women, on the contrary, are condemned to an almost Oriental seclusion.
How these conditions arose becomes clear, when we remember that the
prominent idea regulating all the legislation of the Greeks was to
maintain the permanence and purity of the State. In Sparta the first
of these motives ruled. The conditions in which the State was placed
made it necessary for the Spartans to be a race of soldiers, and to
ensure this a race of vigorous mothers was essential. They had the
wisdom to understand that their women could only effectively discharge
the functions assigned to them by Nature by the free development of
their bodies, and full cultivation of their mental faculties. Sappho,
whose "lofty and subtle genius" places her as the one woman for whose
achievement in poetry no apology on the grounds of her sex ever needs
to be made, was of AEolian race. The Spartan woman was a huntress and
an athlete and also a scholar, for her training was as much a care of
the State as that of her brothers. Her education was deliberately
planned to fit her to be a mother of men.

It was the sentiment of strict and zealous patriotism which inspired
the marriage regulations that are attributed to Lycurgus. The
obligation of marriage was legal, like military service.[264] All
celibates were placed under the ban of society.[265] The young men
were attracted to love by the privilege of watching (and it is also
said assisting in) the gymnastic exercise of naked young girls, who
from their earliest youth entered into contests with each other in
wrestling and racing and in throwing the quoit and javelin.[266] The
age of marriage was also fixed, special care being taken that the
Spartan girls should not marry too soon; no sickly girl was permitted
to marry.[267] In the supreme interest of the race love was regulated.
The young couple were not allowed to meet except in secret until after
a child was born.[268] Brothers might share a wife in common, and wife
lending was practised. It was a praiseworthy act for an old man to
give his wife to a strong man by whom she might have a child.[269] The
State claimed a right over all children born; each child had to be
examined soon after birth by a committee appointed, and only if
healthy was it allowed to live.[270]

Such a system is no doubt open to objections, yet no other could have
served as well the purpose of raising and maintaining a race of
efficient warriors. The Spartans held their supremacy in