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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



these men were among the bravest. They cer- 

 tainly held the supremacy in Greece for a consid- 

 erable time through sheer force of energy, bra- 

 very, and obedience to law. And the women 

 helped to this high position as much as the men. 

 They were themselves remarkable for vigor of 

 body and beauty of form. A curious illustration 

 of this fact occurs in one of the plays of Aris- 

 tophanes. An Athenian lady resolves to put an 

 end to the war between the Athenians and Lace- 

 daemonians by combined action on the part of the 

 wives from all parts of Greece. She has summoned 

 a meeting of them, and as Lampito the Lace- 

 daemonian wife comes in, she thus accosts her. 

 " dearest Spartan, Lampito, welcome ! How 

 beautiful you look, sweetest one, how fresh your 

 complexion, how vigorous your body ! You could 

 throttle an ox." " Yes," says she, " I think I 

 could, by Castor and Follux, for I practise gym- 

 nastics and leap high." ' They were not, how- 

 ever, merely strong in body, but took a deep in- 

 terest in all matters that concerned the state. 

 They sunk everything, even maternal feeling, in 

 their care for the community. Many stories and 

 sayings to this effect have been preserved. A 

 Spartan mother sent her five sons to war, and, 

 knowing that a battle had taken place, she wait- 

 ed for the news on the outskirts of the city. 

 Some one came up to her and told her that all 

 her sons had perished. " You vile slave," said 

 she, " that is not what I wanted to know ; I want 

 to know how fares my country." " Victorious," 

 said he. " Willingly then," said she, " do I hear 

 of the death of my sons." 



Another, when burying her son, was commis- 

 erated by an old woman who cried out, " Oh 

 your fate ! " " Yes, by the gods," said she, " a 

 glorious fate, for did not I bear him that he 

 might die for Sparta ? " 



And their courage was not merely of a daring 

 and physical character. It was a moral courage. 

 A Spartan had been wounded in battle and com- 

 pelled to crawl on all-fours ; he seemed to feel 

 ashamed of the awkwardness of his position. 

 " How much better it is," said his mother, " to 

 rejoice on account of bravery, than be ashamed 

 on account of ignorant laughter ! " 



It might be supposed that the peculiar train- 

 ing to which the women were subjected might 

 make them licentious and forward, but the testi- 

 mony is strong that no such results followed 

 from free intercourse with the young men. Adul- 

 tery was almost entirely unknown. 



Plutarch tells the story that a stranger asked 

 1 Lyslat, 78. 



Geradas, one of the very old Spartans, what pun- 

 ishment their law appointed for adulterers. He 

 answered, " stranger, there is no adulterer in 

 our country." The stranger said, " What if there 

 should be one ? " " He pays a fine," said Gera- 

 das, " of a bull so large, that stooping over Tay- 

 getus it will drink out of the Eurotas." When 

 the stranger expressed his surprise and said, 

 '* But how could there ever be so large a bull ? " 

 Geradas replied with a smile, " And how could 

 there ever be an adulterer in Sparta?" This 

 language is perhaps too strong, and there were 

 certain practices allowable which would not be 

 allowed in our communities. The one object of 

 marriage was to produce strong children, and 

 any deviation from the ordinary arrangement by 

 which one woman was married to one man was 

 not only deemed legitimate but praiseworthy if 

 it secured strong children. In this way a weak 

 man might lend his wife to a stronger, and some 

 women had two husbands. There is only one 

 case on record of a Spartan having two wives, 

 and the case was singular. A greater latitude 

 must have been allowed to women. But all 

 these cases must have been quite exceptional. 

 The wives were true to their husbands, the hus- 

 bands fond and proud of their wives. A poor 

 maiden was asked what dowry she could give to 

 her lover. " Ancestral purity," she said. A per- 

 son was sent to try to persuade a Lacedaemonian 

 woman to aid in some evil practice. " When I 

 was a girl," she said, " I was taught to obey my 

 father, and I obeyed him; and when I became a 

 wife I obeyed my husband ; if, therefore, you 

 have anything just to urge, make it known to 

 him first." 



Such were these Spartan women for many 

 generations. No word of reproach can be brought 

 against them. It is true that the free intercourse 

 of the young men with the young women and the 

 slightness of the female garments shocked the 

 ordinary Athenian, and expressions to this effect 

 occur in some writers, especially Euripides. 1 But 

 the general purity of the Spartan women is guar- 

 anteed by all the principal writers who have dis- 

 cussed the constitution of Sparta as it was during 

 its supremacy — by Plato, 5 Penophon, and Plu- 



1 Especially in his "Andromache," but, as Paley re- 

 marks, this play is animated throughout by a bitter 

 hostility to Sparta, and it may therefore be regarded 

 as an expression merely of a strong temporary feeling. 



2 Plato shows his approbation by adopting the 

 questionable features into his own ide.il common- 

 wealth. "Then," he says, "let the wives of our 

 guardians strip, navinsr virtue for their robe. . . . And 

 as for the man who laughs at naked women exercising 



