VIII	FAMILY    AND     NEIGHBOURS	197
Dikalopolis concludes his private peace for himself, but also
for his children and his wife who ^cis near to Mm'.^1 Wife and
children were the usual weeping pleaders in court - Mnesi-
lochos, who longs for his wife while he is a prisoner^ afterwards
hurries home 'to wife and children' ;^3 a man swears ^cby wife and
children*; it is of course a joke, when Dionysos, who has
neither, does so ^4 Chremylos introduces Ploutos to his wife
and only son, while his friend pictures his future wealthy life
along with wife and children.^5 A husband gets up in the night
and prepares a medicine when his wife is in pain.^6 The parents
see that their young children get their meals at the proper
time.^7 Strepsiades claims to have nursed his baby son, and he
spent the first obol of his juror's payment on a toy for him,^s
Trygaios is an equally affectionate father who promises sweets
to his little daughters, while the poor old judge needs his 'small
pay' to maintain his family of three, and therefore cannot buy
figs for his child ^9 In one traditional custom or another a boy
might be valued more highly than a girl,^1 ° but there is no sign
of this in the feelings of the parents. The father is proud of
his grown-up daughter, and allows her to kiss the money out
of his mouth.^11 One would kiss a small child by holding it by
its ears as by handles *^2 Love of children appears in such
sentences as this, 'The sun obeys the children, when they say:
Rise, dear sun!', or in the poets' descriptions of a game played
by boys in the street and of other games.^13 A number of vase-
pamtmgs confirm this interest in children and children's
games.^14
Affection for his family did not prevent a man from dining
and drinking with his friends, and from kissing the maid when
the mistress was out of the way.^15 We have emphasized in
various previous passages the great freedom which men usually
enjoyed in sexual matters. It may also have happened fre-
^1 a.i 3 if. Tins is the meaning of tffe word TrAoris used here for the wife
^2Pl38_2ff	»Thio2i, i2osf	*Fs87.
^5 PI 250,613^	^6 Th 486.	^7 frg 347
^8 C 1382^, 863f	» P i22f - W 297ff.	^10 Cf E-S49
^11A253ff,Eur HeL noiff — W.6o6
^12 Eumkos I   Such a kiss was therefore called ^uTpa
^is Strattis 46 —Plat. 153 — K 855 (with Ned's explanation), W 295!,
Kratinos4i5, Telekl i, 1 14,
^14 Cf L. Deubner, Du Antike, VI (1930), i6zff, also his Attischc Feste,