In regard to love of finery, I beg, Eurydice, that you will read and try to
remember what was written to Aristylla by Timoxena
1; and as for you,
Pollianus, you must not think that your wife will refrain from immoderate
display and extravagance if she sees that you do not despise these things in
others, but, on the contrary, find delight in gilded drinking-cups, pictured
walls, trappings for mules, and showy neckbands for horses. For it is
impossible to expel extravagance from the wife's part of the house when it
has free range amid the men's rooms.
Besides, Pollianus, you already possess sufficient maturity to study
philosophy, and I beg that you will beautify your character with the aid of
discourses which are attended by logical demonstration and mature
deliberation, seeking the company and instruction of teachers who will help
you. And for your wife you must collect from every source what is useful, as
do the bees, and carrying it within your own self impart it to her, and then
discuss it with her, and make the best of these doctrines her favourite and
familiar themes. For to her
Thou art a father and precious-loved mother,
Yea, and a brother as well.2
[p. 339] No less ennobling is it
for a man to hear his wife say, ‘My dear husband,
Nay, but thou art
to me 3
guide, philosopher, and teacher in all that is most lovely and
divine.’ Studies of this sort, in the first place, divert women
from all untoward conduct; for a woman studying geometry will be ashamed to
be a dancer, and she will not swallow any beliefs in magic charms while she
is under the charm of Plato's or Xenophon's words. And if anybody professes
power to pull down the moon from the sky, she will laugh at the ignorance
and stupidity of women who believe these things, inasmuch as she herself is
not unschooled in astronomy, and has read in the books about Aglaonice,
4 the
daughter of Hegetor of Thessaly, and how she, through being thoroughly
acquainted with the periods of the full moon when it is subject to eclipse,
and, knowing beforehand the time when the moon was due to be overtaken by
the earth's shadow, imposed upon the women, and made them all believe that
she was drawing down the moon.
It is said that no woman ever produced a child without the co-operation of a
man, yet there are misshapen, fleshlike, uterine growths originating in some
infection, which develop of themselves and acquire firmness and solidity,
and are commonly called ‘moles.’
5 Great care must be taken
that this sort of thing does not take place in women's minds. For if they do
not receive the seed of good doctrines and share with their husbands in
intellectual advance
[p. 341] ment, they, left to themselves, conceive many untoward
ideas and low designs and emotions.
And as for you, Eurydice, I beg that you will try to be conversant with the
sayings of the wise and good, and always have at your tongue's end those
sentiments which you used to cull in your girlhood's days when you were with
us, so that you may give joy to your husband, and may be admired by other
women, adorned, as you will be, without price, with rare and precious
jewels. For you cannot acquire and put upon you this rich woman's pearls or
that foreign woman's silks without buying them at a high price, but the
ornaments of Theano,
6 Cleobulina,
7 Gorgo,
8 the wife of Leonidas, Timocleia,
9
the sister of Theagenes, Claudia
10 of old, Cornelia,
11 daughter of Scipio, and
of all other women who have been admired and renowned, you may wear about
you without price, and, adorning yourself with these, you may live a life of
distinction and happiness.
If
Sappho thought that her beautiful compositions in verse justified her in
writing
12, in the L.C.L. i. p. 69. to a certain rich woman,
Dead in the tomb shalt thou lie, Nor shall
there be thought of thee there, For in the roses of Pierian fields Thou hast
no share,
[p. 343] why shall it not be even more allowable for you to
entertain high and splendid thoughts of yourself, if you have a share not
only in the roses but also in the fruits which the Muses bring and
graciously bestow upon those who admire education and philosophy?
