ugal authority and ruled the household. Thus Strepsiades, the
country gentleman of Aristophanes's _Clouds_, quarrelled with his
luxurious, city-bred wife, of the aristocratic house of Megacles, over
the naming of their son, which was the father's right, and, woman-like,
she carried her point; and this son she brought up to despise his
father's country ways and to squander his father's substance in horse
racing.

Aristophanes was not the only comic poet who indulged in gibes at the
female sex, for the object of comedy was to amuse, and the Athenian
audience of men ever found delight in the portrayal of the weaknesses
and foibles of the opposite sex. Even his predecessor Susarion, who was
the first to compose comedy in verse, and is usually called the inventor
of comedy, gave expression to the current abuse: "Hear, O ye people!
Susarion says this, the son of Philinus, the Megarian, of Tripodiscus:
women are an evil; and yet, my countrymen, one cannot set up house
without evil; for to be married or not to be married is alike bad." It
is unfortunate for our purpose that so little survives of the numberless
plays of the Middle and New Comedy, especially the latter, for this
comedy of manners presented a close and faithful picture of domestic
life and would have been an almost inexhaustible mine of information on
Attic life in general, full as it was of illustrations of the manners,
feelings, prejudices, and ways of thinking of the Ancient Greeks.

The fragments preserved to us are sufficient, however, to give us
glimpses of the manner in which woman was treated on the stage; and,
while there was much harsh criticism, it is gratifying to note that her
good qualities were at times recognized. Says the poet Antiphanes:

"What! when you court concealment, will you tell
The matter to a woman? Just as well
Tell all the criers in the public squares I
'Tis hard to say which of them louder blares."

"Great Zeus," says another poet, "may I perish, if I ever spoke against
woman, the most precious of all acquisitions. For if Medea was an
objectionable person, surely Penelope was an excellent creature. Does
anyone abuse Clytemnestra? I oppose the admirable Alcestis. But perhaps
someone may abuse Phaedra; then I say, by Zeus! what a capital person
was.... Oh, dear! the catalogue of good women is already exhausted,
while there remains a crowd of bad ones that might be mentioned."
"Woman's a necessary and undy