reedom of woman. If she leaves the house, she
must veil herself not to awaken the desires of another man. In the
Orient, where, due to the warm climate, sexual passion is strongest,
this method of seclusion is carried even to-day to extreme lengths.
Athens becomes in this a pattern for the ancient nations. Woman shares,
indeed, her husband's bed, but not his table; she does not address him
by name, but "Sir;" she is his maid-servant; she was allowed to appear
nowhere openly; on the street she was ever veiled and clad with greatest
simplicity. If she committed adultery, she paid for the trespass,
according to the laws of Solon, with her life, or with her freedom. The
husband could sell her for a slave.

The position of the Greek woman at the time when Greece was rushing to
the zenith of her development comes into plastic expression in the
"Medea" of Euripedes. She complains:

Ay, of all living and of all reasoning things
Are women the most miserable race:
Who first needs buy a husband at great price,
To take him then for owner of our lives:
For this ill is more keen than common ills.
And of essays most perilous is this,
Whether one good or evil do we take.
For evil-famed to women is divorce,
Nor can one spurn a husband. She, so brought
Beneath new rule and wont, had surely need
To be a prophetess, unless at home
She learned the likeliest prospect with her spouse.
And if, we having aptly searched out this,
A husband house with us not savagely
Drawing in the yoke, ours is an envied life;
But if not, most to be desired is death.
And if a man grow sick to herd indoors,
He, going forth, stays his heart's weariness,
Turning him to some friend or natural peer;
But we perforce to one sole being look.
But, say they, we, while they fight with the spear,
Lead in our homes a life undangerous:
Judging amiss; for I would liefer thrice
Bear brunt of arms than once bring forth a child.

Wholly otherwise stood matters for the men. Although with an eye to the
begetting of legitimate heirs for his property, he imposed upon woman
strict abstinence from other men, he was, nevertheless, not inclined to
lay a corresponding abstinence upon himself.

Hetairism sprang up. Women distinguished for their beauty and intellect,
and who, as a rule, were aliens, preferred a free life in intimate
intercourse with men, to the slavery of marriage.