§40ἡ Ἑρμιόνη δοκεῖ τι λέγειν ἀληθὲς λέγουσα
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κακῶν γυναικῶν εἴσοδοί μʼ ἀπώλεσαν
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τοῦτο δʼ οὐχ ἁπλῶς γιγνόμενόν ἐστιν, ἀλλʼ ὅταν αἱ πρὸς τοὺς ἄνδρας διαφοραὶ καὶ ζηλοτυπίαι ταῖς τοιαύταις γυναιξὶ μὴ τὰς θύρας μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς ἀκοὰς ἀνοίγωσι τότʼ οὖν δεῖ μάλιστα τὴν νοῦν ἔχουσαν ἀποκλείειν τὰ ὦτα καὶ φυλάττεσθαι τὸν ψιθυρισμόν, ἵνα πῦρ ἐπὶ πῦρ γένηται, καὶ πρόχειρον ἔχειν τὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου.
Hermione seems to say something true when she says: "The visits of bad women have ruined me "But this does not happen simply, but when disputes and jealousies toward husbands open not only the doors but also the ears to such women. At that time, therefore, the sensible wife must especially close her ears and guard against whispering, lest fire be added to fire; and she should have at hand the saying of Philip.
λέγεται γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ὑπὸ τῶν φίλων παροξυνόμενος ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ὡς εὖ πάσχοντας καὶ κακῶς αὐτὸν λέγοντας εἰπεῖν
τί οὖν, ἂν καὶ κακῶς ποιῶμεν αὐτούς; ὅταν οὖν αἱ διαβάλλουσαι λέγωσιν ὅτι
λυπεῖ σε φιλοῦσαν ὁ ἀνὴρ καὶ σωφρονοῦσαν
,
τί οὖν
, ἂν φαίης,
ἂν καὶ μισεῖν αὐτὸν ἄρξωμαι καὶ ἀδικεῖν; §41ὁ τὸν δραπέτην ἰδὼν διὰ χρόνου καὶ διώκων, ὡς κατέφυγε φθάσας εἰς μυλῶνα,
ποῦ δʼ ἂν
ἔφη
σὲ μᾶλλον εὑρεῖν ἐβουλήθην ἢ ἐνταῦθα; γυνὴ τοίνυν διὰ ζηλοτυπίαν ἀπόλειψιν γράφουσα καὶ χαλεπῶς ἔχουσα λεγέτω πρὸς ἑαυτὴν
ποῦ δʼ ἂν ἡ ζηλοῦσά με μᾶλλον ἡσθείη θεασαμένη καὶ τί ποιοῦσαν ἢ λυπουμένην καὶ στασιάζουσαν πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτὸν καὶ τὸν θάλαμον προϊεμένην; §42Ἀθηναῖοι τρεῖς ἀρότους ἱεροὺς ἄγουσι, πρῶτον ἐπὶ Σκίρῳ, τοῦ παλαιοτάτου τῶν σπόρων ὑπόμνημα, δεύτερον ἐν τῇ Ρ̓αρίᾳ, τρίτον ὑπὸ πόλιν τὸν καλούμενον Βουζύγιον.
For he is said, when provoked by his friends against the Greeks on the ground that they were well treated but spoke ill of him, to have said: "What then, if we should also treat them ill?" When, therefore, the slanderous women say, "Your husband grieves you, though you love him and are self-controlled," "What then," you might say, "if I should also begin to hate him and do him injustice?" He who saw his runaway slave after a long time and pursued him, when the slave escaped by reaching a mill first, said: "Where indeed would I have wished to find you more than here?" Let a wife, therefore, who because of jealousy is writing a bill of divorce and is in a difficult temper, say to herself: "Where indeed would she who is jealous of me be more pleased to see me, and doing what, than being grieved and quarreling with my husband, and abandoning my very house and bridal chamber?" The Athenians celebrate three sacred tillages: first at Sciron, as a memorial of the oldest of seed-times; second in Raria; third under the city, the one called Bouzygion.
τούτων δὲ πάντων ἱερώτατός ἐστιν ὁ γαμήλιος σπόρος καὶ ἄροτος ἐπὶ παίδων τεκνώσει.
But of all these, the most sacred is the nuptial sowing and tillage for the procreation of children.
καλῶς τὴν Ἀφροδίτην ὁ Σοφοκλῆς
εὔκαρπον Κυθέρειαν
προσηγόρευσε. διὸ δεῖ μάλιστα τούτῳ χρῆσθαι μετʼ εὐλαβείας τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα, τῶν ἀνιέρων καὶ παρανόμων πρὸς ἑτέρους ἁγνεύοντας ὁμιλιῶν, καὶ μὴ σπείροντας ἐξ ὧν οὐδὲν αὐτοῖς φύεσθαι θέλουσιν ἀλλὰ κἂν γένηται καρπὸς αἰσχύνονται καὶ ἀποκρύπτουσι.
Well did Sophocles call Aphrodite "the fruitful Cytherea." Therefore, the husband and wife must especially use this with caution, keeping themselves pure from unholy and unlawful intercourses with others, and not sowing where they wish nothing to grow for them, but even if fruit should come, they are ashamed and hide it.
§43Γοργίου τοῦ ῥήτορος ἀναγνόντος ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ λόγον περὶ ὁμονοίας τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ὁ Μελάνθιος
οὗτος ἡμῖν
ἔφη
συμβουλεύει περὶ ὁμονοίας, ὃς αὑτὸν καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὴν θεράπαιναν ἰδίᾳ τρεῖς ὄντας ὁμονοεῖν οὐ πέπεικεν
ἦν γὰρ ὡς ἔοικέ τις ἔρως τοῦ Γοργίου καὶ ζηλοτυπία τῆς γυναικὸς πρὸς τὸ θεραπαινίδιον.
When Gorgias the rhetorician read in Olympia a speech about concord to the Greeks, Melanthius said: ¦144c "This man advises us about concord, who has not persuaded himself, his wife, and his maidservant, being three in private, to be of one mind." For there was, as it seems, some love of Gorgias and jealousy of his wife toward the little maidservant.
εὖ τοίνυν ἡρμοσμένον τὸν οἶκον εἶναι δεῖ τῷ μέλλοντι ἁρμόζεσθαι πόλιν καὶ ἀγορὰν καὶ φίλους· μᾶλλον γὰρ ἔοικε τὰ τῶν γυναικῶν ἢ τὰ πρὸς γυναῖκας ἁμαρτήματα λανθάνειν τοὺς πολλούς.
Well harmonized, therefore, must the home be of him who is going to harmonize a city, an assembly, and friends; for the errors of wives seem rather to escape the notice of the many than errors against wives.
§44εἰ καθάπερ τὸν αἴλουρον ὀσμῇ μύρων ἐκταράττεσθαι καὶ μαίνεσθαι λέγουσιν, οὕτω τὰς γυναῖκας ἀγριαίνειν καὶ παραφρονεῖν ὑπὸ μύρων συνέβαινε, δεινὸν ἦν μὴ ἀπέχεσθαι μύρου τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἀλλὰ διʼ ἡδονὴν αὑτῶν βραχεῖαν οὕτω κακουμένας περιορᾶν.
If, just as they say the cat is disturbed and driven mad by the smell of ointments, so it happened that wives became wild and out of their minds because of perfumes, it would be a terrible thing for husbands not to abstain from perfume, but for the sake of their own brief pleasure to overlook them being thus tormented.
ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ταῦτα πάσχουσιν οὐ μυριζομένων τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀλλὰ συγγιγνομένων ἑτέραις, ἄδικόν ἐστιν ἡδονῆς ἕνεκα μικρᾶς ἐπὶ τοσοῦτο λυπεῖν καὶ συνταράττειν τὰς γυναῖκας καὶ μή, καθάπερ ταῖς μελίτταις ὅτι δοκοῦσι δυσχεραίνειν καὶ μάχεσθαι τοῖς μετὰ γυναικῶν γενομένοις, ἁγνοὺς καὶ καθαρεύοντας ἑτέρων συνουσίας προσιέναι ταῖς γυναιξίν.
Since, therefore, they suffer these things not when husbands are perfumed, but when they associate with other women, it is unjust for the sake of a small pleasure to grieve and disturb wives to such an extent, and not, just as bees seem to be displeased with and fight those who have associated with women, to approach wives pure and clean from the intercourse of others.
§45οἱ προσιόντες ἐλέφασιν ἐσθῆτα λαμπρὰν οὐ λαμβάνουσιν, οὐδὲ φοινικίδας οἱ ταύροις· διαγριαίνεται γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν χρωμάτων τούτων μάλιστα τὰ ζῷα· τὰς δὲ τίγρεις φασὶ περιτυμπανιζομένας ἐκμαίνεσθαι παντάπασι καὶ διασπᾶν ἑαυτάς.
Those who approach elephants do not wear bright garments, nor those who approach bulls wear scarlet; for by these colors these animals are especially driven wild; and they say that tigers, when drums are beaten around them, go entirely mad and tear themselves to pieces.
ἐπεὶ τοίνυν καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν οἱ μὲν ἐσθῆτας κοκκίνας; καὶ πορφυρᾶς ὁρῶντες δυσανασχετοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ κυμβάλοις καὶ τυμπάνοις ἄχθονται, τί δεινὸν ἀπέχεσθαι τούτων τὰς γυναῖκας καὶ μὴ ταράττειν μηδὲ παροξύνειν τοὺς ἄνδρας, ἀλλὰ συνεῖναι μετʼ εὐσταθείας καὶ πραότητος;
Since, therefore, of men also some are displeased when seeing red and purple garments, and others are vexed by cymbals and drums, what hardship is there for wives to abstain from these things, and not to disturb or provoke their husbands, but to associate with them with stability and gentleness?
§46γυνή τις πρὸς τὸν Φίλιππον ἄκουσαν ἐφελκόμενον αὐτὴν
ἄφες μʼ
εἶπε· πᾶσα γυνὴ τοῦ λύχνου ἀρθέντος ἡ αὐτή ἐστι. τοῦτο πρὸς τοὺς μοιχικοὺς καὶ ἀκολάστους εἴρηται καλῶς, τὴν δὲ γαμετὴν δεῖ μάλιστα τοῦ φωτὸς ἀρθέντος εἶναι μὴ τὴν αὐτὴν ταῖς τυχούσαις γυναιξίν, ἀλλὰ φαίνεσθαι τοῦ σώματος μὴ βλεπομένου τὸ σῶφρον αὐτῆς καὶ ἴδιον τῷ ἀνδρὶ καὶ τεταγμένον καὶ φιλόστοργον.
A certain woman, to Philip who was dragging her against her will, said: "Let me go; every woman, when the lamp is removed, is the same." This is well said to adulterous and intemperate men, but a wedded wife must especially when the light is removed not be the same as ordinary women, but her self-control, her devotion, her orderliness, and her affection for her husband must be apparent when her body is not seen.