equence, there was no polygamy and
no divorce. Monogamy could be the only sanctioned form of marriage where
such conceptions of wedded life prevailed. Concubinage existed,
especially when the husband was long absent from home; but it was looked
upon with disfavor and frequently led to unfortunate consequences, as in
the cases of Phoenix and Agamemnon. Hetairism and prostitution did not
receive in the Homeric days the recognized place that was later accorded
them in the social structure of the Greeks. The many instances of
conjugal devotion in the Iliad and the Odyssey, as seen, for example, in
Hector and Andromache, Odysseus and Penelope, Alcinous and Arete, show
the high average of marital fidelity in heroic times. There are also
many minor indications that the ties of the family were very sacred
among the Achaeans, and that conjugal affection was very strong. One of
the lamented hardships of the long siege was separation from one's wife:
"For he that stayeth away but one single month far from his wife in his
benched ship fretteth himself when winter storms and the furious sea
imprison him; but for us the ninth year of our stay here is upon us in
its course." And the prayer of Odysseus for Nausicaa shows the Greek
love of home and happy married life: "And may the gods grant thee all
thy heart's desire: a husband and a home, and a mind at one with his may
they give--a good gift; for there is nothing mightier and nobler than
when man and wife are of one heart and mind in a house, a grief to their
foes, and to their friends great joy, but their own hearts know it
best."

The view taken of adultery is a good test of the position of woman in
society. In Homeric times, adultery was regarded as the violation of a
property right. There are few harsh words in the Iliad against Helen;
all the anger of the Greeks was concentrated against Paris, who had
violated the bond of guest friendship, and had alienated his host's
property. Menelaus readily pardoned Helen, when material reparation had
been exacted; there is no moral reprehension of the adultery itself.
Clytemnestra was violently condemned, less because she yielded to the
seductions of AEgisthus than because her crime led to the murder of her
husband. There seems to have been also a natural perpetuity of the
marriage contract. To the Greeks, Helen was always the wife of Menelaus.
The ideal for the wife was single-hearted loyalty toward her husband;
faithfulness and submission