Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. Vol II., by J.A. St. John

2. Athen. xiii. 2. Mr. Mitford defers too much to “the traditions received in the polished ages” when, upon the authority of such traditions and of such writers as Justin (ii. 6.), he appears to conclude that, before the time of Cecrops, the people of Attica were in knowledge and civilisation inferior to the wildest savages. Hist, of Greece, i. 58. Upon legends and authors of this description no reliance can be placed. If society existed, everything “indispensable” to society also existed; therefore, if marriage be so, it could not be unknown. Besides, how happens it that this same Cecrops who instituted marriage did not likewise teach them to sow corn, which, if Egypt was, when he left it, a civilised country, must have been as familiar to him as matrimony? This most necessary acquisition, however, they were left to make many ages afterwards, during the reign of Erechtheus. Justin, ii. 6.

3. Cf. Goguet, Origine des Lois. iv. 394, where the learned author contends most chivalrously for the received theory. Apollodorus, however, represents Cecrops as an Autochthon, συμφύες ἔχων σῶμα ἀνδρὸς καὶ δράκοντος. iii. 14. 1.—The reason why he was thus said to partake of two natures—half-man and half-snake—has been very variously and very fantastically explained. Diodorus Siculus, (i. p. 17,) derives his title to be considered half a man and half a beast, from his being, by choice a Greek, by nature a barbarian. Yet he conceives that it was the beast that civilised the man. Others explain διφυὴς somewhat differently to mean that he was of gigantic stature and understood two languages: διὰ μῆκος σώματος οὑτω καλούμενος, ὅς φήσιν ὁ Φιλόχορος, ἢ ὅτι Αἰγυπτίων τὰς δύο γλώσσας ἠπίστατο.—Euseb. No. 460.—Eustathius, familiar with the fables of the mythology, turns the tables upon Cecrops, and conceives that he may have civilised himself, not the Athenians, by settling in Attica. He supposes him ἀπὸ ὄφεως εἰς ἀνθρωπὸν ἐλθειν, ἐπειδὴ ἐκεῖνος ἐλθὼν εἰς Ἑλλάδα καὶ τὸν βάρβαρον Αἰγυπτιασμὸν ἀφεις, χρηστοὺς ἀναλάβετο τρόπους πολιτικοὺς.—In Dionys. Peneg. p. 56.

4. Deipnosoph. xiii. 2.—Compare the account in Diogenes Laertius, ii. 5. 10.—The conduct of Socrates, who married Xantippe to prove the goodness of his temper, was imitated, we are told, by a Christian lady, who “desired of St. Athanasius to procure for her, out of the widows fed from the ecclesiastical corban, an old woman morose, peevish, and impatient, that she might by the society of so ungentle a person have often occasion to exercise her patience, her forgiveness, and charity.”—Jeremy Taylor’s Life of Christ, i. 384.

6. Dinarch. in Demosth. § 11. Cf. Poll. viii. 40. Comm. p. 644.

7. Aristoph. Lysistrat. 78, seq.

9. Hom. Il. λ. 221, seq.

10. Hom. Odyss. η. 55, seq.

11. Keightley, Mythology, p. 490.

12. Serv. ad Virg. Æn. iii. 297.

13. Virg. Cir. 133.

Sed malus ille puer, quem nec sua flectere mater,
Iratum potuit, quem nec pater, atque avus idem
Jupiter.

14. For Valckernaer’s correction of Eurip. Hippol. 536, where for ὁ Δίος παῖς, he reads ὄλιγος παῖς, should, I think, be adopted. Diatrib. in Eurip. Perd. Dram. xv. p. 159, c. His whole defence of Zeus on this count is triumphant. Still the notes of Monk, Beck, Musgrave, and the Classical Journal, vi. 80, should be compared.

15. Diog. Laert. Proœm. § 6. To this practice Euripides probably alludes in the Andromache, v. 173, sqq., where Hermione describes, with scorn, the profligate manners of the barbarians. Catullus, inveighing against the impious depravity of a contemporary, observes—

“Nam Magus ex matre et gnato gignatur oportet,

Si vera est Persarum impia religio.”

Epig. lxxxiii. 3, seq. Pope Alexander VI. and the Emperor Shah Jehan have, in modern times, been accused of similar crimes. Bayle, Dict. Hist. et Crit. Art. Alexandre VI. and Bernier, Voyages, t. i. On the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, see Sepulveda, de Ritu Nupt. et Dispens. i. § 20, where he says, that the Pope could authorize all unions, save those between parents and children. “Et ideo hodiè non ligant, nisi quatenus ab ecclesia sunt assumptæ; ac propterea Papa dispensare potest cum omnibus personis, nisi cum matre et patre, ut matrimonium contrahant.” Card. Cajetan. ap. Sepulved. ub. sup.

16. Alcibiades. Athen. xii. 48. xiii. 34. Lysias, fr. p. 640.

17. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1353.

18. Corn. Nep. Vit. Cim. i. Plut. Cim. § 4, where we find this lady accused of an amour with the painter Polygnotos, who introduced her portrait among the Trojan ladies in the Stoa Pœcile.

19. Deipnosophist. xiii. 56. Muretus, Var. Lect. vii. i. discusses the question, but without throwing much new light upon it.—Andocides cont. Alcibiad. § 9, assigns Cimon’s amour with Elpinice as the cause of his banishment. We find, however, Archeptolis, son of Themistocles, marrying his half-sister Mnesiptolema. Plut. Themistocl. § 32.

20. Meurs. Themis Attica. i. 14. Philo. De Leg. Spec. ii. Eurip. Orest. 545. sqq.

21. Cf. Herod. v. 39. Pausan. iii. 3, 9.

22. Censor. de Die Natal. 14.

23. Thus Mantitheos, in Demosthenes, marries at the age of eighteen, in obedience to his father’s wishes.—Contr. Bœot. ii. § 1.

24. Aristot. Polit. ii. 7. vii. 14. Gœttling.—Cf. Malthus on Population, i. 9, 10.

25. Repub. v. t. vi. p. 237. De Legg. vi. t. vii. p. 452. Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 696. Gœttling.

26. Polit. vii. 16. Hist. Anim. vii. 5, 6. Cf. Tac. de Mor. Germ. 20. Just. Instit. t. x. Brisson. de Jur. Nupt. p. 99.

27. Olympiod. in Meteor. c. 6. Meurs. Grec. Fer. v. 240.

29. Iphigen. in Aul. 717.

30. Pindar, Isth. Od. viii. 41, seq. Dissen.—Rev. H. F. Cary’s translation, admirable for its closeness and spirit, p. 212.

31. Aristot. Polit. ii. 6. Tacit. de Mor. Germ. 18. Heracl. Pont. v. Θρακων. Leg. Salic. Art. 46. Hist. Gen. des Voy. vi. 144. Cf. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, i. 53.

32. In cases where the fathers were unable to dowry them, we find daughters growing old in the paternal mansion. Demosth. in Steph. i. § 20. Dowries were frequently considerable, amounting sometimes to a hundred minæ. § 18.

33. On their anxiety to discover the designs of the Fates in this respect, see Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 597.

34. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, iii. 127, sqq.

35. Demosth. pro Phorm. § 8–10.

36. Opera et Dies, 405.

37. Theocrit. Eidyll. xxvii. 36.

38. Theocrit. Eidyll. ii. 66, ibique Schol.

39. Schol. Pind. Pyth. iv. ap. Meurs. Græc. Fer. p. 238.

40. Suid. v. προτέλεια. t. ii. p. 629. v. Æschyl. Eumen. 799. Cf. Cœl. Rhodig. xxviii. 24.

41. Poll. iii. 38. Schol. Pind. Pyth. x. 31. Aristoph. Thesmoph. 982. Kust.

42. Poll. iii. 38. ibique Comm. p. 529, seq. Cf. Spanh. Observ. in Callim. 149, 507. The youth usually cut off their hair on reaching the age of puberty. Athen. xiii. 83.

43. Pausan. i. 43. 4. Callim. in Del. 292. Spanh. Observat. t. ii. p. 503, sqq.

44. Stat. Theb. ii. 255, with the ancient commentary of Lutatius.

45. Πάροχος. Suid. v. Ζεῦγος ἡμιονικὸν. t. i. p. 1123, b. Eurip. Helen. 722, sqq.

46. This was the usual practice. When the bride was led home on foot she was called χαμαίπους a term of disrespect not far removed in meaning from our word tramper. Poll. iii. 40.

47. Aristoph. Plut. 529, et Schol. Suid. v. βαπτά. t. i. p. 533, b.

48. Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 905. This chaplet was placed on the bride’s head by her mother. Hopfn. in loc.—In Locrensibus usu erat, ut matronæ ex lectis floribus nectant coronas. Nam emptagestare serta, vitio dabatur. Alex. ab Alexand. p. 58. b.

49. Aristoph. Plut. 529. id. Pac. 862.

51. Σισυμβρία. Dioscor. ii. 155.

52. Schol. Aristoph. Av. 160. In Bœotia the bride was crowned with a reed of wild asparagus, a prickly but sweet plant. Plut. Conjug. Præcept. 2. Bion. Epitaph. Adon. 88. On Nuptial Crowns vide Paschal. De Coronis, lib. ii. c. 16. p. 126, sqq.

53. Charit. Char. et Callir. Amor. iii. 44.

54. Orus Apollo Hieroglyph. viii. p. 6. b.

55. Meziriac sur les Epitres d’Ovide, p. 190, sqq. Ælian de Animal. Nat. iii. 9. Alex. ab Alexand. ii. 5, p. 57, b.

56. Theod. Prodrom. de Rhodanth. et Dosicl. Amor. ix.

57. Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. 1113.

59. Procl. in Tim. t. v, Meziriac. p. 155.

60. Etym. Mag. 220, 53. sqq. Cf. Plut. Conj. Præcept. proœm. t. i. p. 321. Tauchnitz.

61. Plut. Conj. Precept. 27. Cœl. Rhodig. xxviii. 21.

62. Meurs. Lect. Att. iii. 6, 106, sqq. Herod. iv. 34.

63. Menand. ap. Clem. Alexand. Stromat. ii. p. 421, a. Heins.

64. Potter, Arch. Græc. ii. 281.

65. Eurip. Helen. 722. Hesiod, Scut. Heracl. 275, seq. where the torches are said to be borne by Dmoës.

66. In Hesiod a troop of blooming virgins, playing on the phorminx, lead the procession. αἱ δ᾽ ὑπὸ φορμίγγων ἄναγον χορὸν ἱμερόεντα. A band of youths follow, playing on the syrinx. See the note of Gœttling on Scut. Heracl. 274, p. 117, sqq.

67. Iliad, σ. 490, sqq. Pope’s Translation.

68. Ἁρμάτειον μέλος. Leisner, in his notes on Bos (Antiq. Græc. Pars. iv. c. ii. § 4.), observes, that in Suidas, Hesychius, and Eustathius (ad Il. χ. p. 1380. 5), these words have a different meaning from that which, with Bos and Potter (Antiq. Græc. ii. 282), I have adopted. But in the passage quoted by Henri de Valois (ad Harpocrat. p. 222), they would seem to bear the signification above given them.

69. Plut. Quæst. Roman. xx. 19. Valckenaer ad Herodot. iv. 114.

72. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 834.

73. Athen. xiv. 10. Anac. Od. xviii. Schol. Hom. Il. σ. 493. Pind. Pyth. iii. 17. Dissen. Schol. ad v. 27.

74. Suid. v. ἔφυγον κακὸν. t. i. p. 1113, d.

75. Luc. Conviv. § 8. In the sepulchral grottoes of Eilithyia, in the Thebaid, we find a rough fresco representing a marriage-feast, at which the men and women sit as described in the text.

76. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 421. Poll. iii. 41. The water of the bath used on this occasion by the bride was, according to ancient custom, brought from the fountain of Enneakrounos. Etym. Mag. 568, 57, seq.

78. Athen. iv. 2, seq.

79. Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 578. Ἔστι τι στλεγγὶς, δέρμα κεχρυσωμένον, ὁ περὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν φοροῦσι.—Poll. vii. 179.

80. When the host happened to be less rich or generous, people sometimes, in the corruption of later ages, endeavoured to steal what they could not obtain as a gift. Thus the sophist Dionysodoros is detected in Lucian with a cup stuffed into the breast of his mantle.—Conviv. seu Lapith. § 46.

81. This singular kind of liberality continued in fashion down to a very late period:—καὶ ἃμα εἰς ἐκικόμιστο ἡμῖν τὸ ἐντελὲς ὀνομαζόμενον δεῖπνον, μία ὄρνις ἑκάστω, καὶ κρέας ὑὸς, καὶ λαγῶα, καὶ ἰχθὺς ἐν ταγήνου, καὶ σησαμοῦντες, καὶ ὅσα ἐν τραγεῖν, καὶ ἐζῆν ἀποφέρεσθαι ταῦτα. Luc. Conviv. § 38.

82. The Sambukè was a stringed instrument of triangular form, invented by the poet Ibycos. It was sometimes called Iambukè, because used by chaunters of Iambic verse.—Suid. in v. t. ii. p. 709, c. d. Poll. iv. 59.

83. Casaubon is particular in his explanation of this passage, lest any one should fall into the singular mistake of supposing these nuptial bread-baskets to have been made with plaited thongs of elephant’s hide: “Lora elephantina fortasse aliquis capiat de corio elephanti: sed ἱμάντας arbitror appellare Hippolochum virgas subtiles ex ebore, quibus ceu vimine utebantur in contexendis panariis istis.”—Animadv. in Athen. t. vii. p. 392.

84. Vid. Animadv. in Athen. t. vii. p. 393. Meurs. Græcia Feriata. i. p. 30, seq.

85. In like manner, Alexander, son of Philip, when he entertained nine thousand persons at a marriage feast at Susa, presented each of them with a golden goblet, and paid all their debts, amounting to nearly ten thousand talents.—Plut. Alexand. § 70.

86. If octogenarian dancers were held in admiration in England, it would, according to Lord Bacon, be easy to form an army of them; since “there is, he says, scarce a village with us, if it be any whit populous, but it affords some man or woman of fourscore years of age; nay, a few years since there was, in the county of Hereford, a May-game, or morrice-dance, consisting of eight men, whose age computed together, made up eight hundred years, inasmuch as what some of them wanted of an hundred, others exceeded as much.” History of Life and Death, p. 20.