WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE It 



and entirely devoid of the talent and genius which gave 

 immortality to their distinguished sons. The careers of 

 Aspasia and the achievements of Sappho, Corinna, Myr- 

 tides, Erinna, Praxilla, Telesilla, Myrus, Anytse and Nos- 

 sidis, Theano and her daughter, to mention no others, 

 absolutely preclude such an assumption. 



The women in Greece, there can be no doubt about it, 

 were as richly endowed by nature as were the men, and 

 only lacked the opportunities that men enjoyed to achieve, 

 in every sphere of intellectual activity, a corresponding 

 measure of success. They were extraordinary types, these 

 women of ancient Greece; for among them we find the 

 dignified Roman matron, the chatelaine of the Middle Ages, 

 the brilliant woman of the Renaissance and the cultured 

 mistress of the French salon. But all their talent, power 

 and genius counted for naught. 



Had the civilization of Greece been a woman's civiliza- 

 tion, as well as a man's civilization, had there been a fed- 

 eration of all the Greek states, as Aspasia seems to have 

 striven for, instead of a number of small and independent 

 city-states ; had the women of Hellas been allowed the same 

 liberty of action in intellectual work as was granted to 

 the Italian women during and after the revival of letters, 

 and had they been encouraged to develop all their latent 

 powers that were so systematically suppressed, and to work 

 in unison with the men for the welfare and advancement 

 of a united nation, it is difficult to imagine what a daz- 

 zling intellectual zenith a supremely gifted people, "full 

 summ'd in all their powers," would have attained. Their 

 capacity for work and for achieving great things would 

 have been doubled and their power as a political organiza- 

 tion would have been practically irresistible. 



"We are the only women that bring forth men," said 

 Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas. The Spartan mothers, who 

 had more of liberty than their Athenian sisters, did, indeed, 

 bring forth warriors of undying renown; but it was the 



