Such were the laws. Their observance is a different matter. In
Aristophanes and the comic poets generally Athenian women of position were
dissolute when they were not stupid, and usually they were both. They may
have been. But poets exaggerate. Besides, divorce was obtainable. Divorce
was granted on joint request. On the demand of the husband it could be
had. In the event of superscandalous conduct on his part, it was granted
to the wife, provided she appeared before a magistrate and personally
demanded it. The wife of the wicked and winning Alcibiades went on such an
errand. Alcibiades met her, caught her in his arms and, to the applause of
the wittiest people in the world, carried her triumphantly home.
Aristophanes and Alcibiades came in a later and more brilliant epoch. In
the days of Sappho severity was the rigorous rule, one sanctioned by the
sentiment of a people in whose virile sports clothing was discarded, and
in whose plays jest was too violent for delicate ears.

In Sparta the condition of women was similar, but girls had the antique
freedom which Nausicaa enjoyed. Destined by the belligerent constitution
of Lacedaemon to share, even in battle, the labors of their brothers, they
devoted themselves, not to domesticity, but to physical development. They
wrestled with young men, raced with them, swam the Eurotas, preparing
themselves proudly and purely to be mothers among a people who destroyed
any child that was deformed, fined any man that presumed to be stout,
forced debilitated husbands to cede their wives to stronger arms, and who,
meanwhile, protected the honor of their daughters with laws of which an
infraction was death.

The marriage of Spartan girls was so arranged that during the first years
of it they saw their husbands infrequently, furtively, almost
clandestinely, in a sort of hide-and-go-seek devised by Lycurgus in order
that love, instead of declining into indifference, should, while
insensibly losing its illusions, preserve and prolong its strength.
Otherwise, the Spartan wife became subject to the common Hellenic custom.
Her liberty departed with her girlhood. Save her husband, no man might see
her, none could praise her, none but he could blame. Her sole jewels were
her children. Her richest garments were stoicism and pride. "What dower
did you bring your husband?" an Athenian woman asked of one of them.
"Chastity," was the superb reply.[9]

Lesbos differed from Lacedaemon. The Spartans de