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Ordinary Greek feeling seems to have been less shocked by a technical observance and a virtual breach of contract (cf. iv. 154. 201; Thuc. iii. 34) than by a refusal to be bound by an oath whose real purport had not been understood. Euripides earned much opprobrium by making Hippolytus say in such a case (612) γλῶσσ᾽ ὀμώμοχ̓, δὲ φρὴν ἀνώμοτος, yet all moral philosophers would now agree with Cicero (De Off. iii. 29. 107) that such an oath was not binding.

Probably the true motive of Ariston's third marriage was the barrenness of his earlier wives (cf. v. 39 f.).

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    • Thucydides, Histories, 3.34
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