VIII FAMILY A X D NEIGHBOURS 2OJ

a lady to be veiled.1 Sensible women are supposed to excel in
'the works of Athena', and to let men act for them.2 Worst of
all is it to speak to a crowd5 or even only to watch a gathering
of men ; women ought to remain inside the house 3 All these
restrictions are even more emphatically imposed on unmarried
girls who should not be seen at all outside, and least of all
among the crowds of an army.4 A maiden also usually wears a
veil, and it can be regarded as unmaidenly — even in a moment
of threatening death — to perform the usual gesture of a sup-
pliant by clasping a man's knee 5 There is an almost Victorian
touch about it when we hear that girls must not know of their
marriage beforehand nor talk about adulterous love-affairs.6
How weak against this chorus of public opinion seems3 for
instance, Medea's cry for a more dignified status for women!7
Why, we ask, did Euripides testify to such an extent to those
narrow views generally held? The only reasonable answer
seems to be that he had to do so In order to make his unusual
mythical situations as well as his outstanding female characters
as real and convincing as possible. In Euripides as in comedy
we can trace the realistic background of the plays, and as in
comedy it is this background which gives increased brilliance
to the great individual women on the stage.8

On the other hand, if a woman's life was restricted and ruled
by strong conventions. It was by no means useless. Above all,
the management of the household — that is to say, of a large
part of a man's property — was In the hands of the wife.9 The
Importance of the wife and mother in the life of the family and
the maintenance of the house was widely recognized.10 *No
house is clean or prosperous if the wife is absent/11 The view

I Hfk yi&jrg 12 P, 227!" - Hik 1 06 if — 4of
* Hik 1066, Iph A \%*j$ —Andr 8?6f, Tro 64,8$, frg 521
4 Ph 88ff,92ff, i93ff, 12756 Or 108
5 Ph 14.85^, Iph ~A 9925"
• Iph A 671, JS7 94$ff", Or 26
7 ^led 2 3 off", cf also 419^ 429!"
8 The reality of the background is confirmed in the fact that it needed a period
of continuous lawlessness and the terror of an unbridled and licentious soldier).
to create conditions in which S\omen were seen without \eils (yupvds1) by
crowds' (Isokr epist. 9, 10, written in 356 B c)
9 L 495, 894^ E 21 if, frg 328, cf Lysms 1, 7, Xen ciL 7,
10 Cf Eur Alk 415, 825, //>/ A ii59f,/^r 13 P, $$*&£
II Eur 13 P, 6f,