maintained a correspondence with her and showed in manifold +ways his regard for his former teacher. Numerous panegyrics and epigrams +were composed, lauding her in most exalted terms. + +Thus Hypatia, by moral suasion and by avoiding all open opposition, +sought to wean the people from Christianity and to revive their faith in +the ancient gods. Her success in attracting to paganism both the +cultured and the plain people naturally caused her to be an object of +hatred and jealousy to those who strove to promote Christianity by +violence and force. + +The name of Cyril, among the Church Fathers, is the synonym for +fanaticism and bigotry. Elevated to the archi-episcopal chair of +Alexandria to succeed his uncle, Theophilus, he sought to attain supreme +power in the city and to make the power of the Church dominant in +temporal affairs. He succeeded in expelling the Jews, and then turned +his attention to the extermination of paganism. As Hypatia was the +chief exponent of the old gods, and as her influence extended even to +the palace of the prefect, Cyril hated her with all the zeal of bigotry +and was eager for her downfall. Irreproachable in conduct, beloved of +all, influential with the civil power, she was not subject to attack in +any open manner, and Cyril finally countenanced an inhuman and +disgusting plot of assassination devised by the most violent of his +followers--the deacon Peter. + +One day in March of the year 415, Peter secretly gathered in an alley +not far from the lecture hall of Hypatia a band of savage monks from the +Nitrian desert. When the customary lecture hour approached, Hypatia, +unconscious of danger, left her house and entered her chariot to drive +to the lecture hall. Soon the mob of zealots, headed by Peter, rush out +from the alley, seize the horses, tear the helpless woman from her seat, +and drag her into a neighboring church. Here, more like savage beasts +than men, Peter's frenzied followers remove from her every shred of +clothing, and at the foot of the bleeding image of the Saviour of +mankind do to death the virgin martyr in the most horrible manner with +fragments of tiles and mussel shells. The limbs are torn from the still +quivering body, and, when life is extinct, the howling mob gather up and +burn the fragments of the mutilated corpse. + +It was a horrible deed. The life of a beautiful and talented maiden was +sacrificed for the cause which she professed, and, like many a Christian +maiden, she attained by her death the sanctity of martyrdom. The purity +and nobility of her character invested her with an enduring fame, and, +though her end marks the doom of the old gods, Hypatia herself will +never be forgotten. Judged by the abiding results of her activity, +Hypatia was, like Shelley, "a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in +the void her luminous wings in vain," but as the embodiment of the +highest and best elements of Greek culture she deserves to rank as one +of the most typical of Greek women. + + * * * * * + +A peculiar and deep-rooted trait in woman's nature is tender compassion +and sympathetic devotion to suffering humanity. Hence from heroic times +onward through the various epochs of Greek history we find women at the +bedside of the sick and the wounded, acting as attendant, nurse, or +physician. Thus it is not surprising that we should find Greek women +preeminent in the art of medicine. + +In the Heroic Age, Homeric heroines were gifted with a knowledge of +plants and their virtues. Hecate, wife of King AEetes of Colchis, her +daughter Medea, and Circe were so celebrated in this respect that they +passed for enchantresses. One has but to recall the transformation of +Odysseus's companions into swine as an evidence of Circe's peculiar +power. All the daughters of Asclepius the physician--Hygiea, Panacea, +Iaso, and AEgle--were specialists in medicine. Helen of Troy knew how to +compound her celebrated potion, Nepenthe, which made men forget all care +and enjoy sound slumbers; and OEnone, the forsaken wife of Paris, and +Agamede, daughter of a king of Elis, were skilled in the use of simples. + +In historical times, the Thessalian women were noted for their knowledge +of the virtues of plants, and were acquainted with all forms of +witchcraft. They were frequently consulted for the preparation of "love +potions," and, as midwives, were in demand throughout Hellas. Women +naturally preferred women's services in those ailments which are +peculiar to the sex; but in ancient Athens, so unfriendly to the female +sex in its laws, there was a statute forbidding the practice of +gynaecology by women as a profession. Women rebelled, but their +complaints were without avail. + +Agnodice, whose date is not known, was the name of the courageous maiden +who broke the prevailing traditions and won a natural right for her sex. +She conceived the idea of studying medicine in secret until she became +an expert, and then of offering her services to women, also in secret, +for medical treatment, especially in cases of maternity. To this end, +she cut off her hair, adopted masculine apparel, and, as a promising +youth, took instruction in medicine from Hierophilus, a celebrated +physician. Her progress was rapid, and when she was pronounced +sufficiently equipped for independent practice she revealed her identity +to prospective mothers, who gladly availed themselves of her services, +so that she soon obtained the monopoly of this kind of practice. The +other physicians were naturally overcome with jealousy and chagrin that +the young doctor should supplant them, and finally they brought charges +of malpractice against the supposed youth. Agnodice was brought to +trial, and in self-defence was compelled to reveal her sex. The older +physicians then endeavored to have the laws enforced against her; but +all the prominent ladies of the city took her part, and the obnoxious +laws were repealed. + +From that time forward, large numbers of women studied medicine, the +majority devoting their attention to the diseases of women and children. +These female physicians frequently appear as medical writers, especially +on gynaecology and pediatrics. They also produced many treatises on +cosmetics, which ranked as a branch of hygiene and was cultivated most +diligently by many eminent physicians. These women rivalled one another +in the discovery of an endless variety of toilet preparations, beauty +wafers, skin and hair ointments, pastes and powders, and wine essences +for the removal of pimples and freckles. + +In later and more immoral times, female physicians lent their talents +gladly to demoralization and license, and wrote treatises on love +potions and abortives--a disreputable form of literature very popular +with the hetserae, and which, according to Pliny, found diligent readers +among the great ladies of Rome. Of all the numerous works of the +feminine doctors, only fragments and excerpts have come down to us, and +their loss is not greatly to be regretted. Yet credit is due to these +women as pioneers in female emancipation, and the most eminent of them +deserve to be rescued from oblivion. + +The greatest was Aspasia--not the favorite of Pericles nor the devoted +companion of Cyrus the Younger, but the "medical" Aspasia, who was a +prominent figure in the Athens of the fourth century before the +Christian era. She attained great fame, not only in women's diseases, +but also in surgery and other branches of medicine, as may be judged +from the titles of her works, preserved by Aetius, a physician and +writer of the fifth century of our era. It seems clear from what is +known of her that the Athenian women saw nothing criminal in giving and +using abortives. Even Aristotle desired to have a law regulating the +number of children that might be borne by woman. + +Antiochis, to whom Heraclides of Tarentum, one of the best physicians of +antiquity, dedicated his works, was a practising female physician in +Magna Graecia, in the third century before Christ, who devoted especial +attention to salves and plaster cures. To the great Cleopatra has been +ascribed the authorship of a work "on the medical means of preserving +beauty"; but there were probably one or more physicians of this name, as +there are various treatises ascribed to "Cleopatra." Other female +physicians, of whom we know little more than the name and the titles of +their works, are Olympias of Boeotia, Salpe, Elephantis, Sotira, +Pamphile, Myro, Spendusa, Maia, and Berenice. + +Space will not suffer us to do more than call attention to many wise and +able women of Hellas who were eminent in other branches of learning. In +historical writings, Thucydides's daughter is worthy of mention, as she +is said to have composed the eighth book of her father's history of the +Peloponnesian War; Nicobule, the author of a history of Alexander the +Great, was another excellent woman writer. Plutarch gathered about him a +learned circle of women, of whom the chief was Clea, the clever matron +of Delphi, to whom he dedicated several of his works, and Eurydice, who +enjoyed his instruction. Aganice, daughter of Hegetor of Thessaly, +possessed an astonishing knowledge of astronomy, and was regarded as an +enchantress. To Melanippe, the sculptor Lysistratus erected a monument +as a tribute to her learning. + +Alexandria, with its vast number of scholars, its libraries and museums, +and its intellectual freedom for women, naturally produced a large +number of women eminent in history and philology. Frequently +philologists' daughters were trained from childhood by their fathers, +and afterward became their companions and secretaries in literary +labors. The most prominent of these literary feminine grammarians was +doubtless Hestiaea of Alexandria, a Homeric scholar of note, who was the +first to devote scientific attention to the topography of the Iliad and +to throw doubt on the generally accepted view that New Ilium was the +site of Ancient Troy. Pamphile, daughter of the grammarian Soteridas and +wife of the scholar Socratidas, was a woman of wide erudition, +celebrated especially as essayist and historian. Others whose names are +associated with similar labors are Agallis, Theodora, and Theosebia. + +When one reflects on the varied activity of Greek women, the conclusion +forces itself upon him that they were intellectually as acquisitive and +as brilliant as the Greek men, who have set the standard for the world +in the realm of literature and science. Cleverness is the most salient +characteristic of the Greek intelligence, and this trait belonged as +truly to the female sex as to the male. The Renaissance furnishes +examples of women renowned for their erudition and culture; but perhaps +only the present age furnishes an adequate parallel to the varied +intellectual activities of Greek women in the centuries that followed +the decline of Greek independence and that saw the spread of Greek +culture among all civilized peoples. Modern women can therefore learn +much from their Greek sisters in all that pertains to the so-called +emancipation of the sex. + + + + +XIV + +THE MACEDONIAN WOMAN + + +Separated from the lands of the Hellenes by the range of the Cambunian +Mountains which extended north of Thessaly from Mount Olympus on the +east to Mount Lacmon on the west, there lay a rugged country, whose +inhabitants were destined to play a prominent role and become a powerful +factor in the later history of Greece. This country, divided into many +basins by spurs which branch off from the higher mountain chains, by its +mountain system not only shut the people off from the outside world, but +also forbade any extended intercourse between the dwellers in the +various cantons. The wide and fertile valleys, however, and the mountain +slopes abounding in extensive forests, the haunts of wild game, mark the +land as the country of a great people, who by generations of seclusion +were storing up strength and vitality to be of vast influence whenever +they should break through their narrow confines. + +Such a people dwelt there, but it required strong leaders to bring them +in touch with the rich Hellenic life to the south of them and to make +them a powerful factor in the history of the world. Philip, lord of +Macedon, and his mightier son, Alexander, were the great men who were to +accomplish the work of grafting the new blood and energy of Macedon +upon the decaying stock of Greek culture, and to diffuse the spirit of +Hellenism throughout the civilized world. With them the old order of +things, as represented in Athens and Sparta, passed away, and a new +order, with new ideals, new motives, new views of life, was born. Hence, +the people of Macedon, themselves Greek by race, have a large place in +the consideration of any phase of Greek life. When the Hellenes +originally migrated into Greece, a branch of the race found its way into +the southwestern part of Macedon behind the barriers of Olympus, and +later, by intermixture with the Illyrians and other barbarous races, +these invaders lost some of their national characteristics and, shut off +as they were, failed to share in the history and development of their +kinsmen to the south. In language, in institutions, and in aspirations, +however, they gave indisputable evidence of their right to be considered +as members of the great Hellenic family. + +The people were a hardy, peasant folk, devoted to hunting, to grazing, +and to agriculture, and they preserved the patriarchal institutions +which obtained among the earliest Greeks. They were divided into many +tribes, each with its own chief and leader. Among some of the hardier +tribes, the man who had not slain a wild boar was not allowed to recline +at table with the warriors, and not to have slain an enemy was regarded +as a mark of disgrace. In the tribal organization and in the institution +of the kingship, we are carried back to the society of Homeric times, +and in manifold ways the public and private life of the Macedonians +reflects the life portrayed in the Iliad and the Odyssey. + +Aristotle remarks that the ancient kingship survived only among the +Spartans, the Molossians, and the Macedonians, of all the Greek peoples; +and only among the last mentioned did the office retain all its +prerogatives. As in the Heroic Age, so in Macedon, the king was supreme +judge, military commander-in-chief, and at the head of the religion of +the State. But he was no Oriental despot. The people were conscious of +their liberty and sensitive as to their rights. By the side of the king +stood the nobles, who were closely associated with him at all times, +constituting his council, accompanying him to war, and sharing with him +his dangers and his honors. As the population was largely rural, there +were present none of the conditions which tend to nullify clan +distinctions and create a democracy. The lines between noble and peasant +were very broad. Hence, Macedon was essentially a dynastic State, and +its history is largely the history of its royal family. As we have +frequently noted, in monarchies woman is ever a most influential factor, +A king must have a court, and there can be no court without a queen. The +queen's life has necessarily its public, political, and military +aspects; and the part she plays largely determines the weal or woe of +both king and people. Hence it is with the royal family of Macedon, and +with those queens and princesses who make up a large part of its +history, that we are now chiefly concerned. + +The royal family of Macedon claimed descent from members of the ancient +Heracleid family of Argos, which had taken refuge in the north; and this +descent was so capable of proof, that, on the basis of it, one of the +earlier kings was admitted to the Olympic games. Herodotus, the great +story teller, relates the incident of the founding of the dynasty. +According to his narration, three brothers of the royal race of +Temenus,--the fourth in descent from Heracles,--Gauanes, Eropus, and +Perdiccas, exiles from Argos, went into Illyria, and thence into upper +Macedon, where they placed themselves, as herdsmen, at the service of +Lebea, one of the local kings. Now, when the queen baked the bread for +their food, she always noticed that the loaf destined for Perdiccas +doubled its weight; she made this marvel known to her husband, who saw +danger in it, and ordered the three brothers to depart from the country. +They replied that they would go as soon as they had received their +wages. Thereupon the king, who was sitting by the hearth, on which fell +sunlight through the opening of the roof, as if by divine inspiration +said to the brothers, pointing to the light on the floor: "I will give +you that; that is your wages." Upon this, the two elder brothers stood +speechless; but the younger, who held a knife in his hand, said: "Very +well; we accept it." And having traced with his knife a circle on the +floor surrounding the rays, he stooped down thrice, feigning each time +to take up the sunshine and place it in the folds of his garment and to +distribute it to his brothers; after which, they all went away. One of +those who sat by called the attention of the king to this conduct on the +part of the young man, and the manner in which he accepted what was +offered him; and the king, becoming anxious and angry, sent horsemen to +follow the brothers and slay them. Now in that country is a river, to +which the descendants of these Argives offer sacrifice as to a god. This +river, after the fugitives had crossed it, became suddenly so swollen +that the horsemen dared not follow. The brothers arrived in another part +of Macedon and established themselves near the lake called the Gardens +of Midas, and, when they had subjugated the country in those parts, they +went thence to conquer the rest of Macedon. + +Herodotus states that Perdiccas I. founded the reigning dynasty in +Macedon, and he mentions as his successors Argaeus, Philip, Eropus, +Alcetas, and Amyntas I., whose son, Alexander "the Philheliene," the +Greeks permitted to take part in the Olympic games. This Alexander on +one occasion visited dire punishment upon a party of Persian envoys who +at a banquet forgot the respect due to the ladies at the court of +Macedon; he caused them to be assassinated by a company of young men +whom he had disguised in women's attire. When the Persians sent to +require the punishment of the guilty, Alexander won over the envoy by +giving him his sister in marriage. + +This Alexander, who became king in the year 500 before the Christian +era, begins the series of those Macedonian kings who felt the need of +Hellenizing their people, and his reign accordingly marks a turning +point in the history of Macedon. Perdiccas II., Archelaus I., and +Amyntas II. were his successors, who continued this policy; but this +forced civilization by no means reached the mass of the people, and, +while it refined the nobility and the court and paved the way for the +Macedonian inroads into Greece, it also introduced luxury and +corruption. Amyntas II. left three sons, Alexander II., Perdiccas III., +and Philip, the last of whom was the one so well known to fame; and +Eurydice, the mother of these three valiant sons, was the first of that +series of remarkable women, noted for their power, their beauty, or +their crimes, who from this time on fill the annals of Macedonian +history. + +In her barbarous instincts, Eurydice gives evidence of the non-Hellenic +blood in her veins. Her career in crime was such as to place her among +the Messalinas and Lucrezia Borgias of history. To begin with, she was +implicated in a conspiracy with a paramour, Ptolemaeus of Alorus, against +her husband's life; but when the plot was detected, she was, out of +regard for their three sons, mercifully spared by her husband. +Alexander, the eldest, succeeded his father, but, after reigning two +years, was assassinated by Ptolemaeus, with his own mother as an +accomplice of the murderer. When Perdiccas grew to manhood, he avenged +his brother's death and his mother's disgrace by slaying Ptolemaeus; but +he himself, a few years later, fell in battle against the Illyrians, or, +as was asserted, at the hand of an assassin hired by his mother +Eurydice. Philip, the next in succession, then ascended the throne, and +succeeded in securing himself against the attempts of his mother and in +conciliating all factions. Eurydice then disappears from the scene, and +the manner of her death is unknown. Heredity, without doubt, had much to +do with the cruelty in Philip's nature, and in spite of her crimes he +seems to have had much respect for his sanguinary mother, for he placed +a figure of her among the gold-and-ivory statues embellishing the +monument he erected to commemorate his victory over the Athenians and +Thebans at Chaeronea. + +We are not concerned here with the rise of Philip's power over Hellas, +nor with the history of his son Alexander and the empire he established, +except in so far as the spread of Hellenism and the union of the world +under one dominion brought about changes in social conditions which +affected the status of woman. We shall, for the present, confine our +attention to the consideration of those women, chiefly royal princesses, +whose names group themselves about the careers of Philip and Alexander +and their immediate successors, and who by their strong personalities +greatly influenced the course of events. + +A few general reflections will prepare us for the sombre history which +we are about to read. The Macedonian kings were, as a rule, not content +with one wife; they either kept concubines, or married a second wife, as +did Philip and Alexander, while the first was living. This practice led +to jealousy, envy, and hatred, and the attendant ills of constant and +bloody tragedies in the royal families. We find henceforth a +combination of Greek manners and Macedonian nature. In the life of the +courts, women as well as men, in spite of their Greek culture, show the +Thracian traits of passion and cruelty. Owing to the intense respect in +which women were held, the royal princesses occupied an exalted station +and hence found willing instruments for the carrying-out of their cruel +practices. Every king was either murdered or conspired against by his +family. Women entered into matrimonial alliances with a view to +increasing their power and extending their influence. Hence, the women +who played so prominent a part in the great struggles that attended +Philip's extension of his power over all Hellas, Alexander's conquest of +the world, and the founding of independent dynasties by the Diadochi and +their descendants, were not women who attained the Thucydidean ideal of +excellence; namely, that those are the best women who are never +mentioned among men for good or for evil. They were, on the contrary, +powerful and haughty princesses, who possessed royal rights and +privileges, who had resources of their own in money and soldiery, who +could address their troops with fiery speeches and go forth to battle at +the head of their armies, who made offers of marriage to men, and who +finally got rid of their rivals with sinister coolness and cruelty. + +Philip the Great followed the Oriental fashion of marrying many wives; +according to Athenaeus, he was continually marrying new wives in war +times, and seven more or less regular marriages are attributed to him. +Of his numerous wives or mistresses, the strong-minded Olympias was the +chief; and, as she survived both her husband Philip and her son +Alexander, she played a dominant part in Macedonian history and was the +most prominent woman of those stormy times. Olympias was the daughter +of Neoptolemus, King of Epirus, who traced his lineage back to +Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. Philip is said to have fallen in love with +Olympias while both were being initiated into some religious mysteries +in Samothrace, at a time when he was still a stripling and she an +orphan. He was ardent in his suit, and, gaining the consent of her +brother Arymbas, he shortly after married her. We know nothing of the +first few years of their married life, but the union seems never to have +been a happy one. Both were of too decided individuality to blend well +together. Says President Wheeler: "Both were preeminently ambitious, +energetic, and aggressive; but while Philip's ambition was guided by a +cool, crafty sagacity, that of his queen manifested itself in impetuous +outbreaks of almost barbaric emotion. In her, joined a marvellous +compound of the mother, the queen, the shrew, and the witch. The +passionate ardor of her nature found its fullest expression in the wild +ecstasies and crude superstitions of her native religious rites." + +Plutarch gives a graphic account of the religious intensity of +Olympias's nature: "Another account is that all the women of this +country, having always been addicted to the Orphic and Dionysiac mystery +rites, imitated largely the practices of the Edonian and Thracian women +about Mount Haemus, and that Olympias, in her abnormal zeal to surround +these states of trance and inspiration with more barbaric dread, was +wont in the sacred dances to have about her great tame serpents, which, +sometimes creeping out of the ivy and the mystic fans, and sometimes +winding themselves about the staffs and the chaplets which the women +bore, presented a sight of horror to the men who beheld." + +In Olympias we find all the traits of character which selfishness and +love of power, combined with intense religious fervor, could engender; +and her devotion to weird religious rites makes more ghastly the story +of her life. With a different husband she might have been a good woman, +but when two such natures clash much evil is bound to result. To her +young son, Alexander, she was ardently attached, and she expected great +things of him. Just before her marriage with Philip she dreamed that a +thunderbolt fell upon her body, which kindled a great fire, whose +divided flames dispersed themselves all about and then were +extinguished. This was later regarded as a presage of the rapid spread +of Alexander's empire and its ultimate breaking-up among the Diadochi. + +Philip's numerous infidelities and marriages caused an estrangement +between him and Olympias that was far-reaching in its consequences. They +reached their culmination when Philip with great ceremony wedded +Cleopatra, a niece of his general, Attalus. At the wedding banquet, +Attalus, the uncle of the bride, heated with wine, cried out: + +"Macedonians, let us pray the gods that from this marriage may spring an +heir to the throne!" Whereupon, Alexander, who was present, violently +irritated at the speech, threw one of the goblets at the head of Attalus +and exclaimed: "You villain, what! Am I, then, a bastard?" Philip, +taking Attalus's part, rose up, and would have run his son through with +his sword, but, overcome by rage and by drink, he slipped and fell to +the floor. "Here is a man," scornfully exclaimed the prince, "preparing +to cross from Europe into Asia, who is not able to step safely from one +table to another." This incident brought to a climax the estrangement +between Philip and his wife and Alexander. Olympias and Alexander fled, +the one taking shelter with her brother, the King of Epirus, and the +other going into Illyria, where he remained until a sort of +reconciliation was effected by the marriage of Philip's daughter, +Cleopatra, with the Epirote king. When Philip was assassinated, +suspicions of complicity in the murder attached to both Olympias and +Alexander. The young man's conduct fully acquits him of the crime, but +it would not be strange if the mother, seeking her own vengeance and her +son's preferment, should have abetted the youth Pausanias, who committed +the deed. + +Olympias could not brook any rivals, and shortly after the murder of +Philip she despatched that king's last wife, Cleopatra, and her infant +son. Throughout Alexander's brilliant but short-lived career, Olympias +remained in Macedon, exercising a queenly power. She and her son seem to +have been bound by the closest ties of affection and respect. With +Antipater, however, who had been left behind by Alexander to govern +Macedon in his absence, she was continually falling out. Plutarch gives +an interesting account of the intimate relations between mother and son +and of the quarrels between the old queen and the regent: + +"How magnificent he, Alexander, was in enriching his friends appears by +a letter which Olympias wrote to him, where she tells him he should +reward those about him in a more moderate way. She said: 'For now you +make them all equal to kings, you give them power and opportunity of +making many friends of their own, and in the meantime you leave yourself +destitute.' She often wrote to him to this purpose. To her he sent many +presents, but would never suffer her to meddle with matters of State or +war, not indulging her busy temper; and when she fell out with him on +this account, he bore her ill humor very patiently. Nay, more, when he +read a long letter from Antipater, full of accusations against her, +'Antipater,' he said, 'does not know that one tear of a mother effaces a +thousand such letters as these.' + +"The tidings of the difficulties he had gone through in his Indian +expedition had begun to give occasion for revolt among many of the +conquered nations, and for acts of great injustice, avarice, and +insolence on the part of satraps and commanders. Even at home, Olympias +and her daughter Cleopatra had raised a faction against Antipater and +divided his government between them--Olympias seizing upon Epirus, and +Cleopatra upon Macedon. When Alexander was told of it, he said his +mother had made the best choice, for the Macedonians would never consent +to be ruled by a woman." + +Upon the death of Alexander, Olympias espoused with great devotion the +cause of her daughter-in-law Roxana and the young Alexander against the +intrigues of the generals, and she did everything in her power to +maintain their rights in opposition to the cold and calculating +Cassander. Diodorus gives a graphic account of her last days: + +"As soon as Olympias heard that Cassander was entering Macedonia with a +large army, she, taking with her the son of Alexander and his mother +Roxana, and other kindred and eminent relations, entered the town of +Pydna. Neither was there provision in that place sufficient for such a +multitude to hold out any long siege. Yet she was resolved to stay here, +expecting many Greeks and Macedonians to come in to her assistance by +sea. Now spring came on, and the famine increased every day, whereupon +most of the soldiers came up in a body and entreated Olympias to suffer +them to leave the place because of the scarcity, who, not being able to +supply them with bread, let them go. At length Olympias, perceiving that +many went over to Cassander, without delay got ready a galley of five +oars with a design to rescue herself and her kindred; but being +discovered to the enemy by some of the deserters, Cassander sailed to +the place and seized the vessel. Whereupon Olympias sent a herald to +Cassander to treat upon terms of pacification, but he insisted upon the +delivering up of herself to his mercy; she at length prevailed only for +the preservation of her person. He then incited the relations of such as +were put to death by Olympias to prosecute her in the general assembly +of the Macedonians, who readily complied with what they were desired to +do; and though she herself was not then present, nor had any person +there to plead her cause, yet the Macedonians condemned her to die. +Cassander therefore sent some of his friends to Olympias and advised her +to get out of the way, and promised to procure for her a ship and to +cause her to be conveyed safely to Athens. He did not do this for her +preservation, but that, as one confessing her own guilt by her flight, +it might be judged a just vengeance upon her if she was cut off as she +was on her voyage; for he was afraid as well of the fickle disposition +of the Macedonians as of the dignity of her person. But Olympias refused +to fly, and said she was ready to defend her cause before all the +Macedonians. Cassander therefore, fearing lest the people should change +their minds and so take upon them to defend the queen, sent to her a +band of two hundred soldiers with orders to despatch her forthwith, who, +rushing on a sudden into the palace, as soon as they saw her, in +reverence to her person, drew back without executing the command. But +the kindred of those she had put to death, both to ingratiate themselves +with Cassander, and likewise to gratify their own revenge for the death +of their relations, cut her throat, she not in the least crying out in +any womanish terror or fear to spare her. In this manner died Olympias, +the greatest and most honorable woman in the age wherein she lived, +daughter of Neoptolemus, King of Epirus; sister of Pyrrhus, who made the +expedition into Italy; wife of Philip, the greatest and most victorious +prince of all that ever lived before in Europe; and lastly the mother of +Alexander, who never was exceeded by any for the many great and +wonderful things that were done by him." + +So Olympias showed herself in her death, as in her life, every inch a +queen; and, in spite of her temper and her bloodthirstiness, she +deserves a high place in the history of womanhood, because of her +untiring devotion to her son and to his helpless widow and child against +the machinations of cruel and powerful men. + +Philip had three daughters who appear prominently in Macedonian history: +Cynane, by an Illyrian princess, who figures in the history of her +daughter Eurydice, which we shall recount later; Thessalonica, whom +Cassander married after he had slain Olympias and all the heirs of +Alexander, and after whom he named the famous city which he built; and +Cleopatra, full sister of Alexander, who was first married to her uncle, +Alexander, King of Epirus, murdered in Italy while he was trying to +subdue the West. The young Princess Cleopatra was left a widow in good +time to enter upon a career in the stormy days that followed the death +of the world-monarch. She returned to Macedon, and notwithstanding the +fact that she and her mother Olympias were both of violent tempers, and +frequently quarrelled, yet their interests were too closely united to +permit any permanent estrangement. Her claims to the throne were the +strongest, next to those of the infant Alexander, and, in consequence, +she was much sought after in marriage, and had her choice of almost all +the distinguished men of the time. She regarded marriage as a legitimate +weapon of diplomacy to advance her interests and to increase her +influence. Yet a sad fatality seemed to attach to the men whom she +proposed to honor with her hand. She first chose, probably from ardent +affection, Leonnatus, one of the most gallant of Alexander's generals, +but he was killed while assisting Antipater before Lamia. Her mother +then offered her hand to Perdiccas, when he became regent, and he gladly +accepted; but before the nuptials were celebrated, he was slain in an +attack on Egypt. Had the loyal Eumenes been victorious in his long +struggle against Antigonus, Cleopatra would doubtless have married him, +in spite of the fact that he was not of royal blood. She then resided +for fifteen years in Sardis, amid all the pomp and luxury naturally +attending so noble and beautiful a princess, and became the object of +intrigue among the rival generals. Old Antipater, when appointed regent, +accused her of treason and sedition; but she publicly defended herself, +in their native tongue, before the Macedonian soldiers, and so great was +the influence she exerted over them that Antipater wisely concluded to +withdraw the charge, and harassed her no further. At last, however, at +Sardis, she fell into the power of her old enemy, Antigonus. Realizing +her peril, this redoubtable princess, although past fifty, was planning +escape and flight to Egypt to marry Ptolemy, who had already two wives +and grown-up children. To prevent this marriage of the queen with his +strongest rival, Antigonus put her to death. + +Cleopatra manifested the same strength of personality and independence +of character as her mother Olympias, and she had, in addition, all the +advantages of education and culture which would naturally accrue to the +sister of Alexander. She differed most strongly from her mother and +other Macedonian princesses of the day, in that no murders could be laid +at her door. + +When we come to Cynane, the third daughter of Philip, we find another +type of womanhood. She showed her Illyrian blood in her fondness for +outdoor exercise, being a skilled horsewoman, and she would even enter +into battle at the head of her troops. She was first married by Philip +to her cousin Amyntas. Left a widow, she devoted herself to the +education of her daughter, Eurydice, whom she trained in the same +martial exercises for which she herself was famous. When Philip +Arrhidaeus, the imbecile half-brother of Alexander, son of a female +dancer, Philinna of Larissa, was proclaimed joint heir with the +posthumous son of Roxana to Alexander's dominions, Cynane determined to +marry him to her daughter, and started over to Asia to accomplish this +end. As her influence was great, Perdiccas and Antipater determined to +forestall such a contingency by the murder of the mother, and Perdiccas +sent his brother Alcetas to meet her on the way and put her to death. By +her valor and her eloquence, however, she won over the Macedonian +warriors, so that the schemes of the generals could not be publicly +carried out; but, in defiance of the feelings of the soldiery, Alcetas +secretly consummated the ruthless plot, and Cynane met her doom with +dauntless spirit. After the death of the mother, the discontent of the +Macedonian troops and the respect with which they looked on Eurydice, as +one of the few surviving members of the royal house, induced Perdiccas +not only to spare Eurydice's life, but also to give her in marriage to +the unhappy King Philip Arrhidasus, whose weakened intellectual powers +were due to the drugs of Olympias--the queen who never ceased to wreak +her vengeance upon her rivals in Philip's affections and upon their +ill-fated offspring. + +Then began the long and bitter struggle for mastery between the new +queen, Eurydice, and the old queen, Olympias, who took the part of +Roxana and her son; and only the superior claims of Olympias, as the +mother of Alexander, to the respect of the Macedonian soldiery led to +her final victory over her gifted and powerful rival. These hostile +factions in the royal party of Macedon were to lead to the extinction of +all the legitimate heirs to the throne. After the death of her mortal +enemy Antipater, Eurydice determined to make an active campaign against +his successor, the less able Polysperchon, who had allied himself with +Olympias. She therefore concluded an alliance with Cassander, assembled +an army, and took the field in person. Polysperchon marched against her, +accompanied by Olympias and Roxana, with the young Alexander, and the +presence of Olympias decided the day. + +"As the troops of Alcetas would not fight against her and Cynane, so the +troops of Eurydice deserted her when she led them against the +queen-mother. It was the moment when Olympias's pent-up fury burst out +after many years. Amid her orgies of murder and of disentombing her +enemies, she was not likely to spare the offspring of Philip's +faithlessness; for Philip Arrhidaeus was the son of a Thessalian dancing +girl, and Eurydice the granddaughter of an Illyrian savage. She shut +them up, and meant to kill them by gradual starvation. But her people +began to expostulate, and then, having had Philip shot by Thracians, she +sent Eurydice the sword, the halter, and the hemlock, to take her +choice. But she, praying that Olympias might receive the same gifts, +composed the limbs of her husband, and washed his wounds as best she +could, and then, without one word of complaint at her fate, or the +greatness of her misfortune, hanged herself with the halter. If these +women knew not how to live, they knew how to die." + +A word must be said about Alexander the Great and his relations with the +fair sex; for notwithstanding the fact that in Alexander's career +Persian woman plays the chief role, yet it was by breaking down the +barriers between Greek and Barbarian, between Occidental and Oriental, +that the way was prepared for the larger freedom of woman in succeeding +generations; and in his younger days, before becoming a world-conqueror, +Alexander was greatly influenced by certain women of his household. We +have already spoken of his ardent affection and respect for his +queen-mother. He also had in his childhood a nurse, Lanice, to whom he +was devotedly attached, "He loved her as a mother," says an ancient +writer. Her sons gave their lives in battle for him, and her one +brother, Clitus, who had once rescued him from imminent death, was later +slain by Alexander's own hand in a fit of anger. This deed occasioned +the conqueror infinite regret and remorse, and Arrian tells graphically +how, as he tossed weeping on his bed of repentance, "he kept calling the +name of Clitus and the name of Lanice, Clitus's sister, who nursed and +reared him--Lanice the daughter of Dropides,--'Fair return I have made +in manhood's years for thy nurture and care--thou who hast seen thy sons +die fighting in my behalf; and now I have slain thy brother with mine +own hand!'" + +Another friend of his youth was a lady of noble birth, by name Ada, whom +he dignified with the title of "mother," and later established as Queen +of Caria. Plutarch tells how, as a friendly attention, she used to send +him daily not only all sorts of meats and cakes, but finally went so far +as to send him the cleverest cooks and bakers she could find, though, +owing to the rigid training of his tutor, he was extremely temperate in +eating and drinking and did not avail himself of her indulgence. + +Alexander was ever considerate of women, even when these were taken +captive in battle, and Plutarch tells an interesting story of his +treatment of a noble lady of Thebes, when he had captured and was about +to raze that city: + +"Among the other calamities that befell the city, it happened that some +Thracian soldiers having broken into the house of a matron of high +character and repute, named Timycha, their captain, after he had used +violence with her, to satisfy his avarice as well as lust, asked her if +she knew of any money concealed, to which she readily answered she did, +and bade him follow her into a garden, where she showed him a well, into +which, she told him, upon the taking of the city she had thrown what she +had of the most value. The greedy Thracian presently stooping down to +view the place where he thought the treasure lay, she came behind him +and pushed him into the well, and then flung great stones in upon him +till she had killed him. After which, when the soldiers led her away +bound to Alexander, her very mien and gait showed her to be a woman of +dignity and of a mind no less elevated. And when the king asked her who +she was, 'I am,' she said, the sister of Theagenes who fought the battle +of Chaeronea with your father Philip, and fell there in command for the +liberty of Greece.' Alexander was so surprised, both at what she had +done and what she said, that he could not choose but give her and her +children their liberty." + +In the evil fortunes of the princesses of Macedon the Persian wives of +Alexander shared. Roxana, the daughter of a Bactrian satrap, whose +youthfulness and beauty charmed him at a drinking entertainment, was the +first of his wives. Later, in celebrating at Susa the union of Europe +and Asia by the marriage of his Greek officers to Persian maidens, he +himself wedded Statira, the daughter of Darius. "After Alexander's +death, Roxana," says Plutarch, "who was now with child, and upon that +account much honored by the Macedonians, being jealous of Statira, sent +for her by a counterfeit letter, as if Alexander had still been alive; +and when she had her in her power, killed her and her sister and threw +their babies into a well which they filled up with earth, not without +the assistance of Perdiccas, who in the time immediately following the +king's death, under cover of the name of Arrhidaeus, whom he carried +about with him as a sort of guard to his person, exercised the chief +authority." There is no more tragic story than that of the fate of the +young Alexander and his mother. Olympias, the grandmother, warmly +espoused the youth's cause, but his existence was a menace to the +ambitions of the rival generals. Cassander finally seized the power in +Macedon and obtained possession of Roxana and her son, whom he confined +in the fortress of Amphipolis and later caused to be secretly +assassinated by the governor of the fortress. + +After the murder of Roxana and her son, a movement was made to raise to +the throne Heracles, son of Darius's daughter, Barsine, he being the +sole surviving offspring of Alexander, though a bastard; but Cassander, +perceiving the danger, conspired for the destruction of the young +prince, and the latter was poisoned or strangled by the treacherous +Polysperchon. His mother, who lived with him at Pergamum, was also +secretly put to death. So perished by violent death all the women of the +family of Philip and Alexander, except Thessalonica, who became the wife +of Cassander, the destroyer of her mother and her half-sisters. + + * * * * * + +On the death of Alexander, his generals began the task of establishing +independent dominions. They were surrounded by a group of princesses who +added to the interest and liveliness of the court society of the times. +These generals and their sons, in spite of their bitter rivalries and +constant wars, eagerly sought family alliances with each other, such as +would in any way increase their prestige. Hence, the princesses who +were thus in demand were expected to take a part in the game of politics +and diplomacy; and frequent marriages fell to the lot of many of them, +as husbands were ofttimes either slain or murdered, and divorces were +readily obtained for the slightest reasons of State. The marriage tie +seems to have been regarded with but little sanctity; and no bonds were +forbidden because of relationship or of family feuds, Cratesipolis, for +instance, was the wife of Alexander, son of the titular regent +Polysperchon; and at Alexander's death, the father married his son's +widow. She had a thrilling career, and was famous not only for her +warlike qualities, but also for her goodness of heart and kindness to +the poor. Her first husband was Tyrant of Sicyon, and at his death she +seized the reins of power. The citizens, despising her because she was a +woman, revolted; but she met them in battle, herself commanding her +troops, and defeated them and crucified the thirty ringleaders of the +revolt. Thus she established her power. + +Of all the princesses of this stormy period, the one who ranks as the +noblest and most virtuous woman of her age was Phila, daughter of +Antipater and wife of Demetrius the Besieger, son of Antigonus--the +Alcibiades among the princes of the Succession. She shared with her +brilliant husband his various vicissitudes of fortune; and she bore +uncomplainingly his many infidelities, his disgraces, and his +misfortunes. When, after an erratic career of successes and failures, he +was made King of Macedon, she no doubt attained the height of her +desires. But his ambition soared higher, and he endeavored to organize a +movement to reconquer and embrace under his exclusive rule the whole +extent of the empire of Alexander. He was unsuccessful; and after seven +years of power as King of Macedon, he was expelled from his kingdom and +was compelled to flee for his life to the Peloponnesus. The blow was too +severe for his noble-hearted wife, and Phila poisoned herself when she +thought his ruin inevitable. She left two children by Demetrius who +became prominent in the politics of the times--Antigonus Gonatas, who +stood nobly by his father in his misfortunes, and who finally became +King of Macedon and was the first of that famous line of kings which +became extinct only at the hands of the Romans; and Stratonice, who at +the tender age of seventeen was married to the aged Seleucus, King of +Syria. + +Plutarch tells an interesting story of this princess. Antiochus, son of +Seleucus, fell violently ill, and it was difficult for the royal +physicians to discover the nature of the malady. Finally, the cleverest +of them observed that when Stratonice, the prince's young stepmother, +was present, he exhibited all the symptoms mentioned by Sappho in her +famous ode,--"his ears rang, sweat poured down his forehead, a trembling +seized his body, he became paler than grass." The physician at once +perceived that Antiochus was sick for love of the queen. The wily +physician, however, in explaining to Seleucus the nature of the malady, +pretended at first that it was his own wife with whom the prince was in +love; but, so soon as he fully ascertained the king's mind, he told him +that his son was dying for love of his stepmother, the beautiful +Stratonice. Without a moment's hesitation, the old king resigned his +wife to his son and gave them an independent kingdom as a wedding +present. + +It is rather a remarkable society of queens and princesses to which the +court of Macedon admits us,--the licentious and cruel Eurydice the +Elder, mother of Philip; the gloomy and violent Olympias; the brilliant +and versatile Cleopatra; the valiant and eloquent Cynane and her +warlike and ambitious daughter Eurydice; the rather colorless and +ill-fated wives of Alexander the Great; the kind-hearted Cratesipolis; +the unselfish and noble Phila; and her beautiful daughter Stratonice. + +The court life of which they formed a part had its brilliant side, with +its veneering of Greek culture and much of the etiquette and ceremony of +an Oriental monarchy, and they were the objects of all the respect with +which high station endows royal women at the hands of courtiers and +gallant soldiers. But one is apt to think rather of the storm and +turmoil through which they passed, of their jealousies and intrigues, of +their marriages and alliances, and of the violent deaths which they all, +with one or two exceptions, found at last. Yet, the most wicked of them +had redeeming qualities; even Olympias, who sent numberless men to +death, was devoted to her own children, and fought to the bitter end for +the rights of her son's heirs; and Eurydice the Younger, who carried on +the losing battle with the aged queen, was ever the zealous wife of her +weak husband, Arrhidaeus. Phila stands out, however, amid this remarkable +group, as the one against whom nothing can be said and whose virtues +were preeminent--the ever-faithful and devoted wife of the most +brilliant and most licentious man of his time. + +A history of Greek womanhood would not be complete, did it not somewhere +in the volume consider the story of two Greek queens noted for their +beauty, their wisdom in counsels, and their valor in war, and withal for +their devoted love,--the two Artemisias, Queens of Caria. The first +flourished during the Persian Wars, in which she took a prominent part; +the second, a century later, and her name is closely identified with the +names of many members of the Hellenistic royal families and with the +later history of Greek art. Hence we feel justified in appending the +account to this chapter discussing the careers of Hellenistic +princesses. + +Herodotus delights to praise the first Artemisia's queenliness and +wisdom, and the only fault he has to find with her is that she fought on +the Persian side. He dwells on her story whenever the occasion offers, +and we shall be pardoned for permitting the great story teller to sketch +the account of her career: + +"Of the rest of the officers [of the Persian fleet] I make no mention, +but only of Artemisia, at whom I marvel most that she joined the +expedition against Hellas, being a woman, for after her husband died, +she, holding the power herself, although she had a son who was a young +man, went on the expedition, impelled by high spirit and manly courage, +no necessity being laid upon her; and she was the daughter of Lygdamus, +and by descent she was of Halicarnassus, on the side of her father, but +of Crete by her mother. She was ruler of the men of Halicarnassus, Cos, +Nisyrus, and Calynda, furnishing five ships, and she furnished ships +which were of all the fleet reputed the best after those of the +Sidonians; and of all his allies she set forth the best counsels to the +king. Of the States of which I said she was the leader, I declare the +people to be all of Dorian race." + +After the disaster to the Persian fleet at Artemisium, King Xerxes was +in doubt as to his future policy. He knew that the Greeks had gathered a +great fleet at Salamis, and, after sacking Athens, his own naval +strength was being collected in the Saronic Gulf. The problem was +whether to make a naval engagement, and accordingly "Xerxes sent +Mardonius and inquired, making trial of each one, whether he should +fight a battle by sea. So when Mardonius went round asking them, the +others gave their opinions, all to the same effect, advising him to +fight a battle by sea, but Artemisia spoke these words: 'Tell the king +that I, who have proved myself to be not the worst in the sea fights +which have been fought near Euboea, and have displayed deeds not +inferior to those of others, speak to him thus: "Master, it is right +that I set forth the opinion that I really have and say that which I +happen to think best for thy cause; and this I say--spare thy ships and +do not make a sea fight; for their men are as much stronger than thy men +by sea, as men are stronger than women. And why must thou needs run the +risk of sea battles? If, however, thou hasten to fight forthwith, I fear +that damage done to the fleet may ruin the land army also. Moreover, O +king, consider also this, that the servants of good men are apt to grow +bad, and thou, who art of all men the best, hast bad servants, namely +those who are reckoned as allies, Egyptians, Cyprians, and Cilicians, in +whom there is no profit."' When she thus spoke, those who were friendly +to Artemisia were grieved at her words, supposing that she would suffer +some evil from the king; while those who had envy and jealousy of her, +because she had been honored above all the allies, were rejoiced at the +opposition, supposing that she would now be ruined. When, however, the +opinions were reported to Xerxes, he was greatly pleased with the +opinion of Artemisia; and whereas even before this he thought her +excellent, he commended her now yet more." + +Xerxes, however, did not follow the counsel of Artemisia, but was +persuaded to attack the fleet of the Greeks. Artemisia entered most +valiantly into the sea fight, which very soon began to be disastrous to +the Persians. + +"When the affairs of the king had come to great confusion, at this +crisis the ship of Artemisia was being pursued by an Athenian ship; and +as she was not able to escape, for in front of her were other ships of +her own side, while her ship was further advanced toward the enemy, she +resolved what she would do. She charged in full career against a ship of +her own side manned by Calyndians and in which the King of the +Calyndians was embarked. Now though even it be true that she had had +some strife with him before while they were still about the Hellespont, +yet I am not able to say whether she did this by intuition or whether +the Calyndian ship happened by chance to fall in her way. Having charged +against it and sunk it, she enjoyed good fortune and got for herself +good in two ways; for first the captain of the Athenian ship, when he +saw her charge against a ship manned by barbarians, turned away and went +after others, supposing that the ship of Artemisia was either a Hellenic +ship or was deserting from the barbarians and fighting for the Hellenes. +Secondly, she gained great reputation by this thing with Xerxes, for +besides other things which happened fortunately for her, there was this +also, that not one of the crew of the Calyndian ship survived to become +her accuser. Xerxes is reported to have said: 'My men have become women +and my women men.' + +"Now if the Athenian captain had known that Artemisia was sailing in +this ship, he would not have ceased until either he had taken her or had +been taken himself; for orders had been given to the Athenian captains +and a prize was offered of ten thousand drachmas for the man who could +take her alive; since they thought it intolerable that a woman should +make an expedition against Athens." + +After the calamitous issue of the battle of Salamis, Xerxes, having +learned by hard experience that the insight of such a woman as Artemisia +was more to be depended upon than the wisdom of his male advisers, once +more sends for Artemisia and takes counsel with her. "When Xerxes was +taking counsel with those of the Persians who were called to be his +advisers, it seemed good to him to send for Artemisia also to give him +counsel, because at the former time she alone had showed herself to have +perception of that which ought to be done. So when Artemisia had come, +Xerxes removed from him all the rest and spoke to her thus: 'Mardonius +bids me stay here and make an attempt on the Peloponnesus, saying that +the Persians and the land army are not guilty of any share in my +calamity and that they would gladly give me proof of this. He bids me, +therefore, either do this, or, if not, he desires himself to choose +thirty myriads from the army and to deliver over to me Hellas reduced to +subjection; and he bids me withdraw with the rest of the army to my own +abode. So now advise me which of these things I shall do.' She spoke +these words: 'O king! it seems good to me that thou shouldst retire back +and leave Mardonius here, if he desires it, and undertakes to do this. +If Mardonius suffer any disaster, no account will be made; and if the +Hellenes conquer, they gain a victory which is no victory, having +destroyed one who is but thy slave. Thou, however, wilt retire, having +done that for which thou didst make thy march--that is to say, having +delivered Athens to the fire,' With this advice Xerxes was greatly +pleased, since she succeeded in saying that very thing which he himself +was meaning to do. He commended Artemisia, therefore, and sent her away +to conduct his sons to Ephesus, for there were certain sons of his who +accompanied him." + +This time Xerxes took the advice of Artemisia, and left Mardonius with +three hundred thousand men to carry on the campaign, while he himself, +with the greater part of his forces which had survived, retired to +Persia. Artemisia, having won great glory by her valor and wisdom +returned to her own dominions, and we know nothing authentic as to her +later life. So queenly a woman, however, could not escape the Greek +fondness for manufacturing marvellous stories concerning the great; and +Ptolemy Hephaestion, a writer who mingles little fact with much fancy in +his works, preserves a tradition that Artemisia came to her end in a +most romantic manner. During her later years, she conceived a violent +attachment for Dardanus, a beautiful youth of Abydos. As her passion was +not returned, she avenged herself by putting out his eyes while he +slept. This excited the anger of the gods, and in obedience to an oracle +she, like the traditional Sappho, threw herself down from the Lover's +Leap of Leucate. + +The second Artemisia is immortalized by her attachment to her husband +Mausolus, King of Caria, in memory of whom she built the celebrated and +stately tomb, considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient +world. This imposing structure, four hundred and forty feet in circuit, +and one hundred and forty feet high, built by the most renowned +architects of the time, embellished with sculptures from the hands of +Scopas and his associates, and rendered gorgeous by the use of the most +varied colors, gave the name of _mausoleum_ to all succeeding sepulchres +built on a colossal scale. No expense was spared by the devoted queen to +make it expressive of her love for her husband and brother; for this +species of marriage, so common later in Egypt, was sanctioned by the +customs of the country. + +She furthermore invited the most noted writers of the day to attend a +literary contest, and offered the richest prizes to the one who should +excel in composing a panegyric to her husband's virtue. Notwithstanding +the interest she took in these memorials to her departed lord, she +continued to be a prey to the deepest affliction. The story is told +that she visited the place where her husband's ashes were deposited, +and, mixing them with water, drank them off, for the purpose of +becoming, as she said, the living tomb of her husband. In spite of her +poignant grief, she did not neglect the duties of her elevated position, +but conquered the island of Rhodes, whose inhabitants she treated with +great severity. Her love of art was shown in the two statues she had set +up in the city, one representing the city of Rhodes, habited like a +slave, the other of herself branding the city with a hot iron. Though +interested in making Halicarnassus a centre of art and culture, and +extending and strengthening her dominions, she could not overcome her +desolation of heart, and is said to have died of grief two years after +the loss of her husband. + + + + +XV + +THE ALEXANDRIAN WOMAN + + +The Forty-five Years' War came to a close in B.C. 277. It had been +entered into by those generals of Alexander the Great who succeeded to +his dominions, and its close witnessed three dynasties firmly +established and a number of minor principalities governed by various +petty rulers. The main divisions of the Hellenistic world at this time +were the kingdoms of Macedonia, under the successors of Antigonus +Gonatas; of Syria, under the Seleucidae; and of Egypt, under the +Ptolemies; while the chief second-rate powers were Pergamum and Rhodes. +These States continued to be the great centres of Hellenism until they +were one by one overthrown by the mightier power of Rome, which in its +turn continued and perpetuated the Greek spirit, so that it has become +an element in the culture and civilization of modern times. + +The most striking feature of social life in the Hellenistic Age was its +cosmopolitan character, reminding one of the European culture of to-day. +We know almost nothing of the life of the peoples of the different +nationalities, but the history of the times deals largely with the +courts of the rulers, and with the wars and commercial rivalries of +contending powers. As we have frequently noticed in previous chapters, +the status of woman under the old monarchical governments was an +elevated and influential one. Kings must have their courts, and court +life always presupposes a queen, with her attendant ladies; and in the +story of the Hellenistic periods of the world's history, one of the most +striking features is the number of royal women who enter upon the stage +of action and play a prominent part for the weal or woe of mankind. + +We have already considered the character of the Macedonian woman--bold, +fearless, ambitious, ready to resort to cruelty and to intrigue in the +carrying-out of her ends. Macedonian character partook of the rugged, +hardy nature of the land, and the women of the country cared more for +outdoor sports and scenes of war than for the enervating luxuries of the +East and the letters of Egypt. + +The kingdom of Syria, with its luxurious capital at Antioch, under the +dynasty of the Seleucidae, was perhaps, as a whole, more Hellenistic in +culture than either Egypt or Macedon, and united more generally the +refinement of Greece with the luxury and splendor of the Orient. +Unfortunately, we know but little of this important kingdom, except as +to its wars and politics. Though Antiochus, the real founder of the +dynasty, was a patron of letters and maintained learned men at his +court, no literature of importance arose to tell us of its patrons; and, +excepting the story already told of his romantic marriage with +Stratonice, we know nothing of Antiochus's private life and but few +incidents in the lives of his successors. We know that the population of +Syria was manifold in nationality, in politics, and in manners, and that +the Greek cities, which were so profusely established, developed a high +degree of culture and created a general diffusion of knowledge. Juvenal, +in describing the Greek influence on Rome, speaks of the Syrian river +Orontes as flowing into the Tiber, and, doubtless, the Greek of the +Orient was the type most largely represented in the mixed population of +Rome. Antioch became a formidable rival of Alexandria as a social and +commercial centre, and extended Greek influence over a far wider area +than did the Egyptian city. But when we seek to know something of the +social life of this important branch of Hellenism, of the details of +private life and of the condition of women, we have absolutely no source +of information. Outside of the history of the royal family, there is +unbroken silence as to the more intimate story of Syria. + +In this concluding chapter, therefore, we shall confine our attention to +Alexandria and the court of the Ptolemies, whither the centre of gravity +of the Greek world trended after the fall of Greek independence and the +decline of Athens. Its great founder seems to have shown prophetic +insight in his selection of the spot on which to build the city that +should bear his name, and the supremacy of that city was assured when +Alexander by his conquests opened up the Orient to Greek commerce; but +the greatest good fortune of Alexandria lay in obtaining a ruler of the +ability and insight and energy of Ptolemy Soter. + +Ptolemy, the son of Lagus and Arsinoe, had grown up with Alexander as +one of his playfellows, and later became one of his most trusted, though +not most prominent, generals. There is a story that, before her +marriage, Arsinoe was a mistress of Philip, and that Ptolemy was in +truth the half-brother of Alexander; but there is no testimony to +substantiate the tradition, unless it be found in Ptolemy's likeness to +Philip in intrigue and governing power. + +During the stormy years following the death of Alexander, Ptolemy, alone +of the generals, seems to have preserved his mental balance; and +instead of entering into the struggles of his rivals for world-empire, +he preferred to acquire as his secure dominion the province of Egypt, so +easily defensible, and separated from the contestable ground of opposing +nations. + +The policy of the first Ptolemy moulded the history of Egypt and the +destinies of Hellenism. He surrounded himself with Greeks, so that they +became the dominant faction in the government and determined the tone of +court society. He gave religious freedom and large liberty in other +respects to the Egyptians, so that they became supporters of the +dynasty. By the foundation of the Museum, or University, of Alexandria, +he made his capital the literary centre of the new era and attracted to +his court learned men from all parts of the world. Greek became the +language of the court, and Greek culture and manners there prevailed. + +Mahaffy graphically describes the brilliant court life of Alexandria +under Soter and his successors: + +"So it came to pass that Ptolemy Soter gathered into his capital every +kind of splendor.... He established the most brilliant palace and court, +with festivals which were the wonder of the world. He gathered all that +he could command of learning and literary fame, and the city was +adequate to the largeness and splendor of its external appearance. We +have it described in later times as astonishing the beholder not only +with its vastness, but also with the splendor of its colonnades, which +lined the streets for miles and kept the ways cool for passengers; with +the din and bustle of the thoroughfares, of which the principal were +horse and carriage ways, contrary to the usual Greek practice; with the +number and richness of its public buildings, and with the holiday and +happy airs of its vast population, who rested not day and night, but +had their streets so well lighted that Achilles Tatius says the sun did +not set, but was distributed to illumine the gay night. The palace and +other royal buildings and parks were walled off like the palace at +Pekin, and had their own port and seashore, but all the rest of the town +had water near it and ship traffic in all directions. Every costume and +language must have been met in its streets and quays. It had its +fashionable suburbs too, and its bathing resorts to the east, Canopus, +Eleusis, and Nicopolis; to the west, its Necropolis. But of all this +splendor no eye-witness has left us in detail what we are reduced to +infer by conjecture." + +The dynasty of the Ptolemies, so ably founded by Ptolemy Soter and +ending with the reign of the great Cleopatra, presents a series of +monarchs renowned for their culture, their luxury, their lasciviousness, +and their cruelty; and by the side of the kings may be found a series of +queens unrivalled in history for their cleverness, their wickedness, or +their beauty. Woman's place in this dynasty was a most influential one, +and she possessed all the freedom and power that could well fall to her +lot; she knew nothing whatever of the restrictions common in old Greek +life or in the life of the Orient. This was no doubt partly due to the +fact that the Macedonian spirit prevailed, partly that the status of +woman among the Egyptians themselves had its influence on the +conquerors. Papyri found in recent years demonstrate the legal +independence and freedom of women among the ancient Egyptians. A married +woman could make contracts and hold property in her own name and perform +all legal acts, without reference to her husband. Monogamy was the rule, +though in addition to the "dear wife" or "the lady of the house" there +were frequently subordinate wives. So supreme was the position of woman +that there were instances in which the husband settled all his property +on his wife, upon condition that she support him for the rest of his +days and give him a decent burial. There was such a contrast between the +Egyptian and the old Greek conception of woman that the Greek ofttimes +jeered at the Egyptian submission to feminine domination. In Alexandria +under the Ptolemies, accordingly, owing to Macedonian respect for woman +and the old Egyptian idea of feminine worth and capacity, the gentler +sex experienced conditions altogether different from those in ancient +Athens and enjoyed a freedom similar to that of modern times. + +Ptolemy Soter, like his successors, was very fond of women, and +recognized fully the influence to be gained by political marriage. +Alexander, at the famous wedding feast, married his general to the +daughter of one of the noblest of the Persians, but we hear nothing +further of this union. His first political marriage was with Eurydice, +daughter of Antipater, the old regent, and some years later he married +Berenice, the grandniece of Antipater. He did not divorce Eurydice, but +openly adopted the practice of polygamy, which was sanctioned in both +Macedon and Egypt. The two wives seem to have lived together amicably, +but Berenice was the favorite. She was a woman of amiable but strong +character, and she maintained unbroken ascendency over her husband. So +skilful was her diplomacy that her son Magas, the fruit of a former +marriage, was appointed King of Cyrene, while her son Ptolemy was made +her husband's successor on the throne of Egypt, to the exclusion of +Eurydice's much older son, Ceraunus. + +Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of Berenice, succeeded to the throne of Egypt +in B.C. 285, and for forty years was the most famous monarch in the +world. His court was renowned for its splendor and magnificence, and +may be aptly compared to the courts of Haroun al Raschid and Lorenzo de' +Medici, and here too woman played her part. Philadelphus's first wife +was Arsinoe I., daughter of Lysimachus, King of Thrace, who bore him +several children. It is not known definitely why Philadelphus divorced +her, but there is a story that she was detected plotting against his +life, which resulted in her divorce and banishment. The second wife was +likewise named Arsinoe, Ptolemy's own full sister. This match proved to +be a very happy one. Arsinoe had had an eventful career. Daughter of +Ptolemy and Berenice, she first became the wife of King Lysimachus of +Thrace, and at his untimely death she married Ptolemy Ceraunus, her +half-brother, the banished son of Eurydice. She and her husband caused +the murder of Agathocles, the rightful heir of Lysimachus, and Ceraunus +later murdered the children of Arsinoe by Lysimachus. After such an +experience in crime and misfortune, at the death of her second husband +she retired for a season,--a widow of middle age,--and then emerged to +become the consort of her brother Philadelphus. Arsinoe herself first +assumed the title Philadelphus, "loving her brother," by which the king +came to be known in later generations. As she was childless and was not +likely to have any heirs of her own, Arsinoe adopted her predecessor's +children; and being her husband's sister, she did not disturb him in the +many amours which consumed so large a part of his time. + +Arsinoe was a woman of brilliant intellectual gifts, and the union +between her and Philadelphus seems to have been of the intellectual and +spiritual kind. She proved to be an able helper in all the affairs of +government; she assisted him in the financial administration and +particularly in foreign affairs; she encouraged him in his endeavor to +make Alexandria the centre of letters and art, and her name is coupled +with his in all the great events of this period. The two were deified, +and statues were erected to them as Gods Adelphi. The marriage between +brother and sister was quite in accord with Egyptian notions, and in the +public records, for ages past, the queen had been called _sister_ of the +king, whether she was really so or not. The marriage was compared by +court poets with that of Zeus and Hera; and the couple were frequently +lauded by them for their many achievements and the splendor of their +court. + +The reign of Philadelphus and Arsinoe was the brilliant epoch of +Alexandrian literature, and we may well pause at this point to see what +glimpses the poets of Alexandria give us into the feminine life of the +day. Theocritus, the famous pastoral poet, lays the scene of his +fifteenth idyl in Alexandria, and presents one of the most charming bits +of feminine life that literature affords us. The feast of Adonis, +described in an earlier chapter, was about to be celebrated at the +palace of King Ptolemy, and two ladies of Alexandria had agreed to go +together to see the image of Adonis which Queen Arsinoe "had decorated +with great magnificence, and to hear a celebrated prima donna sing the +Adonis song." The household details, the toilettes, the complaints of +the two cronies about their husbands, the admiration of a new dress and +its cost, the rough treatment of an unknown servant; then the crowd in +the streets, the terrors of the passing cavalry, the squeeze at the +entrance, the saucy rejoinder to a stranger who protests against their +incessant jabber--these and many other comic and picturesque details +have made this poem the best known among the so-called _Idyls_, and +indicate that the everyday life of woman in Ptolemaic Alexandria was +much the same as her life to-day. Gorgo, one of the ladies, goes by +appointment to the house of her friend Praxinoe, where the dialogue +begins: + + * * * * * + +GORGO.--Is Praxinoe at home? + +PRAXINOE.--Dear Gorgo, how long it is since you have been here! She _is_ +at home. The wonder is that you have got here at last! Eunoe, see that +she has a chair. Throw a cushion on it, too. + +GORGO.--It does most charmingly as it is. + +PRAXINOE.--Do sit down. + +GORGO.--Oh, what a thing spirit is! I have scarcely got to you alive, +Praxinoe! What a huge crowd, what hosts of four-in-hands! Everywhere +cavalry boots, everywhere men in uniform! And the road is endless; yes, +you really live _too_ far away! + +PRAXINOE.--It is all the fault of that madman of mine. Here he came to +the ends of the earth and took--a hole, not a house, and all that we +might not be neighbors. The jealous wretch, always the same, ever for +spite! + +GORGO.--Don't talk of your husband Dinon like that, my dear girl, before +the little boy--look how he is staring at you! Never mind, Zopyrion, +sweet child, she is not speaking about papa. + +PRAXINOE.--Our Lady! the child takes notice, + +GORGO.--Nice papa! + +PRAXINOE.--That papa of his the other day--we call every day "the other +day"--went to get soap and rouge at the shop, and back he came to me +with salt--the great big endless fellow! + +GORGO.--Mine has the same trick, too, a perfect +spend-thrift--Diocleides! Yesterday he got what he meant for five +fleeces, and paid seven shillings apiece for--what do you +suppose?--dogskins, shreds of old leather wallets, mere trash--trouble +on trouble! But come, take your cloak and shawl. Let us be off to the +palace of rich Ptolemy, the king, to see the _Adonis_; I hear the queen +has provided something splendid! + +PRAXINOE.--Fine folks do everything finely. + +GORGO.--What a tale you will have to tell about the things you have +seen, to anyone who has not seen them! It seems nearly time to go. + +PRAXINOE.--Idlers have always holiday. Eunoe, bring the water and put it +down in the middle of the room, lazy creature that you are. Cats like +always to sleep soft! Come, bustle, bring the water; quicker! I want +water first, and how she carries it! give it me, all the same; don't +pour out so much, you extravagant thing! Stupid girl! Why are you +wetting my dress? There, stop, I have washed my hands, as heaven would +have it. Where is the key of the big chest? Bring it here. + +GORGO.--Praxinoe, that full bodice becomes you wonderfully. Tell me, how +much did the stuff cost you just off the loom? + +PRAXINOE.--Don't speak of it, Gotgo! More than eight pounds in good +silver money,--and the work on it! I nearly slaved my soul out over it! + +GORGO.--Well, it is _most_ successful; all you could wish. + +PRAXINOE,--Thanks for the pretty speech! Bring my shawl, and set my hat +on my head, the fashionable way. No, child, I don't mean to take you. +Boo! Bogies! There's a horse that bites! Cry as much as you please, but +I cannot have you lamed. Let us be moving. Phrygia, take the child and +keep him amused, call in the dog, and shut the street door. + +(_They go into the street_.) + +Ye gods, what a crowd! How on earth are we ever to get through this +coil? They are like ants that no one can measure or number. Many a good +deed have you done, Ptolemy; since your father joined the Immortals, +there's never a malefactor to spoil the passer-by, creeping on him in +Egyptian fashion--oh! the tricks those perfect rascals used to play. +Birds of a feather, ill jesters, scoundrels all! Dear Gorgo, what will +become of us? Here come the king's war horses! My dear man, don't +trample on me. Look, the bay's rearing; see, what temper! Eunoe, you +foolhardy girl, will you never keep out of the way? The beast will kill +the man that's leading him. What a good thing it is for me that my brat +stays safe at home! + +GORGO.--Courage, Praxinoe. We are safe behind them now, and they have +gone to their station. + +PRAXINOE.--There! I begin to be myself again. Ever since I was a child, +I have feared nothing so much as horses and the chilly snake. Come +along, the huge mob is overflowing us. + +GORGO (_to an old woman_).--Are you from the Court, mother? + +OLD WOMAN.--I am, my child. + +PRAXINOE.--Is it easy to get there? + +OLD WOMAN.--The Achaeans got into Troy by trying, my prettiest of ladies. +Trying will do everything in the long run. + +GORGO.--The old wife has spoken her oracles, and off she goes. + +PRAXINOE.--Women know everything; yes, and how Zeus married Hera! + +GORGO.--See, Praxinoe, what a crowd there is about the doors! + +PRAXINOE.--Monstrous, Gorgo! Give me your hand; and you, Eunoe, catch +hold of Eutychis; never lose hold of her, for fear lest you get lost. +Let us all go in together; Eunoe, clutch tight to me. Oh, how tiresome, +Gorgo, my muslin veil is torn in two already! For heaven's sake, sir, +if you ever wish to be fortunate, take care of my shawl! + +STRANGER.--I can hardly help myself, but, for all that, I will be as +careful as I can. + +PRAXINOE.--How close-packed the mob is, they hustle like a herd of +swine! + +STRANGER.--Courage, lady; all is well with us now. + +PRAXINOE.--Both this year and forever may all be well with you, my dear +sir, for your care of us. A good, kind man! We're letting Eunoe get +squeezed--come, wretched girl, push your way through. That is the way. +We are all on the right side of the door, quoth the bridegroom, when he +had shut himself in with his bride. + +GORGO.--Do come here, Praxinoe. Look first at these embroideries. How +light and how lovely! You will call them the garments of the gods. + +PRAXINOE.--Lady Athena! what spinning women wrought them, what painters +designed those drawings, so true they are? How naturally they stand and +move, like living creatures, not patterns woven! What a clever thing is +man! Ah, and himself--Adonis--how beautiful to behold he lies on his +silver couch, with the first down on his cheeks, the thrice-beloved +Adonis,--Adonis beloved even among the dead! + +A STRANGER.--You weariful women, do cease your endless cooing talk! They +bore one to death with their eternal broad vowels! + +GORGO.--Indeed! And where may this person come from? What is it to you +if we _are_ chatterboxes! Give orders to your own servants, sir. Do you +pretend to command ladies of Syracuse? If you must know, we are +Corinthians by descent, like Bellerophon himself, and we speak +Peloponnesian. Dorian women may lawfully speak Doric, I presume? + +PRAXINOE.--Lady Persephone!--never may we have more than one master! I +am not afraid of _your_ putting me on short commons. + +GORGO.--Hush, hush, Praxinoe! the Argive woman's daughter, the great +singer, is beginning the _Adonis_; she that won the prize last year for +dirge singing. I am sure she will give us something lovely; see, she is +preluding with her airs and graces. + + * * * * * + +THE PSALM OF ADONIS + +O Queen that lovest Golgi, and Idalium, and the steep of Eryx, O +Aphrodite, that playest with gold, Io, from the stream eternal of +Acheron they have brought back to thee Adonis--even in the twelfth month +they have brought him, the dainty-footed Hours. Tardiest of the +Immortals are the beloved Hours, but dear and desired they come, for +always, to all mortals, they bring some gift with them. O Cypris, +daughter of Dione, from mortal to immortal, so men tell, thou hast +changed Berenice, dropping softly in the woman's breast the stuff of +immortality. + +Therefore, for thy delight, O thou of many names and many temples, doth +the daughter of Berenice, even Arsinoe, lovely as Helen, cherish Adonis +with all things beautiful. + +Before him lie all ripe fruits that the tall trees' branches bear, and +the delicate gardens, arrayed in baskets of silver, and the golden +vessels are full of incense of Syria. And all the dainty cakes that +women fashion in the kneading tray, mingling blossoms manifold with the +white wheaten flour, all that is wrought of honey sweet, and in soft +olive oil, all cakes fashioned in the semblance of things that fly, and +of things that creep, Io, here they are set before him. + +Here are built for him shadowy bowers of green, all laden with tender +anise, and children flit overhead--the little Loves--as the young +nightingales perched upon the trees fly forth and try their wings from +bough to bough. + +O the ebony, O the gold, O the twin eagles of white ivory that carry to +Zeus, the son of Cronos, his darling, his cupbearer! O the purple +coverlet strewn above, more soft than sleep! So Miletus will say, and +whoso feeds sheep in Samos. + +Another bed is strewn for beautiful Adonis, one bed Cypris keeps, and +one the rosy-armed Adonis. A bridegroom of eighteen or nineteen years is +he, his kisses are not rough, the golden down being yet upon his lips! +And now, good-night to Cypris, in the arms of her lover! But Io, in the +morning we will all of us gather with the dew, and carry him forth among +the waves that break upon the beach, and with locks unloosed, and ungirt +raiment falling to the ankles, and bosom bare, will we begin our shrill, +sweet song. + +Thou only, dear Adonis, so men tell, thou only of the demigods, dost +visit both this world and the stream of Acheron. For Agamemnon had no +such lot, nor Aias, that mighty, lord of the terrible anger, nor Hector, +the eldest born of the twenty sons of Hecuba, nor Patroclus, nor +Pyrrhus, that returned out of Troy land, nor the heroes of yet more +ancient days, the Lapithae and Deucalion's sons, nor the sons of Pelops, +and the chiefs of Pelasgian Argos. Be gracious now, dear Adonis, and +propitious even in the coming year. Dear to us has thine advent been, +Adonis, and dear shall it be when thou comest again. + +GORGO.--Praxinoe, the woman is cleverer than we fancied! Happy woman to +know so much, thrice happy to have so sweet a voice! Well, all the same, +it is time to be making for home. Diocleides has not had his dinner, +and the man is all vinegar--don't venture near him when he is kept +waiting for dinner.--Farewell, beloved Adonis, may you find us glad at +your next coming! + +This idyl of Theocritus suggests the freedom of movement and the +ordinary pursuits of the Alexandrian lady in the days of Arsinoe. A lost +work of Callimachus, the AEtia, has also an importance in our quest, +since it contained one of the earliest love stories in literature, +showing the ideals of feminine character which were popular at that +time. As the literary original of that sort of tale which makes love and +marriage the beginning and end of the plot, and which emphasizes the +constancy and purity of female love, this story, which was the model for +the Greek novel of later generations, is evidence that in an age +infamous for the wickedness of those in high places the people yet +delighted in stories of domestic affection and innocence. The tale of +Callimachus, according to Mahaffy, ran in this wise: + +"There were once upon a time two young people of marvellous beauty, +called Acontius and Cydippe. All previous attempts on the part of any +youth or maiden to gain their affections had been fruitless; and the one +went about, a modern Achilles in manly splendor; the other, with the +roses and lilies of her cheeks, added a fourth to the number of the +Graces. But the god Eros,--now already the winged urchin of the +Anacreontics,--angry at this contumacy, determined to assert his power. +They met at a feast of Delos, she from Athens, he from Ceos.... Seized +with violent love at first sight, the youth inscribes on a quince, which +was a fruit used at this particular feast, 'I swear by Artemis that +Acontius shall be my husband,' and this he throws at the girl's feet. +Her nurse picks it up and reads the words to the girl, who blushed 'in +plots of roses' at the oath which she had never taken. But she too is +seized with an absorbing passion, and the situation is complicated by +the ignorance or hardness of heart of her parents, who had determined to +marry her to another man. Her grief prostrates her with sore sickness, +and the marriage is postponed. Meanwhile, Acontius flees the city and +his parents, and wanders disconsolate through the woods, telling to +trees and streams his love, writing 'Cydippe' upon every bark, and +filling all the groves with his sighs. Thrice the parents of the maiden +prepared the wedding, and thrice her illness rendered their preparation +vain. At last the father determined to consult the oracle at Delphi, +which revealed to him the facts and ordered him no longer to thwart the +lovers. Acontius arrives at Athens. The young couple are married, and +the tale ends with an explicit description of their happiness." + +Though there were in Alexandrian literature shocking stories of +unnatural passion, as found later in Ovid, among Roman poets, yet the +type of the Acontius and Cydippe tale fascinated the age and held its +ground, and its moral elevation in contrast to the prevailing corruption +shows how the men and women of the times prized "the original purity of +the maiden, and the importance of its preservation until the happy +conclusion of marriage." + +The son and successor of Philadelphus, the young King Ptolemy III., +Euergetes, continued the literary traditions of the parental court. Soon +after his father's death, he married the Princess Berenice II. of +Cyrene, a young lady of beauty and spirit, who had already experienced +the corruption of the court life of the day. Demetrius the Fair had been +sent from Macedon to obtain her kingdom with her hand, but, while she +was waiting to be of marriageable age, he had beguiled himself by +intriguing with her mother. Berenice, in consequence, had him put to +death. Doubtless her marriage with the young King of Egypt was a +political alliance, but it was based also on mutual liking and appears +to have turned out well. This reign of Euergetes and Berenice is, in +fact, the one reign of the Ptolemies in which neither rival wives nor +mistresses agitated the court. Information concerning this important +period is meagre; we know, however, that no sooner had the bride entered +upon her new happiness than the bridegroom was called away to Syria to +avenge the horrid murder of his sister, also named Berenice, who had +been wedded to the old King Antiochus Theos on condition that the latter +repudiated his former wife Laodice and her children. But Laodice got the +aged king again into her power; and she forthwith poisoned him and had +her son proclaimed king. Her party in Antioch at once rose up against +the new Egyptian queen and murdered her and her infant child. + +Queen Berenice, upon the departure of her husband, consecrated a lock of +her hair in the temple of Aphrodite, with a prayer for his safe return. +The lock mysteriously disappeared, and the philosopher Conon, happening +just at that time to discover a new constellation, declared that the +lock of Berenice's hair had been set among the stars. Callimachus, one +of the court poets, seized this occasion to compose a poem entitled the +_Lock of Berenice_,--preserved in Catullus's elegant Latin +version,--celebrating the accession to the constellations of this lock +of hair, which, according to the conceit of the poet, notwithstanding +its high honor, wishes that it had never been severed from Berenice's +fair head. + +The reigns of Ptolemy Soter, Philadelphus, and Euergetes, with their +brilliant queens, mark the golden age of Alexandria. In Ptolemy IV., +Philopator, we notice the curious and rapid change of the great family +of the Lagidae into debauchees, dilettanti, drunkards, dolts. This +sovereign was a feeble and colorless personage who was completely under +the control of his minister Sosibius, whom Polybius speaks of as "a wily +old baggage and most mischievous to the kingdom; and first he planned +the murder of Lysimachus, who was the son of Arsinoe, daughter of +Lysimachus, and of Ptolemy; secondly, of Magas, the son of Ptolemy and +Berenice, daughter of Magas; thirdly, of Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy +and mother of Philopator; fourthly, of Cleomenes the Spartan; and +fifthly, of Arsinoe, daughter of Berenice, the king's sister and wife." +Surely a criminal of the deepest dye, at whose hands the princesses of +Alexandria suffered untold horrors! During his later years, the king was +under complete subjection to his mistress Agathoclea and her brother +Agathocles. The Queen Arsinoe, the mother of the infant heir to the +throne, who was young and vigorous, was regarded throughout Egypt as the +natural protectress and regent of the young Ptolemy when his father's +life was on the wane; but Agathocles and his sister secretly murdered +her, and, when the king died, presented the prince to the populace and +read a forged will in which they themselves were made his guardians +during his minority. But the people learned of the sad fate of Queen +Arsinoe, and her ill treatment roused the indignation of the populace; +thereupon followed one of the mob riots for which Alexandria was noted. +Polybius gives a dramatic description of the great riot and tells how +the wicked regent Agathocles, his sister Agathoclea, and his mother +Oenanthe, were seized by the multitude and torn in pieces, limb by limb, +while yet they lived. + +When the young King Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, grew up, he took for his +queen Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus III., the Great, and sister of +Antiochus IV., Epiphanes. Now for the first time, with this Syrian +princess, enters the name of Cleopatra in the annals of Egypt. Previous +queens have been named either Berenice or Arsinoe, and from this time on +the three names appear in almost inextricable confusion, Cleopatra +prevailing and being applied at times even to sisters of the same house. +The first Cleopatra was a great and good queen, and after the death of +her husband, whose reign was short and uneventful, and of her elder son, +who seems to have died soon after his accession, she became regent of +her second son, Ptolemy VI., Philometor, who was not seven years old +when he began to reign, Philometor married his sister, Cleopatra II., +and was the last of the Ptolemies who could in any sense be called good. +His later years were clouded by the rivalry of his wicked brother +Physcon, who sought the throne. + +When Philometor was killed in battle, Physcon, or Euergetes II., laid +siege to Alexandria, forced the widowed queen Cleopatra II. to marry +him, murdered her young son Ptolemy, Philopator Neos, the rightful heir, +for whom the mother had made a bold attempt to maintain the throne, and +reigned as Ptolemy VII. Physcon even married the queen's daughter, +Cleopatra III., and we see this remarkable man managing, at the same +time, two ambitious queens, mother and daughter, who were probably at +deadly enmity throughout the period in which they were associated with +him in the royalty. One story, almost too horrible to obtain credence, +tells that Physcon served up as a birthday feast to the mother, +Cleopatra II., his own heir Memphitis. When this wretch finally ended +his days, Cleopatra III., who was as great a monster of ambition, +selfishness, and cruelty as Physcon himself, seems to have murdered her +queen-mother and to have assumed the reins of government, at first +alone, and later associated with her eldest son, Lathyrus Soter II., who +reigned as the eighth Ptolemy. Lathyrus first married his sister +Cleopatra IV., but was finally compelled by his mother to divorce her +and to marry his other sister, Selene. He was finally turned out of his +kingdom by his mother, who desired the accession of his younger brother, +Alexander I., the ninth Ptolemy; and the latter repaid her maternal +interest in him by murdering her as soon as he was secure on the throne. +His queen was Berenice III., with whom he reigned until they were in +turn ousted by Lathyrus. Alexander II., Ptolemy X., succeeded Lathyrus, +and married his stepmother, Berenice III., whom he speedily murdered, +and was himself put to death after a brief reign of nineteen days. +Ptolemy XI., Auletes, an illegitimate son of Soter II., then mounted the +throne, his queen being Cleopatra V., Tryphaena. He was the last and the +weakest of the Ptolemies, and is worthy of mention merely because of his +base dealings with Rome, which introduced Roman intervention into +Egyptian affairs, and because he was the father of the great Cleopatra. + +We have given this brief chronicle of the later kings and queens of +Egypt to prepare us for the consideration of the character of the +foremost Egyptian woman of antiquity--Cleopatra. The Ptolemies, we have +found, degenerated steadily and became in the end the most abominable +and loathsome tyrants that the principle of absolute and irresponsible +power ever produced. Regardless of all law, abandoned to the most +unnatural vices, thoroughly depraved, and capable of every crime, they +showed utter disregard of every virtuous principle and of every domestic +tie. The Ptolemaic princesses seem, as a whole, to have been superior to +the men. They usually possessed great beauty, great personal charm, and +great wealth and influence. Yet among them always existed mutual hatred +and disregard of all ties of family and affection. Ambitious to excess, +high-spirited and indomitable, they removed every obstacle to the +attainment of power, and fratricide and matricide are crimes at which +they did not pause. When the student of history sees pass before him +this dismal panorama of vice and crime, he wonders whether human nature +had not deserted these women and the spirit of the tigress entered into +them. + +Cleopatra, the last Queen of Egypt, was the heiress of generations of +legalized license, of cultured sensuality, of refined cruelty, and of +moral turpitude, and she differed from her predecessors only in that she +had redeeming qualities which offset in some degree the wickedness that +she had inherited. To the thoughtful mind her character presents one of +the most difficult of psychological problems, and to solve the enigma +thus presented we have to consider her antecedents, her early training, +and the part which she was compelled to play in the world's history. + +Her early years were spent in the storm and turmoil of the conflict +between her father Auletes and her sister Berenice. Ptolemy XI., +Auletes, called "the Piper,"--because of his only accomplishment, his +skill in playing the flute,--was perhaps the most degraded, dissipated, +and corrupt of all the sovereigns of the dynasty. He inspired his +contemporaries with scorn for his weakness of character and with +abhorrence for his vices and crimes. His one redeeming trait was his +love for his younger children, and he seems to have brought them up with +every obtainable advantage and as much as possible removed from the +turmoil of the court. For fear of losing his kingdom, he sought +recognition from Rome and paid Caesar enormous sums of money for his +patronage. The people rose in revolt against the heavy taxes, and +Ptolemy fled to Rome for aid. Berenice IV., his eldest daughter, was +raised to the throne by the Alexandrians, and she began her reign in +great splendor. Hoping to strengthen her position by marriage with a +royal prince, she first wedded Seleucus of Syria. But she soon found him +not to her taste, and disposed of him by strangling--in true Ptolemaic +fashion. After many intrigues, she found a second husband in Archelaus, +a prince of Asia Minor. She then made every preparation to offer +effectual resistance to her father. Auletes succeeded in gaining a +hearing at Rome, and a Roman army under Gabinius, with Mark Antony as +his lieutenant, marched against the forces of Berenice and Archelaus. +After many battles, the Romans were victorious. Archelaus was slain; +Berenice was taken prisoner; her government was overthrown; and Auletes +was restored to power, as a vassal of Rome. Ptolemy was filled with +savage joy at his daughter's capture, and at once ordered her execution. +After a reign of three years, Auletes died, leaving the kingdom jointly +to Cleopatra, now eighteen years of age, and her brother Ptolemy, aged +ten; and the brother and sister, in obedience to the custom of the +Ptolemies, were married, that they might rule together. + +Amid such scenes and excitements, a constant witness of the cruelty of +her father and elder sister, Cleopatra had grown up, and with such +examples before her she entered upon her reign. Her training, under most +skilful masters, had been of the broadest character, and her +intellectual endowments have seldom been surpassed. She was very +learned, and is said to have mastered eight or ten languages; so that +she could address in his own tongue whoever approached her--whether +Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, or Syriac. + +"With a fondness for philosophy she united a love of letters as rare as +it is attractive; and in the companionship of scholars and poets her +mind expanded as it added to its priceless store of wealth. She was not +only familiar with the heroic tales and traditions, the poetic myths and +chronicles, and the religious legends, of ancient Egypt, but she was +well versed, too, in the literature and science of Phoenicia and +Chaldaea, of Greece and Rome; she was skilled also in metallurgy and +chemistry; and a proficient in astronomy and the other sciences +cultivated in the age in which she lived. Her skill in music found none +to equal it. Her voice itself was perfect melody, and touched by her +fingers the cithara seemed instinct with life, and from its strings +there rolled a gushing flood of glorious symphonies. She was eloquent +and imaginative, witty and animated. Her conversation, therefore, was +charming; and if she exhibited caprice, which she sometimes did, it was +forgotten in the inevitable grace of her manner." + +Essentially Greek in all her characteristics, she possessed the wisdom +of Athena, the dignity of Hera, and the witchery of Aphrodite. An +enthusiastic writer has thus described her: "She was tall of stature and +queenly in gait and appearance. The warm sun of that southern clime had +tinged her cheek with a hue of brown, but her complexion was as clear +and pure as the serene sky that smiled above her head, and distinctly +traced beneath it were the delicate veins filled with the rich blood +that danced so wildly when inflamed with hate or heated with passion. +Her eyes and hair were like jet and as glossy as the raven's plume. The +former were large and, as was characteristic of her race, apparently +half-shut and slightly turned up at the outer angles, thus adding to the +naturally arch expression of her countenance; but they were full, too, +of brilliancy and fire. Both nose and chin were small, but fashioned as +with all the nicety of the sculptor's art; and her pearly teeth nestled +lovingly between the coral lips whose kisses were as sweet as honey +from the hives of Hybla." + +Plutarch expresses himself rather differently from the modern +writer,--who draws largely on his imagination,--and perhaps more +truthfully: + +"There was nothing so incomparable in her beauty as to compel +admiration; but by the charm of her physiognomy, the grace of her whole +person, the fascination of her presence, Cleopatra left a sting in the +soul." Hence, as has been said, she probably possessed not supreme +beauty, but supreme seductiveness. + +Her social and moral qualities at this time seem not to have been +inferior to her beauty or her intellectual endowments. Falsehood and +hypocrisy were foreign to her. She gained her ends by the winningness of +her disposition, the melody of her voice, the gentleness of her manner. +Says Ebers, who of modern writers has drawn the most attractive picture +of her character: "The fundamental principles which dominated this rare +creature's life and character were two ceaseless desires: first, to +surpass everyone, even in the most difficult achievements; and, +secondly, to love and be loved in return." Ambition and love were the +two ruling principles in her nature which raised her above all other +women of her time. + +Such was Cleopatra when she began to reign. But neither her learning nor +her beauty nor the charm of her manner protected her from the +machinations of the court. Ptolemy XII., her boy husband, was under the +control of his tutor, Pothinus, who, becoming jealous of Cleopatra's +growing power, organized a conspiracy against her; and she was compelled +to flee to Syria, where she began to raise an army to assert her rights. +But a greater power now intervened in the affairs of Egypt. Caesar +entered upon the scene. Cleopatra appealed to him, and, rolled in a +bale of carpet, gained admittance to his presence. When the carpet was +unrolled and the queen appeared to view, the great conqueror was +captivated at the spectacle. She was now about twenty-one, slender and +graceful and of bewitching manner. Caesar was about fifty-two, but +thoroughly susceptible to the charms of youth and beauty. He warmly +espoused her cause, and, after a conflict which nearly ended his career, +restored her to the throne; and as Ptolemy XII. had been accidentally +drowned in the Nile, he associated a younger brother, Ptolemy XIII., as +her consort in the kingdom. + +This is perhaps the most fascinating period in the life of Cleopatra, +when, just entering upon her womanhood, she captivates the great +commander and becomes, for a season, his Aspasia. In Egyptian eyes their +union was regarded as a marriage, and the relations of these two never +assumed the grossness and voluptuousness that were later exhibited by +Antony and Cleopatra. Caesar, with all his lofty intelligence, no doubt +found in her one whose intellectual faculties rose to the level of his +own. He passed the winter in her company, but at last had strength of +mind enough to break away from her seductions, that he might continue +his conquests and establish his dictatorship at Rome. When at the height +of his power, he summoned to Rome Cleopatra, with his young son, +Caesarion, and gave them a residence in his villa on the Tiber. Here she +lived in splendid state, and exercised a dominating influence over the +ruler of the world, much to the disgust of the Romans. It was the height +of her ambition to have Caesar proclaim their son Caesarion his heir, but +the dictator in this regard resisted her allurements, and remained true +to Roman traditions. Upon Caesar's assassination, Cleopatra, disappointed +in her fondest hopes, hastily returned to Egypt and her throne. There +now appears a great change in the character of Cleopatra. The simplicity +of nature and gentleness of spirit of earlier years gradually give place +to a nature selfish, heartless, and designing. Jealous of her little +brother, now fast approaching the age of fifteen, when he would share +her power, she caused him to be poisoned. She was troubled by no +conscientious scruples which might interfere with the fullest and most +unrestrained indulgence of every propensity of her heart. In all her +subsequent life she showed herself passionate and ambitious, cunning and +politic, luxurious and pleasure-seeking. + +Cleopatra was in her twenty-ninth year when she first met Antony--"a +period of life," says Plutarch, "when woman's beauty is most splendid, +and her intellect is in full maturity." + +When Antony summoned Cleopatra to appear before him at Tarsus to answer +charges brought against her for aiding Cassius and Brutus in the late +war, she, fired with the idea of achieving a second time the conquest of +the greatest general and highest potentate in the world, employed all +the resources of her kingdom in making preparation for her journey. +Shakespeare has most admirably described the splendor of her barge and +the scene of enchantment that greeted Antony as she sailed up the Cydnus +to meet him, a veritable Aphrodite surrounded by the Graces: + + "The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, + Burn'd on the water; the poop was beaten gold; + Purple the sails, and so perfum'd that + The winds were love-sick with them: the oars were silver, + Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made + The water, which they beat, to follow faster, + As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, + It beggar'd all description: she did lie + In her pavilion (cloth-of-gold of tissue) + O'er-picturing that Venus, where we see + The fancy outwork nature: on each side her + Stood pretty dimpl'd boys, like smiling Cupids, + With diverse-color'd fans.... + Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, + So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes. + ... At the helm + A seeming mermaid steers.... + ... From the barge + A strange invisible perfume hits the sense + Of the adjacent wharves. The city cast + Her people out upon her; and Antony, + Enthroned i' the market-place, did sit alone, + Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy, + Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, + And made a gap in nature." + +Antony was completely fascinated with her charms. Her beauty, her wit, +and, above all, the tact, adroitness, and self-possession which she +displayed in consenting thus to appear before him, forced him to yield +his heart almost immediately to her undisputed sway. Cleopatra remained +at Tarsus for some time, in an incessant round of gayety and revelry, +and by her flatteries and caresses she prevailed on Antony, forgetful of +his wife Fulvia and his duty as a Roman, to spend the winter at +Alexandria, where the pair engaged in continual feastings, spectacles, +and sports, as well as in every species of riot, irregularity, and +excess. It is not our purpose to follow the well-known career of +Cleopatra during these years of turmoil, or to dwell on the +circumstances that caused her to prove the destruction of Antony's hopes +at the battle of Actium; neither shall we describe in detail those +closing days when both committed suicide rather than suffer the +consequences of humiliation and defeat. + +The case of Mark Antony is the most conspicuous example in history of +the complete subjugation by the arts and fascinations of a woman of a +will stern and indomitable, if reckless, and of a heart that was +naturally generous and noble. Cleopatra led him to betray every public +trust, to alienate from himself the affections of all his countrymen, to +repel most cruelly the kindness and devotedness of a beautiful and +faithful wife; and at last she led him away in a most cowardly and +ignoble flight from the field of duty as a soldier, he knowing full well +that she was hurrying him on to disgrace and destruction, and yet being +utterly without power to break from the control of her irresistible +charms. + +Yet they were lovers--lovers who sacrificed wealth, ambition, duty, +honor, on the altar of Aphrodite. It was a love which brought +destruction; still, we may charitably account for the weakness exhibited +by each as the natural consequence of that romantic love, than which +history has given us no greater example. + +Dire was the fate of Cleopatra. Hopes all frustrated,--Antony dying in +her arms,--Octavius impervious to all her allurements,--rather than +grace the conqueror's triumph, the most fascinating of Greek women ended +her days, according to the prevailing tradition, by the bite of an asp, +in her thirty-ninth year. + +Cleopatra's character is a most fascinating and baffling study. Of many +faults and vices she was guilty, but they were characteristic of her +age. Her virtues must have been also many, for had she not possessed +virtues she would not have been loved and admired by all who knew her. +Her faithful attendants, Iras and Charmion, sacrificed themselves over +her dead body, and by their devotion made even the Roman Proculius +exclaim, in the words of Plutarch: "No other woman on earth was ever so +admired by the greatest, so loved by the loftiest. Her fame echoed from +nation to nation throughout the world. It will continue to resound from +generation to generation; but, however loudly men may extol the +bewitching charm, the fervor of the love which survived death, her +intellect, her knowledge, the heroic courage with which she preferred +the tomb to ignominy--the praise of these two must not be forgotten. +Their fidelity deserves it. By their marvellous end they unconsciously +erected the most beautiful monument to their mistress; for what genuine +goodness and lovableness must have been possessed by the woman who, +after the greatest reverses, made it seem more desirable to those +nearest to her person to die rather than to live without her!" + +Cleopatra was not a great queen, regarded as a ruler, yet she did a +great service to her country in preserving its independence for a score +of years after it had reached its end by a natural process of +degeneracy; but she accomplished this end by the arts of intrigue. +Cleopatra was too essentially a woman to be a great ruler, having all a +woman's weaknesses, a woman's faults, and yet withal the charms and +graces that make woman beautiful and lovable. Yet when we weigh her +character with due reference to the times in which she lived, to the +family influences which moulded her early years, and to the degeneracy +of the Ptolemies to which she fell heir, she must rank as one of the +best of her dynasty. Horace, the Roman poet, called Cleopatra: "_non +humilis mulier_ [a woman capable of no baseness];" and the phrase gains +in importance from the fact that it occurs in the hymn which the poet +dedicated to Octavius in honor of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra. +In thus characterizing, in such an ode, the victor's foe, Horace gives +us an estimate of the "Serpent of the Nile" which may stand as an +epitome of her character and as a just claim to the partial respect and +admiration of posterity. + + "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale + Her infinite variety." + +Cleopatra's intimate relations with Rome's greatest men, and the +conversion of her kingdom into a Roman province after her death, but +emphasize the fact that all Hellenistic lands were at that time in the +power of Rome and that the period of Graeco-Roman culture had begun much +earlier. In B.C. 146 had occurred the destruction of Corinth and the +absorption of Old Greece into a part of the Roman province of Macedon, +and from that time Rome exerted a marked influence over the social life +of Hellas. One of the chief characteristics of this age was the freer +life of women of all classes. Even in Athens and Boeotia, the mistress +of the house obtained her rights as mother and hostess. Perhaps it was +in imitation of what they saw in Rome, perhaps it was merely the natural +process of evolution, but, at any rate, the recognition of the +capabilities and the elevated position of woman was general. Plutarch is +the best chronicler of Greek life in the first century after the +Christian era, and his works abound in precepts on the relations of the +sexes, in whose equality he was a firm believer, and on the proper +training and education of woman. His own wife, Timoxena, paid visits and +received guests even when her husband was absent, shared fully the +intellectual life of her husband, and took part in all his public +interests. + +The age was mending its manners. New ideas were prevailing among men. +Woman was becoming more and more fully a factor in the world. Yet, for +her complete emancipation, there was need of a new dogma, a great +revelation, which would bring about startling reforms in the moral and +social life of mankind. Already "the Word had been made flesh, and dwelt +among them full of grace and truth"; yet the great writers of the first +century of our era, Dion, Plutarch, even Josephus, seem never to have +heard of the new teaching which had been preached throughout Asia Minor +and at Athens and Corinth--the new teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, which +was destined to overturn the prevailing conception of woman and her +status and to lead her into a fulness of life such as had never been +conceived in the imagination of even the most elevated of her sex. + +[Illustration 384 _CLEOPATRA After the painting by Alexandre Cabanel. +From the period when the last Pharaoh died until it fell under the Roman +domination, Egypt was ruled by the Greek Ptolemies, and the last of the +rulers of Greek descent was the world-famous Cleopatra._ + +_Plutarch, in his life of Antony, states that after the defeat of +Actium, Cleopatra, feeling the end of her reign imminent, busied herself +in making a collection of poisons; and in order to see which of them was +the least painful in operation, she had them tried upon prisoners +condemned to die._] + +In Cleopatra and other Greek women considered in the volume, we have +observed from time to time the highest development of feminine +endowments, physical, intellectual, or sensuous. The ethereal beauty of +Helen, the poetic fervor of Sappho, the intellectual temper of Aspasia, +the artistic temperament of Phryne, and the seductive sensibility of +Cleopatra--these exhibit phases of feminine perfection that have not +found their counterparts in modern times. Yet in each instance mentioned +there was the one thing needful--the corresponding development of the +moral and spiritual nature. These women were but pagans. Each sought in +her own way to attain the highest perfection possible to woman; still, +for them the truth was but seen in a glass darkly, and their philosophy +had not yet taught them concerning the higher life of the spirit as +distinct from the body. + +Yet the dominion established by Julius Caesar, which embraced all the +Hellenistic lands, was even in Cleopatra's time preparing the way for +the dominion of the Son of Man, who brought into the world new +conceptions of womanhood, new influences destined to elevate and ennoble +the sex and emphasize the higher elements in human character that the +ancients had so sadly neglected. Pagan Woman attained unrivalled +excellence in physical beauty, intellectual endowment, and sensuous +charm; to Christian Woman was vouchsafed the light which dispelled the +moral darkness of antiquity and made attainable the highest spiritual +excellence. + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + SUBJECT ARTIST PAGE + +Aspasia _Henry Holiday_ Fronts. + +Circe _Henri P. Motte_ 80 + +Sappho in her school of poetry in _Hector Leroux_ 120 + Lesbos + +The Grecian toilette _From an antique vase_ 176 + +Phryne _Henry I. Siemiradsky_ 232 + +Cleopatra _Alexandre Cabanel_ 384 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Greek Women, by Mitchell Carroll + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREEK WOMEN *** + +***** This file should be named 32318.txt or 32318.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/3/1/32318/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Renald Levesque and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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