TABOO AND GENETICS 185 



foundations embedded in a series of institu- 

 tional taboos, added its weight to the formula- 

 tion of the Model Woman type referred to at 

 the close of the preceding chapter. The model 

 wife appears in the earhest literature. In The 

 Trojan Women, Hecuba tells how she behaved 

 in wedlock. She stayed at home and did not 

 gossip. She was modest and silent before her 

 husband. The patient Penelope was another 

 ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus says : 



" Your widowed hours apart, with female toil. 

 And various labours of the loom, beguile, 

 There rule, from palace cares remote and free. 

 That care to man belongs, and most to me." 



The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth 

 in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her virtues consisted 

 :'"» rising while it was yet night, and not eating 

 the bread of idleness. In her relation to her 

 husband, she must never surprise him by 

 unusual conduct, and must see that he was well 

 fed. 



The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans 

 demanded similar virtues in their wives and 

 mothers. The wives of the medieval period 

 were to remain little girls, most admired for 

 their passive obedience. Gautier puts into the 

 mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry 

 the following soliloquy : 



" I will love no one but my husband. Even 



