THE POSITION OF WOMEX IX AXCIEXT GREECE. 



335 



their slaves and keep their property against all 

 comers, they must be men of strong bodily con- 

 figuration, hardy, daring, resolute. And as wom- 

 en were a necessary part of the state, they must 

 contribute to this result. The regulations made 

 for this purpose are assigned by the ancients to 

 Lycurgus, but whether he was a real person, or 

 how far our information in regard to him is to be 

 trusted, is a matter of no consequence to us at 

 present ; for there can be no doubt that his laws 

 were in force during the best period of Sparta's 

 existence. And the laws bear on their front the 

 purpose for which they were made. All the leg- 

 islation that relates to women has one sole ob- 

 ject, to procure a first-rate breed of men. The 

 one function which woman had to discharge was 

 that of motherhood. But this function was con- 

 ceived in the widest range in which the Spartans 

 conceived humanity. In fact, no woman can dis- 

 charge effectively any one of the great functions 

 assigned her by Nature, without the entire culti- 

 vation of all parts of her nature. And so we see 

 in this case. The Spartans wanted strong men : 

 the mothers, therefore, must be strong. The Spar- 

 tans wanted brave men : the mothers, therefore, 

 must be brave. The Spartans wanted resolute 

 men — men with decision of character: the moth- 

 ers must be resolute. They believed, with intense 

 faith, that, as are the mothers, so will be the 

 children. And they acted on this faith. They 

 first devoted all the attention and care they could 

 to the physical training of their women. From 

 their earliest days the women engaged in gymnas- 

 tic exercises ; and, when they reached the age of 

 girlhood, they entered into contests with each 

 other in wrestling, racing, and throwing the quoit 

 and javelin. They engaged in similar contests 

 with the" young men, stripping like them before 

 assembled multitudes, and showing what feats of 

 strength and agility they could perform. In this 

 way the whole body of citizens would come to 

 know a girl's powers ; there could be no conceal- 

 ment of disease ; no sickly girl could pass herself 

 off as healthy. But it was not only for the phys- 

 ical strength, but for the mental tone, that the 

 girls had to go through this physical exercise. 

 The girls mingled freely with the young men. 

 They came to know each other well. Long be- 

 fore the time of marriage they had formed at- 

 tachments and knew each other's characters. 

 And in the games of the young men nothing in- 

 spirited them so much as the praise of the girls, 

 and nothing was so terrible as the shouts of de- 

 rision which greeted their failures. The same 

 influence made itself felt when they fought in bat- 



tle. The thought that, when they came home, 

 they would be rapturously welcomed by mother 

 and sister, nerved many an arm in the hour of 

 danger. All the training anterior to marriage 

 was deliberately contrived to fit the Spartan 

 women to be mothers. And it is needless to say 

 that all the arrangements in connection with mar- 

 riage were made solely for the good of the state. 

 All the Spartan girls had to marry. No one ever 

 thought of not marrying. There was one excep- 

 tion to this. No sickly woman was allowed to 

 marry. The offspring must be healthy. And, in- 

 deed, if she had had to consult her own feelings 

 in Sparta, the sickly girl would of her own accord 

 have refrained from marriage. For the state 

 claimed a right over all the children. They were 

 all brought very soon after birth before a com- 

 mittee appointed by government, which examined 

 into the form and probable healthiness of the 

 child, and if the committee came to the conclusion 

 that the child was not likely to be strong its 

 death was determined on. But there must have 

 been very few sickly women among the Spartans. 

 If a girl survived this first inspection, she had, as 

 we have seen, her trials to go through, and only 

 the strong could outlive the gymnastic exercises 

 and the exposure of their persons in all weathers 

 during religious processions, sacred dances, and 

 physical contests. The age of marriage was also 

 fixed, special care being taken that the Spartan 

 girls should not marry tco soon. In all these 

 regulations' the women were not treated more 

 strictly than the men. The men also were prac- 

 tically compelled to marry. The man who vent- 

 ured on remaining a bachelor was punished in 

 various ways. If a man did not marry on reach- 

 ing a certain age, he was forbidden to be present 

 at the exercises of the young girls. The whole 

 set of them were taken one wintry day in each 

 year, and, stripped of their clothing, went round 

 the agora singing a song that told how disgrace- 

 ful their conduct was in disobeying the laws of 

 their country — a spectacle to gods and men. The 

 women also, at a certain festival, dragged these 

 misguided individuals round an altar, inflicting 

 blows on them all the time. 1 Men were punished 

 even for marrying too late, or for marrying wom- 

 en disproportionately young or old. 



Such was the Spartan system. What were 

 the results of it ? For about four or five hun- 

 dred years there was a succession of the strong- 

 est men that possibly ever existed on the face of 

 the earth. The legislator was successful in his 

 main aim. And I think that I may add that 

 1 Ath., xiii., p. 555. 



