THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE. 



331 



Quotations like these could be made in hun- 

 dreds, but they really tell us little. They could be 

 matched by a large number of sayings from the 

 same authors in which woman is praised to the 

 skies. Euripides was specially blamed as a hater 

 of women. The remark was made in the pres- 

 ence of Sophocles. "Yes," said he, "in his 

 tragedies." And even in his tragedies he has 

 painted women of exquisite tenderness of heart, 

 and capable of the grandest self-sacrifice and of 

 the purest love. 



With these preliminary observations, we enter 

 on our task. I can only select prominent periods. 

 And the first that comes before us is the Homeric. 1 

 And here we require all the power of transport- 

 ing ourselves into different times that we can 

 command ; for the phenomena are singular and 

 unique. If we look at the external position of 

 women, we must place the Homeric age exceed- 

 ingly low in civilization. Women have almost 

 no rights ; they are entirely under the power of 

 man, and they live in continual uncertainty as to 

 what their destiny may be. The woman may be 

 a princess, brought up in a wealthy and happy 

 home ; but she knows that strangers may come 

 and carry her off, and that she may therefore at 

 some time be a slave in another man's house. 

 This uncertainty seems to have produced a strong 

 impression on their character. They are above 

 all women meek. If the terrible destiny comes 

 upon them, they submit to it with all but unre- 

 pining gentleness, and their gentle ways soon 

 overcome the heart of their warrior tyrants, and 

 they make them their companions and friends. 

 But low though this position be, it has to be 

 noted that it is the inevitable result of the char- 

 acter of the times. Might was right. The strong 

 arm alone could assert a right. The warrior had 

 to defend even what belonged to him against any 

 new-comer. He himself sacked the cities of 

 others. His own city, too, might be sacked, and 

 if his wife's fate was to be carried off and to be- 

 come the mistress of his conqueror, his own was 

 to perish mercilessly by th» cold edge of the 

 sword. Man and woman alike held their lives 

 in their hands. Women were not warriors, and 

 therefore they had to depend entirely on the pro- 

 tection of men, and were consequently subject to 

 them. Such was their external position. But 



1 Discussions on the Homeric women are very nu- 

 merous; but I think special praise is due to Leuz's 

 '■Geschichte der Weiber im Heroischen Zeitalter," 

 Hannover, 1790. The fullest and ablest in English is in 

 Mr. Gladstone's "Homeric Studies," vol. ii. ; and jus- 

 tice is done to the subject in Cloon Rangabe's 6 naff 

 Oixripov oi/cmKoy jSios, Athens, 1864. 



when we look to the actual facts of the case, no- 

 where in the whole range of literature are women 

 subjected to a sway so gentle, so respectful, so 

 gracious. Indeed, it can scarcely be called a 

 sway at all. The physical force which no doubt 

 exists is entirely in the background. In the 

 front we see nothing but affection, regard, ana 

 even deference. The men appear never to have 

 found fault with the women. It was natural for 

 a woman to love, and she might do what they 

 would deem an eccentric or disproportionate ac- 

 tion in consequence of this influence ; but it was 

 either a man or a god that was to blame. She 

 was for the time mad. Even in the case of Helen, 

 who brought so many disasters on Greeks and 

 Trojans, the men find no fault. She reproaches 

 herself bitterly, but the men think that it was 

 Paris who was to blame, for he carried her off 

 forcibly. How could she help it ? And how 

 could she prevent Paris falling in love with her? 

 It was the business of woman to make any man 

 happy whom Destiny brought into her company, 

 to diffuse light and joy through the hearts of 

 men. Helen was surpassingly beautiful, knew all 

 womanly works to perfection, was temperate and 

 chaste, according to their ideas, 1 and had a mind 

 of high culture. All these were gifts of the gods, 

 and could not but attract. The Trojans them- 

 selves were not surprised that Paris should have 

 fallen under the spell of her charms ; for a being 

 so beautiful was a worthy object of contest be- 

 tween Greeks and Trojans. But she did nothing 

 to excite Paris. She would have been happier 

 with Menelaus. And when Paris was slain and 

 Troy captured, Helen gladly returned to her 

 former husband, and again occupied her early 

 queenly position with dignity and grace, as if 

 nothing had happened. The only woman in re- 

 gard to whom harsh words are used is Clytem- 

 nestra; but even in her case the man is much 

 more censured than the woman, and if she had 

 merely yielded to JSgisthus, under the strong 

 temptations, or rather overpowering force, to 

 which she was exposed, not much would have 

 been said. Agamemnon would have wreaked his 

 vengeance on the male culprit, and restored his 

 wife to her former place. But at last she be- 

 came the willing consort of ^Egisthus, and his 

 willing accomplice in the dreadful crime of mur- 

 der. Yet even for this it is on yEgisthus that the 

 poet lays the burden of the blame. For this mild 

 judgment of women there were several causes. 

 First, the Homeric Greeks were strongly im- 



1 And according to the ideas of later Greeks, see 

 especially Isocrates's "Encomium on Helen." 



