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Read Ebook: The history of the condition of women in various ages and nations (vol. 2 of 2) by Child D L
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Ebook has 618 lines and 85045 words, and 13 pages
Northern nations that conquered Rome 77
Nun initiated 251
Offices held by women 146
Panegyrics on women 140
Peasantry of Europe 180, 187
Polanders 162
Portuguese 159
Pythia 26
Quaderoons 263
Queens 206
Romans 35
Russians 172
Russian settlements 246
Saint Dunstan's Well 116
Salique law 151
Satires on women 141
Scandinavians 77
Scotch 150
Sibyl of Cumae 55
Sibyl, Danish 83
Slave countries 212
South Sea islands 272
Spain 157
Spartans 30
Swedes 174
Swiss 169
Tournaments 100
Troubadours 105
Tricks, trying 133
Tyrolese 168
United States 255
Valentine's day 134
Vestals 52
Visigoths 77
Walachians 167
Widows 25, 51, 138, 205
Winnisberg, women of 98
Witches 131, 258
HISTORY OF WOMEN.
EUROPE.
Plutarch speaks with disapprobation of the Persian manner of treating women; yet the Greeks themselves kept them under very strict discipline. They had distinct apartments, in the highest and most retired part of the house, and among the wealthier classes these rooms were often kept locked and guarded. Women belonging to the royal families were not even allowed to go from one part of the house to the other without permission. When Antigone, in Euripides, obtains her mother's permission to go on the house-top to view the Argian army, her aged guardian insists upon first searching the passage, lest the profane eyes of a citizen should dishonor her by a glance.
Young girls were more rigorously secluded than married women; yet it was considered highly indecorous for the latter to be seen beyond the door-step, until they were old enough to assume the character of matrons. Menander says:
"You go beyond the married woman's bounds, And stand before the hall, which is not fit; The laws do not permit a free-born bride Farther than to the outer door to go."
Maidens were rarely allowed to appear in the presence of men; and never without veils. This covering was probably made of transparent stuff; for Iphigenia speaks of seeing her brother through "the veil's fine texture."
Eustathius says, "Women should keep within doors, and there talk." Thucydides declared that "she was the best woman of whom the least was said, either of good or harm;" according to the Greek proverb it was considered extremely dishonorable to be governed by a female; and Plato rejoiced that he was not born a woman.
A small coin, about the value of a penny.
Women were not allowed to attend the Olympic games; but this prohibition could not have existed at all periods; for we are told that Cynisca, daughter of Archidamus, king of Sparta, was the first woman who won the prize in the chariot-race at Olympia. Perhaps the Spartan women alone partook of these masculine diversions; those of more feminine habits would probably perceive the propriety of not attending games, where the combatants wrestled without clothing. In commemoration of her victory, Cynisca sent a chariot and four brazen horses, to be dedicated to Olympian Jupiter.
In the earliest ages, Greek women had a right to vote in the public assemblies; but this privilege was taken away from them. They were never allowed to be present at banquets, and it is not supposed that they ever ate in the same apartment with the men.
The restraint of female influence being thus removed, it may be presumed that the outward forms of decency were less scrupulously observed than they would have been under a different system. A fine of one thousand drachmas was imposed upon every woman who appeared in public without clothing; and the necessity of making such a law does not speak well for purity of manners.
That women were not always entirely passive and subservient, appears by the example of Xantippe, so famous for her household eloquence; and by the dispute between Agamemnon and his wife, concerning his wish that she should absent herself from the wedding of her daughter Iphigenia:
Themistocles used to say, "My little boy rules Athens; for he governs his mother, and his mother governs me."
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