FAMILY A X D NEIGHBOURS

father's old age easy and pleasant, and that the worst thing
Pheidippides could do was to threaten his father and even his
mother with a beating.1 Mothers claim that they know best
how to take care of their soldier sons.2 A son who left his
father's house is aware of his indebtedness to his father for
bringing him up.3 To honour one's parents was one of the
fundamental commandments of Greek ethics, and in tragedy
particularly there are many examples of the fulfilment or the
claims of that duty On the other hand, it is known that in
general 'guardians and relatives' did not take much care of an
old man, and a son sometimes behaved in the same way
towards his father 4 However, family feeling and love of
children were strong among the Athenians, and that could not
have been the case unless women were highly esteemed in
their role of wife, mother and housekeeper. This ideal of
woman culminates in the absurd housewifely perfection of
Ischomachos' 'dear little impulsive wife' in Xenophon's Otkono-
mtkos.* Tender and gentle feelings for wife and children have
found a more adequate representation, more beautiful and also
more eloquent than in comedy, in the lovely family-scenes of
vase-paintings and the touching sadness of gravestones and
white lekythoi (see Plate XVI).6

It was, of course, something of a hindrance to family life
that men's normal life, much more than in our northern
countries, took place outside the house. Frequently the man
spent the whole day in the market, in court or assembly.7
By serving in court he earned his and his family's living, and
it was often the man who went to the market and did the
necessary shopping.8

This, however, was not always the case. For a larger house-
hold a slave, who could be called the 'caterer', made the pur-
chases3 and even a citizen of limited means might have a slave-
girl who went regularly to the market.9 Another man found
fault with his wife, when she came back tired from a women's

* E 233f

3sdesp. 371 4 W 73 if

5 Cf.T. R Glover, Greek Byways, 1 59
8 Cf also the charming book by E. Buschor, Grab emts attischen Madchem

~W493f,B.5oiff, L.$6o,frg 545, Plat 190,193
s 6\|KjbvrŁ, frg. 503, Pherekr. 126, — Lysias I, 8; 16.