f Plato is that "the passion which grovels in
the filth of sensual grossness may be transformed into a glorious
enthusiasm, a winged splendor, capable of rising to the contemplation of
eternal verities and reuniting the soul of man to God."

This last reflection leads us to the most important difference between
ancient and modern conceptions, that in regard to the relations between
the sexes. We of the Christian era have a clear doctrine of right and
wrong to guide us, a law given from without ourselves, the result of
revelation. The Greeks, on the other hand, "had to interrogate nature
and their own hearts for the mode of action to be pursued. They did not
feel or think that one definite course of action was right and the
others wrong; but they had to judge in each case whether the action was
becoming, whether it was in harmony with the nobler side of human
nature, whether it was beautiful or useful. Utility, appropriateness,
and the sense of the beautiful were the only guides which the Greeks
could find to direct them in the relations of the sexes to each other."
Hence we find that the Greeks deemed permissible much which offends the
modern sense of propriety; for example, when maidens captured in war
became for a time the concubines of the victors, as Chryseis in the
Iliad, and were afterward restored to their homes, they were not thought
in the least disgraced by their misfortune; "for if such a stain happen
to a woman by force of circumstances," says Xenophon, "men honor her
none the less if her affection seems to them to remain untainted."

How, then, are we to bridge over the gulf which separates us from the
Greeks? What are our sources of knowledge of Greek woman and her manner
of life?

We must first of all know the country of the Greeks. The influence of
country and climate on the Greek nationality has been frequently
emphasized, and the physical phenomena which moulded the characters of
the men must also have affected the women. A climate so mild that, as
Euripides says, "the cold of winter is without rigor, and the shafts of
Phoebus do not wound;" a soil midway between harsh sterility and
luxurious vegetation; a system of fertile plains and rugged plateaus and
varied mountain chains; a coast indented with innumerable inlets and
gulfs and bays--these were the physical characteristics which moulded
the destinies of Greek women. Furthermore, the modern Greek people trace
the threads of their history unbroken