were celebrated by night, in the winter season, when the god was thought
to be absent or dead; because the vine was then withered and lifeless.
Such celebrations commemorated only grief and regret. At this season,
women of Athens left their homes and sought the slopes of Mount
Parnassus, to join the women of Delphi in savage rites celebrating the
sufferings of Dionysus. In these Bacchantes, religious fervor was
transformed into the wildest delirium. "With dishevelled hair and torn
garments they ran through the woods, bearing torches and beating
cymbals, with savage screams and violent gestures. A nervous excitement
brought distraction to the senses and to the mind, and showed itself in
wild language and gestures, and the coarsest excesses were acts of
devotion. When the Maenads danced madly through the woods, with serpents
wreathed about their arms, or a dagger in their hands, with which they
struck at those whom they met; when intoxication and the sight of blood
drove the excited throng to frenzy--it was the god acting in them, and
consecrating them as his priestesses. Woe to the man who should come
upon these mysteries! he was torn to pieces; even animals were thus
killed, and the Maenads devoured their quivering flesh and drank their
warm blood." In the ardor inspired by their mad orgies, these votaries
did not distinguish between man and beast, and a mother once tore to
pieces her son, whom she mistook for a young lion, and proudly placed on
the end of her thyrsus the bleeding head of her offspring. Euripides, in
his _Bacchanals_, has drawn a sombre picture of the excesses into which
the wine god led his inspired followers. Similar orgies, which took
their rise in Lydia, were held on the summits of Taygetus and in the
plains of Macedon and Thrace.
Though certain Attic women, under the frenzy of religious enthusiasm,
would join the Delphian women in their wild rites of Dionysus, this
orgiastic worship was never popular at Athens. The Athenian ladies much
preferred the worship of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and of
domestic life.
The Thesmophoria, the festival in honor of Demeter and her daughter,
Persephone, contrasted greatly with the Panathenaea. The latter was
public and was participated in by all; the former was secret, and only
married women could take part in it. The Panathenaea celebrated the
political and intellectual supremacy of the State, as symbolized in its
patron goddess; the Thesmophoria was the festival of domestic life, held
in honor of the goddess of virtuous marriage and the author of the
earth's fertility.
This festival was celebrated in October, at the period of the autumnal
sowing. Every citizen of Athens who possessed property to the amount of
three talents was compelled to furnish his wife with sufficient money to
enable her to celebrate the Thesmophoria; this was the extent of male
participation. For many days, the women had to prepare themselves for
the solemn rites by fasting, abstinence, and purifications; two of their
number were chosen from each tribe by their companions to prepare and
preside over the various features of the celebration. On the first day
of the Thesmophoria, the women went to the primitive seat of the
celebration at Halimus, near the promontory of Colias, not in a formal
procession, but in small groups, and at the hour of nightfall. The comic
side of the Demeter festivals exhibited itself on the way, as the
participants recognized each other with jests and raillery, recalling by
this the pleasantries with which the maiden lambe caused Demeter to
smile, when the latter was afflicted with melancholy over the loss of
her daughter; and woe to the man who met these women! for he became the
victim of the most scornful mockery and sarcasm. At Halimus, in the
sanctuary of Demeter, the mysteries were celebrated by night; the
following day was spent in taking purifying baths in the sea and in
playing and dancing on the shore. After enjoying their freedom here for
a day or more, the women set out in a long procession for Athens, while
priestesses bore in caskets on their heads the _Thesmai_, or the laws of
Demeter, whence the festival took its name.
The remainder of the celebration took place in the city, either in the
sanctuary of Demeter or on the Pnyx, which was on this occasion
exclusively turned over to the women for the celebration. The first day
after their return was called the "day of fasting," for during the whole
day the women sat in deep mourning on the ground and took no food
whatsoever, while they sang dirges and observed other customs common in
case of death; they also sacrificed swine to the infernal deities. The
rites of the next day were of a more general character. The name given
the day was "Calligenia," signifying "bearer of a fair offspring," and
on this day they offered a sacrifice to Demeter and prayed her to give
to women the blessing of fair children. We know but little of the
sacrifices, dances, and merry games which occupied this final day of the
festival. This worship of Demeter was one of the most elevating
influences in the social life of Athens; and the Thesmophoria was but a
prelude to the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, into which women
as well as men were initiated.
The ceremonies at Eleusis seem to have consisted primarily in a dramatic
representation of the beautiful legend of Demeter and Persephone, from
which many moral lessons could be drawn. Homer has preserved to us this
legend in the Homeric hymn beginning:
"I begin to sing fair-haired Demeter, a hallowed goddess,--herself and
her slim-ankled daughter whom Hades snatched away from golden-sworded
Demeter, renowned for fruits, as the maiden sported with the
deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus, culling flowers through the soft
meadow--roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, hyacinths, the iris
and the narcissus, which Earth, at the command of Zeus, favoring the
All-Receiver [Hades], brought forth as a snare to the maiden. From its
root an hundred heads sprung forth, and the whole wide heaven above was
scented with its fragrance, and the whole earth laughed, and the briny
wave of the sea. And the girl stretched out both her hands to seize the
pretty plaything, when the wide-winged earth yawned in the Mysian plain
where the all-receiving king, the many-named son of Cronus, leaped forth
with his immortal steeds and snatched her away, unwilling, in his golden
chariot, weeping and shrieking aloud, calling upon her father, the son
of Cronus."
The hymn then recounts how the goddess-mother roamed for nine days over
the earth, seeking her lost daughter, till on the tenth she learned the
truth from the all-seeing Sun. Angered at Zeus for permitting the
violence, she wandered about among men in the form of an old woman, till
at length, at Eleusis, in Attica, she was kindly received at the house
of King Celeus, and acted as nurse for his newborn son, Demophon. She
would have made the lad immortal by giving him a bath of fire; but being
surprised and prevented by the mother, she revealed her deity, and
caused to be erected in her honor a temple, in which she gave herself up
to her sorrow. In anger, she made the earth barren, and would not allow
the crops to spring up again until her daughter was allowed to spend
two-thirds of the year with her mother among the Immortals, devoting
the remaining third to her gloomy spouse in the realms of Hades. Upon
her return to Olympus, Demeter left the gift of corn, of agriculture,
and of her holy mysteries, with her host, and sent Triptolemus the
Eleusinian about the earth to make known to men the knowledge of
agriculture, of civil order, and of holy wedlock. Thus the worship of
Demeter, as the founder of law and order and marriage, became prevalent,
and exerted a most helpful influence throughout Hellas.
The mysteries of Eleusis inculcated the moral lessons which would
promote right living among the people. They were in charge of a
priesthood consisting of both men and women. The chief priest, the
hierophant, was a man of irreproachable character, and held the office
for life on condition of celibacy. The priestesses had in charge
especially the initiation of the women, but their duties were not
restricted to this.
The candidates for initiation, the Mystai, had to spend a year in
preparation. Homicides, courtesans, barbarians, all who had any stain
upon their lives, were excluded from these rites; only Hellenes "of pure
soul and pure hands" were eligible for initiation. On the days preceding
the festival, expiatory ceremonies were performed, of which the most
notable was one in which a girl or boy, styled "the child of the
hearth," performed certain rites of purification for those who were
desirous of being admitted into the mysteries. Finally, on the twentieth
day of the month Boedromion, corresponding nearly to our September, the
great procession set forth from Athens for Eleusis, along the Sacred
Way. In this procession the women took part in great numbers, and it
afforded excellent opportunities for the display of beautiful toilettes.
Aristocratic ladies were usually driven in chariots. As the crowd of
pilgrims passed over the Cephissus Bridge, there was, as in the
Thesmophoria, much banter and raillery in memory of the manner in which
the goddess was once diverted from her grief; and all along the road
there were stations for sacrifices and oblations, where the maidens
engaged in singing and graceful dances. Eleusis was finally reached at
night by torchlight, and the following days were spent by the initiated
in their religious duties and by the candidates in further preparation.
We have unfortunately but meagre glimpses into the Eleusinian mysteries,
and cannot follow the order of ceremonies. Suffice it to say that,
besides promoting good living and happiness in this life, they gave hope
for the life to come. "The man purified by initiation," says Pindar,
"has understood before his death the beginning and end of life, and
after death dwells with the gods."
In Polygnotus's famous painting of the infernal regions, in the Lesche
at Delphi, two women were represented trying to carry water in jars that
have no bottoms; an inscription states that they were never initiated,
and the moral was "that without initiation life is altogether wasted and
lost." In the worship of Demeter and in the Eleusinian mysteries there
was everything to appeal to woman--the sanctity of marriage, deified
motherhood, exaltation of the home and of domestic duties--and the zeal
manifested by Athenian women in these religious rites doubtless promoted
a feminine piety and a natural devoutness which ennobled the Athenian
home and softened parental discipline.
The Thesmophoria was the festival of the married women; but young girls
and even children had their festivals in the Brauronia and the
Artemisia, celebrated in honor of Artemis, the special patron of
virgins. The Brauronia was celebrated every fifth year, in the little
town of Brauron. Chosen Athenian maidens between the ages of five and
ten years, dressed in saffron-colored garments, went in solemn
procession to the sanctuary of the goddess, where they performed a
propitiatory rite, in which they imitated bears, an animal sacred to
Artemis. Every maiden of Athens, before she could marry, must have once
taken part in this festival and consecrated herself to the goddess.
There was also a precinct of Artemis Brauronia on the Acropolis, and
doubtless this ceremony was also performed there. Almost everywhere this
virgin goddess was revered by young girls as the guardian of their
maiden years, and before marriage it was the custom that the bride
should dedicate to Artemis a lock of her hair, her girdle, and her
maiden tunic.
Maidens also took part in the worship of the twin brother of Artemis,
Apollo, in the island of Delos, which was the birthplace of the god and
goddess. The celebration was a festival of youth and beauty, of poetry
and art. Aristocratic maidens of Athens joined with those of the seat of
the Delphian confederacy over which Athens presided in making the
occasion emphasize the power and splendor of Athens in the height of its
greatness.
"Once every five years, in the spring, a solemn festival recalled the
anniversary of the birth of the god. The maidens of Delos, wearing their
richest attire, and crowned with flowers, united in joyous chorus around
the altar, and represented in sacred dances the story of the birth of
Apollo. Others, with garlands of flowers in their hands, went to hang
them on the ancient statue of the goddess, which Theseus had, according
to tradition, brought from Crete to Delos. From all parts of Greece,
from the islands, and from Asia, solemn embassies, sacred _theoriae_,
landed in the harbor. The most brilliant was that of the Athenians, who
were long the suzerains of the island. Each year, a State vessel, the
Paralian galley, conveyed the sacred embassy to Delos; the crew was
composed of free men, the vessel decked with flowers. At the moment of
its departure, the whole town was purified; the priests of Apollo
bestowed on the galley a solemn benediction, and the law forbade that
the purified town should be defiled by any sentence of death until the
return of the vessel. The members of the embassy were chosen from the
chief families of the city, and they were accompanied by a chorus of
young men and maidens, who were to chant the sacred hymns in honor of
Apollo and perform around the altar of the Horns, one of the marvels of
Delos and of the world, an ancient and solemn dance--the _geranos_. The
day of the arrival of these theoriae was a festival in Delos. Amid the
acclamations of an enthusiastic crowd, the embassy disembarked in the
harbor; and such was the joy and impatience of the people, that
sometimes its members had not even time to don their robes of ceremony
and to crown themselves with flowers. Over the bridge wound the sacred
procession of the Athenians, with its splendidly dressed musicians, its
chorus chanting the sacred hymns, its rich offerings destined for the
god; received at the end of the bridge by the official charged with the
reception of these pious embassies, it pursued its way to the temple,
there to present its offerings and prayers, and to pour out on the altar
the blood of its hecatombs. During the rest of the day, feasts were
provided for the people, and games and contests filled the island with
the sounds of rejoicing."
After the celebration, the Paralia returned to Athens, bearing homeward
the beautiful maidens who had done honor to the god and had added to the
glory of their native city.
Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and of pleasure, also had her festivals
in which women took part. Certain of these were of a lascivious
character and were celebrated chiefly by the demi-monde; they were held
especially at the temple of Aphrodite Pandemus on the promontory of
Colias. But the ladies of Athens took part in the Adonia, in honor of
Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite. The ceremonies of the first day were of a
mournful character, as they commemorated the death of Adonis; but the
second day was one of rejoicing and entertainment, as Adonis was
conceived of as returning to life to spend six months with Aphrodite. In
his death and resurrection the changes of the seasons were poetically
symbolized. Women of the leading families were expected to participate
in the magnificent solemnities, which took place at the summer solstice.
A long procession of priests and of maidens acting as canephorse,
bearing vases for libations, baskets, perfumes, and flowers, approached
a colossal catafalque, over which were spread beautiful purple
coverlets. On these lay a statue of Adonis, pale in death, but still
beautifull Over this mournful figure a beautiful woman gave expression in
every way to the most bitter grief and sang a hymn to Adonis, telling
his sad story. The women round about were clad in mourning and
celebrated the plaintive funeral dance; while on all sides was heard the
mournful cry: "Alas! alas! Adonis is dead!"
The hymn or psalm to Adonis was a distinguished and most popular feature
of the celebration of the Adonia; Theocritus, in Idyl XV., gives its
rendering on the occasion when Arsinoe, queen of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
decorated the image of Adonis. In a later chapter of the present
volume,--that on The Alexandrian Woman,--an English version of this
psalm is given, into which the spirit of the original is most aptly
infused; and in connection therewith is a lively and forceful picture of
the attitude and manners of the ladies of the day.
XIII
GREEK WOMEN AND THE HIGHER EDUCATION
It is by no means a matter of surprise that among a people so highly
cultured as the Greeks there should be women of the highest intellectual
attainments. Sappho has already furnished us an example, and her
ascendency over her pupils was such as to start a train of influences
that stimulated her sex in every part of Hellas to engage in the study
and composition of poetry.
Furthermore, among the famous men of Hellas there were, from time to
time, ardent advocates of the higher education of women. As early as the
seventh century before the Christian era, Cleobulus, one of the seven
sages of Greece, insisted that maidens should have the same intellectual
training as youths, and illustrated his doctrine in the careful
education of his daughter, Cleobuline, who became a poetess of wide
renown.
Pythagoras, who in the sixth century founded his celebrated
philosophical sect in Southern Italy, fully recognized the equality of
the sexes and devised a system of education for women, which made his
feminine followers not only most efficient in all domestic relations,
but also preeminent in philosophical and literary culture. Plato spent
considerable time in Magna Graecia, and became imbued with the spirit of
Pythagorean philosophy. He must have been impressed with its elevating
influence on the status of woman, for in his _Dialogues_ he urged that
women should receive the same education as men, and he himself admitted
members of the gentler sex to the lectures of the Academy.
After Plato's time, accordingly, we find many women engaged in the study
of philosophy, not only among the Academicians, but also in the other
philosophical schools, especially the Cyrenaic, the Megarian, and the
Epicurean. The Peripatetic and the Stoic doctrines seem not to have
appealed to the fair sex.
Alexander's empire, in overthrowing the exclusive State laws of the
various cities, accomplished much for the emancipation of women, and
from that time forward we find women engaged in almost all the branches
of the higher learning. In Alexandria, especially, the daughters of
scholars pursued studies in philosophy, in philology, and in
archaeology, and some of them became celebrated. In the Graeco-Roman
period, Plutarch was a constant advocate of female education, and the
circle of learned women that he has made known to us indicates how
general was the spread of education among the women of his day.
Aspasia had set the fashion for hetaarae in Athens to devote attention to
rhetoric and philosophy; consequently, many of the blue-stockings of
Greece belonged to the hetaera class. Some acquaintance with the higher
learning, however, became fashionable also in the retirement of the
gynaeceum, and many maidens and matrons of honorable station employed
their leisure moments in reading the works of philosophers and poets,
and received, if not public, at least private instruction from
professional lecturers.
The variety of intellectual pursuits among the women was marked. Poetry
was their natural field, and philosophy appealed to them as being the
most learned vocation of the times. Even in the Heroic Age, women were
skilled in the uses of plants for purposes of witchcraft and of healing;
and in historic times, when medicine became a science, women engaged in
various medical pursuits. Similar tastes led many also to follow the
different branches of natural science, and in Alexandrian times, when
philology was the prevailing study, history and grammar and literary
criticism became favorite studies with the daughters of the learned.
In a previous chapter, we have described the Lesbian Sappho's seminary
of the Muses, to which maidens flocked from all Hellenic lands for the
study of poetry and art. The natural beauties of the isle of Lesbos, the
luxurious life of the aristocratic classes, the brilliancy and zeal of
Sappho herself, and her ardent affection for her girl friends, were
influences favorable to the pursuits of the Muses and the Graces.
It is not surprising that, amid such surroundings and with such a
teacher, women should acquire a love of poetry and of all that appeals
to the aesthetic nature. There is a vague tradition that there were
seventy-six women poets among the Ancient Greeks. Unfortunately, the
names of but few of these are preserved to us. We have authentic
information concerning only the nine most distinguished poetesses, to
whom the Greeks gave the title of the Terrestrial Muses.
The second of the nine Terrestrial Muses--for Sappho was, of course, the
first--was the poetess's favorite and most promising pupil, Erinna of
the isle of Telos. She aroused among Greek poets a most respectful and
tender sentiment, and they frequently sounded her praises. Her most
noted production was a poem called _The Distaff_, and the poets compared
it to the honeycomb, which the gracious bee had gathered from the
flowers of Helicon; they perceived in this production of a maiden the
freshness and perfume of spring, and they likened her delicate notes to
the sweet voice of a swan as he sings his death song--a comparison only
too just, for she died at the tender age of nineteen years. A poet of
the Anthology thus laments her untimely taking-off:
"These are Erinna's songs: how sweet, though slight!
For she was but a girl of nineteen years:--
Yet stronger far than what most men can write:
Had death delayed, what fame had equalled hers?"
The names of the next two of the Terrestrial Nine are closely associated
with that of Pindar of Thebes,--Myrtis and Corinna, the one the
instructor, the other the rival, of the great composer. Myrtis was the
eldest of the three, and probably gave instruction to her younger
contemporaries. She later entered the lists in a poetic contest with
Pindar, and for this she was censured by Corinna. The younger woman, who
defeated Pindar five times in poetic contests, gave her rival some good
advice, by which he profited in his later productions. She reproached
him for devoting too much attention to the form and neglecting the soul
of the poem. When, following her counsel, Pindar brought to her a poem
abounding in mythological allusions, Corinna smiled, and remarked to him
that in future he should "sow by the handful, not with the whole sack."
Pausanias saw the tomb of Corinna in a conspicuous part of her native
town of Tanagra; and also a picture of her in the gymnasium,
representing her binding a fillet about her head in honor of the victory
she had gained over Pindar at Thebes. But he ungallantly ascribes her
victory partly to her dialect--for she composed not in Doric, like
Pindar, but in a dialect which AEolians would understand--and partly to
her beauty; for, judging from her portrait, she was the fairest woman of
her time.
Telesilla of Argos was not only a poet, but an antique Joan of Arc as
well. Being of feeble constitution, she was told by the oracle to devote
herself to the service of the Muses, and in this salutary mental
exercise she found health and preeminence among her fellows. Famous
hymns to Apollo and to Artemis were composed by her. Her love of beauty
also inspired her with noble ideals of patriotism and self-sacrifice,
and in the crisis of the war between her native town and Sparta she
armed her countrywomen and led them forth to victory against the enemy.
As a memorial of this noble action, her statue was erected in the temple
of Aphrodite at Argos.
Praxilla of Sicyon was placed by ancient critics by the side of Anacreon
for the softness and delicacy of her verses, and she was honored in her
native city with a statue from the hand of Lysippus. She sang beautiful
songs of Aphrodite and retold in passionate verse the legend of Adonis.
The next name on this immortal list takes us to Locris, in Italy, and
down to the fourth century before Christ. Like Sappho, Nossis "of
womanly accents" is a love poetess, and twelve epigrams attributed to
her are found in the Anthology. Her poetry was symbolized by the
_fleur-de-lis_ with its penetrating perfume. In praising the portrait of
her child she sees the reflection of her own beauty, and in the epitaph
which she composed for her tomb she declares herself equal to Sappho;
hence humility cannot be classed among the many virtues which caused her
to be adored by her contemporaries.