 Chapter 10 of Feminism in Greek Literature This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sarah Lorenowich. Feminism in Greek Literature by Frederick Adam Wright Chapter 10, Aristophanes The work of Aristophanes is appended to that of Euripides and is often inspired by a much more serious purpose than is commonly supposed. Aristophanes is no mere vulgar buffoon, and most of his obscenity is an empty parade made necessary by the conditions of the attic stage which Aristophanes himself in the course of his career rendered obsolete. He was a member of the Socratic Circle, the famous symposium ends with Socrates expounding to Agathon and Aristophanes the nature of tragedy and comedy and explaining the essential similarity of their functions. And in his early manhood he fell under the spell of the great Tragedian. Of all his comedies there is hardly one which in language, music and dramatic technique does not reveal the intimate harmony that exists between the two men. Aristophanes and Euripides, like our Shelley, were born to be lyric poets and they both possessed the divine gift of melody. But they were interested in so many other things in politics, in feminism and in social reform, but art with them often takes the second place. As men they are incomparably greater than such self-centered poets as Sophocles as artists they neither aim at nor achieve his academic perfection. Their methods are curiously alike and it is because Aristophanes knows Euripides so well and is in such intimate sympathy with him that the constant parody of the Euripidean style in the comedies never becomes wearisome. Parody, gross humor, indecency even, these were the qualities that a comic poet at Athens had necessarily to display. And Aristophanes, having chosen his medium of expression, is compelled to obey the restrictions of the comic stage. However, it is obvious that he enjoys indulging his humor to the utmost. The wit of Euripides is restrained and ironical with something of the bitterness of old age. Aristophanes, in most of his plays, has the exuberance of youthful spirits and an overflowing stock of fantastic inventions. But a dramatist, even a comic dramatist, however fantastic and inventive his humor may be, must have some foundation of serious purpose. That foundation, Aristophanes, takes very largely from Euripides. His three chief themes are the same as those of the Tragedyan. Firstly, that war is a curse. It is useful perhaps for politicians and soldiers but only brings disaster to real workers. Secondly, that a belief in God's made in mortal shape is absurd. Such a belief will certainly lead to farcical situations which if treated realistically will be excellent material for a comic poet. Thirdly, that women are as capable intellectually and morally as men. Their experience of house management especially fits them for carrying on the business of a state and a feminist administration might solve many problems that have proved too hard for men. The first of these themes appears in the plot of the Eccarnians, the Peace and the Knights, the second in the birds, the frogs and the Plutus. The feminist plays are the women at the festival, the Lysistrata and the women in assembly. It is obvious that the treatment of these themes in Tragedy and Comedy will be different but the initial point of view is very much the same. As for the abuse of Euripides and there is plenty in the comedies, it is merely part of the comic game and it is foolish to take it seriously. Aristophanes, Euripides, Plato and Socrates were all close friends as intimate one with the other as are our leading politicians and to speak of Aristophanes attacking Euripides and Socrates is to misread the situation. It is not to be supposed that all the members of the Socratic circle fought alike on all subjects and even as regards feminism, there are some points of difference between Euripides and Aristophanes. The comic poet is rather interested in the women's cause than devoted to it and in many of his plays he certainly hesitates between the gross realism of the phallic god and the new ideas of feminist doctrine. Often too in his theatre women occupy as insignificant a place as they did in the actual life of his time. In the wasps, for example, Philokaleon's household apparently consists of his grown-up son and the attendant slaves. Nothing is said of wife or daughter. In the knights, Demos, John Bull, has no Mrs. Bull to keep him company. His domestic arrangements are in the hands of men slaves in the clouds. There is a vivid picture of Socrates at home. House, furniture and pupils are all described but nothing of Xanthepe. So in the Acarnians and the Peace we have household scenes but no women take part in the action. The women are there but they are persons of no importance. Trigaeus before setting off on his adventurous voyage bids an affectionate farewell to his little children but for his wife he has no message. The Magarian sells his two daughters who are a handful of leeks and a measure of salt and then prays to all his saints that he may be lucky enough to get as good a prize for his mother and his wife. A realist depicting life at Athens in the fifth century was compelled to give women an insignificant role but even in this group of plays Aristophanes makes one exception. The exception, perhaps, that proves the rule for even under the harem system the masterful woman will sometimes come to the front and Heron al-Rashid goes in fear of Zobida in the clouds Strepsiadis is married and by no means independent of his wife. The lady is mentioned although she takes no part in the play and the reasons of this difference are instructive. Strepsiadis himself is a person of inferior social position lacking both in willpower and intellectual force. His wife is a woman of property and a daughter of a noble family and herself a determined character. Using all these advantages she is just able to hold her own with her feeble, foolish husband and to insist at least on a compromise when their opinions differ but it is possible to make too much of the absence of women characters for the conditions of the performance at the lenient festival were all against feminine interests and even though the plot of many of the comedies has little to do with women there are constant flashes that reveal the author's feminist sympathies. Of all the episodes in The Birds there is none quite so freshly humorous as the arrest of Iris, the girl messenger of the gods and even in the midst of the fierce political railery of the knights there comes a delicious interlude of the Lady Triremes meeting in council. The old Stasier Nofante addressing the assembly first and revealing the goings on of the government by the shy young thing has never come near men and is determined to keep her independence heaven for fend, no man shall ever be my master. Indeed considering the state of Athens and the necessity that lay upon a comic poet of suiting the taste of his audience the real surprise is that no less than three of the remaining eleven plays the Lysistrata the Women at the Festival and the Women in Assembly should be concerned with the feminist movement and be written in open advocacy the Women at the Festival Thesmophoriasusae is the lightest of the three and is really a very brilliantly written feminist review Euripides is the compare and in various disguises takes part in most of the incidents he has heard that the women now assembled in their own festival to which no men are admitted intend to have him put to death firstly for being a playwright and secondly as a slanderer he goes round to his friends to save them the scene is a parody on the Alcestus and first of all to his fellow dramatist Agathon but Agathon whose music is then burlesque is too much like a woman to be of any assistance he is another of the inner Socratic circle but in the way of Jess the most infamous conduct is imputed to him his appearance is as ambiguous as his morals and all he can do for Euripides is to give him articles of women's dress for the purpose of a disguise so Euripides has to fall back on his father-in-law Nesolocus the buffoon of the piece and there follows one of those scenes of disrobing with which we are familiar on the modern stage the old gentleman is undressed, shaved all over and arrayed in women's garments i.e. he exchanges his rough white blanket for a finer yellow one winds a band corset round his breasts and pulls on a hair net and bonnet he is now to all appearances a woman and goes to the Thesmophorian Festival to find out the details of the women's proposal the women assemble and in an elaborate burlesque of a public meeting recount their grievances against Euripides it is because of the poet that men have become so suspicious they send to lover everywhere spy on their wives and lock up the store cupboards old men who once would take young wives now remain unmarried for the poet has told them when an old man marries a young wife the lady is master finally by his atheistic doctrines Euripides has ruined many an honest flower girl for men do not offer garlands now to the gods then Nesolocus gets up for the defense i detest the fellow as much as you do he says but it is unreasonable to be annoyed with him for talking about one or two of our weaknesses we have ten thousand which he has never mentioned he then proceeds to dilate on some of the frailties which Euripides has omitted but he is stopped by his angry audience there is nothing so bad as a woman who is naturally shameless the chorus say except it be a woman a fierce discussion begins until their arguments are interrupted by the appearance of Clesthenes one of those womanish men so unpleasantly familiar in Athens who tells the assembly that a real man suspicion at once falls on Nesolocus he is discovered by plain evidence to be of the male sex and is seized by the woman he makes a gallant attempt to escape by snatching a baby from a woman's lap and holding it to ransom a parody on Euripides' telephos but when he unfastens the child's wrappings it is not a baby but a leather skin full of wine which the lady has brought for her private refreshment during the proceedings he decides to send the Euripides for help and a parody of the Palomides ends the first part of the play the intermezzo, as we might call it between the two acts is a humorous statement of the woman's case on strict Euripidean lines each and every one the chorus sings abuses the tribe of women we are everything that is bad well then, why do you marry us? why do you keep us indoors as though we are something very, very precious? why, if we peep out the window does every man want to get a good view of our face? as a matter of fact women are better than men not worse they are less greedy less dishonest, less vulgar lastly, they alone are the mothers of heroes the second act is a series of attempts by Euripides to rescue his defender in the first episode the tragedian appears disguised as the Menelaus of his Helen Old Nessalocus is the fair but frail queen and the scene is supposed to change to Egypt but the women refuse to let their captive free and he is finally handed over to a North Country policeman an illiterate gentleman with a very strong accent on him Euripides tries the effect of another tragedy disguised as Perseus he insists that Mesalocus is the captive maiden Andromeda and that he has come to release her but the policeman proves obdurate then Euripides plays his last card remembering that all policemen have a fablese for the weaker sex he disguises himself as an old woman and comes in leading by the hand a young and attractive female the policeman begins at once to soften and when the plump flute girl sits down on his knee he capitulates murmuring what a swat thong it's real adicony a last vestige of professional caution makes him ask the old lady her name Euripides having to choose a title chooses a good one and says Artemisia which the policeman enters as Artemusia in his notebook and then handing over the custody of his prisoner to the old lady he retires indoors with his young acquaintance the other pair hasten to make their escape and the play ends with the policeman's despair and cry Artemusia Artemusia where are you the Lysistrata to wake her up of armies is a much stronger play and the heroine is a masterpiece of dramatic characterization from the beginning of the action when she stands in the darkness waiting for the women she has summoned and frowning with impatience although a frown spoils her looks as her one companion tells her until the end when her purpose accomplished she can say let man stand by woman and woman by man she is a real living woman if Aristophanes had written nothing else Lysistrata shows that he understood the female mind almost as well as Euripides himself better far than most women authors except only the incomparable Jane to whose Emma in masterfulness and independence the Athenian lady bears a close resemblance the plot of the play is simple under the lead of Lysistrata the women of Athens make a lead with the women of Sparta the Osha, Corinth and the other Greek states for the solidarity of women is one of the key notes of the play to stop the war for this purpose they put into effect both active and passive measures they bind themselves by oath to have no further intercourse with their husbands until peace is made the women at first object but under the lead of the athletic Spartan finally agree and they also seize the acropolis with the treasury the old men left at home and the officials for most of the men are at the war try to use force but Lysistrata has marshaled and drilled her women in a very vivid scene the men attack but up guards and at them cries Lysistrata and the forces of male law and order as represented by the Skyvian policemen are put to ignominious flight then the men think it expedient to propose a friendly meeting and the conversation between Lysistrata and the chief commissioner is the most instructive part of the play why have you seized the treasury he asks Lysistrata explains that all wars depend on financial considerations and that the women need to stop supplies his argument that women have no administrative skill or financial knowledge is countered by the plain facts of home management it is not the same things as the commissioner this is a war fund then Lysistrata declares that the war has to stop now at once in our retiring modesty we have put up long enough with what you men have been doing you would not let us speak but we have not been at all satisfied with you we knew what was going on although we stay indoors over and over again we were told of some new big mistake you had made with pain in our hearts we would put on a smile and ask what have you done today about the peace but what's that to you our men would say hold your tongue and so I did then says Lysistrata but I am not going to now I have heard the strain quite long enough men must see to war's alarms this is my version of the tune women shall see to war's alarms and if you listen to my advice you will not be troubled by war's alarms anymore all you have to do is to hold your tongue as we used to do at this the commissioner breaks inferiously you have a cursed baggage I hold my tongue before you why you are wearing a veil now to hide your face may I die rather but his anger does him little good if that is your difficulty says Lysistrata take my veil and she puts it on his head and now hold your tongue moreover here is my wool basket so you may munch beans and card the wool for now women women shall never be slaves and so the scene ends with the triumphant chorus between this the first act and the second there is a short interval of time and when we see Lysistrata again she is having some difficulty in keeping her women together and away from their husbands you long for your men she says don't you think they are longing for you I am sure they are finding the knights very hard hold out good friends and bear it for a little while longer her arguments are successful and soon the first man comes in prepared to submit to any terms but till the piece is made no arrangement is possible and the poor husband goes away unsatisfied finally a joint deputation of Spartans and Athenians appear before Lysistrata she as a woman and therefore she says a person of sense has no difficulty in arranging for them terms of peace which are satisfactory to both sides and so the play ends with a necklace dance and women dancing hand in hand but this brief summary gives little idea of all the devices of stage craft in which the Lysistrata abounds it is eminently an acting play and can still fill a theatre the language is certainly gross and its heroine is entirely lacking in modest reticence but a glance at the French adaptation by Amdenay of the Academy and especially at the additional episodes there introduced will prove that grossness is not the worst thing in the world and that a quiet tongue does not always mean a virtuous mind the women in assembly ecclesiastice is much less vigorous written 20 years later than the Lysistrata it shows plain signs of old age and failing powers Euripides and Socrates have both passed away the Socratic circle has broken up tragedy is dead and comedy is dying for Aristophanes has lost most of that Viscomica which was his most wonderful possession the influence of Plato is substituted for the influence of Euripides and the play is a parody of feminist theories as they are developed in the Republic the construction however is poor the action halts and changes midway in the play the first part is effective enough but it would be more effective if we did not remember the Lysistrata whose themes it repeats with less vigor at the beginning of the play Praxagore is waiting in the darkness for the women she has summoned to appear they have resolved to disguise themselves as men and to attend the assembly which has been called for that morning there they are to propose and carry a resolution that the state shall be handed over to the management of women presently they begin to assemble their husbands are safely in bed and asleep for their wives have taken measures that they should have a restful night sticks, cloaks, shoes and mirrors are produced and adjusted but before they set out to pack the assembly Praxagore proposes a rehearsal of their arguments the ladies who have confined their attention to looking like men prove not very expert at speaking in the male style and Praxagore herself has to give them a sample speech things go wrong she says because we choose our government on wrong principles it is a government by classes and everyone considers his own personal interests and the money is paid away for private gain a government of women would alter this for women by experience in house management know how to get full value for money secondly women are conservative and would never agree to any violent change in the finances or the tariff they are natural economists and specious cries of fair trade would have no effect upon them thirdly as war ministers they are certain to be successful their experience in providing meals to the soldiers are well fed and they are not likely to risk unduly the lives of their own sons lastly women are so used to trickery that it will be very hard to trick them therefore without any further talking or inquiry as to what women are likely to do the best thing is to entrust them with the government the women by the end of the speech have learnt their parts and with one last instruction to thrust their elbows into the face of any policeman who tries to interfere they all set out for the assembly then Bleperus the elderly husband of Praxigora appears and the play begins to deteriorate for it is one of the most dexterous touches in the Lysistrata that the husbands are for the most part away from home and therefore can take no part in the action Bleperus and his neighbors have found that their wives have disappeared together with their cloaks and shoes while they are standing in doubt they hear strange news the assembly convened that morning the state reform is already over it was so well attended and so punctual to time that many men came too late to vote or to receive their attendance fee a resolution has been passed unanimously that Taylor shall provide clothes and baker's bread free gratis to all and furthermore that the government shall be in the hands of women a good looking young man who made a most effective speech was chiefly responsible for this change of policy he pointed out that women could keep a secret far better than men that they were in the habit of trusting one another and that they never would be likely to plot against the government moreover everything but woman government had been tried already without much success and the experiment was well worth making Bleperus and his friends acquiesce enough fei accompli and when praxagora returns she learns from her husband that women are now in authority the socialistic state begins at once to take shape praxagora decrees a community of property land, food, slaves belong now to the state everyone possesses everything women are part of a community of goods but to avoid disputes the less well favored women and men are to have the first choice of partners and such unions are purely temporary law courts, gambling salons and nightclubs are all summarily closed and these appurtenances of civilization are incompatible either with socialism or feminism the difficulty of work is disposed of by the convenient institution of slavery and a regime of universal happiness and feasting begins thus far the first section of the play the second part which is very inferior attempts to show the working of the new system praxagora disappears and the characters are mere mechanical figures a man, A, a man B, a young man a young woman, three old women the scenes are coarse and uninteresting nor is the prosiness of the dialogue relieved by any of the vivid touches of humor which marked the post earlier plays finally, this section like the first ends with a banquet given by the state and open to all the ecclesiastice is plainly inspired by Plato's theories of communism and feminism as we have them now in the republic and the laws a further example of the connection between the comedian and the philosopher the Aristophanic tale of the origin of sex in Plato's symposium the story, a platonic myth with a difference, is so good a specimen both of Aristophanes' humor and of the gay fashion in which the Greeks anticipate modern science that it is a pity its length prevents quotation in ancient days according to Aristophanes there were not two sexes but three the children of the sun, the earth and the moon men were round in shape with four feet and hands, two faces and they were able both to walk and to roll in the pride of their strength they were built against heaven and Zeus cut them in twain Apollo has been to heal the places but the two halves pine for one another and so in pity the god turned their bodies round and men became in shape such as we see them now there are many other details but the most striking point in the story is the recognition of the original identity of sex the man and the woman are not separate and opposite but rather complementary halves of one organism which once included both they are a divided whole and that is why men and women yearn one for the other how far the tail is Aristophanes' invention how far Plato's cannot be decided but the doctrine of the identity of sex qualification is the common possession of all the Socratic circle and forms us clearly the basis of Plato's serious philosophy as it does the humorous dialogue of Aristophanes End of Chapter 10 Section 11 of Feminism in Greek Literature This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Feminism in Greek Literature by Frederick Adam Wright Plato Plato differs for most of the Socratic circle he is above all things a visionary and a theorist he is essentially a masculine genius with him we hear nothing of wife and children and he lacks that grip of reality which the natural feminist Euripides instinctively possesses he regarded the condition of society in his native city with a mixture of dislike and contempt and he saw that the main cause of this condition was the indifference to women and children but the very Athenian prided himself on displaying in his feminism and his educated reforms Plato is deeply influenced by Spartan teaching but the main structure is his own work based not on any actual experience but on ideal theory in this idealism lies both the strength and weakness of his feminist doctrine he refuses to allow himself to be influenced as Aristotle after him was influenced by the actual state of inferiority to which Athenian women had been reduced but in forming a society which should be the opposite of the degenerate Athens of his day he is inclined to disregard some of the invincible facts of human nature Plato's feminist doctrines are most clearly stated in the fifth book of the republic and the sixth, seventh and eighth books of the laws these works are accessible to English readers or rather their rough substance is accessible for we can never reproduce the delicate music of Plato's prose and his subtle irony evaporates in English in Joatt's translation and in the excellent version of the republic by Davies and Vaughn but it may be convenient to give a brief summary of his argument in the fifth book of the republic the ideal state is being discussed and the rule among friends everything is common property has been laid down it has moreover been made applicable to wives and children for Plato at first hardly escapes from the fallacy that a man's wife is as much a piece of property as a dog or a table the organization of the communistic regime in detail then comes up for consideration but it is unanimously resolved that the question of community of women is of vital importance and must be explained at once the philosopher accordingly with some pretended reluctance begins with a prayer to nemesis I am on a slippery road and fear lest missing my footing I drag my friends down with me and thus approaches his subject the aim of our theory was I believe to make our men as it were guardians of a flock yes let us keep on the same track and give corresponding rules for the propagation of the species and for rearing the young and let us observe whether we find them suitable or not how do you mean? thus do we think that the females of watchdogs ought to guard the flock along with the males and hunt with them and share in all their other duties or that the females ought to stay at home because they are disabled by having to breed and rear the cubs while the males are to labor and be charged with all the care of the flocks we expect them to share in whatever is to be done only we treat the females as the weaker and the males as the stronger is it possible to use animals for the same work if you do not give them the same training in education? it is not if then we are to employ the women in the same duties as the men we must give them the same instructions? yes to the men we give music and gymnastics yes then we must train the women also in the same two arts we give them besides a military education and treating them in the same way as the men the professional humorist is then requested to refrain from the obvious joke suggested by the idea of women stripped for exercise or old ladies practicing athletics and to remember that all such things are purely matters of custom the real question is whether the nature of the human female is such as to enable her to share in all the employments of the male or whether she is wholly unequal to any or equal to some and not to others and if so to which class military service belongs women certainly are different from men but we must not be misled by the word different a bald-headed man is different from a long-haired man but he may be just as good a cobbler or a statesman so women differ from men in the part they play in the propagation of the species but that difference does not affect the question as to whether men and women should engage in the same pursuits the argument of the adaptability of the sexes to various occupations is discussed and this point is reached I conclude then, my friend that none of the occupations which comprehend the ordering of a state belong to woman as woman nor yet to man as man but natural gifts are to be found here and there in both sexes alike and so far as her nature is concerned the woman is admissible to all pursuits as well as the man though in all of them the woman is weaker than the man precisely so shall we then appropriate all virtues to men and none to women how can we on the contrary we shall hold I imagine that one woman may have talents for medicine and another be without them that one may be musical and another unmusical undoubtedly and shall we not also say that one woman may have qualifications for gymnastic exercises and for war and another be unwarlike and without a taste for gymnastics I think we shall again may there not be a love of knowledge in one and a distaste for it in another and may not one be spirited in another spirit less true again if that be so there are some women who are fit and others who are unfit for the office of guardians for were not those the qualities we selected in the case of men as marking their fitness for that office yes they were then as far as the guardianship of a state is concerned there is no difference between the natures of the man and of the woman but only various degrees of weakness and strength apparently there is none then we shall have to select duly qualified women also to share in the life and official labors of the duly qualified men since we find that they are competent to the work and of kindred nature with the men it seems to Plato that it is both practicable and desirable that men and women should have the same training and the same duties not indeed all men and all women for Plato's is an aristocratic state chiefly legislating for his guardian class but at least the better men and the better women so he does not shrink from the absolute similarity of education then the wives of our guardians must strip for their exercises in as much as they will put on virtue instead of raiment and must bear their part in war and the other duties comprised in the guardianship of the state and must engage in no other occupations though of these tasks the lighter parts must be given to the women rather than to the men in consideration of the weakness of their sex but as for the man who laughs the idea of undressed women going through gymnastic exercises as a means of realizing what is most perfect his ridicule is but unripe fruit plucked from the tree of wisdom and he knows not to all appearance what he is laughing at or what he is doing for it is and ever will be a most excellent maxim that the useful is noble and the hurtful base thus the first wave of the discussion is successfully surmounted the second and more dangerous is the proposition that wives and children shall be held in common the company refused to admit without discussion that it is either desirable or practicable and a double line of argument is used if men and women are educated and live together human nature will soon bring about even closer associations any irregular union would be an offense against the state and it is of the first importance to science that the best citizen should have the largest number of children therefore marriages and births must be a matter of state regulation and any possible discontent must be averted by an elaborate system of pretense the details are fixed as fast as the children are born they will be received by officers appointed for the purpose whether men or women or both for I presume that the state offices also will be held in common both by men and women they will well these officers I suppose will take the children of good parents and place them in the general nursery under the charge of certain nurses living apart in a particular quarter of the city while the issue of inferior parents and all imperfect children that are born to the others as is fitting in some mysterious and unknown hiding place yes, if the breed of the guardians is to be kept pure and will not these same officers have to super intend the rearing of the children bringing the mothers to the nursery when their breasts are full but taking every precaution so that no mother shall know her own child and providing other women that have milk if the mothers have not enough and must they not take care to limit the time during which the mothers are to suckle the children committing the task of sitting up at night and other troubles incident to infancy to nurses in attendance you make childbearing a very easy business for the wives of the guardians yes and so it ought to be the second argument may be briefly stated in the ideal state there will be no such thing as private property a man will not have a house or dogs of his own therefore a philosopher again seems hardly to realize that the analogy between house and wife is not quite exact he will not have a wife and children of his own the whole subject concludes with the return to the original topic of equality of opportunity in these terms then you concede the principle that the women are to be put upon the same footing as the men according to our description in education, in burying children and in watching over the other citizens and that whether they remain at home or are sent into the field they are to share the duties of guardianship with the men and join with them in the chase like dogs and have everything in common with them so far as it is at all possible and that in so doing they will be following the most desirable course and not violating the natural relation which ought to govern the mutual fellowship of the sexes I do concede all this he replied then does it not remain for us, I proceeded to determine whether this community can possibly subsist among men as it can among other animals and what are the conditions of its possibility you have anticipated me in a suggestion I was about to make as for their warlike operations I suppose it is easy to see how they will be conducted how, he asked why, both sexes will take the field together and also carry with them such of their children as are strong enough in order that, like the children of all other craftsmen they may be spectators of those occupations in which, when grown up they will themselves be engaged and they will require them, besides looking on to act as servants and attendants in all the duties of war and to wait upon their fathers and mothers it will be noticed that Plato does not shrink from the question of military service for women that is unwilling or unable to defend his country he certainly has no claim to citizen rights nor has a woman it may reasonably be argued that the qualification for a vote is neither property nor sex but the proof that the individual has passed through the period of training necessary to qualify him as a defender of the fatherland the qualities necessary for a soldier are three courage, strength and skill and with women can doubt that they possess the first in the passive courage which a modern soldier chiefly needs it is possible that women have a slight advantage over men and they usually recover more quickly from wounds the strength that is required in modern warfare is chiefly endurance the power to stand exposure to the weather insufficient food lack of sleep and comfort marching capacity no one who knows the vagabonds and strollers will say that women are not capable of supporting all these hardships as well as men the female tramp is every whit as sturdy and hearty as her male companion finally the skill to handle a gun and the power of shooting straight are matters almost entirely of training the natural qualities a steady hand and a sharp eye that help such training are by no means predominantly male characteristics Plato for his part is very insistent on this question and returns to it several times in the laws the state is to maintain schools where the art of war in all its branches shall be taught to males and females alike gymnastics and horsemanship are as suitable to women as to men boys and girls together must learn the use of the bow the javelin and the sling and in every well ordered community at least one day a month shall be set aside for warlike exercise which men women and children shall take part female education will include a definite military training the girls will learn how to use their weapons and to move about lightly in armor the grown woman will study evolutions and tactics finally in all public festivals and competitions the unmarried girl shall compete with the youths in running and in contests in armor it is on this point of military training perhaps the Plato stands apart from modern sentiment most of his other ideals of feminine education are in process of being realized even that which allowed the educated woman to become herself a teacher and rank with male colleagues in the inner circle of the academy the first university college of which we know men and women met on equal terms and shared responsibilities and privileges the names of two such women neither of them be it noted Athenians are recorded for us by Daikyarkis and Lysthenia of Mataneia and Axiothea of Philius who even used to wear male attire hold out their hands across the centuries to Mrs. Bryant and Miss Busk Plato indeed in spite of his idealism is often very practical and on the question of marriage his doctrine is most sound the simple law of marriage is this a man must marry before 1835 if not he shall be fined and lose all his privileges mankind are immortal because they leave children behind them and for a man to deprive himself of immortality is impiety he who obeys the law shall be free and pay no fine but the disobedient shall pay a yearly fine in order that he may not imagine that his celibacy will bring him ease or profit moreover he shall not share in any of the honors which the state gives to the aged marriage is to be regarded as a duty and every man shall follow not after the marriage which is most pleasing to himself but after that which is most beneficial to the state this cannot be affected by definite regulations but we should try and charm the spirits of men into believing that their children are of more importance than themselves and that a child's disposition will depend upon the happy blending of its parents Plato realizes that children have a state's vital interest and his concern for them extends to the period before birth husband and wife are to consider how they are to produce for the state the best and fairest specimens of children which they can if proper attention is given to anything success is certain and the eugenics system is to be under the definite control of a committee of women who shall meet every day and spend a third part of the day in ensuring that the regulations are carried out their care is to be expressly extended to the future mothers for the period of a child's life before birth is equally decisive and the young wife must be carefully tended kept from excessive pleasures or pains and be encouraged to cultivate habits of gentleness, benevolence and kindness then comes the proper management of infants and Plato is very convinced of the importance of constant motion for the young child every household was often closely bandaged in swaddling clothes and left to its own resources he anticipates Aristopus who, holding that pleasure was the chief end of life, found the best definition of pleasure to be a gentle motion and he is prepared to make his ideal state for infants at least a pleasant one the first principle in relation both to the body and soul of very young children is that nursing and moving about by day and night is good for them all and that the younger they are the more they will need it infants should live, if it were possible as if they were always rocking at sea exercise and motion in the earliest years greatly contribute to create a part of virtue in the soul the child's virtue is cheerfulness and good nursing makes a gentle and a cheerful child this first period will last till the age of three when the child will begin to find out the natural modes of amusement in company with other children from three to six boys and girls should live and play together after six they should separate and begin to receive instruction on the subject of co-education which may be regarded as the best practical solution for the cure of sex ignorance Plato speaks with a rather uncertain voice his general theory presupposes an identity of training and the free mingling of boys and girls young men and women in sport and work but he is disturbed by his conviction of the natural badness of boys contrasted with girls of all animals the boy is the most unmanageable in as much as he has the fountain of reason in him not yet regulated he is the most insidious, sharp-witted and insubordinate of creatures therefore he must be bound with many bridles the further difficulty the constant friendly intercourse between young men and women may lead to undesirable results is discussed at some length in the laws page 835 and the very sensible conclusion is arrived at that a healthy public opinion will be the first result of these natural conditions of comradeship and that the general sentiment will be the strongest of checks upon undue license the importance of example in education and morals on the best way of training the young is to train yourself at the same time not to admonish them but to be always carrying out your own admonitions in practice finally education is of supreme importance to a country the minister of education is the most important officer of state of all appointments his is the greatest he will rule according to law must be fifty years old alone, both boys and girls by preference, at any rate one or the other these are some of the salient points of Plato's teaching but a careful reading of the republic and the laws will reveal many further issues and many sidelights on the main thesis Plato does not trouble to be rigorously consistent and like Euripides he does not hesitate at times to play the part of the candid friend and to point out what he thinks is a real sex sometimes he is right sometimes he is wrong women, he says, are too prone to secrecy and stealth they are accustomed to creep into dark places and resist being dragged into the light here Plato seems to hit the truth if there is one quality call it virtue or vice as you will which is peculiarly a woman's and not a man's characteristic it is secretiveness the result of many centuries of self suppression it gives a certain aggravating charm to the female mind and usually does no particular harm but it is perhaps the chief reason of women's comparative failure in literature sincerity in writing is the saving grace and if a book is not frank it should never be written few women authors resemble Safo or Jane Austen or Mademoiselle Collet in contemporary French literature in the middle of their lives do all make a serious attempt at truth most women fail in frankness towards themselves and their readers George Elliott, Ouida, George Sand to take another typical and strongly differentiated trio dissemble their facts as much as they dissemble their names like ostriches they hide their faces under a cloud of words end of section 11 section 12 feminism in Greek literature this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org feminism in Greek literature by Frederick Adam Wright chapter 12 the attic orators to turn from Plato's ideal state to the actual condition of women's life during the 4th century in Athens as we have it revealed in the pages of the orators is like passing from a breezy hillside into a dark, closed shut room we see the working of the harem system with all its atmosphere of secrecy and suspicion the women are closely watched for it is presumed that they will be unfaithful to their husbands if they can they live secluded in the women's quarter of the house the gyneconitis and for any strange man to enter their rooms is a grave in propriety in Demosthenes for example we find it imputed to Androtium as a proof of unbearable insolence that in his capacity of tax collector he forced his way into the women's apartments and compelled the master of the house tied under the bed putting him thus to shame before his womankind that a wife should appear publicly with her husband at a dinner party and take a share in men's pleasures is equally an offence against morality Niera was known to have sat at dinner with her husband and his friends this fact testified by wetnesses is taken as an obvious proof that she was a woman of abandoned character the sister of Nicodemus Ices argues could not have been legally married for she was often seen at entertainments with the man she called her husband and wedded wives do not go out to dinner with their husbands or expect to join in festivities the doctrine that a wife is her husband's property is applied to the fullest extent and any offence against that property is punished with the utmost rigor of the law a husband who finds another man in his harem is allowed to put him to death at Athens there is no pretense of the sanctity of marriage the offence and the punishment is the same whether the intrigue is with the master's wife or with his concubine each is equally the master's property to be protected at any cost it is a more heinous crime to make love to a woman who belongs to another man than to offer her violence for the offence is viewed solely from the owner's side and a woman who willingly yields to another is outraging her lawful master's amour property more deeply than if she were taken by force the lover is put to death the ravisher pays a fine the point of view being much the same as used to hold in English law where the wife-beater was regarded as a less offensive character than the poacher but if the husband of an erring wife had the support of the law however violent his methods of revenge the case was very different when the woman was the offended party there is an anecdote in Plutarch's life of Alcibiades which reveals the attitude of the Athenian law-givers Iparity made a prudent and affectionate wife but at last growing very uneasier to husbands associating with such a number of courtesans both strangers and Athenians she quitted his house and went to her brothers Alcibiades went on with his debaucheries and gave himself no pain about his wife but it was necessary for her in order to obtain a legal separation to give in a bill of divorce to the archon and to appear personally with it for the sending of it by another hand would not do when she came to do this according to law Alcibiades rushed in caught her in his arms and carried her through the marketplace to his own house no one presuming to oppose him or to take her from him from that time she remained with him until her death which happened not long after when Alcibiades was on his voyage to Ephesus nor does the violence used in this case seem to be contrary to the laws either of society in general or of that republic in particular for the law of Athens in requiring her who wants to be divorced to appear publicly in person probably intended to give the husband an opportunity to meet with her and to recover her Plutarch, Alcibiades Langhorn's translation A wife seeking to escape from an unworthy husband we see is regarded in the same light as a slave seeking to escape from his owner and all the resources of the law are put at the disposal of the husband and the master there was a constant tendency to think of women and slaves together and the institution of slavery was certainly one of the most powerful agents in the degradation of women at Athens a slave girl was in the eye of the law a thing, not a human being and she was free from all restraints of moral sanction she was the property of her owner and her only duty was to obey him and all things virtue, chastity, modesty were for her things impossible of attainment and over the whole business was cast the protection and encouragement of the law there came into existence a class of women condemned to physical and moral degradation a class whose very existence was an insult to womankind so that Aristophanes at least, has the wit to see that the establishment of a female government would have as one of its first results the forcible abolition of all such recognized and legal forms of vice women and slaves then were linked together and it must be remembered, as Professor Murray says that people do not become slaves by a legal process they become slaves when they are brought into contact with superiors who have the power and the will to use them as tools there are three principle tests of slavery ancient or modern and in ancient life they will often apply equally well to women firstly slaves are a degraded and immoral class this was continually insisted upon and doubtless one result was to abuse in a certain degree the vices falsely imputed to nature secondly their work is despised as unworthy of free men the harder work was left in the hands of slaves or women who did not receive any pay and the super abundant leisure of the male citizen was devoted to the political life thirdly the condition of dependence once fully established soon produces a feeling of despair the willingness to die, which is so noticeable in Euripides heroines is one of the sure signs of slavery slaves are lacking in spirit some indeed are so completely lacking but they are happy in servitude the impetus to revolt must come from without especially when the servile state has existed for many centuries slavery may be defined as the economic exploitation of the weaker and though it does not exist in our time and land it offers such a convenient basis for civilization that various devices are used even now to take its place there is the theory, for example that some kinds of work are higher than others and therefore should be paid on a higher scale or again that the same work if performed by different persons requires different remuneration many estimates of women's inferiority have ultimately an economic basis the more lucrative trades and professions are those for which it is considered that women are temperamentally unfit it is a noticeable fact that all these general conceptions of women's weakness have always been closely connected with their legal status in Athens where women could not hold property and an IRS was taken over by the most male relative as a necessary encumbrance on the estate the estimate of women's character was very low in Alexandria and at Rome where women by various devices outwitted the law and became possessed of some degree of economic independence their moral position also changed for the better in England feminism begins with the married women's property act but as long as slavery, social or economic is not recognised by the law it cannot be the curse that was to ancient life in Athens it was a legal institution owing its validity to much the same mode of thought as made the wife also her husband's chattel it is the business of lawyers to defend the law and if the law is bad their moral sense is necessarily warped in the process so that it is not surprising if the private speeches of the Attic orators although they exhibit the natural subtlety of the Athenians in a striking light by no means give an equally strong of moral rectitude all the orators are the same in this respect Demosthenes in matters of state was a high-minded patriot as a lawyer he is, like the rest of his colleagues a professional liar and does not scruple to falsify and misrepresent the truth Lyceus so forgets the man in the Advocate that he seems to reserve his highest powers for his worst cases and obviously delights in such a client as the shameless old cripple for whom writes his most ingenious speech Lyceus has no regard for veracity and it has been found by painful experience that his unsupported statements even on simple questions of fact are, to put it mildly extremely unreliable as for Hiberides he is careless of shame so long as he wins his case and his gesture as he bids his fair client display her charms is like the calculated boldness of the slave dealer offering his girls to the highest bidder but if the orators give us an impression of cunning subtlety which far transcends the bounds that we even now allow to lawyers their clients are in no better case by the middle of the fourth century Athens was in full decadence her men had lost all the vigor and courage that brought their country safe through the dangers of the Persian wars her women perhaps were even worse than the men corruptio optimi pessima and had sunk into a state of utter degradation impotent old men and designing young women are the chief figures in most of Isis' speeches and, as his editor says to have any confidence in the veracity or virtue of his clients argues a truly Arcadian simplicity there is the case of Yutimon for example the old man who divorces his wife and leaves his children to live with his slave woman Alcy this unfortunate whose youth has been degraded for her master's profit this is a revenge when the old man grows senile she induces him to remove her from the den of infamy which has been one of the sources of his wealth to live with her in the drinking-shop over which she is put in charge and finally to recognize one of her bastards as his own son the family, threatened by a second marriage reluctantly consent to help in an adoption which ran counter to the first principles of Attic law and it is not until the old man's death that the property falls into dispute that his misfortunes with the woman so the advocate euphemistically describes them come to light the facts of the case are utterly sordid but every detail is enveloped by Isis in a cloud of sophistical arguments which show both a complete absence of moral sense in the advocate and so greater faculty of deception that modern writers have inferred it need not be said with how little reason that polygamy was not illegal at Athens that concubinage was recognized by law and that bastards have the rights of legitimate children all three statements are untrue but they may fairly be deduced from the ever shifting arguments that the lawyer uses in another of his cases it is an old man at death's door who marries a young girl and the usual imputations upon the bride's motives form one of his strongest arguments in a third the estate of Pyrrhus is foisted by her brother upon one of her old lovers and the claim is then made that she is his legal wife but to go through the details of Isis cases would be merely tedious in all of them we see that moral degradation and absence of social rectitude which was the natural result of the inferiority of women in the eyes of the attic law women, like children, cannot legally enter a contract it is only to purchase a bushel of corn the son of a brother has a stronger claim to an intestate property than the son of a daughter for the law says males must prevail a daughter cannot inherit in her own person she is only an intermediary by whom the estate is transmitted through marriage to a male of the same blood as her father a woman's disabilities are painfully played in Isis as for her legal rights we discover from his speeches how far they have any actual existence the orator at least when his male clients seem to have the law against them does not hesitate to appeal to the natural sympathies of the male jurymen in the 10th oration we see how shamefully an heiress in spite of the law's formal protection could be despoiled by her guardian and her brother it is generally assumed that this male superiority before the law had a religious sanction the necessity of keeping up the family worship which could only be done by a man if we were speaking of a primitive society the argument would have some force but the Athenians of the fourth century were at the end rather than the beginning of their national life religion was dead and the foundations of morality undermined only the law remained unaltered that women were the inferior sex how far women contributed themselves to their degradation may be studied in all the orator's speeches but two cases are especially significant Antiphon's murder speech against the stepmother and Lycius defends for the murder of Ertostanis the first is grimly horrible in its sordid realism as Antiphon says it is the story of Clytemnestra repeated but divested now of all its tragic romance two women are the chief characters one a freeborn Athenian the wife of the murdered man the other a slave the mistress of the man's friend one Filonius the facts of these Filonius gets tired of his mistress's devotion and determines to rid himself of her by the simple process of selling her into life of utter degradation he reveals his intention to his friend and the two men decide to have one last carouse the girl waiting upon them before she goes to her ruin but the man's wife and her husband is forced to her as Filonius is to his lover intervenes she makes the acquaintance of the slave girl who is still passionately devoted to her worthless master and persuades her to regain his affection by a love potion which she will provide the girl agrees and when the two men meet at dinner she pours the potion which unknown to her is a deadly poison into their cups giving the larger share to her own false lord falls dead immediately the other man collapses and dies some days afterwards the slave girl is taken and broken on the wheel the wife is in this speech accused by her stepson of her share in the crime Antiphon's pleadings throw a lurid light on the relations between men and women in a slave state the speech of Lyceus in defence of Eratosthenes murder is an even more invaluable document the orator's client is accused and relies for his defence on the plea that his victim was taken in adultery and therefore lawfully put to death the law at Athens a written, not an unwritten code is definitely on the accused man's side but it is curious that this is the only surviving speech in which it is pleaded as an excuse it seems indeed that even the Athenians hesitated to use the ferocious power that the law gave them and we may imagine if we will there was a test case brought perhaps by one of the Socratic circle to try the validity of the law in the face of the new feminist doctrines in any event the Ionian Lyceus whose honeyed pen was at the service of the highest bidder was a person thoroughly distasteful to Plato and his friends and it is probable that in his speech he had the satisfaction both of defending the established order of social morality and also of striking a shrewd blow at his personal enemies the speech, which is a model of art begins with some compliments to the jury and then Lyceus very ingeniously makes his client tell the simple story of his life when I decided to marry a gentleman and brought a wife into my house I made this my rule of behaviour I did not annoy her with excessive vigilance but on the other hand I did not leave her too much her own mistress to do whatever she pleased I kept as close a guard over her as was possible and took all reasonable care this to conciliate the jury and to show that the damage done was not due to any lack of precautions on the owner's side after a time a child was born and then I began to feel confidence and handed over to her the charge of all my goods thinking that this was the surest bond of union between us at first gentleman she was the best of women a clever housewife and a thrifty and all her management then my mother died and her death has been the cause of all my troubles my wife went to her funeral that fellow saw her walking in the funeral procession and after a time succeeded in corrupting her the jury are meant to draw the inference that women should never leave the house one appearance in public may mean ruin he watched my wife's maid who goes to do the marketing made a proposal to her and soon affected his purpose of seduction I must tell you gentlemen that my humble home is built in two stories the upper part similar in style to the ground floor one containing the women's apartments the other the men's rooms now when our baby was born the mother began by nursing it herself and to avoid any risk of her coming downstairs at bath time I took up my quarters in the upper rooms and the women came down to the ground floor moreover we soon got into the way of my wife leaving me to go to sleep with the baby downstairs so that she might give him the breast and prevent him crying it is of course essential that the master's rest at night should not be disturbed and the jury will agree that this was a legitimate reason for a wife's absence from her proper place this went on for a long time and I never suspected anything such an aren't simpleton was I that I thought my wife the most virtuous woman in Athens well gentlemen time passed away I came back home unexpectedly from the country after dinner the baby began to cry and make itself unpleasant the maid was hurting it on purpose to cause a disturbance as I heard afterwards for the fellow was in the house I told my wife to go and give it the breast to stop it crying but at first she would not go she pretended that she was so delighted to see me after my long absence finally when I began to get angry and bade her be off I wanted to stay here and make love to the parlor maid I caught you pulling her about the other day when you were drunk at that I smiled and she got up and went away pulling the door too in a pretended jest and taking away the key I did not think anything of it nor had I any suspicions indeed I soon fell asleep for I had just come from the country and was glad to get rest it was getting on for daybreak when she returned and opened the door the girls had been banging in the night and she pretended that the child's lamp had blown out and she had gone next door to get a light I said nothing and believed her tale I did however notice that her face was covered with powder although her brother had not been dead a month but still I said nothing about her conduct I went out and left the house in silence white cheeks were highly esteemed at Athens and when a lady wished to be especially attractive she procured them artificially in this case the husband distracted by a double feeling gratification that his wife's apparent desire to please him and discussed her obvious disrespect for a male relative some time elapsed after these events gentlemen and I had no inkling of my misfortune when one day an old person came up to me she was sent as I heard afterwards by another woman that fellow had seduced and then abandoned who in her rage and indignation had spied upon him until she found out the reason of his desertion well the old lady came to me near my house where she was watching and you philatus said she don't think that I have come in any spirit of officious interference the man who is wronging you and your wife as it happens is an enemy of mine if you take the maid who goes to market and does your errands and torture her you will find out everything the man is a retosthenes oh here he is responsible for this he has seduced your wife and many other women besides that is his trade so the warning comes and then events move quickly the husband takes the servant and by a mixture of promises and threats compels her not only to confess but to betray her mistress when next the lover comes to the house it is alleged by the prosecution that he is beguiled there as quite a legitimate plot the maid informs her master witnesses are hastily summoned the door left unfastened by the girl is pushed open and the guilty pair are discovered together a retosthenes is struck down his arms are pinioned and then in the name of the law and in cold blood he is killed the scene is like the last act of Scheherazade without its barbaric magnificence of the woman nothing is said the speaker concludes by reminding his judges that his cause is theirs and that the only way to prevent illicit love is to take summary vengeance on the lover the point of view it will be noticed as regards the marriage relationship is very different from that expressed by Plato or Aristotle Plato regards marriage as a temporary connection dictated by mutual interest and dissolvable at will Aristotle says politics 7 16 as to adultery let it be held disgraceful for any man or woman to be unfaithful when they are man and wife if during the time of bearing children anything of the sort occur let the guilty person be punished with a loss of privileges in proportion to the offence the philosophers see that marital fidelity is important chiefly in relation to children and the state and they attach the same stigma to either of the parties who break the contract Miceus as a lawyer suiting his arguments to a male audience takes much lower ground the husband smiles at his own infidelities but claims the right to commit murder when his wife retaliates the Eratosthenes is perhaps the most vivid picture we have of home life in Athens but the general impression given by all the orators is much the same women are either carried into hopeless submission or else they are shamelessly profligate the occasional exception such as we find in Miceus' speech against Diogetum where a widow defends her children's interests with skill and vigor show that the fault was due to the marriage system rather than to women's nature most of the women however are incapable of energy their prison life has deprived them of the power and will to act in Miceus' speech against Simon for example the speaker a bachelor living in an abominable relationship has his sister and nieces as inmates of his house and he says these ladies life has been so decent and orderly that they are ashamed even for the men of their own household to set eyes upon them in DiMosteni's speech against Conan his unfortunate client again a bachelor has his mother keeping house for him when after his encounter with the fighting cox club he has carried home his cloak stolen his lips split and both eyes closed the ladies of his establishment his mother and his female attendants begin to weep and wail over his sad condition but they do nothing else his male acquaintances carry him off to the public bath there fetch a doctor and finally move him to the house of a friend even as ministering angels the Athenian women seem to have been ineffective only in the case of the imprisonment or the death of their male relatives do they come actively forward and the business of mourning and funeral lamentation was by convention left almost entirely in their hands most of the Athenian women then as we see them in the writings of the orators are mere passive animals a few and by no means the least successful are open in their profligacy such a one is the mother of Iskinis as we have a described by DiMosteni's in the speech on the crown such also the abominable pair mother and daughter who are chief characters in the speech against Niera which is attributed to DiMosteni's here the mother Niera a woman of notoriously bad character succeeds in marrying an Athenian citizen and her daughter Fanno a person as vicious as herself by one of those strange turns of fortune only possible in a real democracy becomes the wife of the king Arkan the head of the state religion as we might say wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury such another finally is the fair antigener in Heberides speech against Athenogenus a lady who combined the professions of broker and courtesan and was equally successful in both of women who are both virtuous and capable the orators tell us singularly little and the probable reason is that such women in Athens had almost ceased to exist DiMosteni's and his contemporaries represent the last stage when their country was already on the brink of political extinction and the men of Athens had no ideals or examples of womanly virtue to encourage them in their veins struggle against the great military power of the north the lack of good women was a fatal disaster but it was a disaster which the Athenians had brought upon themselves and it led them straight to ruin end of section 12