THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT GREECE. 



337 



tarcb. No doubt the system labored under a radi- 

 cal defect. It was exclusive. It drove away all 

 strangers ; it discouraged the higher culture at 

 least in the case of the. men ; and it suspected all 

 the higher arts as tending to luxury. And when 

 the crisis came and the old manners gave way, 

 vice and weakness rushed in, and men and 

 women became equally bad. It is in the latter 

 period that the words of blame are heard. Plato 

 justly criticises one marked defect in the Spartan 

 treatment of women. The lawgiver had looked 

 on woman only as a mother. He had lost sight 

 of every other function. But women cannot 

 spend their whole lives as mothers. When their 

 infants grew into boyhood they were handed over 

 to the instruction of Spartan men. tAnd then 

 what function had the women to discharge ? 

 Lycurgus, or the Spartan lawgivers, took no 

 thought of this. The men were under strict reg- 

 ulation to the end of their days. They dined to- 

 gether on the fare prescribed by the state. They 

 were continually out on military service. They 

 had other employments assigned to them. But 

 no regulations were made for the women. They 

 might live as they liked ; there was nothing to 

 restrain their luxury, and they were not taught 

 the military art like the men. This neglect of 

 the half of the city, Aristotle affirms, was followed 

 by dire consequences. In his day the Spartan 

 women were incorrigible and luxurious. He also 

 affirms that the Spartan system threw a great 

 deal of land into the hands of the women, so that 

 they possessed two-fifths of it ; and finally he 

 accuses the Spartan women of ruling their hus- 

 bands. Warlike men, he thinks, are apt to be 

 passionately fond of the society of women. " And 

 what difference," he says, 1 "does it make wheth- 

 er the women rule or the rulers are ruled by the 

 women ? for the result is the same." There 

 seems to have been some truth in this last accu- 

 sation. Many of the wives were better educated 

 than their husbands, and the fact was noticed by 

 others. "You of Lacedaemon," said a stranger 

 lady to Gorgo, wife of Leonidas, "are the only 

 women in the world that rule the men." " We," 



in gymnastics for the eake of the highest good, his 

 laughter is 



1 A fruit of unripe wisdom,' 



which be gathers, and he himself is ignorant of what 

 he is laughing at, or what he is about ; for that is, and 

 ever will be, the best of sayings— that the useful ia the 

 noble, and the hurtful the base."— Rep., v., p. 457, Prof. 

 Jowett's translation. Plato discusses the objections 

 to the Spartan method in Legg., i., p. 637 C. ; vi., p. 781 

 A. ; vii., p. 806 C, p. 814 A. ; aud tacitly in Rep., viii., 

 p. 548. 



1 Polit, ii., ii. 9. 



94 



' she replied, " are the only women that bring forth 

 men." There is a great deal of point in what 

 Gorgo said. If women bring forth and rear men, 

 they are certain to receive from them respect and 

 tenderness, for there is no surer test of a man's 

 real manhood than his love for all that is noblest, 

 highest, and truest in woman, and his desire to 

 aid her in attaining to the full perfection of her 

 nature. 



The student of the history of woman is con- 

 tinually reminded of the fact that, when men lose 

 their dignity and eminence, woman disappears 

 from the scene, but, when they rise into worth, 

 she again comes on the stage in all her power 

 and tenderness. We have an instance before us. 

 Sparta became degenerate. Her name almost 

 vanishes from the pages of the historian. But 

 she was not to die without a final struggle. In 

 the middle of the third century before Christ two 

 kings of Sparta in succession dreamed of putting 

 down the luxury, and restoring the old Spartan 

 discipline and the old Lycurgan laws. And in the 

 midst of their vigorous and heroic efforts to effect 

 this great change, women again play their part 

 with energy and devotion. The earliest of the 

 two kings was the young and gentle Agis, and al- 

 most the first person whom he consulted on his 

 projected reforms was his mother Agesistrata, a 

 woman of great wealth and influence. She was at 

 first utterly taken aback, for the project included 

 the surrender of all her wealth. But at length she 

 admired her son's noble ambition, and set her 

 mind, with the aid of some other like-minded wom- 

 en, on procuring the support of the women of Spar, 

 ta. The importance of such support could not be 

 over-estimated. " They well knew," says Plutarch, 

 " that the Lacedaemonian men were always obedi- 

 ent to their wives, and that they allowed them to 

 meddle in public matters more than they allowed 

 themselves to meddle in private affairs." Besides, 

 the women had a great deal of property. Would 

 they surrender their wealth ? Would they give 

 up their luxurious habits ? Would they return 

 to the old Spartan simplicity ? No, the move- 

 ment seemed to have come too late. Some were 

 willing to sacrifice everything, but others would 

 yield nothing, and a strong party was formed 

 against Agis. At first this party was put down 

 with a high hand. Leonidas, the leader, was 

 driven into exile. The daughter of this man 

 Chelonis, is one of the great characters that 

 emerged during these troublous times. She had 

 been married to Cleombrotus, who took the side 

 of Agis. Chelonis was in straits what to do, but 

 she chose to follow the path where gentleness 



