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G R E 
trieved. If fuch unreafonable feverities had proceeded 
from that abfiird jealoufy which fometimes accompanies 
a violent love, and of which a certain degree is nearly 
connected with the delicacy of paflion between the 
fexes, the condition of the Grecian women, though lit¬ 
tle lefs miferable, would have been far lefs contempti¬ 
ble. But the Greeks were utter ftrangers to that re¬ 
finement of fentiment, which, in the ages of chivalry, 
elevated the charafter of the fofter fex almoft to the 
rank of divinities. See the article Chivalry, vol. iv. 
p. 506. Married or unmarried, the Grecian females 
were kept in equal reftraint; no pains were taken to ren¬ 
der them, at any one period of their lives, agreeable 
members of fociety ; and their education was either en¬ 
tirely neglected, or confined to fuch humble objedls, as, 
inftead of elevating and enlarging the mind, tended only 
to narrow and to debafe it. Though neither qualified 
for holding an honourable rank in fociety, nor permitted 
to enjoy the company even of their nearefl: relations, 
they were thought capable of adting as ftewards for 
their luifl^ands, and thus relieving men from a multipli¬ 
city of little cares, which feemed unworthy of their at¬ 
tention, and unfuitable to their dignity. The whole 
burden of fuch mercenary cares being impofed on the 
women, their firfl: inffrudf ions and treatment were adapt, 
ed to that lowly rank, beyond which they could never 
afterwards afpire. Nothing was allowed to divert their 
minds from thofe lervile occupations in which it was 
intended that their whole lives iliould be fpent; no li¬ 
beral idea was prefented to their imagination, that might 
raife them above the ignoble arts in which they were 
ever deftined to labour; the fmallefi familiarity with 
firangers was deemed a tlangerous offence ; and any in¬ 
timacy or connecfion beyond the walls of their own fa¬ 
mily, - a heinous crime; fince it might engage them to 
embezzle the furniture and effedts committed to their 
care and ctifiody. Even the laws of Athens confirmed 
this miferable degradation of women, holding the fecii- 
rity of the htifband’s property a matter of greater im¬ 
portance than defending the wife’s perlbn from outrage, 
and protedling her character from infamy. By lucli il¬ 
liberal inffitutions were the mofl: amiable part of the 
human fpecies intuited, among' a people in other re- 
fpects the molt enlightened of all antiquity. They were 
totally debarred from-thofe refined arts and elegant en¬ 
tertainments, to which their agreeable qtialities might 
have added a new charm. Inftead of directing the talfe, 
and enlivening the pleafures of fociety, their value was 
eftimated, like that of the ignobleft objeCts, merely by- 
profit or utility. Their chief virtue was referve, and 
their point of lionour ceconomy. 
This extreme depreilion of the women levelled the 
natural inequalities of their temper and difpolition; the 
prude, the coquette, with the various intermediate 
lhades of female character, difappeared ; and all the 
modeli and virtuous part of the fex (if virtue and mo- 
defty can ever be the elfeCfs of relfraint) were reduced 
to Immble imitation and inlipid unitormity. But, in 
the time of Pericles, there was introduced at Athens a 
bolder clafs of females, who divefted themfelves of 
natural modefty, difdained the artificial virtues, and 
avenged the violated privileges of their lex. Alia, the 
mother of voluptuoufnefs, produced tins leduClive 
brood, whofe meretricious arts and occupations met 
with no reftraint from the laxity of Ionian morals, and 
were even promoted and encouraged by the corruptions 
of Pagan (uperftition. In moft of the Greek colonies 
of Alia, temples were ereCfed to the earthly Venus; 
where courtezans were not merely tolerated, btit lio- 
noured as prieftelfes of that condefeending divinity. 
The wealthy and commercial city of Corinth firft im¬ 
ported this innovation from the Eaft ; and fuch is the 
extravagance of the human mind, that after the repulle 
of Xerxes, the magiftrates of that republic aferibed the 
fafety of their country to the powerful interceflion of 
tiie votaries of Venus, whofe portraits tliey caufed to 
E C E. 
be painted at the public expence, as the Athenians had 
done thofe of the heroic companions who gained the 
battle of Marathon. The fame of all thofe accom- 
plifhed but frail beauties, though higlily celebrated 
by the poets and hiftorians of the times, was eclipfed 
by the fplendour of Afpafia of Miletus, who fettled at 
Athens under the adminiftration of Pericles, and is faid 
to have embarked in the fleet with which that fortu¬ 
nate commander fubdued the wealthy illand of Samos. 
The perfonal charafter of Afpafia gave temporary luftre 
to a profeflion, which, though exalted by the cafual 
caprices of fuperftition, muft naturally have fallen into 
contempt, fince later writers among the Greeks acknow¬ 
ledge, that though ftie carried on a very diflionourable 
commerce in female virtue, yet her wit and eloquence, 
ftill more than her beauty, gained lier extraordinary 
confideration among all ranks in the republic. The 
fufceptible minds of the Athenians were delighted with 
what their abfurd inftitutions rendered a novelty, the 
beholding the native graces of the fex, embelliflied by 
education. Afpafia is faid to have acquired a powerful 
afeendant over Pericles himfelf; file certainly acquired 
liis protection and friendfiiip ; which is lefs extraordi¬ 
nary than that her converfation and company ftiould 
liave pleafed the difcernm.ent of the fage Socrates. She 
is accufed of having excited, from motives of perfonal 
refentment, the war of Peloponnefus; yet, calamitous 
as that long and obftinate conflict proved to Greece, 
and particularly to Athens, it may be fufpeCled that 
Afpafia occafioned ftill more incurable evils to both. 
Her example, and ftill more her inftruCtions, formed a 
fchool of proftitution at Athens, by which her danger¬ 
ous profellion was reduced to a fyftem. The compa¬ 
nions of Afpafia ferved as models for painting and fta- 
tuary, and as tliemes for poetry and panegyric. Nor 
were they merely the objects, bhit the authors, of many 
literary w'Oiks, in which they eltabliflied rules for the 
behaviour of their lovers, particularly at table ; and 
explained, according to Athenieus, the art of gaining 
the heart, and captivating the affeCtions. The drefs, 
behaviour, and artifices, of this clafs of women, became 
continually more feduClive and dangerous ; and the 
metropolis of Greece thenceforth remained the chief 
Ichool of vice and pleafure, as well as of literature and 
phiiofophy. It has indeed been lamented that tlie fine 
arts, and particularly painting, fhould have been thus 
proftituted to the honour of harlots, and the purpofes 
of voluptuoufnefs. Licentious pictures too are men¬ 
tioned by ancient writers as a general fource of corrup¬ 
tion, and confidered as the firft ambufti that befet the 
fafety of youth and innocence. Yet this unhappy ef¬ 
fect of the arts was only the vapour that attends the 
fun; fince painting, architecture, and above all, ftatti- 
ary, attained their meridian fplendour in the age of Pe¬ 
ricles; and filed peculiar glory on this period of Gre¬ 
cian hiftory, not only by tne powers of genius which 
they dil'played, but by the noble and elegant purpofes 
to which they were direCted. 
Of the doubtful and delicate problem, “Whence 
arofe thefe pre-eminent attainments of the Greeks 
M. Herder, in his Phiiofophy of Man, has off ered the fol¬ 
lowing lolution : He regards as preliminary caufes tlie 
accefiible nature of their country, which occafioned fre¬ 
quent migrations into it, and which gave rife to conftant 
intercourl'e with firangers : the cultivated ftate of Afia 
Minor, whence, at fucceftive periods, Greece was peo¬ 
pled : the numerous diftinCf tribes into which the fe- 
veral ifiands, and the marked features of the main land, 
occafioned this people to be divided : the fcope for 
emulation, imitation, and improvement, which a fociety 
fo diverfified afforded, a fine ftruCture of frame, the de- 
velopement of the powers of which was affifted by lin¬ 
gular felicity of climate ; and a paflionate love of fenli- 
ble beauty in arts and manners, in fcience, and in poli¬ 
tical inftitutions. In their exquifite organs, fafiiioned 
under a mild Iky, in their enthufiaftic attachment to 
inufic. 
