Woman and the Republic | Page 5

Spartans called upon Athens for a commander to
lead them to the second Messenian war, and the Athenians sent them
Tyrtaeus, their martial poet. The Spartans were displeased at his youth
and gentle bearing; but when the battle was joined, his chanting of his
own war-songs so animated the troops that they won against heavy
odds. The following is a fragment translated from one of his lyrics:
"But be it ours to guard the hallowed spot, To shield the tender
offspring and the wife; Here steadily await our destined lot, And, for
their sakes, resign the gift of life."
Aeschylus, poet and soldier, writing a hundred and fifty years later, in
his "Seven Against Thebes," puts into the mouth of the chieftain
Eteocles this address to the women:
"It is not to be borne, ye wayward race; Is this your best, is this the aid
you lend The state, the fortitude with which you steel The souls of the
besieged, thus falling down Before the images to wail, and shriek With
lamentations loud? Wisdom abhors you. Nor in misfortune, nor in dear
success, Be woman my associate. If her power Bears sway, her
insolence exceeds all bounds; But if she fears, woe to that house and
city. And now by holding counsel with weak fear, You magnify the foe,
and turn our men To flight. Thus are we ruined by ourselves. This ever

will arise from suffering women To intermix with men. But mark me
well, Whoe'er henceforth dares disobey my orders-- Be it man or
woman, old or young-- Vengeance shall burst upon him, the decree
Stands irreversible, and he shall die. War is no female province, but the
scene For men. Hence, home! nor spread your mischiefs here. Hear you,
or not? Or speak I to the deaf?"
Pericles, in his famous funeral oration over those who fell in the
Peloponnesian war, thus addresses the Athenian women: "To the wives
who will henceforth live in widowhood, I will speak, in one short
sentence only, of womanly virtue. She is the best woman who is most
truly a woman, and her reputation is the highest whose name is never in
the mouths of men for good or for evil."
Seclusion was the best thing that the most intellectual pre-Christian
republic could give to its honorable women. The freedom with which
the hetairse, who were foreigners or daughters of slaves, mingled with
statesmen and philosophers, brought them open political influence, but
not a hint of voting power or of office-holding.
For the sake of brevity, I will confine my reference to Roman custom to
a single pregnant sentence from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the
Empire." He says: "In every age and country the wiser, or at least the
stronger of the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and
confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. In
hereditary monarchies, however, and especially in those of modern
Europe, the gallant spirit of chivalry, and the law of succession, have
accustomed us to allow a singular exception, and a woman is often
acknowledged the absolute sovereign of a great kingdom, in which she
would be deemed incapable of exercising the smallest employment,
civil or military. But, as the Roman Emperors were still considered as
the generals and magistrates of the Republic, their wives and mothers,
although dignified by the name of Augusta, were never associated to
their personal honors; and a female reign would have appeared an
inexplicable prodigy in the eyes of those primitive Romans, who
married without love, or loved without delicacy or respect."
The warlike states named republics in the Middle Ages had no woman

Doge, or Duke, although women rose to the semblance of political
power with empires and kingdoms, in Italy and Spain as well as in
Germany and France, Austria and Russia.
Let us turn to modern Europe, in which thrones have been occupied
now and again by queens. The progress of woman here, especially in
Anglo-Saxon countries, has been steady, true and inspiring. In the
earliest recorded councils of the race from which we sprang, we see
freemen in full armor casting equal votes. During the ages of feudalism,
women who were land- owners had the same rights as other nobles.
They could raise soldiery, coin money, and administer justice in both
civil and criminal proceedings. In proportion as the aristocratic power
lost its hold, women were exempted from these services and gained in
moral influence. The Germanic races were renowned for their respect
for woman, and their love for home. As constitutional liberty grew, and
each Englishman's house became his castle for defence against
arbitrary power, the protection was not for himself but for his family. A
figure-head ruler in feminine attire sits on England's throne to-day--the
England that