the neighbourhood of the Black
Sea, called Sauromatides, who not only ride on horseback like men, but
have enjoined upon them the use of bows and other weapons equally
with the men. And I further affirm, that if these things are possible,
nothing can be more absurd than the practice which prevails in our own
country, of men and women not following the same pursuits with all
their strength and with one mind, for thus the state, instead of being
a whole, is reduced to a half, but has the same imposts to pay and
the same toils to undergo; and what can be a greater mistake for any
legislator to make than this?

CLEINIAS: Very true; yet much of what has been asserted by us, Stranger,
is contrary to the custom of states; still, in saying that the discourse
should be allowed to proceed, and that when the discussion is completed,
we should choose what seems best, you spoke very properly, and I now
feel compunction for what I have said. Tell me, then, what you would
next wish to say.

ATHENIAN: I should wish to say, Cleinias, as I said before, that if the
possibility of these things were not sufficiently proven in fact, then
there might be an objection to the argument, but the fact being as
I have said, he who rejects the law must find some other ground of
objection; and, failing this, our exhortation will still hold good,
nor will any one deny that women ought to share as far as possible in
education and in other ways with men. For consider; if women do not
share in their whole life with men, then they must have some other order
of life.

CLEINIAS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: And what arrangement of life to be found anywhere is
preferable to this community which we are now assigning to them? Shall
we prefer that which is adopted by the Thracians and many other races
who use their women to till the ground and to be shepherds of their
herds and flocks, and to minister to them like slaves? Or shall we do
as we and people in our part of the world do--getting together, as the
phrase is, all our goods and chattels into one dwelling, we entrust them
to our women, who are the stewards of them, and who also preside over
the shuttles and the whole art of spinning? Or shall we take a middle
course, as in Lacedaemon, Megillus--letting the girls share in gymnastic
and music, while the grown-up women, no longer employed in spinning
wool, are hard at work weaving the web of life, which will be no cheap
or mean employment, and in the duty of se