Chapter VI: Part 6

Again, there is the same appeal to the friend’s better feelings that we have noticed in Theocritus (1319 _seqq._), the same appeal to his care for his good name (1295 _seqq._), all marked, too, by the same consideration and courtesy (1235 _seqq._); there is the same exhortation to constancy, the same reproof of faithlessness (1257 _seqq._, &c.), the same warning, full of earnestness, but withal full of tenderness, as to the shortness of youth (1299 _seqq._, 1305 _seqq._).[360]

But it is needless to go further into detail. Enough has been said to show the general character of these poems, and anyone who reads them can easily supplement these instances with others. So, whatever value one may be inclined to assign to the evidence here adduced, it must, at least, be admitted that there is nothing in it which in any way contradicts anything that has gone before.[361]

EXCURSUS F.

[P. 106.]

_WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE COMEDY._

[NOTE.—A considerable part of the contents of this Excursus
(originally written for the first of the two Essays in this
volume) is repeated in the second Essay. The Excursus is
printed here without alteration, but it should be noted that
the author did not regard it as having attained its final form.]

The fragments of the Middle Comedy, belonging, as they do, to the earlier and middle part of the fourth century—that is, to the period of transition between the two great epochs of Greek literature—might have been expected to afford very valuable evidence as to the development of the romantic feeling. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case; indeed, the information to be gathered from them is, in this respect, of so little importance, that it is hardly worth considering at all.

Various explanations suggest themselves to account for this somewhat surprising fact. In the first place, the remains of the Middle Comedy are very small compared with the enormous original bulk of this literature, and, besides this, nearly all the more important fragments that we possess are derived from Athenaeus, who generally quotes them with a view to elucidating questions of cookery, or illustrating the habits of fishmongers. But the real cause of the absence from these fragments of all traces of a romantic element is probably a less fortuitous one, and is to be found in the nature of dramatic literature in general, and of comedy in particular. A play, to be successful, must be behind the times; if it treats its subjects in an enlightened manner, it will be above the level of the mass of its audience, and they will declare it dull, or ridiculous, or both.[362] Dramatic authors know this well enough, and, for the most part, carefully refrain from insulting the spectators by telling them anything new. The writers of the Middle Comedy were no exception to this rule; and so, while their plays dealt very extensively with women, and not unfrequently, it would seem, with love-stories of a sort, the treatment of these subjects was, out of deference to their public, far more antiquated and unsympathetic than one would have been inclined to expect from writers who were often well acquainted with the works of the most enlightened thinkers of the time. Thus, therefore, strange as it may at first sight appear, in all probability those fragments which have survived furnish, on the whole, a very good general idea of the relations between men and women, as depicted in the Middle Comedy; and there is in reality little reason to believe that, even if we possessed a far larger quantity of this literature, we should be able to learn much more about this particular subject. The romantic element is absent from these fragments because it was absent from the complete works to which they originally belonged.

The main features of the Middle Comedy treatment of erotic subjects (as illustrated by the fragments) are very plain. There is nowhere any trace of the romantic feeling; where “love” is praised or recommended, as is, of course, not unfrequently the case, what is understood thereby is always merely sensual gratification. Plato and “Platonic” love are stock subjects of ridicule. Marriage is invariably alluded to in terms of contempt and dislike, and the women introduced are almost always Hetaerae; but even these are hardly ever spoken of with any respect or affection, being generally described as vulgar, drunken, and stingy, and in some cases attacked with the most savage brutality. The effort which the women at Athens were making about this time to gain larger liberties, also comes in for its share of ridicule; and altogether, these comedies show a want of sympathy with every honourable ambition of the age, which throws a strange light on that cultured and artistic Athenian audience which one is generally taught to admire.

I have before me an analysis[363] of all the passages in which women are in any way referred to in this literature; but, as I have already remarked, the amount of information to be gained from them is not sufficient to warrant a lengthy discussion. A few specimens from the best-known writers will serve to illustrate what has been said, and will give a sufficiently clear idea of the nature of the rest.

ANAXANDRIDES is described by Suidas as having been the first to introduce ἔρωτας καὶ παρθένων φθοράς,[364] and is therefore important as forming a connecting-link between Old and Middle Comedy; but there is no important example of this peculiar feature in any of the fragments of him that have survived, though passages like that in the _Gerontomania_ (_ap._ Athen. xiii. 570 D), and titles of plays like _Anteron_ or _Kitharistria_, serve to give a very fair idea of the nature of the “erotic element” thus introduced.[365]

ANTIPHANES again, though making frequent mention of women, yet does not tell one anything of importance about them. His opinion as to their untrustworthiness is at least emphatic,

ἐγὼ γυναικὶ δ’ ἕν τι πιστεύω μόνον,
ἐπὰν ἀποθάνῃ μὴ βιώσεσθαι πάλιν,
τὰ δ’ ἄλλ’ ἀπιστῶ πάνθ’ ἕως ἂν ἀποθάνῃ.

(_Incert._ 54.)

and his invectives against marriage are occasionally humorous—

_Α._ γεγάμηκε δήπου. _Β._ τί σὺ λέγεις; ἀληθινῶς
γεγάμηκεν, ὃν ἐγὼ ζῶντα περιπατοῦντά τε
κατέλιπον;

(_Philopator._)

but, on the whole, his allusions are not very interesting.

EUBULUS was notorious as a special student and parodist of Euripides, a feature apparent in the misogyny, real or affected, in which he indulges. A good specimen of this is the passage quoted in Athen. xiii. 559 B from his _Chrysilla_. There is, besides, in the _Campylion_ an interesting description of violent love for a certain κοσμία ἑταίρα, one of whose chief charms, however, seems to be that she knows how to eat decently. The same writer, in the _Nannion_, dwells on the folly of adultery, supporting his view by arguments which hardly appeal to the “romantic” sense.[366]

AMPHIS grows enthusiastic over the superiority of ἑταῖραι to γαμεταί,

ἡ μὲν νόμῳ γὰρ καταφρονοῦσ’ ἔνδον μένει,
ἡ δ’ οἶδεν ὅτι ἢ τοῖς τρόποις ὠνητέος
ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ἢ πρὸς ἄλλον ἀπιτέον.

(_Athamas._)

and in the _Dithyrambus_ makes a contemptuous allusion to “Platonic” love:

τί φῄς; σὺ ταυτὶ προσδοκᾷς πείσειν ἐμέ,
ὡς ἔστ’ ἐραστὴς ὅστις, ὡραῖον φιλῶν,
τρόπων ἐραστής ἐστι, τὴν ὄψιν παρείς;
ἄφρων γ’ ἀληθῶς. οὔτε τοῦτο πείθομαι,
οὔθ’ ὡς πένης ἄνθρωπος ἐνοχλῶν πολλάκις
τοῖς εὐποροῦσιν οὐ λαβεῖν τι βούλεται.

(_Dithyrambus._ 2.)

EPHIPPUS gives us a pretty picture of a woman (an Hetaera, of course) coaxing away a man’s trouble:

ἔπειτά γ’ εἰσιόντ’, ἐὰν λυπούμενος
τύχῃ τις ἡμῶν, ἐκολάκευσεν ἡδέως,
ἐφίλησεν, οὐχὶ συμπιέσασα τὸ στόμα,
ὥσπερ πολέμιον, ἀλλὰ τοῖσι στρουθίοις
χναύουσ’ ὁμοίως ἧσε, παρεμυθήσατο,
ἐποίησέ θ’ ἱλαρὸν εὐθέως τ’ ἀφεῖλε πᾶν
αὐτοῦ τὸ λυποῦν κἀπέδειξεν ἵλεων.

(_Empole._ 1.)

EPICRATES is chiefly noticeable for the brutality of his _Antilais_, a considerable fragment of which is preserved in Athen. xiii. 570 B.

XENARCHUS’ best contribution to literature is, perhaps, his famous

ὅρκους ἐγὼ γυναικὸς εἰς οἶνον γράφω.

(_Pentathl._ 3.)

Lastly, there is ALEXIS, who, though he extends from the Middle well into the New Comedy (388-284 are the dates—rather trying to the credulity—given for his life), yet belongs very distinctly to the former, and shows no signs of a newer spirit, unless it be in the revolt against the artificiality of the Hetaerae, of which there is a specimen in his _Isostasium_. He makes, however, a favourable allusion to “Platonic” love (_Helene_), though he does not suggest the possibility of its application to women. For the rest, he confines himself to the ordinary topics, and his complaints against wives are, here and there, amusing, as when he argues that marriage is worse than disfranchisement:—

τοὺς μὲν γοῦν ἀτίμους οὐκ ἐᾷ
ἀρχὴν λαχόντας ὁ νόμος ἄρχειν τῶν πέλας·
ἐπὰν δὲ γήμῃς, οὐδὲ σαυτοῦ κύριον
ἔξεστιν εἶναι· τὰς γὰρ εὐθύνας μόνον
ἐφημερινὰς τὰς τοῦ βίου κεκτήμεθα.

(_Incert._ 34.)

The examination of these fragments has been very barren of any but negative results, but this very barrenness is not perhaps without a certain significance. The Middle and the New Comedy kept the stage at Athens (to the exclusion, in great part, of original tragedy) without a check during the fourth century; but at the same time, the continuity of the dramatic tradition that pervades them is by no means unbroken, and the differences between the two styles of art are very marked. Of all these differences, there is none more striking than that in the treatment of the erotic element. This, which, though introduced early enough into the Middle Comedy, yet never attained to any real development there, appears suddenly in the New Comedy as a feature of overwhelming importance. Nor is this all. The erotic element, which, from henceforward, occupies so prominent a place in comedy, differs in character _toto caelo_ from that which occurs in the earlier dramas. Instead of the ἑταίρα, the New Comedy introduces us to the παρθένος; instead of marriage being the stock subject of ridicule, it becomes the hero’s ideal.[367]

This change of attitude is so marked, that it seems impossible to regard the later feeling as a development of the earlier; the revolution is so violent, that it seems inevitable to admit that it came in some manner from without. And, as a matter of fact, if we consider the period from which the New Comedy dates, it is by no means difficult to conjecture what the source of this external influence may have been.

Menander brought out his first play, at a very early age, in 322; about this time, Asclepiades and Philetas were already coming into prominence; those influences which induced the Coan school to speak of women in a manner so different from that of previous writers, may well have impressed the Athenian also, and produced a body of poets who, though differing in certain important points from the “Alexandrians,” were yet distinctly romantic.

To this subject of the romantic element in the New Comedy, I hope at some future time to be able to return,[368] so that I will not speak of it further here, except so far as to point out that, firstly (an obvious fact, but one that seems sometimes strangely ignored), the New Comedy is distinctly later in date than the Coan school of poets, and cannot therefore, under any circumstances, claim priority for the introduction of the romantic element into literature; while secondly, if the introduction of this element was really due, as is commonly asserted, to the influence of Euripides, it seems strange that, while so many of his views were common property at Athens from the very beginning of the fourth century, not one of the Athenian playwrights, some of whom studied him so thoroughly, should have felt this particular influence till nearly a century after his death.

EXCURSUS G.

[P. 150.]

_WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE COMEDY FRAGMENTS._

(Plays in italics and marked with an asterisk are wholly lost. Of those in italics no fragment of importance is preserved.)

ANTIPHANES.

Plays named after Hetaerae:—Antea?, _Archestrata?_, Chrysis, Malthace, Melitta, Neottis, Philotis.

Plays dealing apparently with a similar class of society:—Acestria, Aleiptria, _Anterosa_, _Auletris?_, Corinthia?, Curis?, Dyserotes, Halieuomene?, Hydria, Mystis?, Neanisci.

Plays relating to erotic mythological subjects:—Aeolus, _Andromeda?_, Antea?, Arcas?, _Caeneus?_, Glaucus, _Melanion_ (the misogynist, cp. Aristoph. _Lys._ 784), _Meleager?_, Omphale?, _Phaon?_

Other plays, the titles of which suggest erotic incidents: _Acontizomene?_, Aphrodisius?, Asoti?, _Delia?_, Epiclerus?, Gamus?, _Harpazomene?_, Lemniae, Moechi, Sappho (in the fragments the poetess merely appears as asking riddles).

Acontizomene. The drunkenness of women.

Aeolus 1. Parody of the prologue of the Canace of Euripides.

Agroecus 2. Meretrix magnum malum.

Aleiptria. The servant-girl threatens to pour hot water over
some rude visitors.

Arcas 2. Mention of the Hetaera Sinope, perhaps under her
nickname of Abydos.

Asclepios. An old woman induced to take medicine under the idea
that it is wine.

Asoti. Mulier ducit virum.

Bacchae. The drunkenness of wives.

Boeotia. A man urges a girl to try a citron at dessert. (Copied
by Eriphus, Meliboea 1. Cp. Eubulus, Campylion 5.)

Butalion. A girl (?) from the country is asked to order dinner.
Cp. Acestria (where read φιλτάτη in l. 3?), and Alexis, Homoea.

Cepurus. Mention of the Hetaera Sinope.

Chrysis. 1, 2. Description of a wealthy lover.

Coroplathus. An obscene allusion.

Drapetagogus. A woman’s way of eating.

Dyspratus 1. A woman’s stinginess to her slaves. (Cp.
Epicrates, Dyspratus.)

Glaucus. Reference to a vesticontubernium.

Halieuomene 1. A long fragment addressed by the fish-seller to
her slave (containing various puns on the names of Hetaerae and
their lovers.)

Hydria 1. The praises of a true Hetaera.

Malthace. The excuses of an Hetaera.

Melitta. A merchant who boasts of his wealth.

Metragyrtes. A girl washing a man’s feet.

Misoponerus. Complaints as to the trouble a baby is in the
house.

Mystis 3. A man inviting a woman to drink, apparently to
excess. (Cp. Athen. x. 441 C; Eubul. Campyl. 5; Anacreont. iv.
12, μύστις νάματος ἡ Κύπρις ὑμεναίοις κροτοῦσα.)

Neanisci 2. A girl arguing with her mother on the relative
values of her poor and her wealthy lover (?).

Neottis 3. Mention of Sinope.

Omphale 3. Heracles ordering his dinner of Omphale.

Philometor. Praises of a mother. (Cp. Alexis, Incert. 35.)

Philopator. Marriage compared to death.

Zacynthius. The pleasure of having one’s feet washed by a
woman. (Cp. Pherecrates, Thalatta, 7, and supra p. 128.)

Incert. 12. Love cannot be concealed.

13. Homoeopathic cure for a wife.

51. Praise of love. (Also in Theophilus, Philaulus.)

52. Marriage the last of ills.

53. The burden of a rich wife.

54. The one thing in which you can trust a woman is,
that when she is dead she will not come to life
again—nothing else.

55. The one advantage of ophthalmia is that you can’t
see your wife.

57. To tell a secret to a woman is like telling it to
the town-crier.

71. An old man must forego the pleasures of love.

95. κασωρὶς ἡ πόρνη.

ANAXANDRIDES.

The following titles of plays suggest erotic subjects:—Aeschra (name of an Hetaera), Anchises, _Anteron_, _Citharistria_, Helene, _Locrides?_, Melilotus?, Protesilaus.

Gerontomania 1. Two old men discuss Lais and the other ladies
they used to know in their youth.

Odysseus 1. Women are attracted by good dinners.

Tereus 2. An allusion suggestive of Theocr. i. 87.

3. A royal bride.

Theseus 2. A girl is easily pleased.

Incert. 1. The troubles of being married.

5. A father tells his daughter that a wife should not leave
her husband.

9. Women are slaves of pleasure.

10. Love the best schoolmaster. (Cp. Alex. Incert. 38, where,
however, the image is somewhat different.)

13. An unmarried daughter is a terrible thing. (Cp. 17.)

EUBULUS.

Plays named after Hetaerae:—Chrysilla, _Clepsydra_* (so called because she used to regulate the duration of her favours by the clock), Nannion, Neottis, _Plangon_.

Plays dealing with mythological erotic subjects:—_Anchises?_, Echo?, Europe?, Ixion?, Nausicaa?, Pelops?, Procris?

Other plays which seem to have dealt with erotic subjects:—Astyti?, Campylion, Mylothris?, Orthane, Pamphilus, Pannychis, Pornoboscus, _Psaltria_, Stephanopolides.

Ancylion 3. Kisses mentioned among the prizes at a “pannychis.”

Campylion. _Vide supra_, p. 155.

Cercopes 1. The dangerous attractions of Corinth, narrated by a
traveller.

Chrysilla 1. The folly of marrying again.

2. An attempted defence of women breaks down.

Nannion. The folly of adultery. (_Vide supra_, p. 158.)

Orthane. A party of ladies and gentlemen come together to celebrate a sacrifice to Orthane.

Pamphilus 1. A man takes up his station at the window of an inn to watch the proceedings of a lady opposite. (Cp. Ter. _Phormio_ i. 2, 38 _seqq._)

3. The drinking capacities of the lady’s chaperone.

Pannychis. A description of Hetaerae, in part the same as in Nannion.

Pornoboscus 1. A woman describes her keeper.

Sphingocarion 2. Women anointing a man’s feet.

3. A lady excuses her absence on the previous evening (?).

Stephanopolides 1. A flower girl (?) ridicules the cosmetics of the professional Hetaerae.

2. The pleasures of love from a woman’s point of view.
(A very graceful passage, with an allusion to the
legend of Cissus and Ololygon.)

3, 4. The flower-girls making up and selling their garlands.
(Another pretty passage, with perhaps an allusion to
the Hetaera Nannion under her name of Aegidion.)

Incert. 3. Why do girls prefer old wine, but young men?

9. A woman in a passion.

20. A man excuses himself and goes home.

25. Mention of the festival Stenia, at which the Athenian women
used to abuse one another. (Cp. Theopompus, Aphrodisia 1;
_supra_, p. 148.)

ALEXIS.

Plays named after Hetaerae:—Agonis, Atthis?, Choregis, Dorcis?, Isostasium, Lampas, Meropis?, Opora, Pamphile, _Pezonice_, Polycleia, Ponera?

Plays on mythological erotic subjects:—Atalanta, Galatea, Helenes Harpage, Helenes Mnesteres, Hesione, _Iasis?_.

Other plays apparently dealing with erotic subjects:—Achaeis?, Apocoptomenus, Bostrychus?, Brettia?, Cnidia?, Curis, Epiclerus?, Hypnus, Lemnia?, Leucadia? (can this play have dealt with the proceedings of the comic poet Nicostratus?), Mandragorizomene, Olynthia, Orchestris, Pallace, Phaedrus, Philocalus, Philusa, _Poëtria?_, Traumatias.

Agonis. _Vide supra_, p. 156.

Apocoptomenus 1. Lovers have wings and Love has none.

Cleobuline. A mention of the Hetaera Sinope.

Curis 1, 2. A father of two sons, one highly respectable, the
other less so.

Dropides. An Hetaera brings in a decanter of sweet wine during
dinner.

Graphe. The story of the man who fell in love with the statue
at Samos. (It would be obvious to suggest that in this play
a man is introduced who falls in love with a picture. More
probably, however, this passage comes from the speech of some
painter who is extolling his art, possibly to some lady, in
the way Ovid used to do. Cp. _Ars Amat._ iii. 397 _seqq._, 533
_seqq._, etc.)

Gynaecocratia. Perhaps introduced women in the theatre, like
the Scenas Catalambanusae of Aristophanes.

Helene. A mock (?) Platonic view of love. (_Vide supra_, p.
161.)

Hesione 2. The heroine complains that, as soon as Heracles saw
that his dinner was ready, he ceased to take any notice of her.

Homoea. A girl is asked to order dinner.

Hypnus 1. Two women asking one another riddles.

Isostasium 1. An attack on the artificiality of Hetaerae.

Lampas. The protest of an angry father at his son’s
extravagance. (Cp. Mnesimach. Dyscolus.)

Lyciscus 1. A mention of the Hetaera Pythionice.

Mandragorizomene 5. A lover visits his sick lady. The whole
play seems to have turned on a subject of this kind (cp. Fr.
2), and calls to mind pictures like that in Ovid, _Ars Amat._
ii. 319 _seqq._, especially 333 _seqq._

Manteis. The slavery of marriage.

Meropis. A lady complains of the late arrival of someone,
perhaps her maid.

Olynthia 1, 2. The poor circumstances of the heroine’s family.

Orchestris. All that women want is plenty of wine.

Pallace. Perhaps the answer of the husband to his indignant
wife.

Pamphile. The proper food for a lover. (Cp. _Incert._ 18.)

Phaedrus 1. The nature of love.

Philocalos. A stingy man inviting ladies to dinner.

Philusa 1. The Aphrodisia.

Tarantini 5. An allusion to the Hetaera Nannion.

Thrason. A talkative woman.

Traumatias 2. Only lovers really live.

Incert. 14. A repetition of the remark of Eubulus (_Incert._ 3)
on the inconsistency of women in preferring old wine and young
men.

18. The proper food for a lover. (Cp. Pamphile.)

26. Inviting a woman to drink.

31. The three pleasures of life.

34. Marriage worse than disfranchisement.

35. One’s mother is deserving of the highest respect. (Cp.
Antiphanes, Philometor.)

38. Love the best tutor. (Cp. Anaxandr. _Incert._ 10, where,
however, the image is slightly different.)

39. Nothing is more shameless than a woman—as I know from
my own wife.

40. Nothing is so difficult to guard as a woman.

53. The word διαπεπαρθενευκότα.

AMPHIS.

Several plays satirising women, such as the _Acco_* (the silly woman), the Gynaecocratia and the Gynaecomania.

The Scholiast of Germanicus’ _Aratea_ quotes the legends of Zeus and Callisto (p. 38), and of the Dog Star and Opora (p. 76) from Amphis; these legends seem to have occurred in plays now lost.[369]

Of the Sappho no important fragment is preserved.

Amphicrates. A confidential slave arguing with his young master
on the folly of the latter’s attachment to a certain lady.

Athamas. The inevitable superiority of the Hetaera over the
wife.

Curis 1, 2. An Hetaera who deserves to be rich, more than
Sinope and the others who are.

Dithyrambus 2. Ridicule of “Platonic” love.

Gynaecocratia. The liberated husband. (It is easy to imagine
how the outraged wife breaks in upon this happy party,
something after the manner of Cynthia in Prop. iv. 8.)

Gynaecomania. Seems to suggest a similar scene, if indeed, the
two plays be not one and the same.

Ialemus 1. An invective against lettuces.

ARAROS.

The Adonis and the Caeneus dealt with erotic legends, as is plain from Fr. 1 of the former and Fr. 4 of the latter. The same is perhaps true of the Panos Gonae (Fr. 2.) The Hymenaeus contained a description of a wedding (Fr. 2), and the _Parthenidion_* may also have dealt with erotic subjects.

NICOSTRATUS.

The Pandrosus introduces (Fr. 2, 3) an elderly gentleman supping with a lady, among whose acquaintances is numbered Ocimum (Fr. 1).

_Incert._ 9 describes a prude.

Besides these, the titles _Anterosa_, Habra, and the corrupt _Otis_,* seem to suggest erotic subjects.

PHILETAERUS.

In the Atalanta, the fragment which it is usual to assign to a parasite might perhaps be assigned to the heroine of the piece, who would thus appear in her legendary character of the “advanced woman,”, something like the lady in Juvenal vi. 246 _seqq._, 425 _seqq._

Corinthiastes. The superiority of Hetaerae to Gametae. (He
repeats the remark in Cynagis 3.)

Cynagis 1. A list of veteran Hetaerae.

2. Old age is no excuse for giving up pleasure.

Meleager. A dance not suitable for unmarried ladies.

EPHIPPUS.

Empole 1. A pretty picture of a woman (an Hetaera, of course,)
coaxing away a man’s trouble. Empole 2. The same (?) urging on
a disorderly member of the party the advantages of harmony.

Ephebi 3. Proceedings commence with the ladies having a drink
all round.

Philyra (named after the Hetaera) 2. The heroine (?) coaxing an
elderly gentleman to commit what he considers an extravagance.
(Fr. 3 seems to suggest that a younger lover appeared on the
scene and expressed himself as jealous.)

Sappho. How to recognise a πόρνος.

ANAXILAS.

Neottis 1. A violent invective against the whole race of
Hetaerae, mentioning various names.

2. The difference between an Hetaera and a Porne.

Incert. 2. Rebuke of a jealous lover (?).

3. The sign of an abandoned woman.

4, 5. Remarks on a woman’s toilet.

6. A system of coiffure.

ARISTOPHON.

Callonides. The folly of marrying a second time.

Iatrus 2. An Hetaera’s door is shut to a man without money (l.
1, _leg._ διαπετεῖς pro διοπετεῖς).

Pythagoristes 2. The gods have driven Love out of heaven, and
clipped his wings, so that he stays on earth.

EPICRATES.

Antilais 2. A savage attack upon Lais.

3. A list of erotic writers whose poems one learns by
heart.

Chorus. A man cheated by a _lena_.

Dyspratus. Women’s stinginess towards slaves (cp. Antiphanes, Dyspratus). _O demens, ita servus homo est?_

CRATINUS IUNIOR.

Omphale. The heroine (?) appears dilating on the pleasures of a
life of ease, with a view to seducing Heracles.

The Titanes also seems to have dealt with erotic subjects.

AXIONICUS.

Philinna. One thing, at least, you can trust a woman—that she
won’t drink water.

CALLICRATES.

Moschion. A mention of Sinope.

DIODORUS.

Incert. Better a well-educated wife without money than one who
does not know how to behave with.

ERIPHUS.

Meliboea 1. A man giving a girl some citrons at dessert. (Cp.
Antiphanes, Boeotia.) Fr. 2 seems to belong to the same scene.

HENIOCHUS.

Incert. The cities of Greece, allegorised as women are
entertained and made drunk by Abulia, Democratia, and
Aristocratia.

HERACLITUS.

Xenizon. Mention of a certain gluttonous Helen.

PHILISCUS.

Philargyri. A woman’s powers of persuasion.

SOPHILUS.

The Paracatathece and the Syntrechontes both seem to have had erotic plots.

TIMOTHEUS.

Incert. An elaborate eulogy of Love, which does not read like
the work of a comic poet.

TIMOCLES.

Epistolae 1. A lover’s comic enthusiasm.

Icarii 1, 2. Pythionice and her lovers.

Marathonii. The pleasures of seduction. (Cp. p. 159, note.)

Neaera 1. An unfortunate lover of Phryne.

Orestautocleides 1. Autocleides the paederast appears
surrounded by Hetaerae, in the character of Orestes and the
Erinnyes. (Cp. Mein. _Com. Fr._ i. 432.)

Philodicastes. Mention of a new regulation by which the
γυναικονόμοι had to inspect entertainments, to see that they
were respectable.

Sappho. An allusion to Misgolas (cp. _supra_, p. 157).

XENARCHUS.

Butalion. A childless house.

Hypnus. Happy cicadas, for their females are dumb.

Pentathlus 1. The folly of adultery (cp. Eubulus, Nannion).

2, 3. Woman’s power of drinking.

Priapus. An earnest drinker.

Scythae 1. The effects of a rival (?).

THEOPHILUS.

Neoptolemus 1. A young wife does not suit an old husband.

Philaulus 1. Love for a maiden (a _citharistria_) described
with considerable enthusiasm. (The first four lines = Antiph.
_Incert._ 51.)

2. An anxious father (?) hopes that his son will not
fall into the hands of the Hetaerae.

EXCURSUS H.

[P. 163.]

_WOMEN IN THE FRAGMENTS OF THE EARLY NEW COMEDY._

In the case of Menander, only the more important allusions are chronicled. In the case of the other writers, everything that bears on the subject is mentioned.

MENANDER.

Adelphi 1. The happiness of never marrying. (Adapted by Terence
in his _Adelphi_.)

Andria 1. Love makes blind. (Adapted by Terence in his
_Andria_.)

Androgynus 2. An allusion to a wedding ceremony.

Anepsii 1. Love is, by nature, deaf to advice.

2. A daughter is a troublesome thing.

Aphrodisia 1. Love makes fools of men.

2. A girl, while delirious, lets out unfortunate secrets.

Arrephorus 1. The dangers of marriage.

3. A talkative woman.

Carchedonius. (Adapted by Plautus in his _Poenulus_?)

Chalceia 3. Youth is the time for love.

Colax 4. A list of various well-known Hetaerae. (Adapted by Terence in his _Eunuchus_.)

Cybernetae 2. The man who is counted lucky in public, but tyrannised over at home.

Dactylius 1. The obstinate father who refuses his daughter.

2. A bridegroom who wants no dowry. (For the plot cp. Ter.
_Hecyra_.)

Didymae 1. The Cynic Crates’ wife. (Cp. Apul. _Florid._ xiv.)

Empipramene 1. Invective against marriage.

4. A father’s joy (at the recognition of his daughter?).

Epitrepontes. (Similar in plot to the _Hecyra_ of Terence.)

Eunuchus 7. The violent joy of the successful lover in Ter. _And._ v. 5, 3, is translated literally from this play. (Adapted by Terence in his _Eunuchus_.)

Georgus 6. The unpractical lover.

Halieis 6. A daughter is an awkward thing.

10. The flight of the adulterer.

Heauton Timorumenus 3. The respectable girl’s home. (Adapted by Terence in his _Heauton Timorumenus_.)

Heros 1. Love is omnipotent.

Hiereia 2. A respectable woman should not leave the house. (The plot deals with a married woman who follows the priests of Cybele about the streets.)

Hypobolimaeus 4. The husband should rule the wife.

8. μέγιστον θηρίον γυνή.

Leucadia 1. Sappho’s leap.

Misogynes 1. The advantages of a wife.

2, 3, 4, 5. The expense of keeping a wife.

4, 5. A woman’s superstitions.

9. The husband seeks refuge with an Hetaera. (The plot is
concerned with a man who marries a woman, and then conceives
a most violent hatred for her.)

Misumenus 3. The slavery of love.

5. Platonic love.

6. The lover’s misery.

7. The lover in his lady’s absence.

8. An unsympathetic listener.

10. The lover cannot sleep.

12. Jealousy.

(The plot deals with a Miles Gloriosus, who is in love
with a slave girl of his, but will not touch her because
she does not love him.)

Nauclerus 4. A lover is always easily led.

Olynthia 4. Artificial hair.

Orge 5. An adulterer is an expensive luxury.

Paedion 2. A man who goes round offering amulets to men when they get married.

Periceiromene. (The soldier who, in a fit of jealousy, cuts off the hair of his slave girl, and afterwards repents.)

Perinthia. (Adapted by Terence in his _Andria_, especially for the first scene.)

Plocion 1. The rich, ugly, and jealous wife.

2. The disagreeableness of the same.

3. The results of a κωμικὴ παννυχίς.

4. The trouble that they bring on a house.

Sicyonius. (The soldier who buys a girl, and then treats her as if she were a free woman.)

Synaristosae 1, 2. The strange behaviour of some women (Hetaerae?) at dinner.

4. Love makes one perjure oneself.

Thais 1. The ideal Hetaera, faithful to none.

Thesaurus 1. Love is a severe god, especially to the old.

2. Music is the food of love.

3. The lover must be bold.

(In order to estimate at its true value the prominence of misogyny in the following passages, it is well to remember that a large proportion of the _Fragmenta Incerta_ of Menander are found in Christian collections of apophthegms.)

Incert. 1. If you have once married, then you must put up with
it.

3. A man ought to be allowed the chance of getting to know his
wife before marriage; for every woman is an evil, but then one
could choose the least. (Cp. 102.)

6. Invective against Prometheus for creating women.

7. The sudden effects of a kiss.

8. The polygamous habits of the Thracians.

14. Of the nature of love.

16. Women are afraid of death, and seek comfort for trouble in
tears.

27. Women have no gratitude.

32. A girl’s wooing. (Transl. in Plaut. _Cist._ i. 1, 91.)

36. The advantages of a πόρνη over a respectable woman.

πλείονα κακουργεῖ, πλείον’ οἶδ’, αἰσχύνεται
οὐδέν, κολακεύει μᾶλλον.

54, 55, 57. One should not marry money.

58. The man who contemplates marriage must consider whether he
prefers beauty or worth.

73. A man stands up for his wife.

99. Virtue doubles the value of beauty.

100. A woman must try to lead her husband, not drive him.

101. None are so closely related as man and wife.

102. A man who marries, may count it as a great good if his
wife is only a slight evil.

103. The troubles of a family man.

104. Advice against marriage.

105. Marriage is a necessary evil.

106. A woman’s fair words are most to be feared. (Cp. 197.)

107. An Hetaera cannot be expected to be good, for she makes
her living out of mischief.

112. A mother loves her children more than a father.

114. The unmarried daughter in the house.

117. A lover’s threats are not serious.

133. A respectable woman does not dye her hair.

154. Educating a woman is like giving poison to a viper.

155. The dangers of beauty.

156. Your wife will be nasty without being taught.

185. A bit of the marriage ceremony.

196. Love cannot be controlled by reason.

198. Women are consistent liars.

199. Night is the time for love.

241. An Hetaera’s dress.

256. One must not trust a woman.

258. It is safer to stir up a dog than an old woman.

259. Women are irritable. (Cp. 499.)

294. The behaviour of a low woman.

346. Stupid women.

469. An oath to a woman is not binding.

I have added an analysis of the _Gnomae Monostichi_, for the sake of completeness. No one will, of course, attach any importance to the views expressed in this nondescript collection. [Cp. Kock, _Com. Att. Fr._ vol. iii. praef.]

56. The happiness of being unmarried. (Cp. 78, 437, 468, 595.)

77. The expensiveness of wives.

83. Women are the better for being silent.

84. The ideal woman is the good housekeeper.

85. A woman may save or ruin a house.

86. Do not trust a woman. (Cp. 633.)

87. Women consider nothing but their own wishes.

90. There is nothing so wretched as an old man in love.

91. The man who wants to marry changes his mind.

92. Virtue, not gold, adorns a woman.

93. A good wife saves a man’s position.

94. It is not easy to find a good woman.

95. It is better to bury a woman than to marry her.

97. A wife is an expensive luxury.

98. Marry your wife, not her money.

99. A good wife is the helm of a household.

100. A woman cannot rule; it is against nature.

102. Marriage is an evil men bring on themselves.

103. When about to marry you should consider your neighbours.

106. Women are bad counsellors.

109. All women are alike.

134. Woman is the source of every ill. (Cp. 541, 623.)

156. Love cannot withstand poverty. (Cp. 159.)

160. Some women are virtuous.

161. Women are faithless. (Cp. 560.)

181. Women are a cause of ruin.

195. A woman’s jealousy.

197. A married man is a slave.

199. Try and get a woman as your ally.

211. Don’t marry mere money.

215. A man must rule his wife.

231. Women are as dangerous as sea and fire.

233. A bad woman is a treasure-house of evil.

248. Women are fiercer than beasts.

260. A woman should stay at home.

261. A bad woman is like poison.

264. Woman is like the sea.

267. Woman is as fierce as a lioness.

304. Woman is a necessary evil.

324. A wife is a constant cause of grief.

327. A woman is worse to live with than a lion.

333. A woman’s virtue is worth more than her beauty.

334. A woman is full of evil.

353. Never abuse or advise a woman.

355. Never let a woman into your counsels.

361. Never waste anything good on a woman.

382. Marriage is slavery.

410. A lover’s anger is short-lived.

413. There is nothing worse than a pretty woman.

426. A harlot’s weeping is like a lawyer’s.

469. A woman is dirt silvered over.

493. Woman is a pleasant ill.

540. A bad woman is like a storm in the house.

575. A woman is like a fire.

600. Women flatter with an object.

634. The value of a good wife. (Cp. 675.)

684. May my friends never marry.

700. Women ruin many men.

734. Pretty women are conceited.

735. Your wife is worth taking trouble for.

750. A daughter is hard to dispose of.

757. A poor man should not marry.

PHILEMON.

Adelphi 1. Praise of Solon for having introduced prostitution.

Babylonius. An Hetaera’s prospects.

Pyrphorus. Greater beauty than any painter could depict.

Synephebus. An Hetaera’s dress.

Incert. 31. A lady going out with a pretty servant. (Cp. Plaut.
_Mercator_, ii. 3, 69.)

32. The affectations of a μῦς λευκός.

35. The man who fell in love with the statue.

44. A good wife obeys her husband.

49. The growth of love.

64. A dutiful son and his mother.

76. Where women meet, there is sure to be mischief.

77. Worth is better than beauty.

78. There is no need to teach a woman mischief.

85. The folly of taking counsel with a woman.

95. A conceited woman.

103. Woman is an immortal necessary evil.

105, 106. Advice not to marry.

124. A city of beautiful women.

DIPHILUS.

Pallace. A woman’s ornament.

Synoris 1, 2, 3. A parasite and an Hetaera playing dice.

Theseus 2. A Samian lady’s riddle.

Zographus 1. An Hetaera entertains lavishly.

Incert. 2. An outburst against the trade of the πορνοβοσκός.

6. An ugly girl, from whom even a dog won’t take a
piece of bread.

16. The oath of an Hetaera is not to be believed.

33. It is hard to find a good woman.

34. A virgin is a treasure that it is not easy to guard.

47. A woman described as a carcase.

ARCHEDICUS.

Dihamartanon. A dishonest Hetaera.

The fragments of HIPPARCHUS, LYNCEUS, and APOLLODORUS GELOUS contain no allusions to women.

EXCURSUS I.

[P. 163.]

_THE QUESTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE COMEDY._

It is usual to assume that there was, during the earlier part of the fourth century, a strong agitation at Athens in favour of “women’s rights.” The social status of the Theban, as well as of the Lacedaemonian, women, had been brought, owing to political events, under the notice of even the most consistent Athenian, and advantage is supposed to have been taken of this fact by the advocates of female liberty at Athens, to endeavour to obtain for the women there some of those privileges which notoriously belonged to their neighbours. This being so, it will be interesting to consider in how far, if at all, this movement is reflected in the literature of the period.

The general treatment of women in the Middle Comedy being such as it is, there would be every reason to expect to find plays in which these efforts of women to obtain more general recognition from men, would be made the subject of more or less contemptuous ridicule. The fashion started by Aristophanes in the _Ecclesiazusae_ must have been, one would have thought, too fascinating to be abandoned.

The fact, however, remains that, in such portions of the Middle Comedy as still exist, there is practically no trace of anything of the kind. There are, it is true, one or two titles of plays which seem at first sight suggestive, but further investigation generally reveals little. Thus the _Gynaecocratia_ and the _Gynaecomania_ of Amphis both seem aimed, not at the tyranny of women in general, but at the tyranny of wives.[370]

As for the _Gynaecocratia_ of Alexis, all that can be gathered from the fragments is that it seems to have had certain features in common with the _Scenas Catalambanusae_ of Aristophanes; as to its tone or tendency, there is no clue in the two short passages that remain.

The suggestion made above (p. 228) as to the meaning of the fragment of the _Atalanta_ of Philetaerus is, of course, purely conjectural, and cannot, therefore, bear evidence either way.

And that is all. This almost entire absence from the Middle Comedy of plays dealing with the question of “women’s rights,” would seem to justify a certain hesitation in accepting the common view that this question was at the time a burning one. So general a silence on the point, in a literature which deals exhaustively with every other phase of contemporary life, seems not unreasonably to suggest that the extent and influence of the movement have been exaggerated, and that, as far as it existed at all, it was confined to a small body of enthusiasts, and was well-nigh without effect on the body of the nation at large.

EXCURSUS K.

[P. 187.]

_SOME FURTHER NOTES ON FAMILY RELATIONS AS TREATED IN MIDDLE AND NEW COMEDY._

Though it has nothing to do with our immediate subject, it may be interesting to notice briefly the attitude of the New Comedy towards that description of family problems which the _Canace_ of Euripides and similar works had made popular among certain classes of art-lovers. That such works had ever any great hold over the public at large is neither proved nor probable.

In the first place, we may notice the unpleasant accident by which, in the _Curculio_, the soldier is made unconsciously to buy his sister as his mistress. Here, however (Plaut. _Curc._ v. 2, 55 _seqq._), as soon as the recognition takes place, Planesium is at once given in marriage by her brother to her lover—as soon, that is to say, as her consent has been obtained to this course (_ibid._ 73). In the Middle Comedy _Epidicus_, where a similar incident occurs, the behaviour of Stratippocles is somewhat less correct (Plaut. _Epid._ v. 1, 42 _seqq._), though here, too, the side of propriety is at once championed by the slave, and prevails without any real delay. That incidents of this kind were not uncommon in New Comedy seems probable from the nature of that class of drama, but there is no reason to suppose that they ever had any other conclusion than that which occurs in the cases quoted above. Cases of rivalry between father and son, such as occur in the _Casina_ and the _Mercator_, belong to a class of drama which has nothing to do with romantic New Comedy. The _dénouements_ of the _Asinaria_ and the _Bacchides_, which are so little sympathetic to modern ideas, are both to some extent apologised for by their authors,[371] and also, as will be observed, occur in plays which have Hetaerae for their heroines.

A certain lack of regard for decency on the part of the father in the son’s presence, and _vice versâ_, (which is rather startling to the modern reader in such passages as Plaut. _Asin._ v. 2, 30 _seqq._, Ter. _Heaut. Timor._ iii. 3, 1, and elsewhere,) is probably most simply explained by _autres temps autres moeurs_. Altogether, it would seem that the privacy which is to modern ideas somewhat of an essential in these matters, was at a considerable discount at this period of society. Cp. Plaut. _Bacch._ iii. 3, 73 _seqq._, _Curc._ i. 3, 16 _seqq._, etc.

Lastly, attention may be called to Hanno’s rather remarkable method of searching for his lost daughters. (Plaut. _Poen._ prolog. 106 _seqq._). Whether this is intended for a realistic study of Semitic habits, can be left to others to decide.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The expression is, of course, an awkward one, for the word “romance,” like “chivalry,” embodies the old superstition that such feelings were a product of the Christian Middle Ages; but this and similar expressions are so generally used in this connection, that there is little real risk of misunderstanding, and I cannot think of anything better.

[2] Among the many arguments in favour of the social emancipation of women at the present day, I have never heard it suggested that such an emancipation would inevitably lead to an increase of chivalrous feelings on the part of men; the general view seems to be that it would have just the contrary effect.

[3] Very noticeable is the preponderance of goddesses in the Greek Pantheon. The powers of nature, whether of sea, mountain, river, or forest, were almost invariably incarnated in the form of women.

[4] This change, retrograde or not, according to taste, may be exactly paralleled from the social history of the Arabs.

[5] 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 _Op._ 693 _seqq._, and others will be mentioned in the next few pages.

[6] 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 περὶ των γυναικῶν inducit multas heroidas optasse nuptias virorum fortium”; cp. the whole note.

[7] 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.

[8] Zeus pays ἄποινα to Tros for his son (cp. _Hymn. Hom._ 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.

[9] This version of the relations between Zeus and Minos is at least as old as the _Odyssey_. Cp. _Odyss._ xix. 179; Athen. xiii. 601E.

[10] _Hymn. Hom._ iv. 247 _seqq._

[11] 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.)

[12] 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 Anaxarete only appear at a very late period.

[13] Athen. xiv. 619C.

[14] Hermes. _Leont._ i. _Fr._ 3. (Ed. Bach.)

[15] Theocr. i. 82 _seqq._ Cp. Reitzenstein, _Epigramm und Skolion_, p. 212 _seqq._

[16] Serv. _ad Ecl._ viii. 68.

[17] Theocr. vii. 72.

[18] The only real exceptions to this rule are, perhaps, Sappho and her followers!

[19] Theognis, 183; cp. Pseudo-Phocylides, 189. Very similar in spirit is Hesiod’s advice to the farmer to get

οἶκον μὲν πρώτιστα γυναῖκά τε βοῦν τ’ ἀροτῆρα. _Op._ 403.

[20] That is to say, these feelings by themselves. As regards the first, no one, of course, would wish to deny that the sexual instinct, in its most sensual form, has often played a prominent part in what is unquestionably love-poetry; but the sexual instinct can never of itself supply the fundamental basis of the feeling necessary for the production of such poetry. Woman, regarded _merely_ as a source of pleasure or convenience, can no more be an object of love than a bottle of brandy or a railway train.

[21] Cf. Hes. _Op._ 700, _seqq._ A comparison of that passage with the types mentioned in Simonides, _i.e._ the γυνὴ γηΐνη and the γυνὴ ἐξ ὄνου, would seem to show that the sense of δειπνόλοχος is not so much ‘fishing for invitations to dinner,’ _i.e._ fond of going out (so L. and S.), as ‘waylaying dinners,’ _i.e._ making havoc of the food, like Plautus’ ‘pernae pestis.’ Wastefulness in household matters was much more likely to ‘burn up’ a Greek husband, and bring him to a ‘cruel old age,’ than any amount of frivolity or flirtation. For the idea cp. Aristoph. _Eccl._ 226.

[22]

ἡ δὲ μελίσσης
οἰκόνομός τ’ ἀγαθὴ καὶ ἐπίσταται ἐργάζεσθαι·
ἧς εὔχου, φιλ’ ἑταῖρε, λαχεῖν γάμον ἱμερόεντα.

[Phoc. _Fr._ 3.]

ἱμερόεντα sounds to a modern ear almost like bitter irony.

[23] Nor, for that matter, is the Hetaera, whom later writers manage so to idealise, treated with any more respect or courtesy than the wife. Cp. Archil. _Fr._ 142, 184; Hippon. _Fr._ 110, 111. In curious contrast to what may be called the ‘wife-poetry’ of the early Greeks is the pretty picture in Hesiod (_Op._ 517, _seqq._) of the unmarried girl, sitting at home, in every sense of the words κακῶν ἄπειρος. But strangest of all is the touch where, falling unconsciously into a manner of speech that dated from a very different social state, he calls her

οὔπω ἔργ’ εἰδυῖα πολυχρύσου (!) Ἀφροδίτης.

[24] “But even these are as nothing compared to the real gush of feeling when he describes his youthful passions, his love for Neobule, passing the Homeric love of women. Here he has anticipated Sappho and Alcaeus, &c.”—Mahaffy, _Class. Gr. Lit._ i. p. 160.

[25] Perhaps Glaucus, for there is at least as much reason for supposing that Glaucus was the object of Archilochus’ affection as that he was the object of his scorn. To see in him a prototype of the Egnatius of Catullus, as, for instance, Lafaye does (_Catulle et ses Modèles_, p. 29), is quite unwarranted by any evidence; for the epithet κεροπλάστης of _Fr._ 57 is not necessarily derogatory, while the tone of such passages as _Fr._ 54, 70, is certainly not that of invective.

[26] _Fr._ 100-3, 106-7, 109-10, 116.

[27] It may further be observed that the passage is to all appearances descriptive of the emotions of some person other than the writer himself, and there is certainly no reason to suppose that it was addressed to the woman 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.

[28] Cp. _Fr._ 71, 72.

[29] 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 (_op. cit._ l.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.

[30] 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 speak later.

[31] Ἀρχύτας δὲ ὁ ἁρμονικός, ὥς φησι Χαμαιλέων, Ἀλκμᾶνα γεγονέναι τῶν ἐρωτικῶν μελῶν ἡγεμόνα, καὶ ἐκδοῦναι πρῶτον μέλος ἀκόλαστον, (ἀκόλαστον) ὄντα καὶ περὶ τὰς γυναῖκας, καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην μοῦσαν (εἰσαγαγεῖν) εἰς τὰς διατριβάς. Athen. xiii. 600 F.

(The reading is uncertain.)

[32] It is noteworthy that Archytas (_ap._ Athen. _l.c._), when wishing to illustrate Alcman’s love for this lady, can quote nothing more pointed than the lines

τοῦθ’ ἁδεᾶν Μωσᾶν ἔδειξεν
δῶρον μάκαιρα παρσένων
ἁ ξανθὰ Μεγαλοστράτα.

[_Fr._ 37.]

[33] The fragments which may with some confidence be assigned to these, probably early, poems, are 29 and 94. Besides this, the mention of Tantalus (87, to which belongs 100) may well have been introduced by the story of Ganymede; that of Niobe’s children (109) by the story of those loves of theirs of which Sophocles afterwards wrote. The expression ἐν Θεσσαλίῳ κλείτει (85) might well in such a poem have had reference to Apollo and Admetus, whose love is held up as a model, like that of the lovers in Theocritus xii. But most striking of all, perhaps, to the modern reader, is the feeling that prompts Alcman to speak of the Spartan girls as his “female boy-friends.” (καὶ Ἀλκμὰν τὰς ἐπεράστους κόρας ἀΐτας λέγει. Hypoth. _ad Theocr._ xii.)

[34] Aristides ii. p. 40, Dind.

[35] Cp. _Fr._ 26.

[36] Alcman seems somehow to speak of girls like an old man. To think of him so, renders far more natural the charming gallantry of his lines on Agido, or the ὑποκορισμός with which his maidens speak, or his confessions of how he likes his dinner served. One can think of those Spartan girls laughing at their old Lydian dancing-master, as they ran away down to the “baths of Eurotas,” while he went slowly home and made them immortal.

[37] Anyhow, not in primitive times. One must go a long way down the history of erotic poetry to find a “love-poet” who praises two ladies with such impartiality as Alcman does Agido and Agesichora.

[38] Cp. Reitzenstein, _Epigramm und Skolion_, p. 47 _seqq._

[39] That the love thus generally recommended was purely sensual, goes without saying; the first two or three lines of the first fragment are proof enough of this.

In _Fr._ 1, l. 3, μείλιχα δῶρα is not very satisfactory, somehow. The passage in _Hymn. Hom._ x. 2, where the expression occurs again, is not quite parallel. In a less primitive poet, one would write without hesitation μείλιχ’ ἄδωρα. For this use of μείλιχα cp. Pind. _Olymp._ i. 49, and for the thought _Anth. Pal._ v. 29, &c., &c. Line 4 again might begin ἄνθε’ ἐπεί γ’ ἥβης.

[40] _Leont._ iii. 37, of which passage Poseidippus was doubtless thinking in his epigram _Anth. Pal._ xii. 168.

[41] _Leont._ iii. 27 _seqq._ 47 _seqq._ &c.

[42] Suidas, it may be remarked, flatly contradicts one half of this view when he says of Mimnermus ἔγραψε βιβλία πολλά.

[43] It is hardly justifiable to infer from the passage of Alexander Aetolus _ap._ Athen. xv. 699 C, that Mimnermus addressed love-poems to boys.

[44] It is as a philosopher that Horace (_Ep._ i. 6, 65) cites his opinion:

si, Mimnermus uti censet, sine amore iocisque
nil est iucundum;

“censet,” the regular word for a philosopher. It is further worth noticing that the Roman poets, when they mention Mimnermus, speak of him as the inventor of the elegiac metre, not as an erotic poet. Cp. _e.g._ Prop. i. 9, 11.

[45] That the ancients already recognised the importance of this particular feature in Anacreon is shown _inter alia_ by the emphasis laid upon it by Critias (_ap._ Athen. xiii. 600 D).

[46] Vide _e.g._ Athen. xii. 540 E.

[47] Striking instances of this are to be found in _Fr._ 13, 76, etc.

[48] That this tone was specially characteristic of the poems addressed to women, if not actually confined to these, is shown by the contrast which the ancient critics made between Anacreon’s two styles of poetry. Cp. Plut. _Amor._ 4, and _infra_ p. 86.

[49] The arguments of Reitzenstein, _Epig. u. Skol._ p. 81 _seqq._, to prove that its date is not later than _circa_ 400, are not very convincing.

[50] Vide Reitzenstein, _op. cit._ p. 52 _seqq._

[51] The exceptions would be the late “sophistical” pieces, such as that in praise of wealth, 699 _seqq._ etc.