d
life at home to the seclusion of married life in her husband's house. It
is noticeable that in the training provided by Ischomachus no provision
whatever is made for intellectual discipline, or for social obligations,
which leaves the reader to infer that the career of the wife was to be a
purely domestic one, and that her aspirations must be confined within
the walls of her house.

While such implicit obedience was the rule, however, there were notable
exceptions to such ingenuousness on the part of the wife, and there were
doubtless many instances where the wife was the ruling power of the
household because of mental superiority, domineering disposition, or
amount of dower. Human nature is much the same the world over, and
strong personality in women demanded expression in ancient as well as in
modern times. It is also true that there were instances of beautiful
affection between husband and wife, though the fact that such were much
talked of proves that conjugal love was the exception, not the rule.

It is a pity that we do not know more of the wives and sisters and
mothers of great Athenians, as the few of whom we know are of unusual
interest. Many wives enjoyed the hearty admiration and companionship of
their husbands. Cimon, in spite of occasional lapses on his part, had an
unusually passionate affection for his wife, Isodice, and was filled
with bitterest grief at her death. Socrates mentions Niceratus as "one
who was in love with his wife and loved by her." There is a pleasing
anecdote of Themistocles, told us by Plutarch, which shows where in his
household lay the seat of authority. "Laughing at his own son, who got
his mother, and, through his mother, his father also, to indulge him, he
told him he had the most power of anyone in Greece, 'for the Athenians
command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother
commands me, and you command your mother.'"

Plutarch also relates of the great statesman that of two who made love
to his daughter, he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich,
saying that he desired a man without riches rather than riches without a
man! The most pleasing, however, among the wives of great Athenians is
the wife of Phocion, the incorruptible, as she is presented to us in the
pages of Plutarch. The latter describes Phocion's simple way of living,
and speaks of his wife as employed in kneading bread with her own
hands. "She was," he continues, "renowned no less amon