THE GROWTH OF THE TIE 16 



not constitute a rule. Wives were kept for the pro- 

 creation of citizens ; the honoiu'S of society were 

 reserved for the courtesan. 



In Athens, at its most brilliant period, prostitution 

 was the only career open to an ambitious woman. 

 Marriage was a species of domestic slavery; it was 

 the courtesan who was consulted by the philosopher, 

 and whose beauty inspired the poet and the sculptor. 

 The romantic love that enters so largely into our 

 modern life was consequently unknown in Athens, 

 and is not reflected in any degree in Greek literature. 

 Homer's Penelope, for example, is a stately matron, 

 faithful to her lord throughout his twenty years' 

 absence, but otherwise cold and statuesque. The 

 return of Ulysses is not the signal for any outburst 

 of pent-up affection or tenderness in the household. 

 Penelope is calm and collected, and her duty is 

 fulfilled in extending to her long-lost husband a 

 dignified and submissive welcome. Imagine how a 

 modern poet would treat such an event ! With what 

 emotion, what tears, what embraces, would the long- 

 separated couple throw themselves into each other's 

 arms ! To ^schylus, again, love is a sentiment un- 

 worthy of a poet's attention. He lauds the eternal 

 principle of fecundity ; but his personages neither 



