Page 8

Notes

---

[1] The vile custom of exposing unwelcome female babies probably created a certain preponderance of males in Attica, and made it relatively easy to marry off a desirable young girl.

[2] The dowry was a great protection to the bride. If her husband divorced her (as by law he might), the dowry must be repaid to her guardians with 18 per cent. interest.

[3] Way's translation.

[4] This winter month was sacred to Hera, the marriage guardian.

[5] The symbol of fertility.

[6] See Xenophon's "The Economist," VII ff. The more pertinent passages are quoted in W. S. Davis's "Readings in Ancient History," Vol. I, pp. 265-271.

[7] Hypereides, the orator, says, "The woman who goes out of her own home ought to be of such an age that when men meet her, the question is not 'Who is her husband?' but 'Whose mother is she?'" Pericles, in the great funeral oration put in his mouth by Thucydides, says that the best women are those who are talked of for good or ill the very least.

[8] The custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes of course aided the developing of beautiful feet.

[9] See § 38 [Greek Toilet Frivolities].

[10] Not the comedies—they were too broad for refined women. But the fact that Athenian ladies seem to have been allowed to attend the tragedies is a tribute to their intellectual capacities. Only an acute and intelligent mind can follow Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. [Elpenor's note: Flaceliére (La vie quotidienne en Grèce au siècle de Périclès) writes that women also attended the comedies, although they preferred the tragedies. This characteristic, of women attending the very demanding thought of the ancient Athenian theatre, proves by itself, if nothing else, that this civilization of Athens is not too masculine].

A Day in Old Athens

Previous / First Page of this chapter