The history of the condition of women, in various ages and nations (vol. 2 of 2)

BY MRS. D. L. CHILD. AUTHOR OF “MOTHER’S BOOK,” “FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE,” ETC.
“In youth women are our idols, at a riper age our companions, in old age our nurses, and in all ages our friends.” Lord Bacon.
VOL. II. COMPRISING THE WOMEN OF EUROPE, AMERICA, AND SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.
THIRD EDITION.
BOSTON: OTIS, BROADERS & CO. 1840.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1835, by JOHN ALLEN & CO. in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
Boston: STEREOTYPED BY SHEPARD, OLIVER AND CO. No. 3 Water Street.
HISTORY OF WOMEN.
Penelope at her loom.
Plutarch speaks with disapprobation of the Persian manner of treating women; yet the Greeks themselves kept them under very strict discipline. They had distinct apartments, in the highest and most retired part of the house, and among the wealthier classes these rooms were often kept locked and guarded. Women belonging to the royal families were not even allowed to go from one part of the house to the other without permission. When Antigone, in Euripides, obtains her mother’s permission to go on the house-top to view the Argian army, her aged guardian insists upon first searching the passage, lest the profane eyes of a citizen should dishonor her by a glance.
Young girls were more rigorously secluded than married women; yet it was considered highly indecorous for the latter to be seen beyond the door-step, until they were old enough to assume the character of matrons. Menander says:
“You go beyond the married woman’s bounds,