[1092]. Athen. xiii. 79.—Even Plutarch denominates the system of discipline observed by the Spartan women ἀναπεπταμένη καὶ ἄθηλυς,—"lax and unfeminine,"—and confesses that it afforded the poets an inexhaustible fund for ridicule. Ibycos, for example, called them φαινομηρίδες: and Euripides ἀνδρομανεῖς. Their education, in fact, rendered them coarse and domineering, “bold and mannish;” θρασύτεραι, and ἀνδριοδεῖς, are the words of Plutarch, who observes that they desired not only to rule by violence at home, but even audaciously to meddle with public affairs.—Compar. Lycurg. cum Num. § 3.
[1093]. Philosophers, also, were found in antiquity as in modern times, who theoretically maintained this doctrine. Thus Archelaos contended, καὶ τὸ δίκαιον εἶναι καὶ τὸ αἰσχρὸν οὐ φύσει, ἀλλὰ νόμῳ.—Diog. Laert. ii. 4. 3. Here we discover the fundamental maxim upon which the whole system of Hobbes was constructed.
[1094]. Polit. ii. 9.
[1095]. Jamblich. vit. Pythag. xi. 5. 6.—Müller. Dor. ii. 317.
[1096]. Plut. Lycurg. §. 14. Compare the remarks of Ubbo Emmius who adopts, however, too implicitly the notions of Plutarch.—iii. 22. seq.
[1097]. Propert. iii. 12. p. 261. iv. 13. p. 88. Jacob.—Cicero, after quoting certain verses from an old poet, describing the exercises of the female Spartans, adds in his own words: “ergo his laboriosis excercitationibus et dolor intercurrit nonnumquam; impelluntur, ponuntur, abjiciuntur, cadunt: et ipse labor quasi callum quoddam obducit dolori.” Tuscul. Quæst. ii. 36.—In remoter ages we find women celebrated for their skill in hunting, and there were those who in later times sought to recommend this taste to their countrywomen:—Οὐ μόνον δὲ, ὅσοι ἄνδρες κυνηγεσίων ἡράσθησαν, ἐγένοντο ἀγαθοὶ ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ γυναῖκες, αἷς ἔδωκεν ἡ θεὸς ταῦτα Ἄρτεμις, Ἀταλάντη, καὶ Πρόκρις, καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλη. Xen. de Venat. xiii. 18. 345. Schneid. Cf. Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 209. 215. Spanh.
[1098]. Alluding to the political power of women at Sparta, Aristotle inquires: what signifies it whether women govern or men be governed by women? Polit. ii. 9.
[1099]. Müll. Dor. ii. 333.
[1100]. Plut. Lycurg. § 14. 15. Müller, with the amusing partiality of an apologist, overlooks the passage, and introduces Plutarch affirming “that they only witnessed the processions and dances of the young (wo)men.” Note K. Dor. ii. p. 328. Here though men be the printed word in the English translation women must be clearly meant. Even so, however, the assertion is unfounded, since we find that even strangers were admitted:—ἐπαινεῖται δὲ καὶ τῶν Σπαρτιατῶν τὸ ἔθος τὸ γυμνοῦν τὰς παρθένους τοῖς ξένοις. Athen. xiii. 20. The islanders of Chios would appear to have imitated this laudable practice, since the sophist speaks of it as a most pleasant spectacle to behold the youths and virgins wrestling together in the public place of exercise. Ibid.
[1101]. Cf. Plato. De Legg. t. viii. p. 85.