DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0637
OF THE MISCELLANY CUSTOMS OF GREECE.
609
of discoursing with her, and endeavouring*to retain her.' (1) Persons that
divorced their wives were obliged to return their portions, as has been
observed in the foregoing chapter ; if they failed to do that, the Athenian
laws obliged them to pay her nine oboli a month for alimony, which the
woman's guardian was empowered to sue for at the court kept in the
Odeum (2). It may be observed, lastly, that the terms expressing men
and women's separation from each other were different ; men were said
sLkoks^kzw, dwohim, dimittere, to dismiss their wives, or loose them from
their obligation ; but wives, esaroXsjVsw, divertere, discedere, to leave or
depart from their husbands.
It was not unusual to dissolve the marriage-tie by consent of both par-
ties ; and that done, they were at liberty to dispose of themselves how
they pleased in a second match ; an instance hereof we find in Plutarch,
who reports, that when Pericles and his wife could not agree, and became
weary of one another's company, he parted with her, willing and con-
senting to it, to another man (3). There is somewhat more remarkable
in the story of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, who falling desperately in
love with Stratonice his mother-in-law, married her with his father's con-
sent (4). The Romans had the same custom, as appears from Cato's
parting with his wife Martia to Hortensius, which, as Strabo assures us,
was a thing not unusual, but agreeable to the practice of the old Ro
mans (5), and some other countries.
What may appear more strange, is, that it was frequent in some parts
of Greece to borrow one another's wives. At Athens, Socrates lent his
wife Xantippe to Alcibiades (6), and the laws of that city permitted heir-
esses to makeuse of their husband's nearest relation, when they found him
deficient. And we have the following account of the practice of the Spar-
tans from Plutarch (7) : ' Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, he tells us,
thought the best expedient against jealousy, was to allow men the freedom
of imparting the use of their wives to whom they should think fit, that so
they might have children by them : this he made a very commendable piece
of liberality, laughing at those who thought the violation of their bed such
an insupportable affront, as to revenge it by murders and cruel wars.
He had a good opinion of that man, who, being grown old, and having a
young wife, should recommend some virtuous, handsome young man,
that she might have a child by him to inherit the good qualities of such a
father and should love this child as tenderly as if begotten by himself.
On the other side, an honest man, who had love for a married woman,
upon the account of her modesty, and the well-favouredness of her chil-
dren, might with good grace beg of her husband his wife's conversation^
that he might have a scion of so good a tree to transplant into his own
garden ; for Lycurgus was persuaded that children were not so much the
property of their parents as of the whole commonwealth, and therefore
would not have them begotten by the first comers, but by the best men
that could be found. Thin much, proceeds my author, is certains that so
long as these ordinances were observed, the women were so far from that
scandalous liberty, which hath since been objected to them, that they
(1) Alcibiade. (4) Plutarchus Deraetrio, Valerius MajdmuSj
<a Demosthenes Orai, in Nea3r&m. Vide lib. v. cap. 7,
caput pracedens, • (5) Geograph. lib. vii.
(3) Pericle. (C) Tertulltanus Apolog. cap. 39,
(7) Lycurgo,
609
of discoursing with her, and endeavouring*to retain her.' (1) Persons that
divorced their wives were obliged to return their portions, as has been
observed in the foregoing chapter ; if they failed to do that, the Athenian
laws obliged them to pay her nine oboli a month for alimony, which the
woman's guardian was empowered to sue for at the court kept in the
Odeum (2). It may be observed, lastly, that the terms expressing men
and women's separation from each other were different ; men were said
sLkoks^kzw, dwohim, dimittere, to dismiss their wives, or loose them from
their obligation ; but wives, esaroXsjVsw, divertere, discedere, to leave or
depart from their husbands.
It was not unusual to dissolve the marriage-tie by consent of both par-
ties ; and that done, they were at liberty to dispose of themselves how
they pleased in a second match ; an instance hereof we find in Plutarch,
who reports, that when Pericles and his wife could not agree, and became
weary of one another's company, he parted with her, willing and con-
senting to it, to another man (3). There is somewhat more remarkable
in the story of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, who falling desperately in
love with Stratonice his mother-in-law, married her with his father's con-
sent (4). The Romans had the same custom, as appears from Cato's
parting with his wife Martia to Hortensius, which, as Strabo assures us,
was a thing not unusual, but agreeable to the practice of the old Ro
mans (5), and some other countries.
What may appear more strange, is, that it was frequent in some parts
of Greece to borrow one another's wives. At Athens, Socrates lent his
wife Xantippe to Alcibiades (6), and the laws of that city permitted heir-
esses to makeuse of their husband's nearest relation, when they found him
deficient. And we have the following account of the practice of the Spar-
tans from Plutarch (7) : ' Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, he tells us,
thought the best expedient against jealousy, was to allow men the freedom
of imparting the use of their wives to whom they should think fit, that so
they might have children by them : this he made a very commendable piece
of liberality, laughing at those who thought the violation of their bed such
an insupportable affront, as to revenge it by murders and cruel wars.
He had a good opinion of that man, who, being grown old, and having a
young wife, should recommend some virtuous, handsome young man,
that she might have a child by him to inherit the good qualities of such a
father and should love this child as tenderly as if begotten by himself.
On the other side, an honest man, who had love for a married woman,
upon the account of her modesty, and the well-favouredness of her chil-
dren, might with good grace beg of her husband his wife's conversation^
that he might have a scion of so good a tree to transplant into his own
garden ; for Lycurgus was persuaded that children were not so much the
property of their parents as of the whole commonwealth, and therefore
would not have them begotten by the first comers, but by the best men
that could be found. Thin much, proceeds my author, is certains that so
long as these ordinances were observed, the women were so far from that
scandalous liberty, which hath since been objected to them, that they
(1) Alcibiade. (4) Plutarchus Deraetrio, Valerius MajdmuSj
<a Demosthenes Orai, in Nea3r&m. Vide lib. v. cap. 7,
caput pracedens, • (5) Geograph. lib. vii.
(3) Pericle. (C) Tertulltanus Apolog. cap. 39,
(7) Lycurgo,