s striking and peculiar, and in some
directions remarkably free, and thus offering many points of interest
not less important in their significance to us than what we have seen
already in Egypt and in Babylon.

In speaking of the Hellenic woman I can select only a few facts; to
deal at all adequately with so large a subject in briefest outline is,
indeed, impossible. I shall not even try to picture the marriage and
family relationships, which offer in many and varied ways a wide and
fascinating study; all that I can do is to point to some of the
conditions and suggest the conclusions which seem to arise from them.
Glancing first at the women of the Homeric[254] period we find them
represented as holding a position of entire dependence, without rights
or any direct control over property; under the rule of the father, and
afterwards of the husband, and even in some cases humbly submissive to
their sons. Telemachus thus rebukes his mother: "Go to thy chamber;
attend to thy work; turn the spinning wheel; weave the linen; see that
thy servants do their tasks. Speech belongs to men, and especially to
me, who am the master here." And Penelope allows herself to be
silenced and obeys, "bearing in mind the sage discourse of her
son."[255] This is the fully developed patriarchal idea of the duties
of the woman and her patient submission to the man.

Now, if we look only at the outside of such a case as this it would
appear that the position of the Homeric woman was one of almost
complete subjection. Whereas, as every one knows, the facts are far
different. The protection of the woman was a condition made necessary
in an unstable society of predominating military activity. Apart from
this wardship, women very clearly were not in a subordinate position
and, moreover, never regarded as property. The very reverse is the
case. Nowhere in the whole range of literature are women held in
deeper affection or receive greater honour. To take one instance,
Andromache relates how her father's house has been destroyed with all
who were in it, and then she says: "But now, Hector, thou art my
father and gracious mother, thou art my brother, nay, thou art my
valiant husband."[256] It is easy to see in this speech how the early
ideas of relationships under mother-right had been transferred to the
husband, as the protector of the woman, conditioned by father-right.

Again and again we meet with traces of the older customs of the
mother-age. The i