She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.(31*)In many of the Greek states, during their most flourishing periods, it appears, that the women were viewed nearly in the same light, and that their education was chiefly calculated to improve their industry and talents, so as to render them useful members of society.Their attention seems to have been engrossed by the care of their own families, and by those smaller branches of manufacture which they were qualified to exercise.They were usually lodged in a remote apartment of the house, and were seldom visited by any person except their near relations.Their modesty and reserve, and their notions of a behaviour suited to the female character, were such as might be expected from their retired manner of life.They never appeared abroad without being covered with a veil, and were not allowed to be present at any public entertainment.'As for you, women,' says Pericles, in one of the orations in Thucydides, 'it ought to be the constant aim of your sex to avoid being talked of by the public; and it is your highest commendation that you should never be the objects either of applause or censure.'(32*)Lysias, in one of his orations, has introduced a widow, the mother of several children, who considers her appearing in public as one of the most desperate measures to which she could be driven by her misfortunes.She prays and entreats her son-in-law to call together her relations and friends, that she might inform them of her situation.'I have,' says she, 'never before been accustomed to speak in the presence of men; but I am compelled by my sufferings to complain of the injuries I have met with.'(33*)In another oration, composed by the same author, a citizen, accused of murdering his wife's gallant, gives the following simple narrative of his domestic economy.
When I first entered into the married state, Athenians! Iendeavoured to observe a medium between the harsh severity of some husbands, and the easy fondness of others.My wife, though treated with kindness, was watched with attention.As a husband, I rendered her situation agreeable; but as a woman, she was left neither the entire mistress of my fortune, nor of her own actions.When she became a mother, this new endearment softened and overcame the prudent caution of my former conduct, and engaged me to repose in her an unlimited confidence.During a short time, Athenians! I had no occasion to repent of this alteration: she proved a most excellent wife; and, highly circumspect in her private behaviour, she managed my affairs with the utmost diligence and frugality.But since the death of my mother, she has been the cause of all my calamities.Then she first got abroad to attend the funeral, and being observed by Eratosthenes, was soon after seduced by him.This he affected by means of our female slave, whom he watched going to market, and whom, by fair promises and flattery, he drew over to his designs.
It is necessary you should be informed, Athenians! that my house consists of two floors; the floor above is laid out in a similar manner to that below; this lodges the men, that above is destined for the women.Upon the birth of our son, my wife suckled him herself; and to relieve her from the fatigue of going below stirs as often as it Was necessary to bathe him, I yielded up the ground floor to the women, and kept above stairs myself.
She still continued, however, to sleep with me during the night;and when the child Was peevish, and fell a-crying, she frequently went below stairs, and offered it the breast.This practice was long continued without any suspicion on my part, who, simple man that I was! regarded my spouse as a prodigy of virtue.(34*)Solon is said to have made regulations for preventing the women from violating those decorums which were esteemed essential to their character.He appointed that no matron should go from home with more than three garments, nor a larger quantity of provisions than could be purchased for an obolus.He also provided, that when any matron went abroad, she should always have an attendant, and a lighted torch carried before her.
At Athens, a man was not permitted to approach the apartment of his step-mother, or her children, though living in the same house; which is given, by Mr Hume, as the reason why, by the Athenian laws, one might marry his half-sister by the father; for as these relations had no more intercourse than the men and women of different families, there was no greater danger of any criminal correspondence between them.
It is probable, that the recluse situation of the Grecian women, which was adapted to the circumstances of the people upon their first advancement in arts, was afterwards maintained from an inviolable respect to their ancient institutions.The democratical form of government, which came to be established in most parts of Greece, had, at the same time, a tendency to occuPy the people in the management of public affairs, and to engage them in those pursuits of ambition, from which the women were naturally excluded.It must however be admitted that, while such a state of manners might be conducive to the more solid enjoyments of life, it undoubtedly prevented the two sexes from improving the arts of conversation, and from giving a polish to the expression of their thoughts and sentiments.Hence it is, that the Greek, notwithstanding their learning and good sense, were remarkably deficient in delicacy and politeness, and were so little judges of propriety in wit and humour, as to relish the low ribaldry of an Aristophanes, at a period when they were entertained with the sublime eloquence of a Demosthenes, and with the pathetic compositions of a Euripides and a Sophocles.
