The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-04-30
Stranger women in Ola Greece.
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Stranger women iu Ola Greece.
Contemporary Review.l
A stranger had no rights or privileges
in any of the ancient States. Any Justice
that he might obtain could be gained
only by the friendly service of some cit
izen. If this was true of the man
stranger, it was also true of the woman
stranger. She was not entitled to the
protection of the eity-State. No laws
were made for her benefit. She had to
look after her own interests herself or get
some man to do it for her by her own
arts of persuasion. The one object that
the State kept before it in regard to
these stranger-women was to see to it
that they did not in any way corrupt
the purity of the citizen blood.
The statesmen thought that great dam
gers might arise from their presence in
community. Political peril might
threaten the very existence of the State
if strangers, with strange traditions and
foreign interests, were to take even the
slightest part in the management of
public affairs. And the gods might be
fearfully insulted and infict dreadful
vengeance if any one of these stranger
women were to find her way into the
secret recesses of ancestral worship and
perform some of the sacred functions
which only the citizen women could per-
form. The Spartans accordingly did not
permit any strangers, male or female, to
reside in their cities. These strangers
might come to certain festivals for few
days but the period of their stay was
strictly limited. Athens pursued diff
ferent policy. She was commercial city.
She was at the head, and ultimately
ruler, of large confederacy of Greek
States which sent their taxes to her. Be-
sides, the city itself was full Of attrac-
tions for the stranger, with its innumer-
able works of art, It's brilliant dramatic
exhibitions, its splendid religious process,
sions, its gay festivals, its schools OF phi
losophy, and its keen political life.
Athens could not exclude strangers. 1t
had therefore to take the most stringent
precautions that this concourse ei
strangers should not corrupt the pure
citizen of blood. Accordingly laws
were enacted which prohibited any citi,
zen-man from marrying stranger
woman or any strangcr-man IRON marry
ing citizen-woman. If the stranger
man or woman ventured on such helm
Gus ofense any one could inform against
him or her. The cuIprit was seized, all
his or her property was confiscated, and
he or she was sold into slavery. The
citizen-man or woman involved in such
an oiiense had to suffer severe penalties.
The strangcr-women, therefore, could
not marry. Marriage was the only
sin that they could commit politically
in the eye of an Athenian statesman,
They might do anything else that they
liked. Now it is not conceivable that in
such circumstances a numerous class OF
women would betake themselves to per,
pctual virginity. If any one had pro.
pounded such sentiment the Greek
mind would have recoiled from it as un,
natural, and plainly contrary to the will
of the gods. And accordingly these
women might form any other connec-
tions with men, temporary or permanent,
except marriage, and the Greek saw
nothing in this but the ordinary outcome
of human nature under the peculiar cir.
cumstances of the case. Besides, in
Athens special sphere lay open for
them to fill The citizen-women were
confined TO their houses and did not dino
in company with the men. But the mer
refused to limit their associations with
women to the house.
They wished to have women with then
in their walks, in their banquets, in thei
military expeditions. The wives coul(
not be with them then, but there was NJ
constraiut on the strangcrwomen. Th'
Greek men did not care whether the of
spring of stranger-women was pure 0
not. 1t mattered not either to the Stat
or to religion. There was no reason 70
confining them. And accordingly the,
selected these stranger-women as thei
companions, and Hetaera, or companion
was the name by which the whole elias
was designated. Thus arose most IN
natural division of functions among tn
: women of those days. The citizen-wome
had TO be mothers and housewives-notl
: ing more; the stranger-women had to dis
charge duties of companions, but renal
outside the pale of the privileged an
marriageable class. These stranger
women applied their minds to their funt
ton, with various ideas of it, ard variou
: methods. Many adopted the lowest po,
; sible means of gaining the goodwill q
men; but many set about making then
selves fit companions for the most int
lectual and most elevated among men.