of medicine cannot cure."

This passage contains in brief Hesiod's general ideas concerning woman.
Pandora brought infinite ills to mortals, for from her sprang the tribe
of woman, "a mighty bane to men." If a man marry, he will be sorry; and
if he refrain from marriage, he will regret it. A wretched old age
awaits the bachelor; and his possessions, at his death, are dissipated
by indifferent kindred. Even if he marry, and get a good wife, sorrows
and blessings are mingled in his lot; while if his wife be bad, ills so
deep are his "as all the balms of medicine cannot cure." So woman is a
being whose presence is a necessary evil; without her, man's destiny is
not complete, but he must endure the ills she brings for the sake of the
possible blessing that may come by sharing one's lot with her. A man,
says the bard of Ascra, cannot be too cautious in choosing his helpmate,
as the following sage counsel indicates:

"Take to thy house a woman for thy bride
When in the ripeness of thy manhood's pride;
Thrice ten thy sum of years, the nuptial prime;
Nor fall far short nor far exceed the time.
Four years the ripening virgin shall consume,
And wed the fifth of her expanding bloom.
A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste;
Chief be some neighboring maid by thee embraced;
Look circumspect and long; lest thou be found
The merry mock of all the dwellers round.
No better lot has Providence assigned
Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind;
Nor can a worse befall than when thy fate
Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate.
She with no torch of mere material flame
Shall burn to tinder thy care-wasted frame;
Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within
And age unripe in bloom of years begin."

The vein of contempt for woman which runs through the verses of Hesiod
finds many echoes in later writers, which indicates that in this
transition period, especially in Ionian Greece, evil influences were at
work, causing men to rebel against the shackles of wedded life and to
fail to realize the happiness they desired in the home and in the
family. It seems strange that Hesiod, in describing farm duties, should
not tell us more of the important function of the housewife. Yet in one
passage he merely emphasizes the importance of starting with "a house,
a wife, and an ox to plow," and in other passages speaks dispar