490 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



jected, and the regular lives they 

 lead, — in these united eauses a 

 sufficient reason will be found for 

 the beauty which has always dis- 

 tinguished the women of Pelopon- 

 nesus. 



The models which inspired 

 Apelles and Phidias are still to be 

 found among them. They are 

 generally tall and finely formed; 

 their eyes are full of fire, and 

 they have a beautiful mouth orna- 

 mented with the finest teeth. There 

 are, however, degrees in their 

 beauty, though all in general may 

 be called handsome. The Spartan 

 woman is fair, of a slender make, 

 but with a noble air; the women 

 of Taygetes have the carriage of 

 Pallas when she flourished her 

 formidable aegis in the midst of 

 a battle. Tlie Messenian woman 

 is low in stature and distinguished 

 for her embonpoint ; she has re- 

 gular features, large blue eyes, and 

 long black hair. The Arcadian, 

 in her coarse woollen garment, 

 scarcely suffers the regularity of 

 her form to appear; but her coun- 

 tenance is expressive of great 

 purity of mind, and her smile is 

 the smile of innocence. Chaste 

 as daughters, the women of the 

 Morea assume as wives even a 

 character of austerity. Rarely 

 after the death of a husband 

 whom she loved does the widow 

 ever think of contracting a new 

 engagement. Supporting life with 

 difficulty, deprived of the object 

 of her affections, the remainder of 

 her days .ire often passed in weep- 

 ing her loss. Endowed with organs 

 sensible to melody, most of the 

 Greek women sing in a pleasing 

 manner, accompanying themselves 

 with a tetrachord, the tones of 

 which are an excellent support to 



the voice. In their songs they do 

 not extol the favours of love, 

 they do not arraign the coldness 

 and inconstancy of a lover ; it is 

 rather a young man who pines 

 away with love, as the grass is 

 withered on the house-tops; who 

 complains of the cruelty of his 

 inflexible mistress, — who com- 

 pares himself to a bird deprived 

 of his mate, to a solitary turtle 

 dove ; — who requires all nature, 

 in short, to share in his sorrows. 

 At this long rerital of woes, the 

 companions of the songstress are 

 often melted into tears, and quit 

 her with warm expressions of 

 delight at the pleasure they have 

 received. 



If the Greek women have re- 

 ceived from the hand of nature 

 the gift of beauty as their com- 

 mon dower, and a heart that loves 

 with ardour and sincerity, they 

 have the defects of being vain, 

 avaricious, and ambitious ; at least 

 this is the case with those in the 

 higher ranks of society. Totally 

 destitute of instruction, they are 

 incapable of keeping up a conver- 

 sation in any degree interesting, 

 nor can supply their want of edu- 

 cation by a natural playfulness of 

 imagination which gives birth 

 intuitively to lively sallies, and 

 often charms in women more than 

 cultivation of mind. It may be 

 said in general that the Greek 

 women know nothing : even those 

 who are born in the higher ranks 

 are ignorant of the art of presiding 

 in their own houses ; an art so 

 well known, and so well practised 

 in our own country, that a woman 

 destitute of real knowledge has 

 often by this means drawn around 

 her a circle of the most cultivated 

 and most amiable among the 



