e undertook for Polynices[198] clearly shows that the tie of
the common womb was held as closer than the tie of marriage; and this
points to the conditions of the communal clan.

[195] Plutarch, _Apophthegms of the Lacedaemonians_, LXV.

[196] Pausanias, III, 20 (10), (Frazer's translation).

[197] Herodotus, III, 119.

[198] Sophocles, _Antigone_, line 905 _et seq._

Andromache, when she relates to Hector how her father's house has been
destroyed, with all who are in it, turns to him and says: "But now,
Hector, thou art my father and gracious mother, thou art my brother,
nay, thou art my valiant husband."[199] It is easy, I think, to see in
this speech how the early idea of the relationships under mother-right
had been transferred to the husband, as the protector of the woman
conditioned by father-right. As in so many countries, the patriarchal
authority of the husband does not seem to have existed in Greece at
this early stage of development. It may, however, be said that all
this, though proving the high status of women in the prehistoric
period, does not establish the existence of the maternal family. I
would ask: how, then, are these mother-right customs to be explained?
In the later history of Greece, with the family based on patriarchal
authority, all this was changed. We find women occupying a much less
favourable position, their rights and freedom more and more
restricted. In Sparta alone, where the old customs for long were
preserved, did the women retain anything of their old dignity and
influence. The Athenian wives, under the authority of their husbands,
sank almost to the level of slaves.[200]

[199] _Iliad_, VI, 429-430.

[200] _The Truth about Woman_, pp. 210-227.

The patriarchal system is connected closely in our thought with the
Hebrew family, where the father, who is chief, holds grouped under his
despotic sway his wives, their children, and slaves. Yet this Semitic
patriarch has not existed from the beginning; numerous survivals of
mother-right customs afford proof that the Hebrew race must have
passed through a maternal stage. These survivals have a special
interest, as we are all familiar with them in Bible history, but we
have not understood their significance. It is possible to give a few
illustrations only. In the history of Jacob's service for his wives,
we have clear proof of the maternal custom of _beenah_ marriage. As a
suitor Jacob had to buy his position a