REESE LIBRARY \,jt n n n n iv UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. %eceivei1 ^Jt&nt^ Accession No. 7^"^^ J". Class No. "J ^7 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/antimachusofcoloOObenerich ANTIMACHUS OF COLOPHON POSITION OF WOMEN IN GREEK POETRY Antimachus of Colophon Position of Womeit in Greek Poetry E. F. M. BENECKE B fragment PRINTED FOR THE USE OF SCHOLARS UNIVERSITY LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LiM. 1896 76'9 9<^' 1/0-7 ERRATA AND ADDENDA Page 22, n. i, 1. lo, for 'xxxix.', read 'xxxvii.' ,, 27, n. I, for *j3t/3Xta,' read */3i/3\ia.' ,, 31, 1. 8, after 'dissolute habits,' add: [Bergk, ed. I. (used by the author) reads iiirjdeva ttoj k.t.X. in Theog. 547 : Bergk, ed. IV., has Trat for ttw]. ,, 60, for ' v^pi^ova : ov,' read ' v^pi^ova' ov.* ,, 107, n. 3, add : [T/jlJ)\lov ai^aov. The author accepts Hermann's reading; see Opiisc. iv. 245. oJi^cxov — '6poLV arep t€ Ka/cwv koI ctrep ^^aAcTroto irovoio. (1. 90) And a like contradiction runs through all the details of the description. Woman will be man's ruin, but he cannot fail to love her all the same — UNIVERSITY Women in Greek Poetry. 9 rots S'eyw avrt irvpos Siocro} KaKOVM k€v airavres repTTdiVTat Kara OvfJLov ebv KaKov d/x^ayaTrwvres. (1. 57) Woman will gain man's heart by her beauty, which is Hke that of the immortals — dOavdraLS Se ^cats els (owa ktcrKeiv TTapOevLKrjs KaXov etSos kirripaTOV (1. 62), by her skill and by her charm ; it is but as an after- thought that the poet adds — €v 8e 6kp.€v Kvveov re voov /cat kiriKXoTrov ^Oos ^l^pfxeiav 7]V(i)y€ diaKTopov dpyeicf^ovTrjv, (1. 67) And, lastly, it is through a woman that trouble comes into the world ; but it is this same woman's doing that Hope at least is left. It was Pandora herself that shut down the lid of the casket before Hope had flown ; it was she that preserved this "dream of waking hours" for mankind.^ But if we pass from the general condition of women, as depicted in Homer or Hesiod, and come to our own more immediate subject, it must be admitted that neither in the prehistoric legends, nor in their subsequent development, is there any trace what- ever of a romantic sentiment existing between men and women to be found. Considering the important position occupied by women in these poems, the absence of the love element is most remarkable. The insignificant part played by Briseis has always ^ It is both instructive and amusing to compare this primitive ideal woman with the contemporary Greek woman, as Hesiod himself knew and described her. A striking passage is Oj>. 693 se^g., and others will be mentioned in the next few pages. lo Women in Greek Poetry, struck those who have wished to regard the Iliad as an Achilleis, of which she is the heroine ; nor can Agamemnon's love for the daughter of Chryses be said to go very deep. He is distressed at losing her, no doubt, but the loss is far from irremediable. He evidently agrees with Antigone, ttoV^? av ixoi KarOavovTog aWog ^v. Paris again had originally been a celebrated warrior, and it was to this that he owed his position and his name. But his love for Helen, instead of inspiring him, seems to have had the very opposite effect. One exception there is, no doubt, to all this — the relation between Hector and Andromache. But the relation between Hector and Andromache (as illustrated by I/iad vi. 392, segg.) is unparalleled in all Greek litera- ture, and it is not, perhaps, without significance that they are Trojans and not Greeks. How great was the impression that they made is visible in the way in which the later literature cites Andromache rather than any Greek woman as the ideal of a wife. At the same time, how little really sympathetic to the Greek of the period was this wonderful and unique passage is sufficiently shown by this very fact, that no attempt was ever made to imitate or develop it. It may sound strange to say so, but in all probability we to-day understand Andromache better than did the Greeks for whom she was created ; better, too, perhaps than did her creator himself. In the Odyssey, well nigh the entire action is in the hands of women. What with Athene and Leucothea, Circe and Calypso, Nausicaa and Penelope, Odysseus himself hardly comes to the fore at all ; and yet it Women in Greek Poetry, 1 1 cannot be said that anywhere from beginning to end is there so much as a suggestion of a love-motive. Nausicaa is always regarded as a charming type of woman, but, after all, how one naturally thinks of her is as a charming type of washerwoman. Penelope again is merely the ideal housekeeper : she longs for the return of her husband, no doubt, but what really grieves her about the suitors is not their suggestions as to his death, but the quantity of pork they eat. As for any idea that her devotion requires similar constancy on the part of Odysseus, it is not so much as suggested. The Odyssey opens, it is true, with its hero longing to see even the smoke of his home rising in the air ; but it must be remembered that he has been spending seven years alone with Calypso on a desert island, which for a man of his tastes was doubtless exceedingly tedious. There is no reason to suppose that he did not enjoy the first year or so of his stay quite as much as his visit to Circe or Aeolus. An examination of other Greek myths and legends that have any claim to antiquity will furnish a very similar result. Whether in those myths of gods and heroes which found their way into literature from its beginning, or in those local legends which, though first appearing in the Alexandrian writers, are evi- dently in reality much older, wherever the antiquity of the story can be proved, two characteristics are very noticeable. The first is the importance of women as the originators of the action ; the second is the absence of the romantic element. The capa- bilities of women are thoroughly recognised, though 12 Women in Greek Poetry, the tendency of the time is to describe their influence as for evil rather than as for good ; their importance is everywhere admitted : but that a man should be really or seriously in love with a woman is a thing unknown. This is certainly at first sight a strange anomaly, and yet it is, perhaps, capable of explanation. The developer of the myth could not fail to be confronted by a great contradiction — the traditional importance of women and their actual condition of repression. He saw in the stories the women, like Medea or Ariadne, profoundly influencing the career of their lovers, while the men, like Jason or Theseus, stood helplessly and more or less apathetically on one side. The converse of such positions he naturally did not find. His surroundings forbade his drawing the true deduction, that the stories were intended to illustrate the helplessness of men without a woman to direct them ; he drew therefore the contrary deduction, that the dignity and superiority of man prevented him from taking an active interest in any matter where a woman was concerned. From this deduction, combined with all that was known of the emotional and passionate character of feminine nature, there followed that view of the relation between man and woman which is so noticeable in all the myths and legends as we find them in litera- ture. A woman may be desperately in love with a ' man, but the converse is impossible.^ Love may lead ^ That this was the general character of the erotic legends introduced into the celebrated "Catalogus" ascribed to Hesiod, seems shown by the remark in Serv. ad, Aen, vii. 268 : " Hesiodus etiam irepl t(j)v Women in Greek Poetry, 13 women to humiliation, to treachery, to crime, and to suicide, but never, except under the most extra- ordinary circumstances, men.^ The most cursory examination of the ordinary and most familiar Greek legends will sufficiently illustrate this. 'E/c A409 apx^M^cr^a. Of the many amours of Zeus, the only one of at all a permanent character, the only one which he thought it worth his while to legalise, was that for Ganymede.^ His treatment of Minos, again, was very different from that which any of his female friends received.^ The goddesses suffer for their indiscretions, never the gods. Aphrodite's pathetic confession to Anchises,^ or her agony for Adonis, the helpless devotion of Luna to Endymion, or of Aurora to Tithonus, can find no parallels among the stories of the gods. Love may drive Apollo to tend cattle, but it is love for Admetus. In the lower stratum of humanity, the treachery of yvvo^iKusv inducit multas heroidas optasse nuptias virorum fortium " ; cp. the whole note. 2 The parallel view, that if a man wished to really love anyone, the only worthy object he could find would be another man, was doubtless, in part, the result of a similar line of argument, though its true origin must of course be sought in something more inspiring than mere contempt for women. A further examination of this side of the question will be made later on. ^ Zeus pays diroiva to Tros for his son (cp. Hymn. Horn. iv. 210) ; that the golden shower in which he visited Danae means as much, is hardly a primitive notion. The argument in Ach. Tat. ii. 37 is ingenious, but scarcely convincing. * This version of the relations between Zeus and Minos is at least as old as the Odyssey. Cp. Odyss. xix. 179; Athen. xiii. 601 E. ^ Hy7nn. Horn. iv. 247 seqq. 14 Women in Greek Poetry. Medea or Ariadne, the story of Scylla^ with its dozen variants, the guilt of Stheneboea, of Myrrha, of Pasiphae, the deaths of Byblis or PhylHs.^ are but a few of the more obvious examples. The idea that a man could be subject to such passions is not to be found till much later in the history of the legends. The original version of the story makes Eriphanis follow Menalcas through the forest and die for his disdain;^ that Menalcas should afterwards die of love for Euhippe is an addition by Hermesianax.^ In the old legend, Daphnis is the companion of Artemis, and the nymph who loves him seeks him in vain by every fountain and by every grove ;''^ it is Sositheus who tells of his search for his lost Pimplea,^ and Alexander Aetolus, or whoever Tityrus may be, who sets him wandering over the mountains after Xenea.^ A good commentary on all this is furnished by the stories selected, apparently more or less at random, by Parthenius in his IlepJ 'Epwrf/cwi/ JladrifxaTiav, and an examination of this work (dedicated to the Roman Cornelius Gallus) may serve to show how ^ The general view that the erotic version of this story is not the original seems to rest on the sole authority of Aesch. Cho. 613 seqq. Probably one version is as old as the other, the one being perhaps Dorian, the other Ionian. Aeschylus' treatment of Dorian erotic legends will be touched upon later. {Infra, p. 42.) 2 A man may sometimes commit suicide after the death of his lady ; but that is a very different thing to dying because she declines to have anything more to do with him. Stories like that of Iphis and Anax- arete only appear at a very late period. 3 Athen. xiv. 619C. ^ Hermes. Leont. i. Fr. 3. (Ed. Bach.) ^ Theocr. i. 82 seqq, Cp. Reitzenstein, Epigranifii und Skolion, p. 212 seqq. ^ Serv. ad Eel, viii. 62>. ^ Theocr. vii. 72. Women in Greek Poetry, 15 ■ ^■r tenaciously the original idea of the relative positions ^B of men and women retained its hold even among the ^K ** romantic " Alexandrians. ^B The stories narrated by Parthenius number 36 H in all. ^^ In three cases, those of Leucophrye (5), Peisidice (21), and Nanis (22), love induces women to betray their country to the enemy; in each case the suggestion of treachery is made by them. In one case a man, Diognetus (9), is guilty of similar treachery, but here he is trapped into it by an oath to his lady to do whatever she asks him — an oath which he swears without thinking what it may imply ; and, besides, he betrays, not his own countrymen, but merely his allies. Of other sorts of treachery there is enough and to spare, and always attributed to the woman. Penelope (3), out of jealousy, induces Odysseus to kill his son Euryalus ; Erippe (8), owing to her love for a bar- barian, plots against her husband's life ; Cleoboea (14) tries to seduce Antheus, and, failing, murders him. Where a man is led by love to any unnatural crime, it is invariably excused as being the result of temporary insanity or the vengeance of some deity. Leucippus (5) falls in love with his sister Kara fXYiviv ^ A.(j)po8LTri(i] for Byblis (11) no such excuse is alleged. Clymenus (13) violates Harpalyce Slol to cKcppcov elvm ; Orion, Hero (20) viro jueOrjg cKcppcov ; Assaon's love for his daughter Niobe (33) is a punish- ment from Leto ; Dimoetes' love for a corpse (31) is brought on by a curse. The sins of Neaera (18) 1 6 Women in Greek Poetry, and Perianders mother (17) have no such palliative. The unique case in which Alcinoe (27) is driven Kara fxriviv ''KOrjvri 70» is certainly not that of invective. 3 Fr. 100-3, 106-7, 109-10, 116. Women m Greek Pottry, 21 vii. 6 seqq. A lady of mature charms (lOo) and some- what doubtful character (lOi, 102) receives a youthful visitor, whose feelings are described in Fr. 103 TOLos yap (f^iXoTrjTOS e/)ws vtto KapSt-qv kXvddeis TToXXrjv Kar' dxXvv o/x/xarcov €)(€V€V KXexpas €K (TTYjOeoyv draAag (jypevas. The subsequent fragments deal with the arrival of the husband, and the change to the more rapid metre must have been very effective. This context, of course, makes it clear that (pLXorrjrog epoo^ means simply coitus cupido, and there is no reason to suppose that this fragment ever formed part of what could properly be called an erotic passage.^ As a matter of fact, all that we know of Archilochus tends to make it extremely improbable that he addressed love-poetry in any sense of the word to women. There is no evidence that he addressed any poems to Neobule (or for that matter to any other woman) except satires. In these satires we know that he referred to Neobule in terms of the vilest abuse. There is no evidence in his fragments that he ever referred to her otherwise. What reason, then, is there to suppose that he did } His love for her, such as it was, was confessedly purely animal.^ This is not the kind of love that finds consolation in reminiscences and regrets. His pride was hurt, and he determined to take vengeance on the persons who ^ It may further be observed that the passage is to all appearances descriptive of the emotions of some person other than the writer him- self, and there is certainly no reason to suppose that it vi^as addressed to the v^^oman in question. The difference between describing such an emotion generally, and describing it as one's own, to the person who causes it, need hardly be dwelt upon. ^ Cp. Fr. "ji^ 72. 22 Women in Greek Poetry. had offended him. If one of these persons happened to be a woman, that was just as much a matter of chance as the fact that one of the enemies of Hipponax was a sculptor. The woman, like the sculptor, had tried to make the poet ridiculous, and the poet proceeded to have his revenge by satirising her. The fact that she was a woman may have given the satires a certain peculiar colouring, but it certainly did not make them love-poems. Under the circum- stances it was not to be expected that Archilochus should express his feelings in erotic poetry, and, as a matter of fact, on the present evidence there is no reason to believe that he did.^ The claims of Alcman in this respect seem at first sight somewhat stronger.^ He has been described as rjyeiJLOdv epcoTiKwv juLeXoov ]^ this has been supposed to mean that he was the first poet who wrote love- poems, and it has been assumed that these poems ^ To endeavour, as some have done, to reconstruct the satires of Archilochus from those of Catullus, is simply labour thrown away, because between the periods in which the two poets lived, the whole way of regarding women had been revolutionised, and ideas which seemed obvious to the Latin writer would have been unintelligible to the Greek. To Catullus thwarted love was an agony ; to Archilochus it was an insult, and no man of his time would, or could, have regarded it otherwise. Thus, to suppose, as Lafaye {oJ>. cit. 1. c.) does, that the satires of Archilochus were interspersed with erotic passages, like Catull. xxxix. (a poem he considers to be imitated from Archilochus), is to suppose an anachronism. 2 His date, and the general character of his poems, make it more convenient to consider him here, than among the other choral lyric writers, of whom we shall sjDeak later. * 'Apxi^ras hh 6 ap/jLOviKds, Cos ** Just marry lole for me, will you?" (1. 12 16.) 2 In this same play, the reader must be careful not to misunderstand the motives of Haemon's suicide. He does not kill himself out of grief for Antigone, but out of shame {avr(f xoXw^e^s) at having attacked his father. That love for a woman should have made him so far forget himself was a disgrace not to be borne. Women in Greek Poetry, 45 pathetically on the slavery of married life, and almost make one think at first sight that the poet must have felt what a mockery his "ideal wife" really was. But a little further examination will show clearly enough that Sophocles is not expressing his own views in either of these two passages. The protest in the Terens is merely the direct outcome of the decidedly exceptional circumstances in which Procne finds herself — a woman who has just cooked her only son is hardly likely to have unprejudiced views on matrimony — and as such it is not meant to be more than one of those outcries against irresistible destiny, which one may pity if one likes, or even pardon, but which one cannot pretend to treat seriously. For a girl to complain of having to marry was as reasonable as for a man to complain of having to die. ^ ^^ - ,, ^,7 o Tt TavTa oet crrevetv, airep del Kara cj^vctlv SuKTrepav j As for the passage from the Trachiniae, that seems to be simply an echo from Sappho, and Sappho's views on marriage were naturally different from those of Sophocles.^ To suppose from these passages that Sophocles saw anything inappropriate in the existing conditions ^ The words of 1. 144 seqq. at once suggest Catullus Ixii. esp. 39 seqq» But this poem of Catullus is generally admitted to be, if not an actual translation, at least a paraphrase of Sappho ; hence it is far more probable that Sophocles copied Sappho here, than that Catullus copied Sophocles there. Another instance in which a tragedian copied an Epithalamium of Sappho is furnished by Aesch. Suppl. 998. Cp. Sappho Fr, 91, Longus Past, 3, 33, and my Apospasmata Critica (Oxford, Blackwell, 1S92), p. 5. 46 Women in Greek Poetry, of married life, or that he would have welcomed any change in them, is an unjustifiable inference.^ But the one play of Sophocles which is generally considered to be of supreme importance for this par- ticular subject is the Phaedra, This play, which is supposed to have been the model for the Hippolytus of Euripides, is generally looked upon as the first " love-tragedy " of the Greeks. But was it a *' love- tragedy" at all, in any sense in which the words are now understood ? To judge by analogy, there is every reason to suppose that it was not. The fragments unfortunately prove little, for no very important ones are preserved, and the one or two of them that do speak of love, merely speak of it in the regular Sophoclean way, not as a human passion, but as an unavoidable kind of disease, some- thing like measles or distemper.^ But in spite of the paucity of the fragments, the main principle on which the legend (of which we have already spoken)^ was treated, is sufficiently clear; and this principle is such as is, I venture to ^ A great deal of light would be thrown on all this intricate subject if only one could find out how far, if at all, Sophocles was influenced by Euripides. Euripides, as we shall see later, was always ready to sympathise with women who suffered from the unreasonable treatment of the time, but it does not seem prima facie probable that this particular trait should have had influence on anyone so Athenian as Sophocles. Anyhow, these two passages prove nothing. 2 This is exactly the idea of the well-known "Epws chorus in the^ Antigone. (1. 781). There, too, love is unavoidable (/ca^ (T''oijr' ddavdrcov (piu^LfjLos o^fdels, oiid* dfiepiojv a^ 7' dvdpibiruiv)^ it results in madness (6 5' ^wv /x^fir]veVf "the stricken one is mad," as the Romans said **habet" of their gladiators), and the chief damage it does is to property (6s iy KT-f^jxaaL iriTTTeis). Like Eresichthon's father, what the Chorus most object to is the expense. ^ [p. 38.] Women in Greek Poetry, 47 submit, incompatible with the presence in the play of any real love-element. Phaedra's love is not passion but madness, it is not an emotion but a disease. Aphrodite treats her in exactly the same way as Athene treats Ajax. Her love is so entirely outside her control, it is so entirely the result of external influences, that while one can perhaps pity her, one certainly cannot sympathise with her, for the simple reason that her misfortune is entirely outside human experience. She loves Hippolytus, as Oedipus kills Laius, for no earthly reason except that the story said the god made her do so. The Phaedra of Sophocles, like the Clytemnestra of Aeschylus, is made an instrument of divine vengeance for reasons which do not concern her personally in the least ; one pities her, not as an unhappy lover, but as the victim of fate. She is no longer a human being influenced by human emotions ; she is simply a tool in the hands of a relentless deity. In other words, she is never in love with Hippolytus at all, in any commonly -accepted sense of the term. And thus it must be sufficiently clear to anyone who is able to get rid of preconceived ideas on the matter, that the Phaedra was in reality no more "romantic" than the Trachiniae or the Antigone. Like the rest of the plays of Sophocles, it merely drew the usual picture of the gods playing shove- halfpenny with human souls ; the fact that Aphrodite for once took a hand in the game gave it on this occasion a peculiar character of its own, but of any- thing in any v^ay resembling a modern love-element 48 Women in Greek Poetry, there is no more trace here than there is anywhere else.^ But what really affords a more conclusive proof than any other of how utterly anything of the nature of modern love between man and woman was un- known to Sophocles, is the remarkable prominence given in his plays to the affection between brother and sister.2 The relations between Electra and Orestes, or Antigone and Polynices, are absolutely those of modern lovers; but Sophocles could not conceive of such relations as existing between people whom he would have called '' lovers," and, therefore, he had to think of the parties to them as brother and sister. He wished to draw a picture of pure, noble, and unselfish devotion existing between man and woman ; the only conditions under which such a thing seemed to him possible were that the man and the woman should be close blood relations. There are those who complain of the indifference of Electra to Pylades, or of Antigone to Haemon, and think that a little love infused into these heroines would make them more human. These people have overlooked the fact that Electra and Antigone are in reality quite as much in love as ever woman was ; 1 Vide Excursus B. 2 This feature is of course by no means peculiar to Sophocles ; it is prominent both in Aeschylus and Euripides {e.g. the pathetic passage in Or est. 1041 seqq.)^ and doubtless for the same reason. In Sophocles, however, perhaps owing merely to the chance which has preserved certain plays while others have been lost, it plays a particularly im- portant part. Not only are the Antigone and the Electra almost entirely devoted to it, but the one ray of light in the 1800 lines of the Oedipus Coloneus is the farewell of Polynices to his sister. (1. 1414 seqq.) Women in Greek Poetry. 49 but they are in love with their brothers. They did not know it perhaps ; Sophocles did not know it ; but the fact remains. Antigone despises love — what she and her audience thought was love. Between Polynices and Haemon there is never a momenfs hesitation ; almost her last words are an exclamation of the bitterest contempt for marriage : " If my husband had died, I could have married another ; if he had failed to get me children, I could have committed adultery ; but — my brother is dead!"i And yet, Antigone comes far nearer to a modern lover than Phaedra ever does. This is a fact of the greatest importance in the present connection, and one that cannot be too much emphasised. The relation of the sexes was such among the early Greeks that a pure love between man and woman seemed to them a sheer impossi- bility, and yet their instinct told them that pure love was not really an impossible thing. The ways in which the difficulty was surmounted were various. Of the love of man for man and of woman for woman we have already spoken ; in Sophocles a third alternative is suggested. The lovers are made man and woman, but the possibility of sensuality is first removed by making them brother and sister. A woman who loves a man may love him purely, ^ Soph. Ant. 909 seqq. This seems the natural and obvious way of taking these words, but whichever way one takes them they do not imply any very great respect for matrimony. Whether the lines are Sophocles' or not is of course indifferent in this connection, as everyone is agreed that, if an interpolation, they are a very early one. E 50 Women in Greek Poetry. says Sophocles, if she is in such a position that she cannot love him otherwise.^ In the first two of the Athenian dramatists there are then, as we have seen, practically no traces whatever to be found of a love-element in any real sense of the term. But this, it may be said, is nothing wonderful. This everyone will admit. For the love-element one looks to Euripides. In the following examination of Euripides, I hope to show that not only is love, in any modern sense, quite unknown to his characters, but also that the whole '* romantic" element of his plays, on which it is the custom to lay such stress, is much less pronounced than is generally supposed ; in other words, that his men take really very little interest in his women. But before discussing what Euripides did not do, it is well to have a clear conception of what he did do ; for he did do a great deal. The great service of Euripides to art was that he emphasised unmis- takably the importance of women. He seems to have been the first emphatically to enunciate that doctrine of cherchez la femrne^ which has been the groundwork of all modern art. He was not the first man to discover it; the men who made the story of Troy knew it as well as he did ; but he was the first, as far as we know, consciously to adopt it as an artistic canon. He was the first deliberately to maintain that the highest artistic effects were to be * This is not, I think, saying too much. A story like that of Canace, however powerfully it might affect its audience, was, after all, even in later times, looked upon as something quite exceptional in Greece. (Cp. the later Athenian view on the subject as illustrated by Plaut. Epid. V. i. 45, seqq.) ' ^^ OF THB * r UNIVERSITY Women in Greek Poetry, 51 obtained by the contrast of the sexes. The women of the earlier tragedians, as far as they are of any interest, are merely women, as it were by accident ; they are men in everything but their dress. The women of Euripides, however unpleasant they may be, are always intensely feminine. The emphasis which Euripides laid on the feminine as opposed to the masculine element is at once his chief character- istic and his chief merit. The ways in which he emphasises the importance of women are various. Everyone knows the stress he lays on their power of doing harm ; the " misogyny " of Euripides need hardly be illustrated here.^ At the same time, he is fully aware of their power for good.2 He dwells on their cleverness repeatedly : '* If supremacy were a matter of brains, and not of brute force, men would not have a chance."^ He is convinced of their heroism : Iphigeneia goes to her death with far more dignity than Antigone. He is even convinced, in a way that not all his successors have been, of their reasonableness : there are few men who could discuss their own deaths as calmly and clearly as Phaedra^ or Polyxena.^ It would be easy to multiply instances if there were any need to do so. All this Euripides did. He made his women powerful, intelligent, heroic, reasonable. He did not ^ It is worth while, however, to notice that even the women them- selves in Aristophanes are made to confess that this so-called misogyny is, in truth, merely realism. Cp. e.g. Aristoph. Thesm. 389 seqq.^ EccL iiOfSeqq. ^ e.g. Fr. 822, etc. ^ Fr. 321. ^ Hipp. 373 seqq. Tempting as it is to take this passage as ironical, it would almost certainly be wrong to do so. ^ Hec. 342 seqq. 52 Women in Greek Poetry. make them loved or loveable. In this Euripides is well-nigh as old-fashioned as any of his prede- cessors. In all the extant plays there is not a single instance of a man in love with a woman ; there is no evidence, except perhaps in one isolated case,' of such a character in any of the plays that have been lost. So far from Euripides being the poet of love between man and woman, there are numerous situations in his plays where it seems simply extraordinary to the modern reader how such obvious opportunities for the introduction of such love can have been missed or ignored.^ A detailed examination of some of the plays will bring this out clearly ; but before proceeding to this, it would be well to observe certain of the more general features of the Euripidean conception of the relations, other than social and intellectual, existing between men and women. The first point to be noticed is that Euripides, too, just like Sophocles, speaks of love as a sort of irresistible madness or disease,^ which seizes on ^ See Excursus C. It is true that in the intrigue of Macareus and Canace there is some reason to believe that the former was, contrary to the usual habit of these legends, the leading spirit ; but in the Aeolus of Euripides this beginning of the story seems to have only been alluded to in the prologue, and not to have formed part of the action. — Cp. Antiphanes, Aeol. Fr. i. ^ The most striking example is perhaps the Jphigeneia in Aulis^ but there are plenty of others. Instances in which women are represented as in love with men are somewhat commoner, as they were commoner in the legends ; but the part they play in Euripides, as a whole, has been greatly exaggerated. Cp. p. 38. ^ ■f]p(j3v' rb ixalveadai 5' Ap' 9jv ^pcos ^poTols. — Fr. 161 {Antigone). Cp. //?//. 443 scqq. Women in Greek Poetry, 53 its victims without any particular reason, and can only be cured or borne by being allowed to have free course. It is, as I have said before, exactly like measles ; the only proper treatment is to help it as much as you can to "come out," as then it is less painful at the time, and less likely to have serious consequences. Instances of this view are sufficiently numerous. It forms the chief frame- work of the Hippolytus, and all attempts to interpret the emotions of that play in accordance with more modern notions, are without success. The same was still more the case in the Phoenix, as Suidas distinctly implies by his use of the words rw vm eirkfXYive ty\v 7raXkaK7]v in this connection.^ It is enun- ciated by Jason to Medea in the Medea (526 seqq^) as a proof that he owes nothing to her, as she was not responsible for her actions in saving him ; by Helen to Menelaus in the Troades (945 seqq^ as a perfect excuse for her conduct with Paris. Now it is just here, one may as well notice at once, that the difference between Euripides and modern writers, with the Alexandrians at their head, is so striking. The lovers in Euripides, as far as they are lovers at all, are carried along by a forcible external impulse, the direction of which is entirely sensual and entirely selfish. If, or as soon as, they fail in achieving the gratification of their sensual desires, their "love" immediately turns to hate. The idea of devotion or self-sacrifice for the ^ Suidas (s.v. 'A?/a7upc£(rios) roirrov hk {rov deov) i^^Koxpi rts to dXaos* 6 de Tip vi(^ ai/TOv iiriix-qve ttjv TraWaK'/jv . . . icTTopeT 8^ 'lepdjvvfJLOs iv Tip Trepl TpayipdoTToiCov, direiKd^iav tovtols tov 'Etvpiiribov ^olvLKa, Cp. id, s.v. iva\j€Lv. Vide Nauck, Tra^. Graec. Frag, p. 621. 54 Women in Greek Poetry, good of the loved person, as distinct from one's own, is absolutely unknown. "Love is irresistible/' they say, and, in obedience to its commands, they sit down to reckon how they can satisfy themselves, at no matter what cost to the objects of their passion. Love is irresistible still, one knows, as irresistible now as ever it was in Greece, but the impulse it gives has a different direction. To put it perfectly crudely, the Euripidean woman who "falls in love" (it is of women we are speaking now) thinks first of all, "How can I seduce the man I love.?" The modern woman thinks, " How can I die for him ? " This is the difference between ancient and modern love, and in Euripides the old is still untouched by the new.^ ^ The difference is described with wonderful force by Maximus Tyrius (xxv. 4) : 6 {xkv i* ijdovTjv oiarpec, 6 8^ kolWovs ipd' 6 fxkv &K(i)v voaelf 6 8^ €ku>v ipq,' 6 fikv iir^ dyad(} ipq, tov ipojfMevov, 6 8k iw' oKkdpcp djui(poiv. — I have spoken here merely of women because we have so little absolute evidence as to men, but what little we have all goes to prove that their view of **love" was at least as sensual as that of the women, and if anything even more brutal ; and, anyhow, there is no evidence of the contrary. It is very hard satisfactorily to compare Euripides with people like Asclepiades, who are the earliest represen- tatives we know of the modern spirit, for this very reason, that while the former nearly always discusses the matter from the point of view of the woman, the latter do so with almost equal regularity, as far as we can now judge, from the point of view of the man. One thing, how- ever, is clear enough at the very outset. While Euripides regards the relation between man and woman as entirely based on the sexual instinct, the Alexandrians have from the first imported into it that further feeling of comradeship and mutual self-sacrifice which had before been peculiar to the relation between man and man. For obvious reasons this great change first became noticeable on the side of the man (for the influence of Sappho's school had probably by this time become inappreciable), but its effects are evident enough as soon as the Alexandrians begin to talk of a woman's love. The difference between, say, the Medea of Apollonius and the most refined heroine of the Attic drama is one, not of degree, but of kind. Women in Greek Poetry, 55 It IS this sensual, this well-nigh mechanical view of love which makes possible that conception of the ideal wife, of which we have already spoken in the case of Sophocles' Deianira, and which is so strongly insisted upon in the Andromache of Euripides. Andromache regularly appears as the model wife, not only in the play which bears her name, but also in the Troades. Her views on married life have, therefore, a peculiar weight of their own. ov TO KaAAo9, w yvvat, dAA,' aperat repirovcFL rovs ^weweras, she explains to the youthful Hermione. ^ " Now the greatest of these virtues is, to be content with your husband and not to be jealous. You are jealous of me. What would you do, supposing you were married to a Thracian king with twenty wives instead of only two } You would murder them all, I suppose, in your jealousy, showing thereby how utterly unbridled was your lust, I was never jealous ; / used to act as foster-mother to Hector's illegitimate children ^ Kal ravra Spwcra raperrj TrpocryjyoiJirjv TTOCTLV, " But you, you are afraid to let a drop of rain fall on your husband's head. firf rrjv reKova-av rrj ^tAavS/ot'^, yvvaij ^rjret irapeXOelv,^' (fnXavSpia ! 2 This is not irony ; it is just sober earnest, the ^ Andr. 205 seqq. 2 The early Greek view of '* love" is put here with almost revolting crudeness. Hermione's devotion to her husband and Helen's desertion of hers, are due to one and the same cause — sensual passion. $6 Women in Greek Poetry. sober earnest morality of respectable Athens. The view is by no means confined to Andromache. It is deliberately propounded by Electra to her mother/ and Jason twice taunts Medea with her failure to live up to its level.^ Indeed, it may be said to colour, to a certain extent, the whole conception of married life. For a woman to wish to keep her husband to herself was a sign that she was at once unreasonable and lascivious. This doctrine of the absolute subjection of the wife^ is emphasised in various ways. That a really respectable wife not only always stays at home, but also never sees visitors, is more or less of an axiom.* To give a woman her head is dangerous in the last degree, and if you do, you will probably get niurdered for your pains. ^ Suicide for a husband's ^ yvvaiKa yap xpV TfdvTa (Tvyx(*)p€Tv irSaei, iJTLS (ppev/jp-ns. {Elect. 1052.) ^ dW ^S TO(TOVTOV TJKed^ U)(Tt' 6p90VfJLhr]S evvTJs yvvalKCS iravr' ^x^'-^ vofii^ere, ijv 5* ad y^v7]Tai ^vfi(popd tls is X^xos k.t.X. {Med. 569). lA. Xixovs (TVK€ ttcos, or 1. 329 of the He/en : yvvatKa yap 8rj crv/x7rovetv yvvaiKl XPV' ^ Here again one almost marvels at the way in which Euripides misses an opportunity. The contrast between the joy of Alcestis at saving Admetus' life, and her grief for her ruined ideal, would have furnished as splendid a conflict of emotions as any dramatist could desire. Athenian taste, however, preferred that she should die con- gratulating him on having had such a wife, while he stands by express- ing his deep regret that he cannot accompany her, as Charon does not issue return tickets. For a further examination of the motives of Admetus, however, see p. loi. Women in Greek Poetry, 59 In this same play, too, Menelaus decides that his wife is the proper person to go and ask help of Theonoe : crov epyov, w? yvvaiKl Trpocrcjyopov yvvrj. {Hel 830.) A "romantic" writer might have thought that the prayers of Menelaus himself would have been more effectual with a lady.^ The most important of the extant plays of Euripides is, for the student of the development of the romantic tendency, undoubtedly the Hip- polytus. But, in thinking of this play, the reader must first of all guard against a very common and, for a modern, very natural mistake. He must re- member that the interest of the piece is intended to centre, not on Phaedra, but on Hippolytus. The main interest of the plot is the struggle between asceticism and self- gratification, as personified in the maiden Artemis and the sensual Aphrodite.^ Phaedra is only made to fall in love with Hip- polytus in order that he may reject her advances, and thereby irritate her into working his ruin. As has already been pointed out, she is dragged into a quarrel which does not concern her, for a purpose which does not interest her personally in the least.^ ^ It must be admitted that Jason has a higher opinion of his own influence {Med. 942 seqq.)^ if, indeed, this be the right way to take the passage. ^ This seems to have been still more the case in the first version of the play, where Hippolytus appears actually as a /3ou/c6Xos, or ascetic worshipper of Artemis, and where he is promised immortality as the reward of his constancy. See Reitzenstein, Epig, u. Skol. p. 210 seqq. and Excursus D. ^ OL (Td}(ppov€S yap ovx eKovres, dXX' 6/j,ci)s KaKdJv ipQicn, {Hipp. 358* ) 6o Women in Greek Poetry, Bearing this in nnind, the reader will be able to understand that combination of passionate desire and cold-blooded reasoning which marks the utter- ances of Phaedra. She has come to the conclusion, she says at last (1. 391 seqq), that love is an irre- sistible disease ; and since her position as a married woman makes impossible the only means of cure with which she is acquainted, she decides that, for the sake of her husband and children^ she had better die. She will never dishonour her children, for, next to money, there is nothing so valuable as a good name. To this the Nurse replies (1. 433 seqq^ that of course love is irresistible, and there is only one way to cure it ; but she points out that this way may perfectly well be adopted. The fact that Phaedra is married need not be any obstacle, for husbands are used to seeing more than they say. " aAA', (5 ^i\r] Trat, A-^ye /xev /ca/cwv cfypevwvy , Xrj^ov 8' vfSpi^ovcr^ : ov yap akXo TrXrjv v/Spus raS' ecrrt, Kp€icrcrio Sat/xovcov etVat OkXeiVy ToXjxa S'e/Dwcra* Oeos ijSovXrjOr] raSe. " Leave the matter to me, and if women can't effect a cure, perhaps men can." Phaedra protests. The Nurse answers with a little very natural impatience (1. 490) "rt crefivofxvOeLS ; ov Xoywv €V(t^ix6v(3)V Set cr'j dAAot rav^pos,^^ Phaedra admits this, but insists that it would be more respectable to die. The Nurse, however, per- suades her to try a love-potion first, and with this Women in Greek Poetry. 6i excuse leaves her to look for Hippolytus. Hippo- lytus, as one knows, rejects the Nurse's proposals, and Phaedra takes refuge in suicide, making, as she dies, one last desperate atten:ipt to save her own good name at the expense of the man she is sup- posed to love (1. 715). This, then, is the story of Phaedra. Where in all this is there a trace of what we now call love ? Where is there a single expression of affection for Hippolytus, a single expression to show that she thinks of him otherwise than of one whq has done her a great and irretrievable injury ? She seems to think of him as one would think of a man from whom one had caught the cholera. " Love is all bitterness," she says (1. 349) ; " and he is the cause." The catastrophe comes, and she walks off quietly to murder him, *' wctt' ef/cAea \ikv Tratcrt TrpocrOetvai /3loVj avTTj t' ovaaOai irpos rot vvv TreTrrcoKora." If this is love, the world must be a poorer place than I gave it credit for. Then follows the great argument between Hippo- lytus and his father, which to the Athenians was doubtless the chief point of the play. On the speech of Theseus we need not dwell, though it is perhaps just worth noticing the way in which he enunciates, as a sort of great discovery which his own experience and observation have enabled him to make, the theory that it is possible for the initiative in a criminal liaison to come from the side of the man (1. 966 seqq.). The answer of Hippolytus, however, is well worth 62 Women in Greek Poetry, study. For the first 24 of his 52 lines he describes in general terms his own blameless character, and it is only at the 2Sth that he condescends to discuss the particular incident. " But you do not perhaps believe all this about my chastity," he says (1. 1007) ; ** but do tell me, then, what was the temptation in this particular instance? Was this woman's body so especially beautiful? {i\ lines.) Or did I wish by my conduct to become your heir ? {2\ lines.) Or to become king ? (3 lines.) Surely you know my only interest is in athletics." (S lines.) Then, having finished the arguments which he is able to bring forward, he proceeds to swear, and so con- cludes. In other words, in a speech of 52 hues, the suggestion that he might have been in love with Phaedra, even in the most rudimentary sense of the words, is contemptuously dismissed in a line and a half, and no one seems to think that this part of the subject ought to have been treated at greater length. Now this one fact seems to me in itself almost a sufficient proof that " romantic " ideas, even as they were understood at the end of the fourth century, were utterly foreign to Euripides.^ ^ One may argue, of course, that Hippolytus, as a devotee of Orpheus, etc. , would be naturally more prone to ignore the * ' love- element " than a person of more human passions, and that this strange disproportion in his speech is a mark of his character. Personally I doubt this, as, firstly, the characters of the Athenian drama, when making their set speeches, generally quite forget who they are — indeed, the wonder is they don't sometimes slip into an &.v^pe^ dLKao-rai — and, secondly, if Hippolytus had been meant to slur over an important part of his subject, his reasons for so doing would have been more definitely explained. The conclusion seems to me in- evitable, that neither Hippolytus nor Theseus thought the possibility of the former's having been in love with Phaedra worthy of serious discussion. Wome7i in Greek Poetry. 6i To come to another play. There are probably few things in all literature so strange, not to say comic, to modern ideas, as the relations between Achilles and Iphigeneia in the Iphigeneia in Aulis, Clytemnestra has been trapped into bringing her daughter to Aulis, on promise of marriage with Achilles, and when, in the scene which begins at 1. 80 1, she discovers the truth, she appeals to him for protection. Achilles, " the nearest approach to a modern gentleman of all the Greek tragic characters,"^ replies as follows (1. 919 seqq) : " I am a person of the highest breeding, and therefore you may trust me to giwQ you the correct answer under the circumstances. Your daughter, having been betrothed to me, shall not be killed ; it would reflect discredit on me if she were, and that I cannot permit. No one shall so much as touch the hem of her garment. // is not, of course, for her sake that I tmdertake to do this, but because I consider that Agamemnon has treated me shame- fully. He used my name to trap you into coming here without asking my consent ; of course I should have allowed him to use it if he had asked me, for I always put patriotism before everything ; but he did not ask me. I feel grossly insulted, and he will touch Iphigeneia at his peril." *'Your sentiments, Achilles," remarks the Chorus, *' are worthy alike of you and of your divine descent." "How can I thank you enough," replies Clytem- nestra, "for all the trouble you have promised to 1 Mahaffy, Class. Gr. Lit. vol. i. p. 370. 64 Women in Greek Poetry, take in this matter, which cannot interest you personally in the least ? " There is a moment's pause ; then she suggests timidly, " But would you like the girl to come to you herself?" " God forbid ! " exclaims Achilles with horror. " How can you suggest anything so improper ? " Then after a little he adds, "You must first of all go and argue the case with Agamemnon." " Why that } " asks Clytemnestra. " There is no chance there." '* Perhaps not," he answers, "but still I wish you to try ; for I should very much prefer, if possible, that my name should be kept out of the business altogether!' " What you say does you credit," she answers. "I will do my best to obey you." For the modern reader who studies this scene, and then leans back and thinks a little what he would have done or thought in Achilles' place, comment is, I imagine, superfluous.^ Or look at Andromache's speech in the Andro- mache. (1. 184 seqq!) She is accused of occupying too high a place in the favour of Neoptolemus. "Tell ^ It is true that, later on, the magnificent heroism of Iphigeneia extorts from Achilles what is perhaps one of the earliest declarations of love from a man to a woman that we know : 'AyafJL^fivovos Tra?, ixaKapibv fx^ ris deCov ^fjieWe 6'r)(T€LV, el tuxol/hl cruv ydfiujv' ^7;Xaj d^ (ToO fx^v^KKXdd'y 'EXXdSos d^ cr^, (1. 1405.) But this utterance, made under such exceptional circumstances, cannot counteract the effect of what has gone before ; and, anyhow, it is a curiously isolated expression, and rather a qualified one. Women in Greek Poetry, 65 me," she answers to Hermione, ''what reason could I possibly have for wishing to stand well with your husband ? Do I wish to reign in your place, or to have more children, or to make my children kings ? Or what reason could he possibly have for preferring me ? Is my native city so powerful ? Have I such influential friends ? " &c. &c. As in the Hippolytus, the idea that there may be love on either side is dismissed without discussion. Or look at the character of the Autourgos in the Electra, He has married Electra, but refuses to touch her, and why ? aXa-yyvo[i(xi yap oX/StiDv dvSpiov T€Kva Aa/^wv v(dpi^€iv^ ov Kard^Los yeyws. (1. 45.) He is distressed that the daughter of such wealthy parents should have made so poor a match. It is pity for the house of Agamemnon that affects him, not pity for Electra.^ Hecuba again, in the play that bears her name, does not think that it is much use to appeal to the " romantic " feelings of Agamemnon. /cat fxr^v LcriDS /xev rov Xoyov Kevov roSe^ KvTTpiv Trpo^dWeLV k,t.X. (1. 824.) In the Phoenissae there is not much love lost be- tween Antigone and Haemon (cp. 1. 1672 seqq.). In the Orestes the only incident which causes Pylades to take the slightest interest in Electra is her suggestion ^ Worthy of notice is the excellent touch which makes this man, though poor, yet a member of a good family. (1. 37.) As Euripides knew well enough, a son of the soil would have been incapable of even this much refinement of feeling. We may observe, by the way, that Orestes expresses himself as very sceptical of the whole story — anyhow as far as motives go. (1. 253 seqq,) Y 66 Women in Greek Poetry, that they should murder Hermione. (1. 1191 seqq?) In the Helena the first exclamation of Menelaus, when his wife assures him that she has really been faithful to him all the time, is, " How can you prove it?"^ In the Medea again the absence of the love- element is a distinct loss. No one can doubt that the character of Medea would have gained at once in probability and in pathos, if she had been allowed to recur, if only for a moment, to the memory of her early love for Jason. If more plays had been preserved, it would, doubt- less, have been easy still further to multiply instances; but what has been said already is perhaps enough to show that the romantic element in Euripides is really most conspicuous by its absence. And this cannot be a surprise to anyone who cares to go to the root of the matter. That relation between men and women which we call the *' romantic " is founded upon sentiments and ideas which are entirely distinct from the sexual emotions. Euripides, as we have had occasion to notice again and again, though he had carefully studied the sexual instinct in all its workings, had never been able to conceive of a relation between man and woman which had not this for its basis.^ Without pure — I had almost said Platonic — love for its fundamental principle, romance is an impossibility. The romantic Alexandrian writers may not have them- selves loved purely, but they knew what pure love ^ HeL 566 seqq. Still more offensive, of course, are the suggestions of Ion to his mother {Ion 1523 seqq.)\ but there the offence is against decency, not against romance. ^ Except occisionally, as already noticed, in the case of close blood - relations. Women in Greek Poetry, 6j was, and such love was their ideal. With Euripides it was not so, and this one fact is enough to show that he belongs to the old literature and not to the new. That Euripides, by the emphasis which he laid on the female character, contributed largely towards preparing men's minds for the growth of romance and what we now call love, cannot be denied ; but that he himself had more than the very faintest glimmerings of what such love really was, cannot be maintained by anyone who has ever read his works. And here we may close this first part of our enquiry. The foregoing examination of the Greek writers, though it has made no mention of various well-known names, has yet been for our present purpose a practi- cally complete one. Pindar was prevented by the nature of his works from dealing to any large extent with the position of women or their relations with men ;^ and even where he has an opportunity of so 1 Such erotic legends as he does introduce are treated with strangely little sympathy. The best (in the extant odes) is that of Pelops and Hippodameia ( Olymp. i ), where the writer has, perhaps, been roused to a little warmth by the story of Pelops and Poseidon that has im- mediately preceded. The legend of Peleus and Hippolyte {Nem. 5) is noticeable as being, strangely enough, the only one in which the woman is represented as taking the initiative ; but this is doubtless to be ex- plained by the fact that nearly all these stories are descriptive of the amours of gods. The story of Jason and Medea is utterly spoiled in Pyth. 4. In that of Apollo and Coronis {Pytk. 3) only the unfaithful- ness of the nymph and her punishment are dwelt upon. The other erotic stories told — i.e. those of Apollo and Euadne {Oly?np. 6), Apollo and Cyrene {Pyth. 9), Zeus and the daughter of Opoeis {Olymp. 9), Ixion and Hera {Pyth. 2), are merely concerned with seductions of the most commonplace kind. The story of Rhoecus and the Hamadryad {Fr. 165) is the only one of importance alluded to in the fragments ; but here it is uncertain how far Pindar told the story, and how far he merely alluded to it. 6S Women in Greek Poetry, doing (as, eg,, Fr, 122), the result is very disappointing, especially in view of his Boeotian origin. The frag- ments of the early tragedians, other than the three discussed, are strangely deficient in references to women. Nor need the old Attic Comedy detain us. The general spirit of this thoroughly Athenian product is sufficiently summed up in what profess to be the earliest words of it extant, the fragment of Susario, , , x /. v ^ \' /? aKOvere Aeo) lovcraptwv Aeyet race, vlos ^iXivov MeyapoOev TpnroSio-Kios' KaKov yvvaLK€s, while it may be doubted whether in the whole course of this literature a female character was ever intro- duced on the stage, except with the view of leading up to some form of indecency.^ The net results of this examination, though chiefly negative, are yet fairly clear. It has, I hope, been shown that — (i) That relation between men and women which is now called " love " was, as far as can be gathered from literature, non-existent among the Greeks down to the end of the fifth century. (2) The position occupied by women in the con- sideration of men was so unimportant, that even the sensual relation of the sexes was but little treated of in literature till a comparatively late period, and was always, down to the end of the fifth century, looked upon by a considerable section of society as unfitted for public discussion and representation. In other ^ [On the position occupied by women in the Old Comedy compare Women in Greek Comedy^ § 3> 4*] Women in Greek Poetry, 69 words, love -poetry in the modern sense is non- existent in classical Greek literature; while love- poetry in any sense, addressed to women, is a far more insignificant element in that literature than is commonly supposed. That what has just been said does not hold good of the " Alexandrian " poets is so obvious that it hardly needs to be stated. Equally true, however, and not equally obvious, is the fact that, from the very first, these writers talk of women and women's love in an entirely different tone to that adopted by those of whom we have hitherto been speaking. The line of cleavage between, say, Asclepiades and Euripides, is in reality quite as marked as that between Euripides and ApoUonius. On this subject, therefore, it is perhaps worth while to say a few words, though the terribly mutilated condition in which the works of the earlier Alexandrians especially have come down to us, makes it very difficult to point to striking examples of what has been said. The first representatives of the " Alexandrian " school of poets — that is, of the school^ of women- lovers — are Asclepiades and Philetas;^ and in both cases the mere nature of their works (quite apart from their tone) is sufficiently striking when com- pared with the literature that had gone before. Whether Philetas actually gave the title of Battis to a collection of his poems is difficult to say — it is, perhaps, on the whole, not improbable that he did — but in any case there can be no doubt that a ^ Cp. Theocr. vii. 39. 70 Women in Greek Poetry, considerable number of his elegies were either actually addressed to Battis, or else treated of her. The erudite and elaborate style of these poems is equally indisputable. Now, whatever may have been the actual tone of address in these elegies — the frag- ments unfortunately tell us nothing, and such other evidence as there is on the subject is of the scantiest description^ — the two facts above-mentioned form of themselves a combination quite without parallel in the Greek literature of which we have hitherto been speaking. That anyone should have taken the trouble to devote erudition and elaboration to the praise of a woman, would have been an unheard- of thing in early Greece. Asclepiades is an equally striking figure in the early Alexandrian literature ; for it was he who was ^ One or two points are perhaps worth noticing in this connection. It is usual to assume that the Battis of Philetas was an Hetsera ; but the evidence seems rather to suggest that she was his wife. The way in which she is spoken of in Ovid, Trist, i, 6, 2, Pont. iii. i, 57, (in the former place coupled with the Lyde of Antimachus,) seems to support this view ; and, at any rate, there does not appear to be any evidence to the contrary. The personal character of Philetas, as we learn it from various notices of him, seems also rather to point in the same direction ; though this is not, of course, an argument that can be pressed. (It would be interesting to know whether the fact that Philetas is apparently never alluded to under a nickname, like so many others of the Alexandrian writers, was due to this austerity of character.) Whether these elegies were as sober and as little sensual in tone as those of Antimachus (cp. infra, p. 1 10), it is impossible now to say ; though the two passages cited from Ovid both seem indirectly to imply that they were, and there is certainly nothing in the fragments of Philetas which would lead one to infer that they were not. It need hardly be added that the passage in Ovid, Ars Amat. iii. 329 seqq. proves nothing, for the "lascivia" there ascribed to Sappho is obviously not meant to apply to all the other poets mentioned in the list, or Vergil's name would hardly appear in it. Women in Greek Poetry, 71 the first to introduce woman-love into the epigram — the first, in fact, to ^\v^ it that social recognition which we have seen already accorded to boy-love, well-nigh two centuries before.^ But what renders Asclepiades particularly im- portant for us just now — far more so than Philetas — is the fact that some forty of his epigrams have been preserved, and that it will therefore be possible, by examining these, to study at close quarters the points in which the tone of this new love -poetry differs from that of the old. In the epigrams of Asclepiades we find, for the first time, love for a woman spoken of as a matter of life and death : — oiyo\L\ epioTCs, oAtuAa, 8fcOt;(0/xat* els yap eratpav vvorTOL^iov eTre/SrjVy iJS' Wtyov r' 'At8a.^ Anth, PaL v. 162, 3-4. Here, for the first time, such love appears as an end in life — as an object for which a man may well brave death : — vtvpovT^ ev ydovl crele v€(f>rj. rjv yap fie KTeivySy Tore Travo-ofxai' rjv Se jix' d(f)YJs ^yjv, Kal StaOels rovTiov yeipova^ Kw/xao-o/xat. Anth, Pal. v. 64, 1-4. ^ In the poems of Theognis, which are practically epigrams, in the later sense of the word. The epigrams of Plato, if genuine, would be another even more striking instance. 2 Whether the words are to be taken as really seriously meant is, of course, doubtful, though one's instinctive distrust of their sincerity is perhaps misplaced ; for, after all, this is very primitive poetry of its kind. That such words should have been written at all is the remark- able point about them. T2 Women in Greek Poetry, Similar in spirit to this is the epigram in AntL Pal. xii. 1 66: — ToW* 6 TL flOL XOLTTOV ^VXV'^^ O ^f' ^^ TTOt', ''Epa)T€9, TOVTO y' €;(etv, wpos decjv, r^a-v^iriv aT€s ' evecr/cAryKws yap avtats, o^vTcpov rovTiDv et y' en, ^ouAo/x' ex^'^* or another — perhaps the most beautiful of all his poems that we know — so like, and yet so utterly unlike, the elegies of Mimnermus : — TTtv', 'Acr/cAr/TTtaSi) * Tt rot SaKpva ravra ; tl Tracrx^ts ; ov ere fxovov )(aX€7rr) KvirpLS cAryticraTO, ov8' €7rt (rot p.ovv(i) Karedi^^aTo ro^a /cat lovs 7rLKphs"Ep(os' TL fwv €v (TTToStTy TtOccraL ; TTtvw/xev BttK^ov {iwpbv TTO/xa* Sa/cTvAos aws* r} TraAt Kot/xtcrrav Ai^^vov tSetv jitevo/xev ; TTtvco/xev yaAcptos ' jaera rot xpoi^oi' ovk€tl ttovXvv, crykrXu., tyjv piaKpav vvkt' dvaTravcrofieOa^ Anth, Pal. xii. 50.^ The love of Mimnermus was hardly of a kind to bring tears to the eyes ! Yet, though this love has reached to such a pas- sionate height, it does not forget to be gallant and courteous ; ^ and there is a striking absence of that jealousy and that savage spirit of revenge which may almost be said to be the one motive of the "lovers" in Euripides. A remarkable instance of this most un- Greek willingness to forgive, is the epigram in Anth, Pal, v. 150: — ^ [Cp. p. 81, n. I.] 2 Vide e.g. Anth, Pal. v. 158. Women in Greek Poetry. 73 ojfjLoXoyrjcr^ ^'^^tv cts vvKra fioL rj ^TrL/SorjTOs NtKW, /cat crefjLvrjv cdfiocre 9€crjU,o<^o/)Ov * Kov^ i^'^et, cf>vXaK7] 8e Trayoot'^erat* ap' iTrtopKeiv TjOeXe ; rov Xv^vov^ TratSes, air ocrl^kcr are. while the sudden bathos of Anth. Pal. v. 7, is quite in the same spirit. Even where a more real punish- ment is suggested, its execution is put off into a very vague and distant future : — Tai;Ta TraOovaa crol fJL€ix\f/aLT^ €7r' e/xots crracrd ttotc TrpoOvpois.^ Anth. Pal. v. 164, 3-4. Striking,. too, is the note of resignation that marks poems like Anth, Pal v. 189, xii. 153.2 Still more striking, to those who remember the brutality of Epicrates' attack upon Lais,^ is the tone in which the aged courtesan is spoken of in Anth. Pal vii. 217. The two little pictures of happy lovers, so suggestive of the Acme and Septimius of Catullus, in Anth. Pal. V. 153, xii. 105, are also very far indeed away from anything of the kind that had ever gone before.^ We are thus confronted by a very remarkable fact. That way of regarding women which we may call ^ The reading ttot^ is certainly happier than irapd. Cp. Theocr. xxix. 39 ; vide infra p. 84, ^ xii. 153 is further interesting as one of the very few of the earlier epigrams, which profess to describe the woman's feelings. ^ In the Antilais ; vide Meineke, Com. Fr. iii. p. 365. * The above instances may serve to give some idea of the prevailing character of Asclepiades' epigrams ; on the wonderful grace and charm of this new love-poetry, it is needless to dwell. The best and truest description of Asclepiades and his followers ever given, is that of Meleager, when he calls them the wild-flowers in his Garland. iv 8k Uoa-eidLinrov re Kai'HdvXov, dypi' dpovprjs, ^iKeXidedo T* dv4/iioLS dvdea (f>v6fjL€va. Anth, Pal. iv. i, 45. y 74 Women in Greek Poetry, the romantic feeling — a feeling which we have noticed to be conspicuous by its absence in Euripides — appears suddenly developed to a high degree, in what is practically the first poetry extant after him. The full meaning of this fact we shall come to consider later ; but before it is possible to do this, it will be necessary to institute some further preliminary enquiries. Attention has already been sufficiently drawn to the almost entire absence from the early Greek literature of love-poetry of any kind addressed to women ; at the same time, it has been briefly pointed out more than once that love -poetry addressed to boys or men is a very common phenomenon in this literature. This mere fact in itself would be one requiring some investigation, in an examination of this kind ; but when the nature of this love-poetry comes to be considered, it will be seen how particu- larly important, in the present connection, is this phase of the Greek mind. For it is a fact which becomes immediately apparent, and grows more and more evident, the more the matter is looked into, that while such little love -poetry as does exist, addressed by men to women, is entirely concerned with the purely sensual aspect of the matter, in the very considerable volume of poetry addressed by men to men, this aspect is well-nigh entirely ignored. But obvious though this fact must be to everyone who reads the early Greek poetry with open eyes, the influence of our present methods of thought and training has been so strong, that not only has its importance been strangely ignored by modern writers, but even the fact itself has been questioned Women in Greek Poetry. 75 or denied. Under these circumstances, it will not be superfluous to go into the matter at some length, for reasons which will appear more clearly when the truth has been established.^ The story of the Iliad is a story without a heroine, a feature which makes it well-nigh unique among national legends. This fact has struck various people, and has been accounted for in various ways, the favourite explanation, perhaps, being that the Greek imagination was severer and more self-controlled, more statuesque, one may almost say, than that of other primitive peoples, and was therefore content with a hero whose sole inspiration lay in love of glory and love of battle, apart from any gentler emotion whatever. ^ This estimate of the Greek imagination is no doubt a just one, but there is none the less a strong objection to seeking in it an ex- planation of the peculiarities of the Iliad, To regard the Achilles of Homer as a person animated solely by ambition and military enthusiasm, is, in face of the facts of the case, impossible. As is well known, Achilles sulks because deprived of Briseis, and is only roused again by the death of Patroclus ; that is to say, his two main actions are influenced entirely by motives outside of those which are looked upon as his chief characteristics.^ In other words, Achilles ^ Those who do not care to read the proof of this really self-evident fact, can skip the next 28 pages, and pick up the thread again on p. 103. 2 Vide Rohde, Der g-riech. Romany p. 42. ^ His sorrow for Briseis does not, of course, as already observed, go very deep, as is sufficiently shown by the little effect which her restora- tion has on him; and his indignation at her loss is doubtless due to wounded self-love, more than to love of any other description. But, none the less, the introduction of such an incident shows clearly how little the purely military hero was in sympathy with Greek ideas. ^6 Women in Greek Poetry, is not a military hero at all ; the interest one feels in him is due almost entirely to the emotional side of his character. But while this much is clear, the question still remains : Why has this emotional hero no corresponding heroine ? for, of course, one cannot regard Briseis as such. The answer to this is one that will not please a certain class of modern minds, but that is no proof that it is not true. There is a heroine in the Iliad, and that heroine is Patroclus. The Achilleis is a story of which the main motive is the love of Achilles for Patroclus.^ This solution is astoundingly simple, and yet it took me so long to bring myself to accept it, that I am quite ready to forgive anyone who feels a similar hesitation. But those who do accept it, cannot fail to observe, on further consideration, how thoroughly suitable a motive of this kind would be in a national Greek epic. For this is the motive running through the whole of Greek life, till that life was transmuted by the influence of Macedonia. The lover-warriors Achilles and Patroclus are the direct spiritual ancestors ^ There is an elaborate analysis of this erotic element in Max. Tyr. xxiv. 8 : KoX rhv avSpe'iov {^pcJTa) 4wl ry HarpdKXip, rbv irovip KTTjTbv Kol XP^^Vi 'fcii /t^XP' daydrov irpocpx^f^^^oVf v^Cov Kai koKcov d/JL^oripiaVf Kal (TuxppbvwVj Tov fxkv waLdedovTos, toV d^ Traidevofi^vov^ 6 fxkv ExO^roLi^ 6 bk irapafivdeiTaL, 6 [xkv ^8eLy 6 8k aKpoarai. ipuynKbv dk Kal rb rvx^^y id^Xovra i^ovaias irpbs fidxrjv, SaKpOcai (hs o(>k dve^ofiivov tov epaarov' 6 8k i '^^^ aTTodavbvTOS dirodavelv e/)J, Kal ttjv dpy^v KaTariOeTaL. ipwriKa 8k Kal rd €v{>7rvLa, Kal rd dveipara, Kal rd 8dKpva, Kal rb TeXevraiov 8upov ij87} OaWTOfJL^Vlp 7} KblXTf. It need hardly be pointed out that this central pair is not an isolated phenomenon. Ajax and Teucer (of whom we shall have occasion to speak again, p. 99), Idomeneus and Meriones, Diomed and Sthenelus, are obvious examples of similar relations among the subordinate characters. Women in Greek Poetry, yy of the Sacred Band of Thebans, who died to a man on the field of Chaeronea. Those who have made any study of the social life of early Greece, will hardly need to be reminded how important a part this relationship between older and younger men played there. In some states, such as Megara, it was specially patronised by the govern- ment. Among the Cretans, and to a certain extent also among the Lacedaemonians,^ it formed the basis of the military organisation. ^ At Thespiae, the festival of the Erotidia was consecrated to this form of love.^ At Elis there was a periodical beauty-competition among the youths, the prizes consisting of arms and armour.^ A somewhat similar contest took place every spring at the tomb of the hero Diodes at Megara.^ Nor was this all. In many states this relationship came to be looked upon as well-nigh an emblem of constitutional liberty ;^ so much so, that ^ Its prevalence among the Lacedaemonians, in spite of the in- fluential position of women in th^ ''tate, is vouched for by the usage of the word XaKujvi^oj. Vide 'Nr Com. Fr. ii. pp. 200, 1088. (The derivation mentioned b^ '^'ineke /.^., seems due to Aristophanes, and need not/ ..j.) 2 Athen. xiii. 561 E. Q" ^ .mciple, the 'lephs A6xos founded by Epaminondas was compoi^^ entirely of youths and their lovers, iraidLKiov yap wapovTOJv ipacrrrjs irav bnovv eXoir' Slv iradeLv rj deiXov 86^ap direp^yKaadai.. Athen. xiii. 602 A, cp. 561 F ; Max. Tyr. xxiv. 2. 3 Athen. xiii. 561 D. Cp. Paus. ix. 31, p. 771. ^ Athen. xiii. 609 F. ^ Schol. ad Theocr. xii. 29. ** This view was, of course, especially prominent at Athens, where Harmodius and Aristogeiton had become well-nigh the * patron saints * of the democracy. Very interesting in this connection is the remark in Ath. xiii. 562 A, that the Peisistratidae, after their expulsion, were the first persons who ventured to slander this form of intimacy. Cp. too Max. Tyr. xxiv. 2. The important part that it played in, at any rate, the old-fashioned Athenian education is shown by more than one passage in Aristophanes, of which the most striking is perhaps Nubes^ 972 seqq. ; cp. 1002 seqq. yS Women in Greek Poetry. the tyrants used to regard it as a standing menace to themselves, and actually took steps to suppress it.^ Thus Polycrates destroyed the gymnasium ^ at Samos coa-Trep avTirelxto-jULa rrj ISla cLKpoiroXei, and others are said to have behaved in a similar way.^ But while the social importance of this relationship cannot be questioned, its character is equally un- mistakable. In principle, and also in practice, it was pure. Its first and most striking feature, a feature specially emphasised by almost every ancient writer who alludes at all to the subject, is its perfect purity. The very idea of sensuality in connection with it is almost invariably vigorously repudiated,^ and the author of the " Erotic Oration " of Demosthenes is but expressing the universal convictions of his pre- decessors when he says, SUaLo^ epao-rm our av TTOLTjcreiep ovSev aicrxpov ovt^ a^Kjocreiev.^ How entirely this was the case will be still more apparent when we come to examine the writers who dealt with the subject. Here it may suffice to remark that, apart from that main sewer, the Old Attic Comedy, there are, in all the Greek poetry extant ^ Athen. xiii. 602 D. 5ta rol>s tolo^tovs odv ^pojras ol r^pavvoi (iroXifJiiOL ycLp avroTs aCrai al (piXiaL) rb irapdirav iKdAvop roi)s TraidLKovs ^porras, iravTaxf>Gev avroi/s eKKbirrovTes. 2 The gymnasium is always a prominent feature in this connection. Cp. Catull. Ixiii. 64 ; Anth. Pal. xii. 123 ; Ach. Tat. ii. 38, iraar)s dk yvvaiKcov /jiwpaXoKpias ijdiov 68iod€v 6 tojp Traidwp idpiJjs. 3 Athen. /oc. cit, ^ Athen. xiii. 561 D. a^yjvbv riva rbv "Epcora /cat iravrbs aiaxpov Kcxc'Jpio'fj^^yov, Very characteristic in this respect is the story of Agesilaus, related in Xen. A^^es. v. 4, 5 ; cp. Max. Tyr. xxv. 5, xxvi. 8. Other noticeable instances will appear in the next few pages. ® Demosth. 1401. Women in Greek Poetry. 79 down to the end of the fifth century, but a couple, or at most three, passages in which sensuality is so much as suggested in this connection. ^ To trace the growth and development of this form of love — for love it was in the most modern sense of the word — would be extremely interesting ; but it would be a long and difficult undertaking, which cannot be attempted here. The main outlines of its history are, however, sufficiently clear. Originating in the companionship of the battle-field, where the younger and weaker combatants would naturally look to their elders for help and support, it introduced itself also, as we have seen, into those peaceful exercises which serve to train the soldier ; and hence, as soon as we find civilised communities, we find both the army and the gymnasium organised with reference to it. When a somewhat more settled condition of affairs had succeeded to the constant warfare of earlier times, we find it losing to some extent its distinctively military character, though this never entirely disappears, as is clear from the institution by Epaminondas of that '' Sacred Band " of which we have had occasion to speak already. And so, in peace and war alike, it continues throughout classical times a dominating element in Greek society. Its highest development was due, of course, to Socrates and his followers ; but from the end of the fifth century onwards it was beginning to lose its hold upon the Greek mind. The improved position of ^ Hence it is not without significance that, according to a common story, the originator of this form of intimacy was said to be Orpheus See Ovid, Met. x. 83 ; Phanocles, Fr. i. 8o Women in Greek Poetry. women, and that improved way of regarding them which was gradually springing up about this time, could not fail to affect it prejudicially, while other equally potent causes were at work to bring about its overthrow ; indeed, it is not long before we find writers speaking in open disparagement of it^ And in all probability this contempt for the " hypocrisy of the philosophers" was now, to a great extent, justified; for there is little reason to suppose that at this period that high standard of moral purity, with which this form of love had been originally associated, was any longer a prominent feature of it. The Macedonians, in destroying the old Greek states, were destroying at once the home of its birth and the cause of its existence. It is small wonder that it failed, like so many other of the old Greek institutions, to adapt itself to its new surroundings, and that it could not survive the downfall of those virtues of patriotism and independence of which it was at once the out- come and the emblem. But the fragrance of its early purity and beauty was never quite lost, as long as the classical world remained. In well-nigh all the poetry dealing with it there is a tone of dignity and chivalry to which the ^ Antimachus already seems to have been inclined to ridicule the story of Heracles and Hylas. (Vide Fr. 8.) Plato and ** Platonic" love are, of course, stock subjects throughout the Middle Comedy. (Vide e.g. Amphis, Dithyramb. Fr. 2 ; Meineke, Com. Fr. iii. p. 307. ) The nature of this general attack on the philosophers must not be misunderstood. It is an error to suppose that the more old-fashioned among the Athenians disapproved, in the first instance, of the philosophers because they were paederasts ; it would be truer to say that they turned against paederasty because it was so intimately associated with philosophy. Women in Greek Poetry, 8i poetry addressed to women never, perhaps, wholly attained. The charming grace of the I2th Idyll of Theocritus is unsurpassed in any of his other works ; the passionate despair of the 23rd is unequalled. The contrast in tone between the 12th and the 5th books of the Anthology is one of the most remarkable features of that remarkable collection of poems. ^ Even Catullus, when striving to give expression to a love purer and more intense than any Roman had ever known, still feels the spell of early Greece upon nnn. "tunc te dilexi, non tantum ut vulgus amicam, sed pater ut natos diligit et generos," he exclaims. " I loved you, not as a man loves a woman, but as a man loves a youth ! "^ We have hitherto been speaking chiefly of the social aspect of this form of love ; we can now proceed to examine somewhat more in detail its influence upon literature. And here two striking facts will at once present themselves to us, the exact converse of those which met us when examining the early literary treatment of woman-love. From the earliest period onwards we shall find the love of man for man taking a prominent place in poetry, while at the same time this love as there depicted is remarkable for its chivalrous and unsensual character. ^ The poems of Strato form, of course, an exception ; but then the incidents on which they are based are professedly the product of his own, not always very charming, imagination. Cp. Anth. Pal. xii. 258. A further fact worth noticing is that abstract love-poems {eg. xii. 50) are regularly placed among the HaiSi/cd. ' The reader will perhaps be thinking of another love '* passing the love of women." One might write many pa ges on th e differences between these two similar emotions. 82 Women in Greek Poetry. In other words, while the love of man to woman was among the early Greeks a love of the senses, the love of man to man was a love of the soul. Of the Iliad we have spoken already, and we need not speak further, for though, as we have already pointed out, the relations between various of the Greek heroes there described are strong presumptive evidence of a state of affairs parallel to that which we know to have existed in historical times,^ it is in the nature of an epic to be unable to supply proof of so positive a kind as is to be found in lyric poetry, which is generally, anyhow in early times, the ex- pression of the writer's actual feelings with reference to actual surrounding circumstances. In dealing with the lyric writers we shall therefore be on firmer ground. Here, in the fragments of Archilochus already we find very strong evidence of the existence of love- poems addressed to men ; indeed, it is impossible satisfactorily to explain Fr. 85 — dAAa /x' 6 Xvo-LfJbeXrjS, 5 'rat/oe, Sdixvarat ttoOos, on any other supposition. This being so, and there being no evidence of any erotic poems addressed to women, it is justifiable to consider that Fr, 84 also belonged to this same class of poetry 2; while there ^ Whatever opinion one may have as to Homer's own intention, it cannot be denied that this was the Greek view of the relation between Achilles and Patroclus from a very early period. This is clearly shown by the fact that Aeschylus of all people treated it in this way in his Myrmidones. That the attachment was further regarded as a perfectly pure one might be equally proved from the fragments of that tragedy, if indeed proof were necessary. Insinuations like those elaborated at the end of Lucian*s Amores are a much later aftergrowth. ^ Vide supra ^ pp. 21, 22. Women in Greek Poetry, 83 IS further no reason to believe that these two passages were unique in the works of Archilochus. In other words, love -poems addressed to men are among the earliest known forms of subjective Greek poetry. But while both Archilochus and Alcman^ produced works of this kind, the fragments of these which remain are too scanty for it to be possible to feel any real certainty as to their exact nature ; nor again was either of these two authors particularly cele- brated in ancient times for this class of composition. It is different with Alcaeus. Alcaeus was recog- nised throughout antiquity as the master par excel- lence of this form of poetry, and though the actual fragments of his works on this subject which remain are not much more satisfactory than is the case with his predecessors, we have most valuable evidence as to their nature in two poems of Theocritus, the one professedly and the other evidently imitated from them.2 These poems contain certain evidently Alex- andrian elements,^ and, consequently, it would be unjustifiable to press any particular detail of them as illustrating Alcaeus, but, at the same time, there seems every reason to believe that in their general tone they reflect the spirit of their originals, and it is to their general tone that I wish to draw the reader's attention. ^ Vide supra, p. 24. ^ Theocr. xxix. and xxx. ^ E.g. the image of Time with wings on his shoulders (xxix. 29). For this reason I have not cared to urge the expression 'AxtXX^l'ot fXoi. in xxix. 34, as a proof that Alcaeus took this view of the relation between Achilles and Patroclus. (Vide supra^ p. 82.) 84 • Women in Greek Poetry, To take the first of them {Idyll xxix.). The speaker is about to tell some unpleasant truths, but he feels constrained to apologise for so doing (1-4). After a passionate but dignified protestation of his love (5-8), he appeals to his friend's better feelings (9), and urges him to be constant in his affections \ ~ /• irotrjCTai KaXtav fxtav elv evl SevSpto)^ OTTO, fxrjSev aTrt^erat aypiov opirerov, " If you do so," he continues — €f aCTTWV, and Love vi^ill deal kindly v^ith you, and save you from such pangs as I have suffered (21-24). For we grow older every day, and youth is the season for forming those friendships which last a lifetime (25-34). Now, I would readily do anything for your sake, but if you disregard my words, the time may come when even if you call me I will not answer" (35-40). But anyone who has ever read this charming little poem will not need to have its character further forced upon him. The manliness, the dignity, the courtesy of it, are patent in every line ; more striking still to those who know Greek literature is the spirit of self-negation which pervades the whole; and all this, combined with a passion which is none the less real because it is kept rigorously under control. Even in Alexandrian times it would be hard to find a poem addressed to a woman which can equal this in its chivalrous tone ; to look for such a poem in early Greek literature would be vain indeed. Women in Greek Poetry, 85 In the second of these two pieces {Idyll xxx.), also in all probability modelled on Alcaeus, the purely erotic side of the matter comes more to the front than in the one we have just been discussing, but here, too, one cannot fail to be struck by the quiet earnestness of the tone, which is as far removed from the good-humoured banter of Asclepiades as it is from the outspoken brutality of Archilochus. But perhaps the most striking commentary on this state of feeling is that furnished by the other section of the Lesbian school of poets. It has troubled the minds of many modern commentators to think why Sappho should have addressed love-poems to Anactoria ; for those who have formed a true idea of what " love " between a man and a woman meant in Greece of the seventh century, and compared this with the love then existing among men for one another, the question answers itself. Sappho, in addressing love-poems to Anactoria, was but adapt- ing to her own circumstances and sex the universal contemporary principles of love-poetry. It seemed so unnatural then, and so impossible, to connect the sexual instinct with any pure or noble feeling, that Sappho, because her love was pure and its ideal a noble one, instinctively and inevitably chose as the object of this love her fellow-women, just as the men of her time chose their fellow-men.^ To the Greek of the period the association of the ^ Thus Maximus Tyrius (xxiv. 9) compares the love of Sappho to that of Socrates. 6 5^ r^s Aea^ias {^poos) . . tl hv eit) &\\o, f) rj liOOKpdrovs T^x^V ^P^^tlkt) ; SoKovaL yap fiOL ttjv Kara ravrb eKdrepos (fiCklav^ 7] fJL^v yvvaiKCoVj b dk dppevcjv, iirLTTjdeuo-aL, 86 Women in Greek Poetry. sexes inevitably suggested sensuality ; Sappho loved Anactoria, just as Alcaeus loved Lycus, in order that this suggestion might be as far as possible excluded. Sappho loved a woman because her love was too pure to allow her to love a man. All this sounds strange — monstrous almost — to modern ears; and yet, of all the scandal of the centuries which has heaped itself up around the name of Lesbos, what Sappho herself would have resented most would perhaps have been the story that she was in love with Phaon. We have already had occasion to notice that Anacreon, while he was the originator of love-poetry addressed to women, at the same time addressed a large number of his poems, in fact, the majority, to boys. In his case, therefore, it is possible for the first time to compare the two forms of " love " in the same individual. The comparison is not much to the advantage of the newer feeling. While the out- spoken sensuality of the poems devoted to women cannot be matter of dispute, even judging from such fragments of them as remain, the chaste and sober nature of Anacreon's relation to his boy-lovers is not only a feature of the extant fragments, but is also alluded to more than once by ancient writers, who had his complete works from which to draw their inferences. Thus Aelian ( Var, Hist, ix. 4), speaking of the love of Anacreon for Smerdias (cp. Anacreon, Fr. 48) says — €tTa yYiQif] TO ixcLpoLKLOv T(^ eTTatvo) KOL Tov ^ KvaKpkovra 'qcnrd^cTO cre/xvtos €v fidXa, epiovra Trj7]o-i, A similar compliment to Anacreon seems to glimmer through Athenaeus* account of Polycrates. (xii. 540 E.) How deep the difference really went, it is of course impossible, in the absence of the poet*s complete works, to show, but, as already remarked, even in the few fragments we have, the distinction between the strong passion with which he speaks of his boy-loves and the frivolous tone of his addresses to women is very noticeable. On the deep significance of the attempt of Ibycus to introduce personal erotic poetry into the choral hymns, we have also dwelt,i so that we can proceed without further delay to the works which bear the name of Theognis, a body of poems which, in the present connection, are perhaps the most interesting in all early Greek literature. The great mass of these poems are in the form of short pieces addressed by the writer to his youthful friend Cyrnus, and, as such, are one long commentary on the subject we are discussing. Regarded from ^ Vide supra^ P- 35* SS Women in Greek Poetry, this point of view, several features at once force themselves upon the attention. Notwithstanding the fact that many of them are thorough love-poems, yet not only is the sensual side of the matter entirely ignored, but even the erotic, as far as that is sub- jective, is kept rigorously in the background. The counsel Theognis gives is such as a father might give to his son — i (Tol Se TOi oTa re TratSt irarr^p VTToOrjcrofJiaL avros ecrOXd. (1. 1049.) Indeed, he is afraid lest Cyrnus' eagerness may lead him into temptation, and so even urges him not to be over-loving. fjirj fi' deKovra /Sly) k€vtC)v vtt^ dfia^av eAavve, es (f>LX6Tr]Ta Atr^v, Kvpve^ Trpoo-eXKOfievos.^ (1. 371.) He will not thrust himself upon his friend if the latter is unwilling ; he will rather himself bear the pang of parting — dpyaXecos /xot dvfJLOs e^€t ircpl crrjg (fitXoTYjTOS' ovT€ yap exOaipetv ovre cf)LX€iv SvvapLatj yiV(x)crK(DV \aXe7rov p.kv, orav (fitXos dv8pl yevryrat, kyOaip€iv^ ^(aX^Trov 6' ovk iOeXovra (ptXeLV. (1. 1091.) Yet he is always ready to sympathise with him when in trouble — (Tvv crotj }^vpv€y TraOovTL KaKws dvnofi^Oa Trdvra. (1. 655.) Though Cyrnus does not heed him, he will yet make him immortal by his songs.^ ^ Cp. Theocr. xxix. 10, d\X' et fxol TL ttWolo v^os TrpoyeveaTipcp. * A striking record of temptation resisted is to be found in 1. 949 sf^^. , but this is almost certainly by a later hand. ^ 1. 237 seg^. Women in Greek Poetry. 89 Much more there is, similar in tone, chiefly advice as to the choice of friends and the like, but it would be an endless task to examine all this in detail. The reader may open the collection at random, and at once find further proof of what has been said here. Whatever the subject of the poems and whatever their occasion, they 'are all well-nigh equally re- markable for their dignity, their temperance, their manliness, and for their most un-Greek virtue of unselfishness, and remarkable, no less, for the absence from them of that meanness and spiteful- ness which even in modern times so often mark the unfortunate lover. It does one good to read these poems; they are keen and clear like a mouthful of mountain air ; and it does one good, too, to think of the Qolvai kol elXaTrLvai where they were sung and where the spirit of them was understood. After all, modern writers may decry and defame these amantes contra naturam as much as they please, but they cannot deny that they were the first to teach that the mission of love was to make men better.^ The intimate connection between the poems that bear the name of Theognis and the Scolia has already been noticed ; it will not therefore be surprising to find that the latter are almost as full as the former of references to our present subject, though, as it is in their nature to be commonplace, they need not detain us long. Of the 25 Scolia preserved by Athenaeus,^ 15 deal ^ For an examination of the Second Book of Theognis, vide Excursus E. ' Athen. xv. p. 694 seqq. This number excludes the poems of Hybrias and Aristotle, which are different in character from the rest. 90 Women in Greek Poetry, with friendships of this kind ;i these may be roughly divided into two classes : those which sing the praises of famous pairs of friends, and those which contain general remarks on the subject. A striking instance of the first class is, of course, the well-known Scolion of Callistratus (9-12), in which it may be observed that in the second verse, where Harmodius is pro- mised immortality among the celebrated heroes of antiquity, the two of these specially mentioned are Achilles, the lover of Patroclus, and Diomed, the lover of Sthenelus, Other examples are Scot. 21, referring to Admetus, and Seal. 17, 18 referring to Ajax, the latter of whom is a hero in the Scolia as early as the time of Alcaeus. In the second class, perhaps the most interesting are ScoL 23, with its very Theognis-like advice, and ScoL 19, of which we have already spoken,^ As is, of course, only to be expected, these poems do not add much to our knowledge of the subject or its treatment ; but it was none the less worth while to call attention to them, owing to the fact that verse or doggerel of this kind, though it may not be of much importance itself, is yet able to furnish important evidence as to the nature of the popular feeling to which it owes its origin. The views expressed in these poems are not those of individual authors, they are the views of the whole community ; and it is this fact which gives to the ^ Of the remaining ten, the first four are religious, and only three contain any mention of women, two of these being coarse. ' [p- 31.] Women in Greek Poetiy, 91 Scolia a far deeper significance than would at first sight appear to belong to them. So far, the examination of such fragments of the early Greek literature as have survived, has resulted in the discovery of a body of evidence which, if not very voluminous, is yet remarkably unanimous. It remains to be seen in how far it is possible to supple- ment this from the works of the Attic tragedians, which have been preserved in a more perfect con- dition. At the first glance the prospect is not very promising ; love altogether, as we have seen, plays a very subordinate part in the Attic drama, while that form of love which we are immediately con- sidering, seems at first sight to be especially neglected. And indeed, to a certain extent, this is really the case, for very obvious reasons. In the early days of tragedy, when the love -element was well-nigh entirely excluded, in obedience to the then artistic canons, it was not to be expected that exception would be made in favour of this particular form of it;^ later, when the love-element was gradually forcing itself into the drama, the playwrights were all, whether they cared to confess it or not, under the influence of Euripides, who, as we know, was a special student of feminine nature, and as such, felt only a qualified interest in the mutual relations of ^ For, as we have seen, one of the first of these canons was that the public expression of private emotions was an offence against art no less than against decency, and this would tend to exclude from the stage all forms of love equally. In the case of woman-love there were, of course, special objections ; that was why the Myrmidones was the first erotic play of any kind produced ; but this is beside the present issue. 92 Women in Greek Poetry, men.i But at the same time, a closer examination of the Attic tragedians will perhaps reveal that this characteristically Greek emotion has had a greater influence on their work than one would, at the first moment, be disposed to believe. Two plays, the Myrmidones of Aeschylus and the Niobe of Sophocles, are specially mentioned by Athenaeus^ as introducing apaevLKoi e poorer ; unfor- tunately, however, in neither case are the fragments preserved of a kind to throw much light on the method of treatment adopted. The Myrmidones, which seems to have been the first play of a trilogy, treated of the death of Patroclus and Achilles* lament for him, ^ which seems, to judge by such expressions as those pre- served in Fr. 135,^ 138, to have been of a passionate character ; but whether the erotic element was the only interest in the play, and whether it was in any ^ For the story in Aelian, Var. Hist. ii. 21, as to the relation between Euripides and Agathon, does not seem to be more than a vague piece of scandal. To this must be added the fact that the earlier part of the century was the time when such a subject would most readily have appealed to the Athenian imagination. Later on, and especially from the fourth century onwards, the changed position of women was beginning to make itself felt in the way we have seen. 2 Athen. xiii. 601 A, where it is further noted that these plays were received with applause. ^ According to Schol. Ar. Ran. 911, first of all, fi^xP'- Tpi-dv rjiiepCov ovdkv (pd^yyerat. * The reader must be careful here to give the proper sense to cr^/3as a.yvbv^ translating *' ne sancta quidem reverentia qua casta atque in- temerata tua femora servavi, te movit, ingrate, etc." Fr. 136, whether genuine or not — it reads very like a misquotation of its predecessor — must obviously mean the same, in spite of Theomnestus and Lucian. Women in Greek Poetry. 93 way developed in the latter part of the trilogy, it is impossible now to say. The Niobe recounted the misfortunes of that heroine, with her subsequent grief and exile from Thebes, the scene of the tragedy, to Lydia. But a striking feature, the most striking, perhaps, if we may draw any inference from the statement in Athenaeus^ that this play was commonly known as r] TpaywSia rj TraiSepdcrTpLa, was the relation represented as existing among Niobe's sons.^ This would appear to have been especially emphasised in the account of the death- scene^ — a passage which we can gather indirectly to have been the most popular in the play ; ^ whether It was at all prominent in the previous action we cannot tell ; and, indeed, the fragments of the Niobe are of a quite particularly meagre description. To these two plays mentioned by Athenaeus must be added a third, the Chrysippus of Euripides, a work which is peculiarly interesting for two reasons — its author and its subject. The Myrmidones and the Niobe, of which we have just spoken, seem, as far as can be judged by the little of them that remains, to have, dealt with what may be called ^ Athen. xiii. 601 B. 2 Startling as it appears at first sight, this is probably the simplest way of understanding Athenaeus' rov tCov iraidcov {sc. ^/ocora). Those who have properly appreciated what buch ^'pws meant to the early Greeks, will not be surprised to find the term applied to the affection of an elder for a younger brother. ^ Plut. Amor, ly, p. 760 D, tQv jxkv yap rod So^o/cXeofs l^Lo^idiov ^aXKofx^vwv Kai dv7}(jK6vTiav avaKoKeLTai tis ovdiva ^oridbv 6XKov ovbk (jvjxfxaxov ^ TQV ipacTTifiv. * Cp. Aristoph. VesJ}. 579. 94 Women in Greek Poetry, simple straightforward love-stories. Men are intro- duced as in love with other men, and this love is brought to a climax by the most usual of expedients — the death of the loved object. Euripides, on the other hand, was, as we have seen, above all things a student of the emotions in their more complex phases, and a denouement of so ordinary a kind could not have failed to appear commonplace to a writer who took such an interest in the pathology of the senses, even when he for once abandoned his favourite field of the feminine passions, and undertook the ex- amination of a form of love, the symptoms of which are notoriously more easily capable of diagnosis. And, as a matter of fact, the Chrysippns introduces us to a novel and most interesting side of the question. The story on which the play is founded is, to quote the words of the Argument to the Phoenissaey as follows : ovTos (6 Acti-bs) dcj^iKOfievos ttotc els ^HAtv /cat rov rov IleAoTros Vibv Xpva-tTnrov t8wv, 6s ^v i^ aXXrjOopLav €vp(ov, Ka6it)S Srj /cat 6 Zevs ev Oeols tov Tavvixrj8r]v dpirda-as. 6 8e IleAo^ fiaOibv tovto Karr^pda-aro Aato) jJLrjSeirore /xev TratSa rcKeti/, et 8' apa Kat (rvpL/Satrj^ vtt* avTOV tovtov dvaipcO-qo-eo-OaL. Or, according to a slightly different version found in "Peisander": IcTTopel HeLcravSpoSf on Kara ^oAov rrjs "Hpas e7r€jJL(j)6rj r^ ^(j)ly^ TOLS OrjfSatois diro rwv ecr^arcov fiepajv rrjs At^tOTrtag, OTt TOV Adiov dv(rLS /Sid^erai. alat, ToS' ^8r] Beivov dvOpcjirots KaKov, orav TLS €lSrj rdyaOov, ■)(prJTai Se firj. Cicero says as much {Tusc. iv. 33, 71): Quis . . . non intellegit quid apud Euripidem et loquatur et cupiat Laius.? Aelian, too {N, H. vi. 15), draws an unconscious comparison between this play and the pure old -Greek Niobe of Sophocles when, after describing how the dolphin that loved a boy Women in Greek Poetry, 97 €7n^iMi/ai T019 irmSiKolq ovk eroXjULrjoreVj he adds, Aai'og Se eirt ^pvcriTr'TrM, (h KoXe ^vpiTrlSrjy tovto ovk eSpacev, The sensuality of the passion is clearly shown, too, by various features of the legend as recorded by various writers, above all by the fact that Hera is the goddess outraged, and by the peculiar nature of the curse of Pelops. The actual words, more- over, of the Scholiast of the Phoenissae (rov Adl'oi/ aare^Yja-avTa eg tov TrapavojuLov epcora tov ILpva-LTrirov) and of the argument of that play {kol (rvvrjv avriio Ta epooTiKa Trpoorog ev avOpwiroig Trjv appevocpOopcav €vpcov)y seem all to point the same way.^ In fact, the sensuality of Laius is made such a feature of the story in every case in which it is narrated, that it cannot well be doubted that this sensuality was a feature of the story in its earliest form ; and if this be granted, there can be very little question as to the meaning of the story itself, as originally current. We thus have three plays, one by each of the great dramatists, dealing with this subject, two of them dwelling upon the intense and unselfish nature of the passion in its true form, the third emphasising the disastrous consequences of any transgression of that purity which was so integral a part of it ; but are these three the only ones of their kind ? They ^ The remark of the Scholiast that the behaviour of Laius to Chrysippus was parallel to that of Zeus to Ganymede, like the similar remark in Cicero {/oc. cit.)^ belongs of course to an age when the primitive meanings of the legends had long been forgotten. The allusion to the legend in Aristoph. Felargi, Fr, i is too general to give evidence either way. See Meineke, Com, Fr, ii. p. 1126 seq, II 98 Women in Greek Poetry. are the only three, perhaps, that dealt with the purely erotic side of the matter ; but its general influence evidently extended over a far wider field. This influence makes itself felt in various ways and in varying degrees, and it would be a lengthy task, and one beside the present purpose, to endeavour to trace its workings wherever they are visible in Attic tragedy ; but a few noticeable instances of it are well worthy of attention. One of these is the Ajax of Sophocles. It is a common complaint against this play that the second half of it is inferior in interest to the first. The admirers of Sophocles, however, contend that, to an Athenian audience, the details of funeral arrange- ments were matters of such paramount importance that, in a play intended for the Athenian stage, a second act dealing entirely with this subject would not by any means be of the nature of an anti- climax. I am no great admirer of Sophocles, and still less am I an admirer of the mob that pelted Aeschylus and hooted Euripides, but yet I should be disposed to give the Athenians credit for rather higher tastes than this would seem to imply; while, even had the predilections of his audience been so strongly those of the undertaker, it might surely have been hoped that a poet of Sophocles' genius would have had the courage to ignore them. Indeed, as long as the interest of the second half of the Ajax is considered as centred on the dead body of the hero, it is impossible successfully to refute the charge of bathos; but a more careful consideration of this part of the play will, perhaps, show that the Women in Greek Poetry, 99 interest is by no means intended to be attached in this Mezentius-Hke manner to a corpse. The interest is meant to centre on Teucer, the mnasius of the dead Ajax, ^ and on his efforts to prove himself worthy of his heroic lover ; for his lover's sake, in spite of every obstacle, and in the face of what looks like certain death, he insists that due respect shall be paid to the dead ; in fact, there are in this situation the germs of the situation which excites such general interest in the Antigone.'^ There the character whose weakness is made strength through love, is a woman, and so we moderns admire ; here it is a man, and so we misunderstand ; but it does not follow that the Greeks were equally narrow in their sympathies. Another instance, less obvious at first sight, but equally convincing on nearer examination, is the Alcestis. The Alcestis is a very difficult play to understand, as far as the motives of its leading figures are concerned ; nor is it enough to say that, because the play has been described as "something of a satyric drama," therefore all its characters are meant to be grotesque. The self-concentration of Admetus and the complete acquiescence therein of Alcestis, must surely be capable of some more ^ That this is the relation between Ajax and Teucer in Homer already, is pretty clear. Vide e,g, II. ix. 266 seqq. ; cp. Schol, Tkeocr, xii. 29. This, no doubt, accounts for the frequent mention of Ajax in the Scolia (cp. p. 90). ^ Supposing Tecmessa appeared as champion for the dead Ajax, everyone would acknowledge this, and no one would find the situation dull : only people will not understand that Teucer meant as much, and more, to the Greeks, than Tecmessa would to us. lOO Women in Greek Poetry. satisfactory explanation. ^ This explanation is, perhaps, to be found in the relation existing between Admetus and Apollo. The story of the love of Apollo for Admetus is sufficiently familiar, ^ and has been alluded to on various occasions in the preceding pages. Both at Athens and Sparta the legend seems to have been well known,^ and there can be no doubt that an audience, when called upon to listen to a play dealing with Admetus, would instinctively call to mind this incident in his life> Granted this, it is not, perhaps, too bold to say that it is equally unquestionable that this recollection on their part must have influenced their view of the hero's character. He was unwilling to die ; for any Greek to be unwilling to die was excusable in a way which we who live in English fogs can never under- stand; but for Admetus, the beloved of the Sun-god ! If he, who for nine years had met Apollo face to face, shrank from the mould and the mud of Hades, what reason to wonder at it } To a Greek, to live was to see the sun ; surely then, to one whom the Sun-god loved, life must be doubly precious, precious to a degree that less happy mortals could never ^ The position of Alcestis has already been partly discussed on p. 57. ^ Vide Call. Hymn, in Apoll. 49; Panyasis, Fr, 15 (DUbner) ; Schol. ad Eur. Ale. 2 ; Lact. i. 10, 3. 3 Cp. supra, pp. 24, 31. * When the Scholiast [ad Eur. Ale. i) says that the version of the story of Apollo's servitude given in the Prologue is the usual one (17 5td (TTbimTos Koi drjfjubdTjs), he need mean no more by this than the fact that this was the case at the time of v^^riting, when the influence of Euripides had naturally superseded all others. The Scholiast cannot be taken as throwing light on the state of feeling in Athens at the time when the Aleestis was produced. Women in Greek Poetry. loi comprehend.^ Then, again, if one thought of who Admetus was. Surely the man whom the Sun-god loved was a man whom the world could not spare, a man for whom it was a privilege to be considered worthy to die. Patriotism, too, no less than personal affection, would seem to compel a sacrifice on behalf of the man in whose kingdom a god took such a special interest ; ^ nor, again, was the gift of a divine lover a thing that it was safe lightly to put aside. All this, and much more of a kindred nature, must have been present in the minds of those who first saw this strange play, and must have served in part to mitigate its strangeness. It could not, per- haps, explain the central mystery ; but then, the mystery of self-sacrifice has never been explained yet. Another striking instance is the persistent way in which Orestes and Pylades figure in the Athenian drama. They play a prominent part in no fewer than five tragedies, in one of which, the Iphigeneia in* Tauris, the scene between them became proverbial ; ^ and thus we get repeated again and again the, to modern minds, almost grotesque situation of the in- tense affection between Orestes and Pylades, and the intense affection between Orestes and Electra,^ and ^ I am not concerned here to write an apology for Admetus, or I might add much that would militate against the ordinary, somewhat flippant, view taken of his character. One point, however : many readers do not seem to notice that the original question of dying or not is never in the play left to Admetus at all, but is settled by Apollo on his own responsibility. Cp. Eur. Air. n seqq., 32 seqq. 2 Cp. Eur. Ale. 10, etc. ^ Cp. the lengthy comments on the play in Lucian, Amores 47, vol. ii. p. 450. * On this point cp. above, p. 48. 102 Women in Greek Poetry, the supreme indifference between Pylades and Electra, the two lovers who are going to marry one another as soon as the curtain comes down. And yet, those who have read what has gone before will know that not only did this situation seem natural to the Athenian audience, but any other situation under the circumstances would have seemed to them monstrous or absurd. It is hardly necessary to follow this subject further, for enough has been said already to make its main features perfectly clear. Still less is it necessary, for our present purpose, to study the history of this emotion during the succeeding centuries. As we have already pointed out, from the end of the fifth century onwards it begins to lose its hold on the popular imagination, and ceases to be a national institution ; and when next we find traces of it in literature, we see at once that its nature has entirely altered. Paederastic poetry there is enough and to spare among the Alexandrians, but it is poetry which looks strange indeed by the side of Theognis.^ What were the causes that led to this change, a change as great as that which about this time came over the relation between man and woman — how far it was due to Persian influence, how far to the employment of professional soldiers instead of the citizen-armies of an earlier period — all these are questions of the greatest interest in themselves, but they cannot be discussed here. The fact remains that that purity ^ An exception to this general rule is, perhaps, Theocritus ; whether, or how far, this was due to the influence of Aratus is an interesting question, but one for the discussion of which the evidence has yet to be collected. Women in Greek Poetry, 103 and self-devotion which had been the rule in one generation became the exception in the next, and that the downward course was never again fully- arrested throughout classical times. And yet, even the most sensual of the later poets, somehow, sometimes, when speaking of this, rise to strange heights of beauty. Listen to Rhianus : t^(^ Ae^tovtKOS VT70 )(^ko)prj TrXaravtcTTO) K6(Tcrv(f>ov dypevcraSy efAe Kara TrrepvyfDV \U) jxkv ava(TTeva)(Oiv direKCOKvev Upos opvis. dXX lyw, (5 (^lX "Ep(09, Kol OaXepal ^aptres, clrjv /cat kl^Xt] kol Kocro-vcfios^ ws dv €K€lvov €v X^P^ '^^^ (f>6oyyrjv kol yXvKv SaKpv jSaXu). {Anth. Pal, xii. 142.) Listen to Meleager, the last of the Greek poets : OVK eOeXd) XaptSa/xov 6 yap KaXos els Aia Aevcro-€t, ws y]S'q veKTap t(^ dei^ olvo\oiov, OVK iOeXo)' TL Se /xot rov lirovpavLajv /SaonXyja dvraOXov vlkt^s t^s ev epoyTL Aa^etv ; alpovfiaL S,* 7jv fJiovvov 6 irals dvmv Is "OXvixirov €K yyjs vtTTTpa ttoSmv SaKpva ra/xot Xd/Syj, [ivafxo(rvvov (rropyrjs' yXvKv S' o/x/xao-t vevjuta Stvypov dotrjj Kai TL (j)LXr]fx dpTrdcrat dKpoOtyes. rdXXa Se irdvT eyeTia Zev?, ws Oepas. el 8' eOeXrjo-eiy •^ ra^a ttov Kdycb yevcropLai dpL/Spoorias. {Anth. Pal, xii. ^'^:) SaKpva (TOL Ka\ vepOe Sia xQovo^s^ TSXioSdcipa^ Soopov/jLai, The foregoing discussion has covered a quantity of ground and dealt with a large variety of topics, some of which may have appeared but remotely connected with our immediate subject ; but in the I04 Women m Greek Poetry, end it has succeeded in establishing certain facts very clearly. We have learnt from an examination of such parts of the early Greek literature as have survived, and from a consideration of the probable nature of the rest, that (i) Love in the modern sense, as existing between men and women, was unknown in early Greece. (2) Such love on the part of men for men was not only a fact, but was generally recognised as a social, and in some cases a national, institution. From this it would seem inevitably to follow, that the change which we find at a later period to have come over the way of regarding women, was due to a transference to the sexual instinct, and an amalgamation with it, of that form of emotion which had previously been confined to the mutual relations of men. In other words, men first began to look upon women as fit objects of pure and chivalrous devotion, when they began (to quote the expression of Alcman)^ to look upon them as "female boy- friends." Now, my reason for calling attention to this point is the following : If one regards the origin of what, for briefness' sake, we have called the romantic feeling, as entirely a new growth of the fourth century, unconnected with anything that had gone before, it is obvious that such a growth, if indeed possible at all, can only have been made possible by a simultaneous movement on the part of a large number of persons ; for it is inconceivable that any one man, however great his influence, could invent 1 Fr. 125. Women in Greek Poetry, 105 and popularise an entirely new emotion. But if, on the other hand, we regard the romantic feeling as simply due to the readjustment of an already existing emotion, it is no longer absurd to suppose that the original suggestion of this readjustment may have been due to some single individual. In- deed, the probabilities rather point in that direction, for it is a commonplace that revolutions of thought are generally due to the discovery, on the part of some individual, of the apparently obvious formula for which the rest of mankind have long been seeking in vain. This being so, it will be justifiable to apply the general principle to the case before us, and it will no longer seem a fruitless task to look about among the literary names of the close of the fifth century and the beginning of the fourth, for the man who gave the first impulse to that remarkable movement with which we are at present concerned. The great obstacle which here confronts us at the outset, and, indeed, makes this whole investigation one of exceptional difficulty, is the fact that, of all the periods of Greek poetry, that which covers the first part of the fourth century — in other words, that which forms the transition from the classical to the so-called Alexandrian era — is just that of which the fewest monuments of importance have been pre- served. From the death of Aristophanes to the time when Asclepiades began to write is pretty well 70 years, ^ but all the poetry which has come ^ And the interval is in reality even longer, for but little of the later work of Aristophanes has survived. io6 Women in Gr^eek Poetry, down to us from this whole period consists of a few fragments of comedy,^ most of which it is impossible even approximately to date, and a few epigrams, the history of which is often more obscure still. There is thus a great gap in our knowledge, and it is just during this interval of darkness that the romantic feeling must first have found expres- sion, for while in Euripides, confessedly the most "modern" of the classical poets, no real trace of it is to be found, ^ in Asclepiades and his immediate contemporaries and followers we find it already so thoroughly established as a noteworthy factor in their work, that it is impossible to doubt that its origin must belong to a considerably earlier period. This being so, it is impossible to speak with any ^ For an examination of the fragments of the Middle Comedy, vide Excursus F. 2 It may not be out of place to emphasise here once more the difference that exists between regarding women as an object of interest or importance, and regarding them as an object of love ; for the two have been confused by many, not only in estimating the influence of Euripides (cp, supra, pp. 40, 50), but also in considering the events of the earlier part of the fourth century. Thus many have pointed to the agitation in favour of "women's rights" satirised in the Eccle- siazusae, or to the great social importance of the Hetaerae (as illus- trated in the Middle Comedy, &c.), or to the generally ameliorated condition of women of every class, as proofs of the existence at this period already of the romantic feeling. But to those who care to consider the matter clearly, it must be apparent that all these things are really beside the question. The improved state of women and their increasing power may have helped, and doubtless did help, to spread the romantic feeling when once it had originated; but they were in the first instance entirely independent of it. One does not ipso facto feel a romantic attachment for people because one is compelled to recognise them socially, while in these days of extended franchises it is surely not necessary to repeat that political recognition is not the same as love. Women in Greek Poetry. ' 107 certainty. It seems, however, most probable that the initiation of the movement was due to Anti- machus of Colophon. Antimachus was a distinguished man in various ways. The author of an important critical edition of the text of the Homeric poems, he was himself an epic poet second only in the general estimation to Homer, and his Thebaid was still read and ad- mired more than 500 years after his death.' But the work on which his present claim rests is his elegiac poem, Lyde, It may not be amiss briefly to recall the circumstances and nature of this poem.^ Antimachus, falling in love with some Lydian lady, married her, and went to live with her in her native country. Afterwards, on her death, he re- turned to Colophon, where he composed, in her memory, the elegy Lyde, a poem containing, in the form of digressions, accounts of most of the unhappy lovers of tradition or mythology.^ ^ Cp. Quint. X. I, 53 ; Anth. Pal. vii. 409, &c. ; vide Diibner, Asii ^c. Frag. p. 28 seqq. (at the end of Didot's Hesiod), If the epigram attributed to Antimachus in Anth. Pal. ix. 321, be really his, he must further be regarded as one of the originators of the Dedicatory Epigram. Cp. Reitzenstein, Epig. u. Skol. p. 131. 2 For a full account of it, vide Bach, Philetas, &=c., Epimetrum iii. (p. 240); Diibner, op. cit. p. 40. ^ Ai^St^s 5' 'AvrifjLaxos Avcrrjtdos iK [xkv ^pwros irXrjyeis Ha /crwXou peO^t' iir^^r] iroTafxov. ^apdLav7)v dk Oavovaav virb ^rjprjv diro ya'iav^ TfJL(I}\Lov at^aov 5' ^\dev airoirpoKiirCov dKpTjv is KoXo^iova, ybiov 5' ii/€Tr\r)(TaTo ^i^Xovs ipdSf 4k iravrbs 7ravcrd/ji,€vos Ka/JLarov. (Hermesianax, iii. 41.) ^Avrifiaxos 6 ttoltjttjs, aTroOavo^cTTjs rijs yvvaiKbs avrov A^dyjSf Trpbs ^v (piXoardpycjs elxe, irapafJL^diov rrjs Xijirrjs avT<} iwoirjcre ttjv iXiyeiav I08 Women in Greek Poetry. Now, in this there are two features which it is impossible to parallel in any previous Greek poem. The Lyde of Antimachus was a love-poem ad- dressed to his wife, and written after her death. In these two facts we recognise, on the part of the writer, a view both of married life and of women in general, which is entirely new. Mim- nermus had said that life without love was not worth living, but his was hardly the love to last after his lady's death. Simonides had sung the charms of the ideal housekeeper, but one would not expect to find emotional poetry addressed even to the most perfect housekeeper, as such. Euripides had expatiated on the powers and the capabilities of women ; but there is a difference between re- garding a woman as a particularly cunning and dangerous sort of beast, and regarding her as a fit object for a life's devotion. In Antimachus, for the first time, we meet with the new spirit which animates the new literature and forms the founda- tion of the Greek romantic conception ; for it is respect for women and, above all, for marriage, that constitutes the fundamental principle of the romantic rV K6Xfiv\xkvn]v K{)h'i]v^ i^apiO/jLTjadfievQ^ r^s ^pfejl'/c^s crv/x o-€fJLvor€pr^ iracTiov clfil 6t' 'Avrt/xa^oi^. Tts yap €ju,' ovK TjctG-e ; tls ovk dveXe^aro AijSrjv, TO ^vvbv M-ovcriDV ypdfjLfjia kol 'AvTfc/xa;(Of ; Anth, Pal. ix. 6^. And the passage in Poseidippus, where Antimachus and Mimnermus, coupled but contrasted, are spoken of as the first two love-poets, is scarcely less em- phatic.^ In the case of Philetas, the evidence is also strong. His elegies addressed to Battis are generally admitted to have been modelled, in form, at any rate, on the Lj/de of Antimachus ; and it does not seem unjustifiable to infer from this that their spirit and their general character were also, in the main, similar. The way in which the two poets are coupled by Ovid {Trist. i. 6, i) seems to support this view, and, as we have already seen, there is no evidence to the con- trary.2 To sum up, then : the conclusions arrived at are briefly as follows : ^ Anth. Pal. xii. i68. ^ Cp. p. 70. I 114 Women in Greek Poetry, (i) In extant Greek poetry there is no trace of romantic love-poetry addressed to women, prior to the time of Asclepiades and Philetas. (2) In the works of these writers this element suddenly appears, not in the nature of an experi- ment, but as a leading motive — an almost sure proof that they were not the originators of it. (3) The Lyde of Antimachus was a work of such a kind, both in nature and in circumstances of pro- duction, that there is every reason to believe that it was a romantic love-poem. (4) Philetas and Asclepiades were notoriously admirers of the Lyde of Antimachus. (5) Therefore there is reason to believe that the romantic element appearing in their poems was due to the influence of Antimachus, who may thus be regarded as the originator of the romantic element in literature. Vale^ lector benevole, si quidem hue usque mecum perveneris. WOMEN IN GREEK COMEDY Women in Greek Comedy I. The Classification of Comedy THE classification of Greek Comedy has been, from the earliest times, a subject of dispute. The ancient critics, for the most part, divided comedy into two classes only — the Old Comedy, which has a parabasis, and the New Comedy, which has none. According to these critics, the acme of the Old Comedy was reached during the Pelopon- nesian War, that of the New Comedy during the reign of Alexander. That this system of classifica- tion, though sound as far as it goes, is not an adequate one, will be admitted by every student of the subject, and need not be further discussed. The alternative division of comedy into three classes, cor- responding roughly to the sixth, seventh, and eighth so-called periods of Greek literature^ — a scheme of arrangement that has on the whole been most generally accepted in modern times — is also not a very satisfactory one ; for, apart from the initial objection that it, like all similar chronological ^ I.e. Peloponnesian War, 431-403; Lacedaemonian and Theban Supremacy, 405-336 ; Macedonian Age, 336 onwards. ii8 Women in Greek Comedy. arrangements, is far too rigid to be applied to anything so intangible as a literary tendency, there is the further and graver objection that there is really no essential difference whatever between the comedies performed at Athens during the reign of Philip and those performed there in the time of Alexander. The Orge of Menander, produced in the year after the death of the latter monarch, might have been produced, as far as one can judge of its character by its remains, in any year of the previous fifty. At the same time, however, it is certain that a division of comedy into three classes rather than two is necessary; for that the work of, say, Apollodorus Carystius, differs as much from that of Antiphanes as anything the latter ever wrote does from the work of EupoL's, is a fact that no one acquainted with the subject is likely to question. The only satisfactory system of classification is that based, not on style or chronology, but on subject. Greek comedy falls naturally into three great divisions — the Political, the Social, and the Romantic,^ and, to come at once to the point, these three divisions are characterised by three distinct ways of regarding women. The Political Comedy practically ignores women altogether; the Social Comedy admits the fascination of woman's society as an incident in a man's life; the Romantic Comedy claims woman's love as the one topic of absorbing interest for men. ^ Of the sense in which the unfortunate word "romantic" has to be understood we have already spoken elsewhere, [p. 2.] Women in Greek Comedy, 119 And here it may at once be observed that the relation between the first two forms of art is some- what different from that which exists between them and the last. The Social Comedy was the natural and logical development of the original primitive comedy, and the Comedy of Cratinus, with its political motive, was but a temporary branch of the art, which, though growing at one time to such striking proportions as well nigh to conceal the parent stem, yet never actually prevented the growth and development of the latter. The Romantic Comedy, on the other hand, was the result, not of development, but of revolution. It was a deliberate attempt (undertaken in the first instance, it would seem, by a single man of genius) to inoculate the old Athenian drama with those romantic ideas which were by -this time beginning to be freely expressed in various other parts of Greece, and to combine the teaching of the epic erotic legends, which were in essence ideal, with the realism of Social Comedy.^ This being the case, one would not unnaturally expect to find a more decided line of cleavage ^ It may be remarked in passing that this ideal character of the "New" Comedy is not, as a rule, sufficiently recognised. People speak as if they thought that the stories in Menander, for instance, represented the ordinary events of life at Athens at the end of the fourth century. It need hardly, perhaps, be remarked that it would be about as reasonable to endeavour to get an idea of the ordinary life of English people at the present day by studying an Adelphi melo- drama. As long as comedy at Athens confined itself to social satire, it is obvious that the social scenes it depicted must have been, even if somewhat burlesqued, yet, on the whole, true to life. When once it had abandoned this object, and began to aim at telling an exciting 120 Women in Greek Comedy. between the writers of the two last phases of Comedy than is apparent in the previous case. And this is unquestionably so. Throughout the fifth century we find political and social comedy flourishing side by side, the great mass of the comedians being equally at home in either branch of the art, while, towards the close of that century and at the beginning of the next, the boundary line between the writers of "Old" and "Middle" Comedy is notoriously a very faint one. At the end of the fourth century, on the other hand, the victory of the Romantic Comedy was rapid and well-nigh complete, while there is generally no difficulty in saying without hesitation to which of the two classes, the modern or the old- fashioned, any given play of the transition belonged.^ But while the most satisfactory classification of Greek Comedy is unquestionably one on the lines story, calculated to interest its audience in proportion to the strange- ness and novelty of its denouement^ it is equally obvious that it must very soon have been compelled to abandon the ordinary affairs of everyday life. In taking over the business of the Epic, Comedy took with it the license of that form of composition and of its offspring, Tragedy. While no one will deny that incidents like those described by Menander may have occasionally taken place at Athens in the fourth century, just as some of them might conceivably take place in England at the present day, there can be hardly any real doubt that the stories of romantic comedy were as little true to the ordinary life of the time they professed to depict, as, say, the novel of Xenophon was to the ordinary life of the Roman provinces under the Antonines. ^ It is true, of course, that the *' New" Comedy took over from its predecessor certain characters {e.g. the parasite or the cook) and certain other features, practically unchanged ; but all this was confined to minor points of detail, and any similarity between the two forms of art which such transference of ready-made specialites may cause is a purely super- ficial one. The main subject of romantic comedy, and the treatment there of that main subject, are entirely distinct from everything that had gone before. Women in Greek Comedy, 121 suggested above, the ordinary division into Old, Middle, and New Comedy, is so generally recog- nised that it has seemed to me inadvisable to ignore it altogether, and so these terms will be found occurring repeatedly in the following pages. To avoid the possibility of any misunderstanding, however, it may be remarked that the term, '*New Comedy," will always be used in the sense of romantic comedy. The term, " Middle Comedy," will be used in its ordinary sense, except that it will be extended to cover all works, irrespective of author, which are akin to the school of Anti- phanes and Eubulus. The unsatisfactory term, *' Old Comedy," will only be used in those passages where the context renders its meaning unmistakable. II. The Origin of Comedy. Comedy was, in its origin, as seems indeed necessary from its nature, social rather than political. The scenes which the first comic actors aimed at depicting appear, beyond doubt, to have been representations of amusing incidents in the everyday life of ordinary people, and were in no way concerned with state policy ; while the per- sonalities with which this form of entertainment originally abounded, were aimed rather at rival actors than at well-known public characters, and had nothing at all in common with political lampoons. It is true that Comedy generally received its chief impulses at times of great popular license under 122 Women in Greek Comedy, democracies/ but this fact really means no more than that, at such periods, the amusements of the people received greater attention than would be the case under a tyranny or an oligarchy. No doubt these extempore slanging- matches became, at an early time already, very general in character, and contained, among other promiscuous allusions, occa- sional references, probably none too complimentary, to important contemporary events or personages ; but that this was not their main feature, nor that which supplied their chief interest, seems shown, inter alia, by the fact that the first artistic develop- ment they received at the hands of Epicharmus was by no means in this direction. Nor, indeed, do the earliest Attic comedies appear to have been political in character, the few fragments of them which sur- vive seeming, in every case, to deal with social subjects.^ The first writer to make Comedy political — that is, the first writer to %\\i^ to the " Old " Comedy of ^ Thus the Megarian Comedy dates from the expulsion of Theagenes (Arist. Poet, iii. 5), while the Athenian reappears, after a silence of some 70 years, on the expulsion of Hippias. 2 The titles of the plays attributed to Chionides do not in themselves contradict this view. The Heroes describes life as it would be in a state engaged in war, but there is no reason to believe that the play discussed any real phase of any contemporary war. The Persae, too, to judge by its second title of Assyrii^ was devoted rather to ridiculing Persian customs than to dealing with the Persian War. In like manner the Lydi of Magnes introduced the Lydian dances to Athens (cp. Hesych. Xvdi^cjv, xopei^o;!', dia roi/s Avdovs sc. 'KayvqTos), while the Barbatistae appears to have been equally aimed at the aesthetic tastes of some part of the community. Titles again, like Ornithes, Batrachi^ and PseneSj give no suggestion of political motives, any more than does the Satyri of Ecphantides. Women in Greek Comedy, 123 Athens that which is, by modern readers, generally regarded as its most essential characteristic — was Cratinus. He, abandoning in great part that en- deavour to amuse which had been the primary object of his predecessors, deliberately made use of Comedy as a political party engine, or, as he would perhaps have preferred to call it, as a means of attacking those who did harm to the state. ^ The success of the new element thus imported seems to have been very great; but, at the same time, it must not be supposed that the work of Cratinus was all of this nature. In the first place, some of his plays were of a distinctly general character. Thus the Odysses was a simple parody of the Odyssey of Homer, and, as such, was the distinct forerunner of a class of piece very common in the Social Comedy of the fourth century. 2 The Cleobulinaey with its enigmas, is equally suggestive of another feature of the same period of art. In like manner, the Panoptae^ with its attacks on the philosopher Hippo, the Seriphii, with its mythological allusions, and the Horae, with its apparent discussions of tragedy, all point to the ^ ry x'^P^^^'^^ '^V^ Kiofiipdias rb (hcpiXifiou irpoaidrjKe toi)s /ca/cws irpdr- Tovras dLa^dWciiv Kal cbairep drjfioalg, jubdarLyL rrj KUifiipdig. ixacrrl^oiv (Anon, de Com. p. 32). ov yoLp Clxrirep 6 ' Apta-Tocpdvrjs iirt.Tp^x^'-^ '^^^ Xdpiv TOLS (TKdojUL/uLao-L TTOLel . . . dX\* dTrXws /cat /card. tt]v irapoifjulav yvfivy K€Js ^ai^pas ^vvWrjKa j the answer comes back : fia At', aAA' ovT^ ' dAA' airoKpVTrT^iv yjprj to Trovrjpov rov ye TTOLrjTrjv. The treatment of erotic subjects in a realistic manner is not the business of a true poet ! V. The Cocalus. With this before one, it would seem hardly neces- sary to say anything further about the erotic element in Aristophanes. There is, however, one play of his 136 Women in Greek Comedy. — the last, or last but one, that he wrote — which seems at first sight to differ so entirely in spirit from the rest, that it is well worthy of separate notice. This play is the Cocalus, a work of which it is distinctly stated by ancient authorities that it an- ticipated one of the most characteristic features of romantic comedy — nay more, that it actually served as the model for Menander and Philemon. Thus, in the Vita Aristophanis, p. xxxviii., it is said : eyevero Se KOI aiTiog ^7]Xou Toig veoi^ KcojuLiKOif^y Xeyco Srj ^CKrjiJLovi Kai M.€vavSp(p . . . €ypa\[re KwicaXoi/, iv 5 ela-ayei cf)Oopav Kai avayvoopLCjULOv Kal raWa iravra a e^riXcoare MivavSpo^, and again, p. xxxv. : tt/owto? ^e koi t^9 veag K0t)IUi(f)Sta9 TOP TpOTTOV CTTeSeL^eV €V T(f Kft)/CaXft), €^ ov Ttjv ap^v Xa/SojuevoL MevavSpo^ re Kal ^lXyjijloov eSpa- jmarovpyrjcrav. Of these statements, the one part, startling as it is, must presumably be accepted without question. In the face of such definite evidence, it would be rash to attempt to deny that one of the features of Aristophanes' play was (pOopa Kai avayvoopca-jULog—a, feature which is, as is well known, not only one of the commonest in romantic comedy, but also pecu- liarly characteristic of the love-element as there treated. The sort of story of which we are speaking is sufficiently familiar to every reader of Terence. A man seduces a girl, either without knowing at all who she is, or else under the impression that she is a foreigner or a slave. Afterwards she is proved to be an Athenian citizen, and he, being still in love, marries her, with the double object of Women in Greek Comedy. 137 atoning for his fault and of continuing his amour on a legitimate basis. ^ But here a question arises. Granted that Aris- tophanes anticipated one of the most characteristic situations of the romantic comedy, in how far, if at all, did he anticipate the romantic treatment of that situation, such as we subsequently find it ? Aristophanes, as we have seen, has the first part of the romantic love-story in his Cocalus ; is it probable that he also had the second ? He has the seduction and the recognition ; is it probable that he had also the amende honorable prompted by feelings of respect and devotion ? And, as a natural pendant to this, is it probable that the Cocalus was really, as asserted, the model after which the later romantic comedy was formed ? It is not probable. No one who knows the works of Aristophanes, and considers the character of the Athenians of his day, would expect such a thing; and, apart from this inherent improbability, there are various reasons which seem to suggest that the second part of the anonymous grammarian's state- ment was based upon a misconception. But, before discussing any of these points, it will be necessary to investigate, as far as possible, the exact nature of this play of Aristophanes, for which so much is claimed. ^ It is worth noticing that, while a man who seduced an Athenian citizen seems to have been legally bound to marry her, and there- fore, to a certain extent, there was no great virtue in his action if he did so, at the same time this legal necessity was never, so far as we know, in any way urged in any play of the New Comedy. The point will be more fully discussed when we come to this part of our subject. [See p. 169.] 138 Women in Greek Comedy, An examination of the actual remains of the Cocalus will not afford very much information, for the fragments preserved are few and unimportant, while the mercurial nature of Aristophanes' plots, as we know them from existing plays, makes it obviously hazardous to venture conjectures as to what they may or may not have included. Certain facts, however, seem sufficiently clear. For one thing, the play was based, at any rate originally and ostensibly, on the legendary history of Cocalus, Daedalus, and Minos. This history was, briefly, as follows : — Daedalus, after his flight from Crete, took refuge with Cocalus, king of Sicily, and rose to high favour at his court. When Minos, having learnt his where- abouts, demanded his surrender, Cocalus at first seemed willing to comply, and invited Minos to his palace. The latter, suspecting nothing, accepted the invitation, and was at once murdered in his bath, either by Cocalus himself or by his daughters.^ ^ Minos, quod Daedali opera multa sibi incommoda acciderunt, in Siciliam est eum persecutus petiitque a rege Cocalo ut sibi redderetur. cai cum Cocalus promisisset et Daedalus rescisset, ab regis filiabus auxilium petiit. illae jVIinoem occiderunt. Hygin. Fab, 44. Mt;/ajs 5^, 6 rdv KpTjrujv ^aaCKevs, daKarTOKparQv Kar iKeivovs toi)s Xpovovs Kai TTvOojJLevos rrjp AaiddXov (f>vyT)v els "ZiLKeXiav, ^yv(a Qopa kol avayvcopia-juLo^ can be brought into the story. It is, perhaps, justifi- able to assume that the hero of the amour was Daedalus, and that the lady was subsequently recog- nised as a daughter of Cocalus ; but how this all came about, it is well-nigh impossible to say. In some of the fragments we are apparently introduced to a regular Hetaera (e.^. 2, 10; and, perhaps, 6, 7)-; in another, however {Fr, 3), a woman seems vigorously repudiating some slur cast on her character. It cannot, of course, be proved that the plot^ was not shell, being convinced that no one but Daedalus would be able to do such a thing. When he comes to Sicily, Cocalus, in order to gain the reward, gives the shell to Daedalus, who bores a hole at the end, ties the linen thread to an ant, and so does what is required. Xa^oju d^ 6 Mivcos Tov \ivov dceipfjiivov iQcdero elvat Trap' iKeivip rbv AaidaXov Kal eiudicjs diryreL. Kw/caXos 5^, viroax'^fJ'^vos dwaeiVj i^evKiev aur6i'. 6 bk \ovbfievos virb tCov KiaKdXov dvyar^pwv dvrjpeOr} ^iovaav irlaffav i-mxeafjieyojjf avT<^. — This is the version of the story followed by Sophocles in the Camici. (Cp. Fr. 301, 302.) It is worth noticing that Daedalus, according to Diodorus, iv. 78, made a cave at Selinus, in which patients were treated by being sub- jected to a gradually-increasing temperature, {rpirov bk crir'/iXaLov /card T7)v lieXLvovvTLav x'^P^^ KareaKe^aarePf iv (^ ttjv aTfiida tov /car' avrrjjf TTvpbs ovTCJs evarbx^s i^iXa^ev ibare did ttju jULaXaKorrjTa ttjs depjjLacrias i^ibpodv XeXrjOoTcos, Kal Kara [iiKpbv to^s ivbiaTpl^ovras fierd ripxl/ecas Oepaweijeiv rd crc6/>tara, /jl7]5^v irapevoxXovixhovs virb ttjs depfibTrjTOS.) It is, perhaps, not impossible that Aristophanes may have described Minos' death as occurring in this cave. ^ By the word "plot" as here used, must of course be understood merely the erotic incident. That the action was not confined to one subject of this kind is obvious to every reader of Aristophanes. Whatever may have been the treatment of the erotic element, there can be practically no doubt that this element was only one, perhaps not the most important one, among the many that went to make up the play. 140 Women in Greek Comedy, one of the regular New Comedy kind : The daughter of Cocalus, being stolen as a child, became the property of a leno, and was thus brought in contact with Daedalus, &c. But it seems to me much more probable that the structure of the story was some- what of the following kind. The daughter of Cocalus is violated by Daedalus on the occasion of a nocturnal orgy, without being recognised by her lover. She, however, is aware of his identity, and consequently, when the time comes, murders Minos, an event which necessitates explanations (the avayvcopio-iJio^ of the grammarian).^ One thing there is to be said in favour of this scheme of reconstruction, though, of course, when the evidence is so slight, it is impossible to feel anything like confidence with regard to this or any other suggestion. If this view be adopted, Aristophanes may be assumed to have chosen his story with the object of satirising the Panny chides and other similar orgies, which were always a favourite subject of attack with him, and which he had already abused in the HoraeJ^ the Lemniae, and, perhaps, elsewhere. But, be this as it may, one thing is plain. There is nothing, either in the story of the Cocalus or in its treatment, as far as the fragments allow one to ^ Fr, 4 seems to suggest that there may have been a regular trial instituted, as in the Vespae (cp. Vesp. 807 seqq. with Cocal. Fr. 12), at which Daedalus was accused of complicity in the murder, and his services to Cocalus as a builder {Fr, 5 ; cp. Diodorus, iv. 78) urged on his behalf. This trial may well have had features in common with the last scene in Euripides' Andromeda. * The fact that this play led to the abandonment of certain nocturnal orgies is, of course, no proof that such habits altogether ceased, even for a time ; indeed, it is notorious that they did not. Women in Greek Comedy, 141 judge of this, which has any real sympathy with that later feeling which inspires the romantic comedy. For one thing, the erotic incident, such as it is, belongs entirely to that primitive class in which the action is all on the side of the woman. The daughter of Cocalus saving her lover is but a reflection of Medea or Ariadne. In the later romantic comedy, on the other hand, the action is regularly on the side of the man ; for, as is well known, the attempts of the lover to outwit his father or the leno supply pretty well the whole stock of the incidents of New Comedy. Again, there is no suggestion whatever, as far as one can judge, of any marriage by way of reparation, or, indeed, of any marriage at all ;^ and marriage, as we shall see very clearly later on, is the fundamental principle of Greek romance. Again, there is no suggestion — and this is still more important — that the love of Daedalus was described as more than a mere temporary emotion ; and here is another ^ Even if it could be proved that the play ended with a wedding — such endings are, as we have seen, not uncommon in Aristophanes — and that this is what the grammarian means by his raXXa iravro. & i^riK(jjp(j)v y dX7]0{os. k.t.A. \_Fr. 2.] But the clearest proof of all is that furnished by the fact that Plato himself, and Sappho, whose style of love was, as we have already had occasion to observe, ^ recognised as similar in spirit to that ^ Alexis himself says this, in almost as many words, in the passage quoted below, p. 163. ^ Supra, p. 85. Women in Greek Comedy, i6i advocated by the philosopher, are, perhaps, the two favourite butts for the wit of the Middle Comedy. That the Plato of Aristophon, like the Hedychares of Theopompus, of which we have already spoken, and the Sapphos of Antiphanes, Amphis, Ephippus, and Timocles, were, at least some of them, in part devoted to this subject, it seems only reasonable to believe, while sporadic allusions to the matter are, of course, sufficiently common. The one possible exception to this general rule appears in the Helene of Alexis, where a character is introduced upholding the Platonic view of love ; but it would be bold, in the face of so much evidence on the other side, to assert that this isolated statement in any way indi- cates the general tone of the comedy in question. It is far more likely that the champion of these views (perhaps Theseus^) was made to see the error of his ways and repent his lost opportunities before the play was out. And akin in spirit to the above is the tendency, so common that it hardly needs special illustration, to throw ridicule on the married state and on family life in general.^ When the man, who is called the ^ The ''Platonic" nature of Theseus* admiration for the unde- veloped charms of Helen is a well-known feature of the legend. A comparison with Aristoph. Thesmoph. B^ Fr. 26, seems to suggest a further reason why Theseus should have been introduced as a mock "Platonic" lover. Cp. Phot. s.v. KvtroXdKccv. t6 d^ ro7s TraidiKOLS XPV<^OaL XaKcavi^eLv ^eyov. ''EXiprj (so Ruhnken for MeXaipr}) yap QrjcreifS oijTOJS ixpi^crcLTO. ^ In this connection we may remark that the tendency of the mytho- logical stories commonly parodied by Middle Comedy was also almost entirely in this direction. The Zei/s f^oix^s with whom the Athenian audience of the day was so familiar, was hardly the type of character to inspire respect for married life. How different was the New Comedy treatment of the adulterer, we shall see further on. M i62 Women in Greek Comedy, originator of the erotic element in Middle Comedy, can write words like these : 6(rTiS yafxeiv ^ovXever, ov fSovXeverai opOojSy Slotl fSovXeveTat xovto) ya/xet, (Anaxandrides, Incert. i.) and mean them, there can be little doubt as to the tendency of that erotic element which he was the first to introduce. In fact, not only is marriage a favourite subject of ridicule, but it is one on which the writers of this period make some of their happiest remarks. There are few things in Antiphanes as good as the passage in the Philopator, where one man, meeting another, enquires after a friend, and hears that he has got married. Tt (TV Xeyeus ; he exclaims in horror. dXrjOivios yeydiJLrjKev, ov eyo) ^(ovra TrepiiraTOvvra re KareXiTrov ; Alexis is seldom as amusing as when he proclaims {Incert, 34) marriage worse than disfranchisement. cfr o-u^t KpeiTTov ecrrt ro) y €)(^ovtl vow drifjiov eivai {JidXXov yj yvvauK €)(€iv ; TToAAw ye' Tovs /xev yovv drcfJiovs ovk ea dp)(rjv Aa^ovras 6 vofios dp^eiv twv TreAas* lirav Se 7>J/^2?^> ^^^^ o'avrov Kvpiov l^ccrrtv cti/at. Such, then, is the erotic element of the Middle Comedy — the praise of sensuality and the ridicule of all that is ennobling or virtuous. Alexis tells us all when he says : Women in Greek Comedy, 163 ras T^Sovas Set crvAAeyetv rbi/ crw^pova. T/oets S' ctcrtv at ye t>)v Svva/xtv K€KTrjfi€vaL Tr)v u)s dkr)Oo)S (TVVT€Xov(Tav rw /^tw, TO TTtetv, TO (^ayetv, to ttJs 'A(f>po8LTrjs rvyxavetv, TOL 8' aAAa TrpocOriKas awavTa \prj KaXetv. {Incert, 31.) Processit Vesper Olympo, It was time the Mace- donian barbarians swept all this away and made place for cleaner things. ^ VIII. The New Comedy. The feeling on passing from the Middle to the New Comedy is like the fresh air on coming out of the bar of a public-house. The Middle Comedy is the last decaying branch of the old literature ; the romantic New Comedy is one of the earliest and most vigorous offshoots of that new literature which sprang from the genius of Antimachus, and has continued to the present day. In the Middle Comedy, we are still face to face with the women of typical Athens, with the women of Aristophanes, at best with the women of Euripides, — and with the way in which typical Athens treated these women ; in the New Comedy this is changed, and woman — the woman that can be loved as wife and mother — steps into her true place as object of, and partner in, the intensest and the purest passions of which humanity is capable. It will be remembered that the Middle Comedy treatment, of women and love for women, had four main characteristics. ^ Another phase of the Middle Comedy treatment of women, the discussion of which here would lead us too far away from our immediate subject, will be considered in Excursus I. 164 Women in Greek Comedy, (i) The glorification of the Hetaera and of love for the Hetaera. (2) The purely sensual nature of the love thus extolled. (3) The ridicule of all love that was not sensual. (4) The ridicule of family-life. The New Comedy flatly contradicts every one of these principles. The love of which it treats is love for a virgin} and the consummation of this love is marriage. Such love is by no means purely sensual ; indeed, at times it is almost of a ** Platonic" character. And lastly, not only is the sanctity of marriage strictly insisted upon, and the advantages of marriage as a system strongly maintained, but the family relations, anyhow among the younger generation, are often of a very pleasant character. In fact, while the action of the Middle Comedy is concerned with a love, the consummation of which is a temporary sensual gratification, the action of the New Comedy is supplied by the efi'orts of its heroes and their adherents, to secure that the love which occupies so much of their thoughts may be made at once legitimate and permanent. It was New Comedy that first introduced on the stage the love of a life, as opposed to the love of an hour. If anyone were to ask what was the chief merit of Menander, the answer would be that he was the first to show the Athenians that " love for ever," ^ That the \pevdoK6pr], as the Athenian stage-managers rather quaintly called her — a class of character sufficiently common, it must be ad- mitted — differs loto caelo from the regular Hetaera, is almost too obvious to need mention. Women in Greek Comedy. 165 with which every poetaster and novel-reader has now been familiar for so many centuries. But the differences between the treatment of women in the new literature, and that to which they were exposed in the literature we have just been studying, will be most readily made clear if we proceed at once to the detailed examination of the former. The first and most prominent feature of the New Comedy treatment of the love of men for women is its insistance on marriage — that is to say, on a definite guarantee of permanence and constancy — as the one proper consummation of such love. In fact, as we have already had occasion to observe in another place, the idealisation of marriage is the basis of Greek romance.^ This insistance on marriage is, of course, most strikingly exemplified in the typical New Comedy plot, which is sufficiently familiar to every student of the Latin comedians. Thus, in five of these Latin plays, the Heanton Timorumenos (of Menander), the Phormio (of Apollodorus), the Rudens (of Diphilus), the Curculio, and the Poemdus^ the story is of exactly the kind that subsequently appears in the Greek novel — a young man falls in love with a virgin, and, after various misfortunes which threaten to separate the pair, they are eventually married, and live happily ever afterwards. ^ Supra ^ p. 109. 2 Of the Casina, which would appear at first sight to belong to this class, we shall speak in another place. [The Excursus, dealing with this subject, seems not to have been written ; comp. Excursus K.] 1 66 Women in Greek Comedy, On this class of plot it is unnecessary to dwell, except that it may be worth while just to draw attention to the extremely passionate nature of the love which makes these young men so anxious to marry. The modern reader would instinctively expect that the confinement of love to these legitimate and, as one would now consider them, commonplace channels, would inevitably lead to a lessening of its charm, and a diminution of its force. As a matter of fact, the result was the very reverse. Not only has the character of man's love for woman changed, but this love has developed an intensity of poetry and passion which has never belonged to it before." Instances are easy to find ; the most striking one is perhaps shown us at the meeting of Phaedromus and Planesium, in the Curculio (i. 3) : Pl. tene me, amplectere ergo ! Ph. hoc etiam est quamobrem cupiam vivere. quia te prohibet herus, clam hero potior. PL. prohibet, nee prohibere quit, nee prohibebit, nisi mors meum animum abs te abalien- averit. Ph. sibi sua habeant regna reges, sibi divitias divites, sibi honores sibi virtutes sibi pugnas sibi proelia ! dum mi abstineant invidere, sibi quisque habeant quod suum est ! ^ ^ It is hard for us, in our generation, to realise what the first dawn of pure love for women must have meant to the men who saw it. It needs a conscious effort of will to clean away from one's eyes and one's heart the dust of the centuries, and to look back clearly ; but if once the effort be successfully made, it is no longer hard to understand why, at the end of the fourth century, the pure girl was a more inspiring ideal than "the woman with a past," and why the Trapdivos could stir depths of passion that the iraipa had left untouched. ' These last lines are very suggestive of Theocr. viii. 53. It is worth noticing that in this play (v. 2, 72) the girl is specially asked whether she is wiUing to marry. Women in Greek Cornedy, 167 But there are others, almost equally forcible, in the Rudens (iv. 8) — where particular enthusiasm is expressed at the prospect of marriage, as opposed to the relation which had previously been the lover's highest possible ideal, — the Poeitulus (v. 4, 49)', and elsewhere. But another and equally important type of story IS that in which the man first seduces the woman, and then subsequently marries her. Plays of this description are the Andria, the Eunuchns, the Adelphi (all by Menander), the Aulularia, and the Cistellaria? Of these, the Cistellaria is different from the rest. Here, the girl Silenium, who, though supposed to be the daughter of a lena, has been brought up as a virgin (i. 3, 24), is induced by a promise of marriage to live with the man Alcesimarchus, a promise which is afterwards fulfilled only after a considerable delay, (i. I, 90-100.) In the other four cases, however — and this is very important — the promise of marriage is subsequent to the seduction, and takes the form, not of an inducement to, but of a reparation for the latter. The lover regards the seduction as a crime, for which he is willing to make amends to the utmost of his power, while at the same time he is anxious to perpetuate and legalise his amour. He therefore adopts what we are accustomed in modern times to call an "honourable course," and ^ " patrue mi, ita me di amabunt ut, ego si sim luppiter, iam hercle ego illanc uxorem ducam, et lunonem extnidam foras !" etc. '^ Probably by Menander. At any rate, CistelL i. I, 90 seqq, is a translation of Menand. Incert. 32. 1 68 Women in Greek Comedy, offers marriage to the woman whom he has loved and still loves. The importance of this feature is two- fold — firstly, the close association thus brought about between marriage and love of the most " romantic " and unconventional description ; and secondly, the perpetuation and legalisation of a form of love which is obviously by nature temporary and illegitimate. And thus the love-stories of the New Comedy may be said to begin where those of the Middle Comedy end ; while the heroes of the latter are concerned with achieving the temporary satisfaction of their sensual desires, the heroes of the former are occupied in striving to make permanent atonement for the indiscretions which such desires have led them to commit. To quote instances of what has been said: in the Andria the promise of marriage is distinctly an act of reparation, which the lover feels himself in duty bound to make. This is evident from the argument of Sulpicius Apollinaris,^ and from various passages in the play.^ The same is the case in the Adelphi? Here Aeschinus, as soon as he considers what he has done, comes to the mother of Pamphila, and begs with tears to be allowed to marry her by way of reparation.^ In the Aulularia^ the petition of Lyconides to the miser Euclio is animated by a very * " Glycerium vitiat Pamphilus, gravidaque facta dat fidem, uxorem sibi fore banc," etc. ' e,g. Ter. And. i. 5, 36 seqq.^ iv. 2, 11 seqq. * In tbe Adelphi of Menander, tbis feature was, in all probability, even more prominent than it is in Terence's contaminated version. * Ter. Adelph, iii. 2, 34 seqq. ; cp. iii. 4, 23 seqq. Women in Greek Comedy. 169 similar spirit.^ In the Eunuchus (which is, it must be remembered, the love-story of a boy of sixteen)^, there is no opportunity for any such behaviour on the part of Chaerea, though his sincere regret (ii. 3, 33 seqq?), and his enthusiasm when the possibility of marriage becomes apparent (v. 8, i seqq), show clearly enough that he is not intended to be an exception to the general rule. It must not, however, be supposed that the feeling, which prompts the various characters of whom we have spoken to make reparation for their wrong- doing, is merely a feeling of repentance, or a regard for public opinion. It is love, and love of a most passionate kind, that makes them so anxious to marry the women they have wronged. Of the enthusiasm of the hero of the Eunuchus at the prospect of marriage we have already spoken ; in the Adelphi, Aeschinus is equally elated under similar circumstances ;^ in the Aulularia, the anxiety and persistency of Lyconides are evidently inspired by the same feeling;^ in the Andria, Pamphilus protests that nothing short of death will divide him from Glycerium.^ That love which the Middle Comedy could not conceive of as outliving its sensual gratification, appears in the New Comedy, not weakened, but strengthened by time, and obstacles only serve to make the lover more deter- mined to perpetuate and to legalise those emotions ^ Plaut. Aulul. iv. 10. 2 Cp. Ter. Eun. iv. 4, 26. ^ Ter. Adelph. iv. 5, 62 seqq. ^ Cp. Plaut. Aulul. iv. 7 and 10; the conclusion of the play, in which the marriage of the hero was finally settled, is lost. ^ Ter. And. iv. 2, 14. I/O Women in Greek Comedy. which had, to a previous generation, owed their chief charm to their freedom from the restraints of con- stancy and propriety. In the Hecyra again, it is by marriage that, through a strange coincidence, the hero is eventually able to repair the wrong done to the heroine. In the Stichus, too, the plot turns on the constancy of two wives to their absent husbands,^ while, in the Trinummus, there seems strong reason to believe that it is not all love for Lesbonicus which makes Lysiteles so anxious to marry the former s sister.^ To this evidence from the plays themselves may be added some further evidence of a more general kind. Marriage is mentioned by the anonymous author of the epigram in the C. L G. 6083, as the most characteristic feature of Menander's plays — ^ai^pov eraipov ^'Eyowros 6/oas, (J€ipriva OedrpioVy TovSe MevavSpov, del Kpdra TrvAcafo/xevov, owck' dp' dvdpMTTOvs IXapov /Stov i^eStSa^ev, YjSvvas (TKrjvrjv dpdp.ao'L Tracrt ydpo). Still more emphatic is the testimony of Plutarch, who asserts {Sympos, vii. 712 C) that Menander is peculiarly suited for married men to hear and read — €;(et Se koX rd kpiariKa irap' avr(2 Kaipov TreTroiKoa-tv dvOpiowoLS KOL dva7rav(ra{X€voiOV(TL, K.T.A. Indeed, the essentially "proper" character of the Menandrean drama is emphasised by more than one ^ Here, too, there can be little doubt that in the original (the Phila- delphi of Menander), this erotic element was more prominent than it is in the Latin. ^ Qp^ Plaut. Trin, v. i, i seqq, ; 2, 64. Women in Greek Comedy, 171 ancient writer. That Comedy could be anything but indecent was a revelation to Athens of the fourth century, and it was a revelation for which she does not seem to have been particularly grateful ; but the fact that it was a writer whose works were fit **puens virginibusque legi," who revolutionized the dramatic art, is one that a modern student of that revolution cannot afford to forget.^ Two of the plays mentioned above, the Hecyra and the Stichus^ lead naturally to the consideration of another feature of the New Comedy treatment of marriage — a feature which, though less strongly marked than that of which we have just been speaking, is yet, if one considers what Greek feeling had previously been on this matter, perhaps even more remarkable. Not only is marriage held up as the lover's ideal, but the actual married state is described as a state of happiness, and married people, even those who have been married for some time, are introduced to us as strongly attached to one another. How complete a revolution in Greek feeling such a state as this implies, need hardly be emphasised.^ Yet, in the Stichus, we have a plot based on the determination of two women to remain faithful to their husbands (who have been absent for ^ Some further interesting evidence on this subject will be discussed later. [Cp. p. 189 ; but the reference seems to be to a part of the work which was not written.] 2 In Tragedy, of course, the faithful and loving wife was not so entirely unknown. The Athenian might accept an Alcestis, who lived in pre-historic and heroic times, though even here his natural tendency was to jeer (cp. Aristoph. Equit. 125 1) ; but, imagine such a character in Comedy, which was taken from real contemporary life ? The idea was preposterous. 172 Women in Greek Comedy, three years) in spite of the efforts of their father to induce them to do otherwise ; they insist on remain- ing faithful, though their husbands are poor (Plaut. Stick, i. 2, 75 seqq.)^ and though they are uncertain whether their devotion is returned (i. i, 36 seqq). In the Hecyra again, it is the behaviour of Philumena after marriage which wins her husband's heart (Ten Hec, i. 2, 85 seqq^ — a remarkably modern form of love-story. Various fragments, too, of Menander have a similar import, such as the famous passage from the Misogynes on the advantages of marriage — IXOovr^ €ts vocrov Tov €\ovTa ravrrjv WepdirevcTev CTrt/xeAw?, OLTv^ovvTL (Tv/jL7rap€fxeiV€v, oLTTodavovra T€ Waxpe^ 7r€pi€(rT€iXev otKetws. (jFr. I, 9.) or Menand. Incert. Ji, where the husband takes up the cudgels in his wife's behalf Incert. 10 1, again, dwells on the close relationship existing between man and wife — otKetov ovTCo? ov^kv ecrrtv, w K6.yy\% eav (TKOTTTj Tts, 0)5 avTjp re kol yvvrj, Incert. 100 points out that a wife must rule her husband by love — cV k(Tr^ dXrjOes \vapos. K.T.A Katpos €(rTLV rj vocros ipvxqs. (Menand. Incert, 14.) That is : Menander, a writer familiar with love in its most passionate forms (OLao-oortjv koI opyiacmjv), gives us a sober and serious view of the matter. After expressing his astonishment at the ways of lovers, he furnishes us with a realistic account of love as it actually is {wcrirep eo-TLv djuLa XaXec)^ and then proceeds to investigate its causes. For a moment he is puzzled, and questions with himself, but soon he finds the true answer. Kaipo^ Icttlv ri v6a-09 V^fx^9- Love is an affection of the soul as distinct from the body, and has only an accidental connection with the latter. ^ Equally forcible, though in another way, is a ^ This doubtless refers to some lines, now lost, which preceded the passage subsequently quoted. 2 This is, of course, nothing but a versified version of the doctrine of the Stoic, Euclides. Cp. Diog. Laert. ii. 108. Women in Greek Co7nedy, 185 passage from the Poemdus. The lover and his slave are watching the two girls, and the slave expresses his utter contempt for his master's '' Platonic " affection, to which the latter answers that he loves Adelphasium as he loves the gods.^ Another case is in the Curculio, where the love of Phaedromus for Planesium is fed on nothing more substantial than kisses ; ^ another in the Hecyra, where it is distinctly pointed out that the love of Pamphilus for his wife is induced by other than sensual considerations.^ Other instances, of more or less significance, every reader of the Latin comedians will be able to supply for himself; and it is further worth observing that when a New Comedy character, as occasionally does happen, is made to speak slightingly of " Platonic " love, such a character is always a slave, never a person of refinement.^ To proceed to the final point of essential difference between Middle and New Comedy, it will be re- membered that, in the former class of literature, family life and the mutual relations of members of a family were among the stock subjects of ridicule, and that no remarks expressive of any other views on this matter are to be found there, ^ Mi. etiamne (a me didicisti) ut ames earn, quam nusquam tetigeris? nihil illuc quidem est. Ag. deos quoque edepol et amo et metuo, quibus tamen abstineo manus. (i. 2, 69. ) A remark in v. 4, 49, is similar in spirit. ^ Plaut. Cure. i. i, 50 seqq. Further moralisings on the power of a kiss (which almost suggest Daphnis in Longus' Pastor alia^ i. 18) occur in Menand. Incert. 7. 3 Ter. Ilec, i. 2, 60 seqq, ; 85 seqq. ^ e.g. the **Geta" in Menander's Misumenus, Milphio in the Poenulus of Plautus, &c. 1 86 Women in Greek Comedy, at any rate before a very late period.^ Family life, as depicted in the New Comedy, is by no means ideal ; indeed, as we have already had occasion to remark, the unhappy relations between husband and elderly wife are, under certain circumstances, a favourite subject of ridicule, even with Menander.^ But yet instances to the contrary are to be found, and are, in fact, by no means very uncommon. Not to speak of the cases of devotion of wife to husband and husband to wife — such as those in the Stichus, &€., already sufficiently discussed^ — the relations between father and children, and, still more, mother and children,^ are often described as of the most delightful character. Of the former, there are interesting examples in Menand. Incert. 59 : ato-;(Wo/xat rov 7raT€pa^ KAetroc/xSi/, [jlovov. avTif^Xeweiv eKelvov ov SvvT^o-o/xat dStKwv* TO, S' aAAa paStios x^t^wo-o/xat. Incert 108 : 6 CTKkrjpOTaTOS TTpOS vloV €V TO) V0v6€T€lV TOLS /xev Xoyois iriKpos ecrrt, rots 8' epyois Trarrjp. Incert, 113 : firjSei/ 68vva rov irarepa, yiyvcxXTKayv on 6 fieyLCTTOv dyaTTLJV St' eAa^^tcrr' opyL^erai, Incert, 117: ovScttot' a\y]B\% ov^\v ovO' vl<^ iraTrjp €L(i)6^ oLTreLXelv, ovt epiov ipuyfjievrj.^ ^ Such a passage as Alexis, Incert, 35, would belong to this date. It is very different to the ribald remarks in the Philometor of Antiphanes. ^ Cp. supra, p. 173. 3 ji,i(i^ ^ lyi * The "mater indulgens" is mentioned in Apuleius, Florid. 16, as one of the stock characters in Philemon. ^ Menand. Incert, 109, 114, 115, are all equally to the point. Women in Greek Comedy, 187 The charming interview between the father and his two daughters in the Stichus (i. 2, 32 seqq), is a further, equally striking instance. Of the latter relation, that between mother and children, there is a good instance in this same play (i. 2, 51), where, after the father has propounded his intention of marrying again, his daughter reminds him that it will be hard for him to find a second wife like his first. An. pel ego uxorem quaere, postquam vostra mater mortua est. Pa. facile invenies et peiorem et peius moratam, pater, quam ilia fuit ; meliorem neque tu reperies neque sol videt. A still more striking case is that in the Hecyra, where the mother of Pamphilus, thinking that it is her presence which renders it impossible for her son's wife to live with him, resolves to sacrifice herself, and go into voluntary exile into the country.^ The same idea, though less pleasantly expressed, is apparent in Syrus' remark in the Heauton Timoru- menus (v. 2, 38) : matres omnes filiis in peccato adiutrices, auxilio in paterna iniuria. But it is needless to multiply instances of a state of affairs with which every attentive reader of Plautus and Terence must be sufficiently familiar. ^ ^ Vide Ter. Hec. iv. 2, i seqq,, a. passage of great interest. ^ Some further remarks on the family relations in New Comedy will be found in Excursus K. [Frequent reference is made in these pages to Plautus and Terence, as illustrating the New Comedy. The justification of such reference was to have been dealt with in an Excursus. The author was of opinion that the Latin comedians might be cited to illustrate plot and subject, though we could not be certain that the actual words or expressions in any given passage were due to Greek originals.] Women in Gi'eek Comedy, IX. The Origins of the Romantic Comedy. The above investigation into the nature of New Comedy, and into the points of difference between it and the earlier literature, leads naturally to the consideration of a further and final question — that of the origin of these differences which are so strikingly apparent. We have seen that the romantic New Comedy differs entirely in its treatment of women from every form of dramatic art which had preceded it.^ In fact, we have seen that, while the Middle Comedy belongs still entirely to the first or classical period of Greek literature, the New Comedy, with its striking romantic features, belongs essentially to that second period, which it is usual to call the Alexandrian, and forms, indeed, one of the depart- ments of literature in which the romantic tendencies of that period can be studied to the best advantage. What we have to consider is therefore this : How did Athenian Comedy acquire these romantic features which are so conspicuously absent from its earlier phases } when did it acquire them } and to whom was the acquisition due } The last of these three questions may be best considered first. There seems every reason to believe that this introduction of the romantic element was due to Menander rather than to Philemon.^ There ^ That there was no romantic element in Greek tragedy has already been shown at length. [See above, pp. 37-67.] ^ The claims of Diphilus need not be considered. His leanings towards Middle Comedy are generally admitted; in his fragments Women in Greek Comedy. 189 can be no question that of the two writers, Philemon is the less distinctively romantic. Of the typical New Comedy love-stories preserved in Plautus and Terence, not one professes to be derived from him. The allusions to women altogether are proportion- ately much fewer in his fragments than in those of Menander ; while a large proportion, again, of such allusions as there are, are either references to Hetaerae, or else belong to the old-fashioned miso- gyny of Middle Comedy. The detailed examination of his style of art, which occurs m the Florida of Apuleius, is altogether strongly suggestive of Middle Comedy;^ indeed, Apuleius actually describes him as "mediae comoediae scriptor." It is further to be remarked that the number of coarse allusions to women is proportionately far greater in Philemon than in Menander. Indeed, the whole study of Philemon's treatment of women leaves one with the impression, not only that he was at heart a follower of the old school, but that even when he did for there is no suggestion of any romantic treatment of women. In fact, the only real reason for assigning him to New Comedy at all is, perhaps, the story of the Rudens^ which, Arcturus states in the Pro- logue, is derived from this writer. Of the Casina we shall speak elsewhere. [See page 165, note 2.] ^ Poeta fuit hie Philemon, mediae comoediae scriptor\ fabulas cum Menandro in scenam dictavit, certavitque cum eo, fortasse impar, certe aemulus. namque eum etiam vicisse saepenumero, pudet dicere. reperias tamen apud ipsum multos sales, argumenta lepide inflexa, agnatos lucide explicatos, personas rebus competentes, sententias vitae congruentes, ioca non infra soccum, seria non usque ad cothurnum. rarae apud ilium cor7'uptelae, et, uti errores, concessi amores. nee eo minus et leno periurus et amator fervidus et servulus callidus et arnica illudens et uxor inhibens et mater indulgens et patruus obiur- gator et sodalis opitulator et miles proeliator ; sed et parasiti edaces et parentes tenaces et meretrices procaces. Apul. Flor, 16. 1 90 Women in Greek Comedy, any reason adopt the romantic principle, he developed this principle from a more sensual point of view than Menander. That this tendency to coarseness is in sympathy with the earlier spirit of Athenian comedy, but is entirely foreign to its romantic development, need hardly be emphasised, after all that has already been said on the subject. And it may not be altogether beside the question here, to call atten- tion to Philemon's invariable pessimism — pessimism most characteristic of a conservative mind in an age of progress, but hardly consistent with such qualities as would be required of the originator of a great artistic and social revolution.^ Furthermore, Philemon is regularly spoken of as the rival of Menander ;2 the reverse is never the case, notwithstanding the fact that the relative ages of the two playwrights would have made the latter the more natural way of putting the case. Again, the much greater success of Phile- mon at the time, notwithstanding the well-nigh unanimous contrary verdict of subsequent ages,^ seems to show clearly that he was the more old- fashioned of the two ; for, as is well known, originality is seldom very welcome on the stage. And lastly, the very large proportion of Philemon's works which appear to have belonged to Middle Comedy pure and simple — a point which will be further discussed directly — seems to be further evidence that this was ^ A curious instance of this feeling is his often -ex pressed opinion that animals are happier than men. Cp. Incert. 3, 4, 8, etc. ^ Cp. inter alia Apul. Flor. 16. 3 Among many expressions to this effect, we need only mention that of Quintilian : atque ille quidem {sc. Menander) omnibus eiusdem operis auctoribus abstulit nomen et fulgore quodam suae claritatis tenebras obduxit. Inst, x. i, 72. Women in Greek Comedy. 191 his natural metier, and that it was only a spirit of rivalry with Menander which made him turn his attention to a style of art with which he had no real sympathy.^ As for the Hypobolimaeus, that proves nothing, for there is no evidence whatever by which to fix the date of this resuscitation of the Cocalus of Aristophanes ; indeed, if anything, it rather suggests that Philemon found such subjects so little congenial, that he had to borrow his materials, in- stead of being able to produce them himself All this, it may be argued, proves little as to the claims of Menander over Philemon. Indeed, it may even be urged that the very fact that Philemon is the less distinctively romantic of the two, renders it probable that the first introduction of the romantic element was due to him. But such an argument, though at first sight plausible enough, rests on an imperfect comprehension of the real nature of the romantic principle in Greek comedy. Were this principle a direct development of tendencies charac- teristic of the earlier phases of the literature, it would doubtless be right to assume that its first appearance in any tangible shape would be of an unemphatic and tentative kind ; but the romantic principle is no ^ To take an instance from modern times. M. Daudet is said to have written his Sappho with the expressed object of showing that he, too, could produce a work which could not be left lying about. Similarly, M. Zola may be imagined to have produced La Rhje^ in order to prove that even he could be decent if he tried. But any attempt to judge of the general character of these authors by the two books mentioned would be obviously futile. In like manner, in the case of Philemon, one has to consider how much of the romantic element in his comedies is due to conviction, and how much to a desire to show that romantic love-stories were a game two could play at. 192 Women in Greek Comedy, such development of previous tendencies It is not a development, but a regeneration ; it is not a growth from within, but an annex from without. Whatever anyone may suppose to be the origin of the romantic element, no one with any acquaintance with the subject is likely to wish to maintain that the virgin- love of New Comedy is developed out of the Hetaera - worship of its predecessor on the stage. Indeed, there can be little doubt that, so far from New Comedy appealing to those tastes which Middle Comedy had fostered, its remarkable success was in great part due to a strong reaction against the latter. And thus there is every reason to believe that, when once the new emotion found expression on the stage, such expression was immediately clear and unmistakable ; and that therefore, in looking for the originator of the movement, one must look for that writer of the period whose works exhibit the romantic features most strongly and consistently, and must regard those other writers, in whom such features are less prominent, as more or less unwilling imitators. And if this be so, there can be little real doubt as to the validity of Menander's claim. The next question to be considered is — When was this introduction of the romantic element into Greek comedy first brought about } We know that Phile- mon began to exhibit in 330, and that the date of Menander's first play is 322 ; but these facts do not of themselves furnish any information as to the origin of New Comedy proper. For it is an unques- tionable fact, and one of the greatest importance m this connection, that both Philemon and Menander Wonen in Greek Comedy, 193 wrote plays which are not romantic, and which belong, therefore, to Middle, rather than to New Comedy. And on this fact hinges the whole ques- tion of the date of the introduction of the romantic element into Athenian Comedy. Of the ninet}^ - seven plays of Philemon, which Platonius states were in his time extant,^ hardly fifty titles are preserved, and of these, well-nigh a third obviously belong to what were evidently Middle Comedies.^ When we consider how ex- tremely probable it is that the majority of the plays now entirely lost belonged also to this class (for it is obvious that a later age would tend to preserve such plays as were in harmony with the romantic tastes then prevailing, rather than those that were not), it becomes clear that a very large proportion of the plays of Philemon were not New Comedies at all. With Menander the same is to a certain extent, though not in an equal degree, also true. Of about a hundred plays that he produced during the thirty-two years of his literary activity, while 1 Platon. de Com. p. 30. ad fin. The passage distinctly suggests that these ninety-seven plays were not all that Philemon actually wrote, crco^erai bk avrov {^cXrifiovos) dpafxara ewra irpbs ivevqKOVTa. M^vavdpos .... yiypa. 3 Cp. A7tth. Pal. xii. 46. — The fact that Asclepiades was tired of life at twenty-one is, of course, no proof that he died early. Many people, especially poets, who were very anxious for death in their youth, have developed a wonderfully tenacious hold upon life as they grew older. Women in Greek Comedy, 197 reverse, and that Menander suggested the romantic idea to Asclepiades; but this is improbable for two reasons. In the first place, Asclepiades is known to have been a student of Antimachus/ while Menander, as far as we know, was not ; in the second, though Asclepiades shows, as has been said, evident traces of the influence of comedy, such comedy is not New, but distinctly Middle Comedy, as is sufficiently plain from the drinking-scenes described in Anth. Pal, V. 181, 185, from the frequent, or rather, constant allusions to Hetaerae in his epigrams, and from the complete absence from them of those particular features of the romantic idea which Menander him- self developed. It is therefore well-nigh certain that, if there was influence from either side, — and, when one considers the close sympathy between the ideals of the two writers, the conclusion that there was some more than merely fortuitous affinity between them \s almost irresistible — such influence came from the side of the brilliant young Samian, who would thus deserve the credit of having originally inspired not merely the romantic epigram, but also the romantic drama.^ That this was actually so, no one can of course affirm ; but that it may have been, no one who is familiar with the "wild-flowers of Asclepiades " will be likely to deny. ^ Cp. Anth. Pal. ix. 63; supra, p. 113. ' The fact that Menander called one of his plays Samia, a title which had not been used since the time of Anaxand rides, is one of those interesting coincidences that prove nothing at all. EXCURSUS A. [P. 31.] THEOGNIS (261 seqq\ THE great difficulty in the way of a satisfactory reconstruction of this passage lies in the fact that it is not certain whether it is to be regarded as simply a description of an erotic incident, or whether it is a yplcpo^) in the latter and, perhaps, more probable case, it is impossible to emend with- out first finding the solution, and to guess a riddle without knowing what that riddle is, rather requires a Daniel or some similar commentator. It is not quite so impossible, however, to improve the passage if it IS looked upon as merely descriptive of an actual event, in which case the account of apparently similar scenes in the Romance of Eumathius may, perhaps, throw some light on the subject. In the scene depicted in Theognis, the ttq?? Tepeiva is fenced off from her lover, not only by an objectionable suitor, but also by the presence of her severe " water-drinking " parents. Under these circumstances, it does not seem very probable that the lover would (as the ordinary reading makes him do) throw his arms round her waist and kiss her on the neck ; such behaviour on his part (and its natural consequences) might, it is true, account for the abrupt termination of the poem, but still would 200 Excursus A, not be, as I have said, exactly probable, especially after he had been drinking only water. The scene actually described was, perhaps, rather somewhat of the following kind. When the time for drinking was come, the girl in question got up and went round, like the Hysmine of Eumathius, to hand the cup to the guests,^ going, however, first to her parents ; ^ as these were only drinking ^Irvyjiov, her office is contemptuously described as being that of a water-carrier. The last two lines I would then read : eV^a jJLecnfjv irepl TratSa Aa^wv ay/cwi/ ec^tA'^cra, SeiXrjv, rj Se repev cfiOeyyer' avts crro/xaTOS. I.e., as she came on her round to her lover, he put his arm on her waist and kissed her on the elbow; and she, though she said nothing with her lips, " her eyes were speaking." ^ Whether the actual words ought not to be still further emended, is questionable ; but, anyhow, the general sense thus given is a little more compli- mentary to Greek "company" manners. The chief objection to this interpretation is, of course, that it bestows on the epigram a decidedly erotic character, which is not elsewhere to be found in this book, and would certainly be an anachronism if the lines belong to the fifth century. ^ 'Ta/xivrj irapdhi^ ry dvyarpl 'Zwadivqs oivoxoetv iyKeXe^erai' i] 8^ dve^ibaaro top xirwi^a, iy^fivcoae tu) X^^P^ l^^XP'-^ ayKCovos k.t.X. Eumaih. i. 8. ^ ^TTie fJL^v odv 6 "Zujad^vTjs' ovk ^ireide yap fxe avTov wpoTrieTv. eZra Kal 7] ITa^^i'a [i] ttjs 'Tafjiivrjs fJL'fjrijp) avviirieV i/ak dk Tpirov eXx^v ij Tr6dL(etg, (3 TTat • lyu) 8' acKwv t-^s ctt}? (ptXoTyjros dpiapTiov^ dyvrjfxrjv epSwv old t' eXevOepos wv. (1. 1377) or of this : ov3apid cr' ov8' aTrtwv ^ Si^XYjCOfiaL^ ovSe /xe Trcicret oi;8ets dv0p(O7r(i}V ajcrre /ze /x?y o"€ povov&' €v8ov /xevet, '^ 8' otSev OTL rj TOi/s ; (TV ravTt irpocrSoK^s Trctcretv e/xe, 0)5 Icrr' epacrrrjs oo-rts, ojpacov c^tAwv, T/ooTTWv ipacrrrjs earn, tyjv oxj/iv Trapels ; ^ Cp. Xenarchus, PentathL i, where the same idea is developed. When one reads such lines as these, one is tempted to agree with Aristophon, that ** love had been exiled from heaven." {Pythag. Fr, 2.) Women in the Middle Comedy, 215 ad!