ὅσοι γαμοῦσι δ' ἢ γένει κρείσσους γάμους
ἢ πολλὰ χρήματ' οὐκ ἐπίστανται γαμεῖν.
τὰ τῆς γυναῖκος γὰρ κρατοῦντ' ἐν δώμασιν
δουλοῖ τὸν ἄνδρα κοὐκέτ' ἐστ' ἐλεύθερος.
πλοῦτος δ' ἐπακτὸς ἐκ γυναικείων γάμων
ἀνόνητος· αἱ γὰρ διαλύσεις οὐ ῥᾳδίαι.[48]
To the same category belongs the following, though its worldly wisdom conceals no bitterness:
κακὸν γυναῖκα πρὸς νέαν ζεῦξαι νέον·
μακρὰ γὰρ ἰσχὺς μᾶλλον ἀρσένων μένει,
θήλεια δ' ἥβη θᾶσσον ἐκλείπει δέμας.[49]
It answers to our own proverb: "A young man married is a young man marred."
For the sanctities of domestic life, and for the pathetic beauty of maternal love, no poet had a deeper sense than Euripides. The following lines, spoken apparently by Danaë, makes us keenly regret the loss of the tragedy that bore her name; all the tenderness of the Simonidean elegy upon her fable seems to inspire the maiden's longing for a child to fill her arms and sport upon her knee:
τάχ' ἂν πρὸς ἀγκάλαισι καὶ στέρνοις ἐμοῖς
πηδῶν ἀθύροι καὶ φιλημάτων ὄχλῳ
ψυχὴν ἐμὴν κτήσαιτο· ταῦτα γὰρ βροτοῖς
φίλτρον μέγιστον αἱ ξυνούσιαι πάτερ.[50]
And where was the charm of children ever painted with more feeling than in these verses from the same play?