The Athenian and the Spartan were almost the opposite in character. The Athenians were refined, patriotic and brave, but at the same time fickle and changing. The Spartans were as patriotic and brave, or even braver, than the Athenians, but they were fixed and knew no change. The Athenians cultivated letters and the finer arts, while the Spartans practiced rigid, practical utilitarianism. The Athenians engaged in employments and amusements, but the Spartans did but little work, had few amusements, and spent their time mostly in military training. The Spartans were cruel in disposition, as was shown in their bearing toward the helots or slaves, as they greatly oppressed them and often put them to death; while the Athenians treated their slaves kindly.

In the cities the houses were built together, with only party-walls between them. They were narrow in front but extended back to quite a depth. They were, as a rule, built on the street but sometimes there was a small space in front. The door opened out on to the street, instead of inward, and it was a custom for any one going out to knock on the door to avoid opening out against some one passing along the street.

The walls of the houses were a framework of wood, sun-dried brick, or common stone, and covered with stucco. The roofs generally were flat, made of beams laid close together and covered with cement. In the early period the walls were plain on the inside and the ground served for a floor, but later there were decorated walls and mosaic floors.

There were two principal divisions in the interior of the houses, the one for the men and the other for the women, the women's apartments being back of the men's. The rooms were built around one or more open courts, by means of which light and air were admitted to the house. The homes were furnished with chairs and tables and couches and lamps and other household furniture and the kitchens were provided with pots and pans and bowls and sieves and many other articles.

In Sparta the state was everything. Strong and vigorous men were needed to protect the state and so must be provided for military life, and the mothers who were to bear them must be strong and courageous. The girls and women were allowed much greater freedom than in other parts of Greece. The girls received vigorous training, such as was given to the boys, having contests among themselves and even sometimes with the boys. In some of these contests the girls had to divest themselves of their apparel and appear thus before the public. This coming in contact with the males, the great freedom allowed to them, and the vigorous training did not spoil the purity of the girls, for adultery was scarcely known in Sparta. Nor did the training impair their physical appearance, as the Spartan women were noted for their beauty of person, although on account of the vigorous physical training this beauty was somewhat of a masculine type.

Women in Athens were treated quite differently to what they were in Sparta. There was seemingly a contempt by the men for the women and especially so among the leaders and rulers. "The most enlightened of the Greeks limited the duties of a good wife, housewife, and mother, to the following points: 1. That she should be faithful to her husband. 2. That she should go abroad and expose herself to the view of strangers as little as possible. 3. That she should take care of what the husband acquired, and spend it with frugality; and, 4. That she should pay maternal attention to the younger children of both sexes, and keep an incessantly watchful eye upon her grown-up daughters."155

In Athens the women were closely watched and carefully guarded. They were usually placed in the back part of the house and in the highest rooms, and for the most part the women and girls passed their time in the apartments allotted to them. There was no intercourse between young men and young women. Women were considered men's inferiors and they were thought little better than the slaves and they had but little more influence with the men. Woman was looked upon as an entirely lower being intellectually than man, and so not a fit companion for him in public life. When men outside the household were present in the home, the women were expected to seclude themselves. When a dinner was being given the company consisted entirely of men and the wife kept herself and her children in the women's quarters. The young women rarely went from home. Even if it was necessary for them to appear in public religious ceremonies, they did not take part in common with the other sex but acted apart from them.

Thus the training of the Athenian girl and that of the Spartan girl were quite in contrast and while the Athenian girl grew up to be a pale, slender lady, but little versed in the ways of the world, the Spartan girl grew up to be a vigorous, robust, healthy woman, ready even to take part in public debate if necessary. Yet there was at least one class of women in Athens not secluded, for "in the London market of Billingsgate it is the fishwomen who have been notorious for abusive language; at Athens it was the bread-women."156

A discussion of the women of Greece could not be complete without including the much discussed but little understood class known as the Hetairai, the stranger-women of Athens. Whether they were simply courtesans or whether they were women seeking freedom from the restraints and seclusion of the wife or whether they were both courtesans and seeking freedom and education, they certainly exercised a remarkable influence in Greece.

There were two classes of women at Athens, the first class being the wives and mothers, the citizen-women of Athens, and the other class being the stranger-women. Athens did not exclude strangers and indeed it was an attractive place to foreigners. "The city itself was full of attractions for the stranger, with its innumerable works of art, its brilliant dramatic exhibitions, its splendid religious processions, its gay festivals, its schools of philosophy, and its keen political life."157 Although they did not exclude strangers from the city, yet they did exclude them from governing citizenship. Nor was a citizen, male or female, allowed to marry a stranger and severe penalties were inflicted on those who broke this law. Since the stranger-women could not marry Athenian men, they had to gain their companionship by other means. The citizen-women, the native women of Athens, were not allowed the company of men nor were they given high accomplishments. "The names of these wives are not to be found in history. But the influence of the Companions came more and more into play. Almost every famous man, after this date, has one Companion with whom he discusses the pursuits and soothes the evils of his life. Plato had Archeanassa, Aristotle Herpyllis, Epicurus Leontium, Isocrates Metaneira, Menander Glycera, and others in like manner. And some of them attained the highest positions.... Some were renowned for their musical ability, and a few could paint. They cultivated all the graces of life; they dressed with exquisite taste; they took their food, as a comic poet remarks, with refinement, and not like the citizen women, who crammed their cheeks, and tore away at the meat. And they were witty. They also occupied the attention of historians."158 "Thus arose a most unnatural division of functions among the women of those days. The citizen-women had to be mothers and housewives—nothing more; the stranger-women had to discharge the duties of companions, but remain outside the pale of the privileged and marriageable class."159

The two most noted of the hetairai were Aspasia and Phryne. "Phryne, the most beautiful woman that ever lived, attracted the eyes of all Greece; Apelles painted her, and Praxiteles made her the model for the Cnidian Aphrodite, the most lovely representation of woman that ever came from sculptor's chisel."160 "Aspasia, the beautiful, accomplished, and highly gifted woman, a native of Miletus, first the mistress and subsequently the wife of Pericles, exercised an influence and a power in Greece very greatly superior to any ever exercised there by any other woman. She was endowed with a mind more beautiful than her beautiful form. Her genius drew around her all those who had a taste for the beautiful, or a desire to cultivate their minds. At her house, eloquence, politics and philosophy were daily discussed, and ladies of the highest rank resorted thither to acquire some of the accomplishments by which she was distinguished. Large concessions must certainly be made to the mind that could be a fit companion for Pericles, and could teach rhetoric to Socrates."161

Marriage had to be with the consent of the parents. The young woman had no control over her person as she was under the charge of her father, and upon his death of a brother, and in case of no brother then the grandfather, and last her guardian. The father not only had power over his daughter's marriage in his lifetime but also after his death as he could bequeath her by will. And yet more, for upon his deathbed he could betroth his wife to another person and even he could bequeath her in his will to another.

In order for the children to be legitimate both parties had to be citizens of the state, and equality of birth and wealth were the chief considerations. The man could not marry in the direct line of his own descent, yet he could marry his half-sister on his father's side, which was rarely done. There was usually some years of difference in the age of bride and groom, the young woman being from fifteen to twenty and the young man from twenty-four to thirty. Marriages were most frequent in the winter, January being the favorite month, and when the omens were favorable, the most favorable being at the time at which there happened to be a conjunction of the sun and the moon. The selections and arrangements were usually made by the father or the guardian but often a professional matchmaker was employed, who was well informed in regard to the marriageable young people. When the marriage was determined upon, the betrothal took place, which was made by the legal guardian of the young woman and in the presence of friends and relatives of both parties, the dowry of the wife being agreed upon at the time.

In ancient Greece the lover would often write the name of his loved one on walls and columns and carve it on trees. He would even write the beloved name on the leaves of the trees. The lover would send verses to his lady love. He would decorate her door with flowers and garlands. He would wear a wreath on his head awry or wear it untied, as a token of his being in love. Sometimes the lover would make an image of wax, call it by the name of his loved one, and place it near a fire, as the heat was supposed to melt the hard heart of her he loved as it melted her wax image.

Love potions were in common use as were also antidotes to love. "Some herbs were made use of for this purpose, also insects bred from putrid matter; the lamprey, the lizard, the brains of a calf, the hair on the extremity of the wolf's tail, with some of his secret parts, and the bones of the left side of a toad eaten by ants. The bones on the right side were supposed to cause hatred. Besides these, were also used the blood of doves, the bones of snakes, the feathers of screech owls, and bands of wool twisted upon a wheel, more especially such as had been bound about a person that hanged himself.... The Greeks also professed to have the means of allaying the passion of love, at least of that species of it which originated from magical incantations. The antidotes were of two kinds. The one consisted of those substances which possessed some natural virtue, to which the production of the effect might be attributed, as the herbs which were supposed enemies to generation. The other included all such as wrought the cure by some occult or mystical power, and by the assistance of demons. As instances of this latter, may be cited the sprinkling of the dust in which a mule had rolled herself, and the confining of toads in the hide of a beast lately slain. Another method of curing love, was to wash in the water of the river Selemnus."162

In the Homeric time in Greece, the suitor paid the father for his bride, thus purchasing her. But in later times this was entirely changed and the bride was expected to bring a dowry with her. Among the wealthy this dowry was supposed to consist partly in cash and partly in clothes, jewelry, and slaves. The husband had to give security for it, as in case of divorce it was returned to the bride or to her parents and in case of her death it did not go to the husband but to the nearest of kin. Where there was a daughter of a poor, deserving citizen, and especially if her ancestors had been serviceable to the state, she was provided a dowry by the state. Sometimes the dowry was given to such a girl by a number of citizens. The dowry was supposed to give the wife better standing and thus bring more respect from the husband and greater freedom. A woman might carry so great dowry to her husband as to make her the stronger partner and so be able to have her husband in submission to her and her money.

The day of the wedding having arrived, offerings were made to the deities that protected marriage, the oath of fidelity was taken, and the father declared that he gave his daughter to the man. The bride and bridegroom both were bathed, at Athens the water being taken from a famous fountain, and they were dressed in their wedding-garments, both bride and bridegroom being richly adorned and wearing upon their heads garlands of various herbs and flowers. The bride was then led from her home and placed in a chariot between the bridegroom and his best man. They then drove slowly through the streets, the bride's mother following them and carrying the wedding torches, kindled at the parental hearth, and a procession of relatives and friends followed. At the bridegroom's home the axle-tree of the chariot was broken or burned, to designate that the bride having found a new home would never return to her old home. The bridegroom's house was decked with garlands and brilliantly illuminated. The couple were met by his mother bearing torches, and surrounded by a group of dancing-girls they came to the door, and at the threshold the bride made a pretense of not wishing to enter, when the bridegroom seized her and carried her inside, seeing that her feet did not touch the sill. All then partook of a feast, consisting of wines, meats, sweetmeats, and wedding-cake, the women with the veiled bride among them sitting apart from the men. The final ceremony consisted in the eating of a quince by husband and wife together, to signify, perhaps, because of the bitter-sweetness, that they should partake of the sweets and bitters of life together, our "for better or worse." Then the guests departed and the couple entered the bridal chamber, where for the first time the bride unveiled herself to her husband. At the last the bridal hymn was sung before their door by a chorus of maidens. The next morning the chorus returned and saluted the married couple with songs. This was the day of "unveiling," as the bride unveiled herself, and the newly married couple spent the entire day in receiving visits with salutations and presents from their friends.

"The marriage ceremonies of the Spartans differed from those of all the other Greeks. Instead of having a public celebration, everything was there done in as private a manner as possible. When everything had been settled between the parties, the bridegroom at night made a secret visit to his bride at her father's house. Before day he returned to his comrades, at the gymnasia, and never, for a long time, visited his wife except at night and by stealth, as it was accounted a disgrace to be seen coming out of his wife's apartment. They sometimes lived in this clandestine manner for years, not unfrequently having children by their wives before they ever saw their faces by daylight."163

As citizenship was limited in the states of Greece, it became highly important that the citizens should perpetuate the state by marrying and having children. So the state would encourage marriage and make it honorable and likewise almost compulsory and unmarried men would not be wanted nor would marriage deferred till late in life be considered the best for the state. In both Athens and Sparta bachelors were subject to a legal penalty. In Athens those who held public office and were entrusted with public affairs had to be married, to have children, and to have estates in land. Sparta was quite severe on the bachelors. If a man delayed marriage after a specified age, he subjected himself to a number of penalties. One was for once each winter to go naked around the market-place and sing a song ridiculing his bachelorhood. Such men were not permitted to be present at the contests wherein young women engaged in a nude condition. Upon the celebration of a certain solemnity, the bachelors were dragged around the altar by the women who beat them with their fists. When these men became old they were not accorded that high respect which the young of Sparta was accustomed to pay to the aged.

Monogamy was early established in Greece as the basis of society. There were some instances of polygamy or rather concubinage in the early ages and on some occasions where large number of men were lost in war or from other causes. This might have been resorted to in order to replenish the state but this was of rare occurrence.

In early times in Greece divorce was in the hands of the husband and he could exercise it whenever he felt that he was justified but in later times this right was somewhat restricted. The Spartans seldom divorced their wives. In Athens divorce was easy for the man, but a bill of divorce was required to be presented to the magistrate in which the reasons for the divorce were set forth. They would, no doubt, have been more frequent had it not been that in divorce the husband had to restore the dowry to the wife or pay her a sum each month for her support. For a man to divorce his wife was considered a great dishonor to her. It was difficult for a woman to procure a divorce, Athens being more favorable to women in this respect than the other states of Greece. But here she had to present a bill of grievances to the magistrate and it required his action before separation could take place. "The terms expressing the separation of men and women from each other were different. The men were said to dismiss their wives; to loose them from their obligations; to cast them out; to send them away; to put them away. If a woman left her husband, it was termed simply to depart from him."164

Boys commonly wore only the chiton. The young men, from the age of seventeen to twenty, called the ephebi, instead of the himation wore the chlamys, which was an oblong cloth, thrown over the left shoulder and the open ends were fastened over the right shoulder with a clasp. The himation of Sparta was smaller than that at Athens, scarcely covering the person, and which was called the tribon. The women wore the chiton and the himation and in addition they wore another garment over the chiton, called the crocotos, which sometimes had sleeves and was of a rich purple or saffron color and frequently had a broad border of embroidery. The Doric maidens usually wore but a single loose woolen garment. It was without sleeves and fastened over the shoulders with clasps. It usually extended about half way to the knees, it was worn with or without a girdle, and the left side was left open, which might or might not have been fastened with a buckle or clasp.

The garments were made of linen, cotton, or wool, and in later times silk also was used. White was, perhaps, the prevailing color and yet many colors were used, as, purple, red, green, yellow, gray, brown, olive, azure, cherry, and changeable colors. If the entire dress was not colored, it might have had colored borders, embroidery, or stripes, worked in or sewed on, and sometimes there were fringes or tassels. The undergarment, in time of mourning, was sometimes black.

The Greeks, both men and women, were especially careful of the hair. The men wore their hair and beard long and they had the hair curled or braided and bound up in a large bunch on top of the head or it might be arranged along the forehead and kept in place with golden grasshoppers. Dandies went to extremes and let their hair grow till it fell down on the shoulders. Most of the men had thick hair. In the cities the men usually went bareheaded but sometimes they wore hats or caps, when at work and on journeys.

The Grecian women for the most part had long, rich hair and, naturally, they took even more care of it than did the men with their hair. Sometimes it was allowed to fall loosely down the back; sometimes the hair was combed over the back in waving lines and a ribbon tied around the head; it might be that the front hair was combed back over the temples and ears and tied at the back of the head in a knot, held in place with hairpins of ivory, bronze, bone, gold, or silver; and there were many other ways of keeping the hair.

The hair of children was carefully attended to. The girls' hair was often twisted into artistic curls and then drawn together over the forehead and held by a fancy comb. In Sparta the boys' hair was kept short till their majority had been reached, when it was allowed to grow long. Among the Athenians the hair of the boys was permitted to grow till they had reached maturity, when it was cut off and burned to some deity, after which it was allowed to grow long again.

There were oils, perfumes, ointments, and essences for the hair. Curling-irons were in use for curling the hair. Powders were used on the hair and especially the kind that gave it an auburn color. There were dyes for the hair and they were well resorted to. Nets were used by the ladies to enclose their hair, and veils of a light fabric and of transparent texture were worn. On festive occasions wreaths and garlands were worn by both men and women.

Among the Greeks the hands were not usually covered, gloves rarely being worn. The feet were not covered in the house and even sometimes in the street there was no covering to the feet. There was a great variety of foot-wear from the simple sandal to the high boot, the three main kinds being the sandal, the shoe, and the boot.

The sandal was the simplest form of foot-covering. This consisted of a sole of wood or leather, or it might be two pieces of leather with a piece of cork between. This was held on the foot by means of a strap or thong passing between the big toe and the next and running back along the top of the foot and fastened to another strap going over the instep and another that passed round the back of the heel. Occasionally slippers were worn, which among the women were ornamented with needle work.

From the sandal was evolved the half shoe, covering the front part of the foot, and then the shoe, covering all the foot, which arose from the addition of a closed heel and smaller or larger side-pieces sewed to the sole. The working-people of both town and country had the soles studded with iron nails, while the dandy in the city might have had gold or silver nails in his shoes. The women regulated their stature, increasing or diminishing the height, by means of high or low heels and soles of different thickness. The children at Athens began to wear shoes at an early age. In the boot the covering reached to the calf of the leg, open in front, and fastened with laces.

In the footwear was where novelty and taste was shown by the Greeks. There was fashion in shoes and they often were named for those who originated the styles. They were very careful about neatness of fit and appearance. It was not considered good taste to wear patched or mended shoes. Black, white, and colored shoes were worn. Blacking was used, which was a kind of polish. The material was usually leather but felt also was used and slippers were sometimes made of linen. Socks and stockings seem to have been worn, but they were not in common use.

In the heroic times of Greece, as described by Homer, men wore earrings, necklaces, armlets, fancy girdles, hair ornaments, and finger-rings. In later times all these were discarded except the finger-rings, and these were usually signet rings. The women continued to use all kinds of ornaments. They wore both signet and jeweled rings on their fingers, some of the latter being set with beautiful and costly jewels; they wore necklaces of many patterns, varying from the simple ring to elaborate pendants; they wore armlets, bracelets, and anklets, usually in the form of spiral snakes; they wore a diadem or fillet to keep the hair in place; they wore ornamented girdles. The ornaments mentioned above were usually of gold and adorned with gems, as they used many kinds of precious stones.

The ladies dyed their hair and bleached it and increased its amount by adding other hair; they used tooth-powder; they blackened their eyebrows; a dark complexion was whitened and one too pale was rouged; their lips were touched with vermillion. To aid in this decorating, they had mirrors, which were made of bronze and usually circular, either without a handle or with one richly adorned.

The ladies had parasols, much like the ones at present, which could open and shut by means of wires, and which they carried themselves or had servants to hold over them. They had fans of peacocks' feathers or of thin light wood. Canes were used by the men both in Sparta and Athens, which were mostly of great length and with crook handles.

The ladies of Old Greek times well understood how to adorn, enhance, and remodel the human figure. As was stated above, they hung on to the figure all kinds of ornaments—rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, etc.; they could curl and dye and increase the amount of hair; they painted and powdered the cheeks and eyebrows and lips; they knew how to increase or diminish the stature by means of the heels and soles of the shoes; and they knew the art of enlarging or diminishing the figure by means of corsets and padding. Not only did they know all these things, but also they understood how to display to best advantage any part of the figure that was beautiful, as, a woman having pretty white teeth knew how and when to laugh to best display them and the handsome mouth.

There were usually three meals a day—a light breakfast, a heavier meal near midday, while the principal meal was toward the close of the day. When the family ate alone, the father reclined on a couch, the mother sat on a chair near him, and the children sat about them, the younger perhaps on the mother's lap or on the couch by the father.

The bread was made from wheat and barley and also from rye, millet, spelt, and rice. The bread sold by the bread-women in Athens had a big reputation all over Greece. Among their cakes was one made of wheat and honey, another of rice, cheese, eggs, and honey, and a third of cheese, eggs, and garlic. Beef, mutton, goat's flesh, and pork, were the most common meats. Poultry was abundant and eggs were used in various ways. There was plenty of wild game, as, the partridge, wild pigeons, wild geese, deer, hares, and wild boars. Hot sausages were greatly liked and they were sold on the streets of Athens and perhaps in other cities. Fish were abundant, both fresh-water and salt, and oysters, eels, mussels, and turtles were used as food. Among the vegetables were lettuce, spinach, cabbage, peas, beans, radishes, onions, garlic, turnips, and asparagus. The food was seasoned with salt, mustard, garlic, onions, and herbs. Honey was used as sugar with us and olive-oil and cheese took the place of butter. Of fruits there were figs, apples, quinces, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, and of nuts there were walnuts, almonds, and chestnuts. Wine was in great use and, perhaps, there was no other beverage but water as milk was not often drunk except in the country.

After being weaned, the child at Athens was fed by its mother or nurse with milk and a weak broth, which consisted mostly of honey. The older Athenian child no doubt had an abundance and a variety of food, but such was not the case in Sparta. Taken to the public tables at seven years of age, the Spartan child was given only very coarse food and not nearly a sufficient quantity of this. He was permitted, however, to steal more food, but if caught he was severely punished.

"The Grecian mothers were subjected to certain rules prior to the birth of their children. Their food and exercises were regulated either by the laws, or by the manners and customs. In most of the Grecian states they were required to lead a sedentary, inactive, and tranquil life. In Sparta, however, it was directly the reverse. There, women while in that condition were required to be abroad, engaged in their usual athletic recreations, eating and drinking as at any other period of time."165

There were two family festivals observed with the young child. The first was of a religious nature, the ceremony of purification, and it usually took place on the fifth day after birth. The child was held in the arms of the nurse, midwife, or some member of the family, who ran round a fire blazing on the family altar, followed by the members of the household. This was done that the child might thus be placed under the care of the household gods. It was ended with a feast. The second festival was that of the name-day, which occurred on the child's tenth day after birth. This was a very important event in the life of the child, as on this occasion the infant was acknowledged by the father as his own and he committed himself to its rearing and education. A feast was held, a special cake was eaten, a sacrifice was offered, chiefly to the goddess of child-bearing, and the baby was given a name. Presents were given to the child, among them being charms or amulets and which were hung around its neck to protect it against magical arts and the evil eye. The favorite name for the eldest son was that of his paternal grandfather. Sometimes the boy was named for his father or there might be a shortened form of the grandfather's or father's name. He might be named for an intimate friend or for some god or for some action or condition or experience in his father's life. Later in life the boy might receive a nickname that would take the place of his real name.

In the earlier times the mothers both of Athens and Sparta nursed their children, but later this was abandoned and nurses were procured. Wet-nurses were employed for the baby's first year or a half year longer and then a regular nurse was obtained for the child. In Sparta the nurses were usually from the women of the perioeci, and the other peoples of Greece preferred the Spartan nurses because they were strong and healthy and also gave the children a vigorous training. "When the child grew to some understanding, the nurse told stories out of the great wealth of Greek mythology and Æsopian beast fables which circulated among the Greeks from the earliest times; also ghost stories, chiefly to frighten and subdue the rebellious: about the horrible bugaboo called Mormo; about Acco, who carried off bad children in a huge sack; or Lamia, once a princess, who ate her own and others' children; or Empūsa, a hobgoblin that took any shape it pleased. If these stories failed to restrain the naughty child, then the sandal was vigorously applied."166

The earlier cradle was of basket-work, in the form of a flat swing. A later one was shaped like a shoe, having handles at the sides for carrying and suspending. In yet later times appeared cradles similar to those of modern times. Lullabies were sung over children as now. One cradle-song has come down to us in this form:

Infanticide was practiced in Athens, but not by the state. This was wholly in the hands of the fathers. The fathers at Athens were more cruel than the state at Sparta, for not only weak and deformed children were cast aside by the Athenian fathers, but this might be true of other children, as poverty and other causes might be a motive. This was done by placing the infant in a basket or earthenware vessel and leaving it in a temple, or some other public place, so that some one might take it. This was called "potting" the child. The mother usually placed a token as a trinket or an amulet with the child so that possibly afterward the child might be recognized. The party who might take such a child had full power over it and might rear it as a slave or do with it as he might wish. The father was sometimes brutal enough to take the baby to the mountains and leave it to die from exposure or wild beasts.

"From this barbarous custom the Thebans formed an honorable exemption. They rendered the murder of infants a capital offense. Those who were born of parents unable to provide for their maintenance were brought up at the public charge, but in return, when grown up, the public had a right to their services until they were adequately compensated for what had been expended in bringing them up."168