[11] (The timid, fawn-like creature.) See Lecky, "Hist. of Eur. Morals," ii. 305. For the metaphor cf. Dem. "Olynth." iii. 37. 9.
[12] Lit. "woman." Cf. N. T. {gunai}, St. John ii. 4; xix. 26.
[13] Or, "our interests will centre in them; it will be a blessing we share in common to train them that they shall fight our battles, and . . ."
[14] Cf. "Mem." II. ii. 13. Holden cf. Soph. "Ajax." 567; Eur. "Suppl." 918.
[15] Or reading {epenegke} with Cobet, "brought with you in the way of dowry."
[16] Or, "to the joint estate."
Thus I addressed her, Socrates, and thus my wife made answer: "But how can I assist you? what is my ability? Nay, everything depends on you. My business, my mother told me, was to be sober-minded!"[17]
[17] "Modest and temperate," and (below) "temperance."
"Most true, my wife," I replied, "and that is what my father said to me. But what is the proof of sober-mindedness in man or woman? Is it not so to behave that what they have of good may ever be at its best, and that new treasures from the same source of beauty and righteousness may be most amply added?"
"But what is there that I can do," my wife inquired, "which will help to increase our joint estate?"
"Assuredly," I answered, "you may strive to do as well as possible what Heaven has given you a natural gift for and which the law approves."
"And what may these things be?" she asked.
"To my mind they are not the things of least importance," I replied, "unless the things which the queen bee in her hive presides over are of slight importance to the bee community; for the gods" (so Ischomachus assured me, he continued), "the gods, my wife, would seem to have exercised much care and judgment in compacting that twin system which goes by the name of male and female, so as to secure the greatest possible advantage[18] to the pair. Since no doubt the underlying principle of the bond is first and foremost to perpetuate through procreation the races of living creatures;[19] and next, as the outcome of this bond, for human beings at any rate, a provision is made by which they may have sons and daughters to support them in old age.
[18] Reading {oti}, or if with Br. {eti . . . auto}, "with the further intent it should prove of maximum advantage to itself."
[19] Cf. (Aristot.) "Oecon." i. 3.
"And again, the way of life of human beings, not being maintained like that of cattle[20] in the open air, obviously demands roofed homesteads. But if these same human beings are to have anything to bring in under cover, some one to carry out these labours of the field under high heaven[21] must be found them, since such operations as the breaking up of fallow with the plough, the sowing of seed, the planting of trees, the pasturing and herding of flocks, are one and all open-air employments on which the supply of products necessary to life depends.
[20] "And the beast of the field."
[21] "Sub dis," "in the open air."
"As soon as these products of the field are safely housed and under cover, new needs arise. There must be some one to guard the store and some one to perform such necessary operations as imply the need of shelter.[22] Shelter, for instance, is needed for the rearing of infant children; shelter is needed for the various processes of converting the fruits of earth into food, and in like manner for the fabrication of clothing out of wool.
[22] Or, "works which call for shelter."
"But whereas both of these, the indoor and the outdoor occupations alike, demand new toil and new attention, to meet the case," I added, "God made provision[23] from the first by shaping, as it seems to me, the woman's nature for indoor and the man's for outdoor occupations. Man's body and soul He furnished with a greater capacity for enduring heat and cold, wayfaring and military marches; or, to repeat, He laid upon his shoulders the outdoor works.
[23] "Straightway from the moment of birth provided." Cf. (Aristot.) "Oecon." i. 3, a work based upon or at any rate following the lines of Xenophon's treatise.
"While in creating the body of woman with less capacity for these things," I continued, "God would seem to have imposed on her the indoor works; and knowing that He had implanted in the woman and imposed upon her the nurture of new-born babies, He endowed her with a larger share of affection for the new-born child than He bestowed upon man.[24] And since He imposed on woman the guardianship of the things imported from without, God, in His wisdom, perceiving that a fearful spirit was no detriment to guardianship,[25] endowed the woman with a larger measure of timidity than He bestowed on man. Knowing further that he to whom the outdoor works belonged would need to defend them against malign attack, He endowed the man in turn with a larger share of courage.
[24] {edasato}, "Cyrop." IV. ii. 43.
[25] Cf. "Hipparch," vii. 7; Aristot. "Pol." iii. 2; "Oecon." iii.
"And seeing that both alike feel the need of giving and receiving, He set down memory and carefulness between them for their common use,[26] so that you would find it hard to determine which of the two, the male or the female, has the larger share of these. So, too, God set down between them for their common use the gift of self-control, where needed, adding only to that one of the twain, whether man or woman, which should prove the better, the power to be rewarded with a larger share of this perfection. And for the very reason that their natures are not alike adapted to like ends, they stand in greater need of one another; and the married couple is made more useful to itself, the one fulfilling what the other lacks.[27]
[26] Or, "He bestowed memory and carefulness as the common heritage of both."
[27] Or, "the pair discovers the advantage of duality; the one being strong wherein the other is defective."
"Now, being well aware of this, my wife," I added, "and knowing well what things are laid upon us twain by God Himself, must we not strive to perform, each in the best way possible, our respective duties? Law, too, gives her consent--law and the usage of mankind, by sanctioning the wedlock of man and wife; and just as God ordained them to be partners in their children, so the law establishes their common ownership of house and estate. Custom, moreover, proclaims as beautiful those excellences of man and woman with which God gifted them at birth.[28] Thus for a woman to bide tranquilly at home rather than roam aborad is no dishonour; but for a man to remain indoors, instead of devoting himself to outdoor pursuits, is a thing discreditable. But if a man does things contrary to the nature given him by God, the chances are,[29] such insubordination escapes not the eye of Heaven: he pays the penalty, whether of neglecting his own works, or of performing those appropriate to woman."[30]
[28] Or, "with approving fingers stamps as noble those diverse faculties, those superiorities in either sex which God created in them. Thus for the womean to remain indoors is nobler than to gad about abroad." {ta kala . . .; kallion . . . aiskhion . . .}-- These words, wich their significant Hellenic connotation, suffer cruelly in translation.