Doubtless it is because an Athenian house is a “little oasis of domesticity,” tenderly guarded from all insult,—­a miniature world whose joys and sorrows are not to be shared by the outer universe,—­that the Athenian treats the private affairs of his family as something seldom to be shared, even with an intimate friend.  Of individual women we hear and see little in Athens, but of noble womanhood a great deal.  By a hundred tokens, delightful vase paintings, noble monuments, poetic myths, tribute is paid to the self-mastery, the self-forgetfulness, the courage, the gentleness “of the wives and mothers who have made Athens the beacon of Hellas”; and there is one witness better than all the rest.  Along the “Street of Tombs,” by the gate of the city, runs the long row of stele (funeral monuments), inimitable and chaste memorials to the beloved dead; and here we meet, many times over, the portrayal of a sorrow too deep for common lament, the sorrow for the lovely and gracious figures who have passed into the great Mystery.  Along the Street of the Tombs the wives and mothers of Athens are honored not less than the wealthy, the warriors, or the statesmen.

32.  The Sphere of Action of Athenian Women.—­Assuredly the Athenian house mother cannot match her husband in discussing philosophy or foreign politics, but she has her own home problems and confronts them well.  A dozen or twenty servants must be kept busy.  From her, all the young children must get their first education, and the girls probably everything they are taught until they are married.  Even if she does not meet many men, she will strive valiantly to keep the good opinion of her husband.  If she has shapely feet and hands (whereupon great stress is laid in Hellas), she will do her utmost to display them to the greatest advantage[*]; and she has, naturally, plenty of other vanities (see section 38).  Her husband has turned over to her the entire management of the household.  This means that if he is an easy-going man, she soon understands his home business far better than he does himself, and really has him quite at her mercy.  Between caring for her husband’s wants, nursing the sick slaves, acting as arbitress in their inevitable disputes, keeping a constant watch upon the storeroom, and finally in attending to the manufacture of nearly all the family clothing, she is not likely to rust in busy idleness, or sit complaining of her lot.  At the many great public festivals she is always at least an onlooker and often she marches proudly in the magnificent processions.  She is allowed to attend the tragedies in the theater.[+] Probably, too, the family will own a country farm, and spend a part of the year thereon.  Here she will be allowed a delightful freedom of movement, impossible in the closely built city.  All in all, then, she will complain of too much enforced activity rather than of too much idleness.

[*]The custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes of course aided the developing of beautiful feet.