Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-26
WOMEN IN OLD 3
The Spheres Of the Stranger Woman
and Citizen. Woman.


Contemporary Review.l
A stranger had no rights or privi-
leges in any Of the ancient States.
Amy justice that he might obtain
could be gained only by the friendly
services Of some citizen. 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
city-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 per-
suasiOn. The n 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 dangers
might arise from their presence in a
community. Political peril might
threaten the very existence of the
State if strangers, with strange tradi-
tions and foreign interests, we're to
take even the slightest part in the
management of public affairs. And
the gods might be fearfully insulted
and inhict dreadful vengeance
if any n Of these stranger-women
were to find their way into the
secret reeesses of ancestral worship
and perform some of the sacred func-
tions which only the citizen women
could perform. The Spartans accord
mgly did not permit any strangers,
male or female, to reside in their city.
These strangers might come to certain
festivals for a few days, but the period
of their stay was strictly limited.
Athens pursued a different policy.
She was a commercial city. She was
at the head, and ultimately ruler, of a
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 innum-
cradle works of art, its brilliant
dramatic exhibitions, its splendid
religious professions, its gay festivals,
its schools of philosophy, and its keen
political life. Athens could not ex-
clude strangers. 1t had therefore to
take the most stringent precautions
that this concourse of strangers should
not corrupt the pure citizen blood.
Accordingly laws were enacted which
prohibited any citiZen-man from mar
rying a stranger-woman, or any
stranger-man from marrying a citizen
woman. If the stranger-man or
woman ventured on such a helm
Gus offense any one could inform
against him or her, The culprit was
seized all his or her property was
c~oniscated, and he or she was sold
into slavery, The citizen-man or wo-
man involved in such an offense had
to suffer severe penalties. The stran-
ger-woman, therefore, could not marry.
Marriage was The only sin hal 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 cir
cumstances a numerous class of women
would betake themselves to perpetual
virginity. Ifany one had propounded
such a 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
connection with men, temporary or
permanent, except marriage, and the
Greek saw nothing in this but the or
binary outcome of human nature under
the peculiar circumstance of the case.
Besides, in Athens a special sphere
lay open for them to fill. The citizen
women were confined to their houses
and did not dine in company with the
men. But the men refused to limit
their associations with women to the
house. They wished to have women
with them in their walks, in their
banquets, in their military expedi-
lions. Their wives could not be
with them then, but there was no con.
straint on the stranger-woman. The
Greek men did not care whether the
offspring Of stranger-women was pure
or not. 1t mattered not either to the
State or to religion. There was NO
reason for combining them. And ac-
cordingly they selected these stranger
women as their companions, and
Hetaira, or companion, was the name
by which the whole class was desig-
mated. Thus arose a most unnatural
division of functions among the
women Of those days. The citizen.
women had to be mothers and house
wives-nothing more; the stranger.
women had to discharge duties O
companions, but remain outside the
pale Of the privileged and marriage.
able class. These stranger-womeI
applied their minds to their function
with various ideas of it, and various
methods. Many adopted the loves.
possible means of gaining the good
will of men but many set abou
making themselves fit companions fol
the most intellectual and most elevated
among men.
A SchOOI-BOy Story.
A correspondent Of the Boston Sat