It has been truly said that nowhere else in Greece do we find traces of that power exercised by women over their sons when arrived at manhood observed among Spartan mothers. When a woman of another country said to Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, “You of Lacedæmon are the only women in the world that rule the men,” she replied, “We are the only women that bring forth men.”[212]
With our present knowledge respecting the influence and independence of the Spartan women, it is folly for certain writers to assert that married women were confined within the house and that only virgins appeared in public. There is some evidence going to prove that at Crete, at Sparta, and at Olympia, women were not only spectators at the Olympian games, but that they engaged personally in the chariot contests. According to an inscription in Della Cella, it is shown that women presided over the public gymnastic exercises in that town.
One very important fact going to show whence proceeded the reforms of Lycurgus is that the mandates of the oracle were supreme. The oracles controlled the rulers, but women always controlled or interpreted the oracles. The celebrated Rhetra of Lycurgus, in which unlimited authority is given to the people to reject or adopt the proposals of the king, was given according to the direction of the Pythian Apollo, whose mandates were interpreted by women.
In an earlier age the chiefs of the gentes were elected by all the people, and they held their office by virtue of their relationship to the leader of the gens, who was a woman. That the honour due to women was still recognized in Sparta is shown in the following from Plutarch in relation to the election of senators. The person who had received the loudest acclamations was declared duly elected, whereupon he was crowned with a garland, and a number of young men followed him about to extol his virtues. The women sang his praises and blessed his life and conduct. Two portions were set before him, one of which he carried to the gates of the public hall, where the women were in waiting to receive him. To the one for whom he had the greatest esteem he presented the portion, saying: “That which I received as a mark of honour I give to you.” The woman thus honoured “was conducted home with great applause by the rest of the women.”[213]
Spartan men were forbidden to marry foreign women, hence, contrary to the customs of surrounding nations at this early period, wives as well as husbands were native-born. All were Spartans, which fact probably accounts in a measure for the exalted position occupied by women.
Both in Sparta and in Crete the form of marriage was by capture; thus, although in the time of Lycurgus the Spartan men and women both belonged to the same stock, it is plain that originally they were of different tribes. Of capture as practised in Sparta, Müller says that it was clearly an ancient national custom, founded on the idea that “the young woman could not surrender her freedom and virgin purity, unless compelled by the violence of the stronger sex.”[214] According to Plutarch, after the arrangements for the wedding had been completed, the bridegroom rushed in, seized the bride from among her assembled friends, and bore her away.
The Dorian stock alone seems to have preserved the ancient customs, and among these peoples, wherever they are found, woman’s influence is in the ascendency. According to Herodotus and Aristotle, the Spartans, the Cretans, and the Lycians were related. The people of Crete still preserved their ancient usages, hence may be observed the reason why Lycurgus visited that country in quest of information before enunciating the laws which were to restore order among the Spartans. In Lycia, as in Crete, woman’s influence must still have been considerable. Of the Lycians Herodotus says:
Their customs are partly Cretan, partly Carian.... They take the mother’s and not the father’s name. Ask a Lycian who he is, and he answers by giving his own name, that of his mother, and so on in the female line. Moreover, if a free woman marry a man who is a slave, their children are full citizens; but if a free man marry a foreign woman, or live with a concubine, even though he be the first person in the state, the children forfeit all the rights of citizenship.[215]
On the manner of reckoning descent through women which prevailed in Lycia, Curtius remarks that the usage extends far beyond the territory commanded by the Lycian nationality. It is still extant in India; it was practised in ancient Egypt, among the Etruscans, and among the Cretans, who were closely related to the Lycians. This writer observes that if
Herodotus regards the usage in question as thoroughly peculiar to the Lycians, it must have maintained itself longest among them of all the nations related to the Greeks, as is also proved by the Lycian inscriptions.[216]