Mulierum virtutes

Most of those that escaped from Troy at the time of its capture had to weather a storm, and, because of their inexperience in navigation and ignorance of the sea, were driven upon the shores of Italy, and, in the neighbourhood of the river Tiber, they barely escaped by running in, under compulsion, where there were anchorages and havens. While the men were wandering about the country, in search of information, it suddenly occurred to the women to reflect that for a happy and successful people any sort of a settled habitation on land is better than all wandering and voyaging, and that the Trojans must create a fatherland, since they were not able to recover that which they had lost. Thereupon, becoming of one mind, they burned the ships, one woman, Roma, taking the lead. Having accomplished this, they went to meet the men who were hurrying to the sea to save the ships, and, fearful of their anger, some embraced their husbands and some their relatives, and kissed them coaxingly, and mollified them by this manner of blandishment. This is the origin of the custom, which still persists among the Roman women, of greeting their kinsfolk with a kiss.

The Trojans, apparently realizing the inevitable necessity, and after having also some experience with the native inhabitants, who received them kindly and humanely, came to be content with what had been done by the women, and took up their abode there with the Latins.

The deed of the women of Phocis has not found any writer of high repute to describe it, yet it is not inferior in point of bravery to anything ever done by women, as is attested by imposing sacred rites which the Phocians perform even to this day in the neighbourhood of Hyampolis, and by ancient decrees. Of these events a detailed account of the achievements[*](Cf. Herodotus, viii. 27-28.) is given in the Life of Daïphantus,[*](One of Plutarch’s Lives which has not been preserved. It is No. 38 in the catalogue of Lamprias.) and the women’s part was as follows.

The Thessalians were engaged in a war without quarter against the Phocians. For the Phocians had slain on one day all the Thessalian governors and despots in their cities. Whereupon the Thessalians massacred two hundred and fifty Phocian hostages[*](Cf. Aeschines, De falsa legatione, 140.); then with all their forces they made an invasion through Locris, having previously passed a resolution to spare no grown man, and to make slaves of the children and women. Accordingly Daïphantus, Bathyllius’s son, one of the three governors of Phocis, persuaded the men to meet the Thessalians in battle, and to bring together into some one place the women with their children from all Phocis, and to heap about them a mass of faggots, and to post guards, giving them instructions that, if they learned the men were being vanquished, they should with all haste set fire to the mass and reduce the living bodies to ashes. Nearly all voted approval of the plan, but one man arose in the council and said it was only right that the women approve this also; otherwise they must reject it, and use no compulsion. When

report of this speech reached the women, they held a meeting by themselves and passed the same vote, and they exalted Daïphantus for having conceived the best plan for Phocis. It is said that the children also held an assembly on their own account and passed their vote too.

After this had been done, the Phocians engaged the enemy near Cleonae of Hyampolis, and gained the victory. To this vote of the Phocians the Greeks gave the name ofDesperation [*](Phocian Desperation, according to Pausanias, x. 1. 7.); and the greatest festival of all. the Elaphebolia in honour of Artemis, they celebrate in Hyamoolis even to this day in commemoration of that victory.

The reason which led the Chians to appropriate Leuconia as a settlement was as follows: One of the men who appear to have been prominent in Chios was getting married, and, as the bride was being conducted to his home in a chariot, the king, Hippoclus, a close friend of the bridegroom, being there with the rest amid the drinking and merry-making, jumped up into the chariot, not with intent to do anything insulting, but merely following the common custom and indulging in facetiousness. Whereupon the friends of the bridegroom killed him.

Signs of divine anger were soon disclosed to the Chians, and the god of the oracle bade them slay the slayers of Hippoclus, but they said that they all had slain Hippoclus. So the god bade them all leave the city, if they were all involved in the crime. And thus the guilty, both those who had taken a hand in the murder and those who had in any way assented to it,

being not few in number nor without strength, the Chians sent away to settle in Leuconia, which they had earlier wrested from the Coroneans and taken possession of with the co-operation of the Erythraeans.

Later, however, they became involved in war with the Erythraeans,[*](Cf. Herodotus, i. 18; Frontinus, Strategemata, ii. 5. 15.) the most powerful of the lonians; and when these marched against Leuconia, they were not able to hold out, and agreed to evacuate the town under truce, each man to have one cloak and one inner garment and nothing else. The women, however, called them cowards if they purposed to lay down their arms and go forth naked through the midst of the enemy. But when the men said that they had given their oath, the women bade them not to leave their arms behind, but to say, by way of answer to the enemy, that the spear serves as a cloak, and the shield as a shirt, to a man of spirit. The Chians took this advice, and when they used bold words towards the Erythraeans and displayed their weapons, the Erythraeans were frightened at their boldness, and no one approached them nor hindered them, but all were well pleased at their departure. So the Chians, having been taught courage by their women, were saved in this way.

A deed which does not in the least fall short of this one in bravery was performed by the women of Chios many years later at the time when Philip,[*](Philip V.; the date is probably 201 b.c.) son of Demetrius, was besieging their city, and had made a barbarous and insolent proclamation bidding the slaves to desert to him, their reward to be freedom and marriage with their owners, meaning thereby that he was intending to unite them with the wives of their masters. But the women, suddenly possessed of fierce and savage spirit, in company with

their slaves, who were themselves equally indignant and supported the women by their presence, hastened to mount the walls, both bringing stones and missiles, and exhorting and importuning the fighting men until, finally, by their vigorous defence and the wounds inflicted on the enemy by their missiles, they repulsed Philip. And not a single slave deserted to him.

Of all the deeds performed by women for the community none is more famous than the struggle against Cleomenes for Argos, which the women carried out at the instigation of Telesilla the poetess. She, as they say, was the daughter of a famous house but sickly in body, and so she sent to the god to ask about health; and when an oracle was given her to cultivate the Muses, she followed the god’s advice, and by devoting herself to poetry and music she was quickly relieved of her trouble, and was greatly admired by the women for her poetic art.

But when Cleomenes king of the Spartans, having slain many Argives (but not by any means seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven,[*](Six thousand according to Herodotus, vii. 148. Cf. also vi. 77-82. The date is put about 494 b.c. or possibly earlier.) as some fabulous narratives have it) proceeded against the city, an impulsive daring, divinely inspired, came to the younger women to try, for their country’s sake, to hold off the enemy. Under the lead of Telesilla they took up arms,[*](Found in the temples according to Moralia, 223 b.) and, taking their stand by the battlements, manned the walls all round, so that the enemy were amazed.

The result was that Cleomenes they repulsed with great loss, and the other king, Demaratus, who managed to get inside, as Socrates says,[*](Müller, Frag. Histor. Graec. iv. p. 497.) and gained possession of the Pamphyliacum, they drove out. In this way the city was saved. The women who fell in the battle they buried close by the Argive Road, and to the survivors they granted the privilege of erecting a statute of Ares as a memorial of their surpassing valour. Some say that the battle took place on the seventh day of the month which is now known as the Fourth Month, but anciently was called Hermaeus among the Argives; others say that it was on the first day of that month, on the anniversary of which they celebrate even to this day the Festival of Impudence, at which they clothe the women in men’s shirts and cloaks, and the men in women’s robes and veils.

To repair the scarcity of men they did not unite the women with slaves, as Herodotus records,[*](Herodotus, vi. 83, does not say quite this. Cf. Aristotle, Politics, v. 3. 7.) but with the best of their neighbouring subjects, whom they made Argive citizens. It was reputed that the women showed disrespect and an intentional indifference to those husbands in their married relations from a feeling that they were underlings. Wherefore the Argives enacted a law,[*](Approval by indirection!) the one which says that married women having a beard must occupy the same bed with their husbands!

At the time when Cyrus induced the Persians to revolt from king Astyages and the Medes he was defeated in battle. As the Persians were fleeing to the city, with the enemy not far from forcing their way in along with the Persians, the women ran out

to meet them before the city, and, lifting up their garments, said,[*](Cf.Moralia, 241 b, supra.) Whither are you rushing so fast, you biggest cowards in the whole world ? Surely you cannot, in your flight, slink in here whence you came forth. The Persians, mortified at the sight and the words, chiding themselves for cowards, rallied and, engaging the enemy afresh, put them to rout. As a result of this it became an established custom that, whenever the king rode into the city, each woman should receive a gold coin; the author of the law was Cyrus.[*](Cf. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, viii. 5. 21.) But Ochus,[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. lxix. (703 a).) they say, being a mean man and the most avaricious of the kings, would always make a detour round the city and not pass within, but would deprive the women of their largess. Alexander,[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, chap. lxix. (703 a).) however, entered the city twice, and gave all the women who were with child a double amount.

Before the Celts crossed over the Alps and settled in that part of Italy which is now their home, a dire and persistent factional discord broke out among them which went on and on to the point of civil war. The women, however, put themselves between the armed forces, and, taking up the controversies, arbitrated and decided them with such irreproachable fairness that a wondrous friendship of all towards all was brought about between both States and families. As the result of this they continued to consult with the women in regard to war and peace, and to decide through them any disputed matters in their relations with their allies. At all events, in their treaty with Hannibal they wrote the provision that, if the Celts

complained against the Carthaginians, the governors and generals of the Carthaginians in Spain should be the judges; and if the Carthaginians complained against the Celts, the judges should be the Celtic women.

The Melians, being in need of wide acres, put in charge of the colony to be sent forth Nymphaeus, a young man and unusually handsome. The god bade them sail, and wherever they should lose their transports to settle in that place. It came about, as they put in at Caria and went ashore, that their ships were destroyed by a storm. The Carian inhabitants of Cryassus, whether pitying their sorry plight or fearing their boldness, bade them live near themselves, and gave them a portion of their land. Later, seeing their great expansion in a short time, they plotted to make away with them, after preparing a sumptuous banquet for the purpose. It happened that a Carian maiden was in love with Nymphaeus, but nobody else was aware of this. Her name was Caphene. As the plan was being put into operation, she could not suffer Nymphaeus to be put to death, and so she disclosed to him the intention of her fellow-citizens. So, when the Cryassians came to invite them, Nymphaeus said that it was not the custom for the Greeks to go to dinner without women. When the Carians heard this, they told them to bring the women too. On this understanding Nymphaeus informed the Melians of what had been done, and told the men to go to the

place unarmed in conventional attire, but that each of the women should carry a sword in the fold of her garment and sit beside her husband or male relative. When, about the middle of the meal, the predetermined signal was given to the Carians, and the Greeks realized that the time had come, all the women at the same instant threw open the fold of their garments and the men, seizing the swords, attacked the barbarians and slew them all together. Then, taking possession of the land and razing that city, they built another, to which they gave the name of New Cryassus. Caphene married Nymphaeus and received the honour and gratitude merited by her valuable services. It is right and proper to admire both the silence and the courage of the women, and that not a single one of them among so many was led by timidity to turn coward even involuntarily.

When the Etruscans had gained possession of Lemnos and Imbros, they carried away forcibly from Brauron Athenian women, and children were born to them. These the Athenians expelled from the islands on the ground that they were in part barbarian, and they put in at Taenarum and made themselves useful to the Spartans in the war with the Helots. For this they received citizenship and the right of intermarriage, but were not deemed worthy to hold office or to be members of the Senate, and this gave colour to the idea that some radical design underlay their coming together, and that they purposed to disturb the established institutions. Accordingly the Spartans took them into custody and, shutting them up in prison, placed a strong guard

over them, seeking to convict them by clear and certain proofs. The wives of the prisoners, coming to the prison, by dint of many prayers and intreaties, were permitted by the guards to pass within just to greet and to speak to their husbands.[*](Who, according to other accounts, were to be put to death that night.) When they had gone inside they bade their husbands to change their clothing quickly, leaving their own for their wives, and then, putting on their wives’ garments, to depart with their faces covered. This done, the women waited there, prepared to face all terrors, but the guards were deceived and allowed the men to pass, supposing, of course, that they were women.

Following this, they seized the strongholds on Mount Taÿgetus, incited the body of Helots to revolt, and gladly received them as an addition to their forces. The Spartans were thrown into a great state of fear and, sending heralds, made peace with them, the conditions being that they should get back their wives, should receive money and ships, and sail away and, having found land and a city elsewhere, be considered as colonists and kindred of the Spartans. This the Pelasgians did, taking as leaders Pollis and Delphus and Crataïdas, all Spartans. A part of them settled in Melos,[*](Cf. Thucydides, v. 84.) but Pollis and his associates, with the great majority, sailed to Crete, testing the truth of the oracles. For an oracle had been given them that whenever they should lose their goddess and their anchor they should cease from their wanderings and found a city in that place. So, when they had come to anchor off that part of Crete which is called the Chersonese, panic confusion fell upon them by

night, by which they were so excited that they leaped aboard in utter disorder, leaving behind on land an ancient statue of Artemis which had been handed down to them from their ancestors, having been originally brought to Lemnos from Brauron, and from Lemnos had been carried about with them in all their journeyings. But when at sea, as the confusion subsided, they missed this, and at the same time Pollis discovered that the fluke was gone from the anchor (for apparently it had been broken off as the anchor dragged in some rocky places, without anybody’s noticing its loss), he declared that the god-given predictions were now fulfilled, and gave the signal to return. He took possession of the country, prevailed in many battles over those who ranged themselves against him, settled Lyctus, and took other cities under his control. Because of all this people regard them as related to the Athenians by descent on account of their mothers, and as colonists of the Spartans also.[*](Cf. Aristotle, Politics, ii. 10. 2.)

That which is said to have happened in Lycia sounds like a myth, yet it has some supporting testimony in the tales that are told.[*](Cf. Homer, Il. vi. 152 ff. and the scholia on Il. xvi. 328; Hyginus, Fabulae, no. 57; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, ii. 3. Is Chimarrhus a Chimaera?) Amisodarus, as they say, whom the Lycians call Isaras, arrived from the Lycian colony in the vicinity of Zeleia, bringing with him pirate ships, in command of which was Chimarrhus, a warlike man, bloodthirsty and brutal. He sailed in a vessel which had a lion as its figurehead at the prow, and a serpent at the stern. He did much evil

to the Lycians, and it was not possible to sail the sea or even to live in the cities near the sea.

This man Bellerophon slew, pursuing him with Pegasus[*](Bellerophon’s winged horse (which may be found represented on the coins of Corinth).) as he was trying to escape. Bellerophon also drove out the Amazons, but met with no just treatment; in fact, lobates was most unjust with him. Because of this, Bellerophon waded into the sea, and prayed to Poseidon that, as a requital against lobates, the land might become sterile and unprofitable. Thereupon he went back after his prayer, and a wave arose and inundated the land. It was a fearful sight as the sea, following him, rose high in air and covered up the plain. The men besought Bellerophon to check it, but when they could not prevail on him, the women, pulling up their garments, came to meet him; and when he, for shame, retreated towards the sea again,[*](Cf. Homer, Il. vi. 162.) the wave also, it is said, went back with him.

Some, attempting to explain away the mythical element in this account, assert that he did not get the sea to move by imprecations, but that the most fertile part of the plain lies below the sea-level, and Bellerophon broke through the ridge extending along the shore, which kept the sea out; then, as the ocean rushed in violently and covered up the plain, the men accomplished nothing by beseeching him, but the women, flocking about him in a crowd, met with respect, and caused his anger to subside.

Still others assert that the Chimaera, as it was called, was nothing but a mountain facing the sun, and that it caused reflexions of sunlight, fierce and fiery in the summer time, and by these, striking all over

the plain, the crops were dried up; and that Bellerophon, sensing this, cut away the smoothest part of the precipice which mostly sent back the reflexions. When, however, he met with no gratitude, in anger he turned to avenge himself upon the Lycians, but was prevailed upon by the women.

But the reason which Nymphis gives[*](Cf. Müller, Frag. Histor. Graec. iii. p. 14 (Frag. 13).) in the fourth book of his treatise about Heracleia is least mythical of all; for he says that Bellerophon killed a wild boar which was making havoc of the stock and crops in the land of the Xanthians, but obtained no fitting reward; whereupon he addressed to Poseidon imprecations against the Xanthians, and the whole plain suddenly became glittering with a salt deposit and was completely ruined, since the soil had become saline. This lasted until Bellerophon, out of respect for the women who besought him, prayed to Poseidon to give up his anger. For this reason it was the custom for the Xanthians to bear names derived not from their fathers but from their mothers.[*](Cf. Herodotus, i. 173, and the note in A. H. Sayce’s edition (London, 1883), where many of the numerous parallels are cited.)