One day in March of the year 415, Peter secretly gathered in an alley
not far from the lecture hall of Hypatia a band of savage monks from the
Nitrian desert. When the customary lecture hour approached, Hypatia,
unconscious of danger, left her house and entered her chariot to drive
to the lecture hall. Soon the mob of zealots, headed by Peter, rush out
from the alley, seize the horses, tear the helpless woman from her seat,
and drag her into a neighboring church. Here, more like savage beasts
than men, Peter's frenzied followers remove from her every shred of
clothing, and at the foot of the bleeding image of the Saviour of
mankind do to death the virgin martyr in the most horrible manner with
fragments of tiles and mussel shells. The limbs are torn from the still
quivering body, and, when life is extinct, the howling mob gather up and
burn the fragments of the mutilated corpse.
It was a horrible deed. The life of a beautiful and talented maiden was
sacrificed for the cause which she professed, and, like many a Christian
maiden, she attained by her death the sanctity of martyrdom. The purity
and nobility of her character invested her with an enduring fame, and,
though her end marks the doom of the old gods, Hypatia herself will
never be forgotten. Judged by the abiding results of her activity,
Hypatia was, like Shelley, "a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in
the void her luminous wings in vain," but as the embodiment of the
highest and best elements of Greek culture she deserves to rank as one
of the most typical of Greek women.
* * * * *
A peculiar and deep-rooted trait in woman's nature is tender compassion
and sympathetic devotion to suffering humanity. Hence from heroic times
onward through the various epochs of Greek history we find women at the
bedside of the sick and the wounded, acting as attendant, nurse, or
physician. Thus it is not surprising that we should find Greek women
preeminent in the art of medicine.
In the Heroic Age, Homeric heroines were gifted with a knowledge of
plants and their virtues. Hecate, wife of King AEetes of Colchis, her
daughter Medea, and Circe were so celebrated in this respect that they
passed for enchantresses. One has but to recall the transformation of
Odysseus's companions into swine as an evidence of Circe's peculiar
power. All the daughters of Asclepius the physician--
Hygiea, Panacea,
Iaso, and AEgle--were specialists in medicine. Helen of Troy knew how to
compound her celebrated potion, Nepenthe, which made men forget all care
and enjoy sound slumbers; and OEnone, the forsaken wife of Paris, and
Agamede, daughter of a king of Elis, were skilled in the use of simples.
In historical times, the Thessalian women were noted for their knowledge
of the virtues of plants, and were acquainted with all forms of
witchcraft. They were frequently consulted for the preparation of "love
potions," and, as midwives, were in demand throughout Hellas. Women
naturally preferred women's services in those ailments which are
peculiar to the sex; but in ancient Athens, so unfriendly to the female
sex in its laws, there was a statute forbidding the practice of
gynaecology by women as a profession. Women rebelled, but their
complaints were without avail.
Agnodice, whose date is not known, was the name of the courageous maiden
who broke the prevailing traditions and won a natural right for her sex.
She conceived the idea of studying medicine in secret until she became
an expert, and then of offering her services to women, also in secret,
for medical treatment, especially in cases of maternity.
To this end,
she cut off her hair, adopted masculine apparel, and, as a promising
youth, took instruction in medicine from Hierophilus, a celebrated
physician. Her progress was rapid, and when she was pronounced
sufficiently equipped for independent practice she revealed her identity
to prospective mothers, who gladly availed themselves of her services,
so that she soon obtained the monopoly of this kind of practice. The
other physicians were naturally overcome with jealousy and chagrin that
the young doctor should supplant them, and finally they brought charges
of malpractice against the supposed youth. Agnodice was brought to
trial, and in self-defence was compelled to reveal her sex. The older
physicians then endeavored to have the laws enforced against her; but
all the prominent ladies of the city took her part, and the obnoxious
laws were repealed.
From that time forward, large numbers of women studied medicine, the
majority devoting their attention to the diseases of women and children.
These female physicians frequently appear as medical writers, especially
on gynaecology and pediatrics. They also produced many treatises on
cosmetics, which ranked as a branch of hygiene and was cultivated most
diligently by many eminent physicians. These women rivalled one another
in the discovery of an endless variety of toilet preparations, beauty
wafers, skin and hair ointments, pastes and powders, and wine essences
for the removal of pimples and freckles.
In later and more immoral times, female physicians lent their talents
gladly to demoralization and license, and wrote treatises on love
potions and abortives--a disreputable form of literature very popular
with the hetserae, and which, according to Pliny, found diligent readers
among the great ladies of Rome. Of all the numerous works of the
feminine doctors, only fragments and excerpts have come down to us, and
their loss is not greatly to be regretted. Yet credit is due to these
women as pioneers in female emancipation, and the most eminent of them
deserve to be rescued from oblivion.
The greatest was Aspasia--not the favorite of Pericles nor the devoted
companion of Cyrus the Younger, but the "medical"
Aspasia, who was a
prominent figure in the Athens of the fourth century before the
Christian era. She attained great fame, not only in women's diseases,
but also in surgery and other branches of medicine, as may be judged
from the titles of her works, preserved by Aetius, a physician and
writer of the fifth century of our era. It seems clear from what is
known of her that the Athenian women saw nothing criminal in giving and
using abortives. Even Aristotle desired to have a law regulating the
number of children that might be borne by woman.
Antiochis, to whom Heraclides of Tarentum, one of the best physicians of
antiquity, dedicated his works, was a practising female physician in
Magna Graecia, in the third century before Christ, who devoted especial
attention to salves and plaster cures. To the great Cleopatra has been
ascribed the authorship of a work "on the medical means of preserving
beauty"; but there were probably one or more physicians of this name, as
there are various treatises ascribed to "Cleopatra."
Other female
physicians, of whom we know little more than the name and the titles of
their works, are Olympias of Boeotia, Salpe, Elephantis, Sotira,
Pamphile, Myro, Spendusa, Maia, and Berenice.
Space will not suffer us to do more than call attention to many wise and
able women of Hellas who were eminent in other branches of learning. In
historical writings, Thucydides's daughter is worthy of mention, as she
is said to have composed the eighth book of her father's history of the
Peloponnesian War; Nicobule, the author of a history of Alexander the
Great, was another excellent woman writer. Plutarch gathered about him a
learned circle of women, of whom the chief was Clea, the clever matron
of Delphi, to whom he dedicated several of his works, and Eurydice, who
enjoyed his instruction. Aganice, daughter of Hegetor of Thessaly,
possessed an astonishing knowledge of astronomy, and was regarded as an
enchantress. To Melanippe, the sculptor Lysistratus erected a monument
as a tribute to her learning.
Alexandria, with its vast number of scholars, its libraries and museums,
and its intellectual freedom for women, naturally produced a large
number of women eminent in history and philology.
Frequently
philologists' daughters were trained from childhood by their fathers,
and afterward became their companions and secretaries in literary
labors. The most prominent of these literary feminine grammarians was
doubtless Hestiaea of Alexandria, a Homeric scholar of note, who was the
first to devote scientific attention to the topography of the Iliad and
to throw doubt on the generally accepted view that New Ilium was the
site of Ancient Troy. Pamphile, daughter of the grammarian Soteridas and
wife of the scholar Socratidas, was a woman of wide erudition,
celebrated especially as essayist and historian. Others whose names are
associated with similar labors are Agallis, Theodora, and Theosebia.
When one reflects on the varied activity of Greek women, the conclusion
forces itself upon him that they were intellectually as acquisitive and
as brilliant as the Greek men, who have set the standard for the world
in the realm of literature and science. Cleverness is the most salient
characteristic of the Greek intelligence, and this trait belonged as
truly to the female sex as to the male. The Renaissance furnishes
examples of women renowned for their erudition and culture; but perhaps
only the present age furnishes an adequate parallel to the varied
intellectual activities of Greek women in the centuries that followed
the decline of Greek independence and that saw the spread of Greek
culture among all civilized peoples. Modern women can therefore learn
much from their Greek sisters in all that pertains to the so-called
emancipation of the sex.
XIV
THE MACEDONIAN WOMAN
Separated from the lands of the Hellenes by the range of the Cambunian
Mountains which extended north of Thessaly from Mount Olympus on the
east to Mount Lacmon on the west, there lay a rugged country, whose
inhabitants were destined to play a prominent role and become a powerful
factor in the later history of Greece. This country, divided into many
basins by spurs which branch off from the higher mountain chains, by its
mountain system not only shut the people off from the outside world, but
also forbade any extended intercourse between the dwellers in the
various cantons. The wide and fertile valleys, however, and the mountain
slopes abounding in extensive forests, the haunts of wild game, mark the
land as the country of a great people, who by generations of seclusion
were storing up strength and vitality to be of vast influence whenever
they should break through their narrow confines.
Such a people dwelt there, but it required strong leaders to bring them
in touch with the rich Hellenic life to the south of them and to make
them a powerful factor in the history of the world.
Philip, lord of
Macedon, and his mightier son, Alexander, were the great men who were to
accomplish the work of grafting the new blood and energy of Macedon
upon the decaying stock of Greek culture, and to diffuse the spirit of
Hellenism throughout the civilized world. With them the old order of
things, as represented in Athens and Sparta, passed away, and a new
order, with new ideals, new motives, new views of life, was born. Hence,
the people of Macedon, themselves Greek by race, have a large place in
the consideration of any phase of Greek life. When the Hellenes
originally migrated into Greece, a branch of the race found its way into
the southwestern part of Macedon behind the barriers of Olympus, and
later, by intermixture with the Illyrians and other barbarous races,
these invaders lost some of their national characteristics and, shut off
as they were, failed to share in the history and development of their
kinsmen to the south. In language, in institutions, and in aspirations,
however, they gave indisputable evidence of their right to be considered
as members of the great Hellenic family.
The people were a hardy, peasant folk, devoted to hunting, to grazing,
and to agriculture, and they preserved the patriarchal institutions
which obtained among the earliest Greeks. They were divided into many
tribes, each with its own chief and leader. Among some of the hardier
tribes, the man who had not slain a wild boar was not allowed to recline
at table with the warriors, and not to have slain an enemy was regarded
as a mark of disgrace. In the tribal organization and in the institution
of the kingship, we are carried back to the society of Homeric times,
and in manifold ways the public and private life of the Macedonians
reflects the life portrayed in the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Aristotle remarks that the ancient kingship survived only among the
Spartans, the Molossians, and the Macedonians, of all the Greek peoples;
and only among the last mentioned did the office retain all its
prerogatives. As in the Heroic Age, so in Macedon, the king was supreme
judge, military commander-in-chief, and at the head of the religion of
the State. But he was no Oriental despot. The people were conscious of
their liberty and sensitive as to their rights. By the side of the king
stood the nobles, who were closely associated with him at all times,
constituting his council, accompanying him to war, and sharing with him
his dangers and his honors. As the population was largely rural, there
were present none of the conditions which tend to nullify clan
distinctions and create a democracy. The lines between noble and peasant
were very broad. Hence, Macedon was essentially a dynastic State, and
its history is largely the history of its royal family.
As we have
frequently noted, in monarchies woman is ever a most influential factor,
A king must have a court, and there can be no court without a queen. The
queen's life has necessarily its public, political, and military
aspects; and the part she plays largely determines the weal or woe of
both king and people. Hence it is with the royal family of Macedon, and
with those queens and princesses who make up a large part of its
history, that we are now chiefly concerned.
The royal family of Macedon claimed descent from members of the ancient
Heracleid family of Argos, which had taken refuge in the north; and this
descent was so capable of proof, that, on the basis of it, one of the
earlier kings was admitted to the Olympic games.
Herodotus, the great
story teller, relates the incident of the founding of the dynasty.
According to his narration, three brothers of the royal race of
Temenus,--the fourth in descent from Heracles,--Gauanes, Eropus, and
Perdiccas, exiles from Argos, went into Illyria, and thence into upper
Macedon, where they placed themselves, as herdsmen, at the service of
Lebea, one of the local kings. Now, when the queen baked the bread for
their food, she always noticed that the loaf destined for Perdiccas
doubled its weight; she made this marvel known to her husband, who saw
danger in it, and ordered the three brothers to depart from the country.
They replied that they would go as soon as they had received their
wages. Thereupon the king, who was sitting by the hearth, on which fell
sunlight through the opening of the roof, as if by divine inspiration
said to the brothers, pointing to the light on the floor: "I will give
you that; that is your wages." Upon this, the two elder brothers stood
speechless; but the younger, who held a knife in his hand, said: "Very
well; we accept it." And having traced with his knife a circle on the
floor surrounding the rays, he stooped down thrice, feigning each time
to take up the sunshine and place it in the folds of his garment and to
distribute it to his brothers; after which, they all went away. One of
those who sat by called the attention of the king to this conduct on the
part of the young man, and the manner in which he accepted what was
offered him; and the king, becoming anxious and angry, sent horsemen to
follow the brothers and slay them. Now in that country is a river, to
which the descendants of these Argives offer sacrifice as to a god. This
river, after the fugitives had crossed it, became suddenly so swollen
that the horsemen dared not follow. The brothers arrived in another part
of Macedon and established themselves near the lake called the Gardens
of Midas, and, when they had subjugated the country in those parts, they
went thence to conquer the rest of Macedon.
Herodotus states that Perdiccas I. founded the reigning dynasty in
Macedon, and he mentions as his successors Argaeus, Philip, Eropus,
Alcetas, and Amyntas I., whose son, Alexander "the Philheliene," the
Greeks permitted to take part in the Olympic games. This Alexander on
one occasion visited dire punishment upon a party of Persian envoys who
at a banquet forgot the respect due to the ladies at the court of
Macedon; he caused them to be assassinated by a company of young men
whom he had disguised in women's attire. When the Persians sent to
require the punishment of the guilty, Alexander won over the envoy by
giving him his sister in marriage.
This Alexander, who became king in the year 500 before the Christian
era, begins the series of those Macedonian kings who felt the need of
Hellenizing their people, and his reign accordingly marks a turning
point in the history of Macedon. Perdiccas II., Archelaus I., and
Amyntas II. were his successors, who continued this policy; but this
forced civilization by no means reached the mass of the people, and,
while it refined the nobility and the court and paved the way for the
Macedonian inroads into Greece, it also introduced luxury and
corruption. Amyntas II. left three sons, Alexander II., Perdiccas III.,
and Philip, the last of whom was the one so well known to fame; and
Eurydice, the mother of these three valiant sons, was the first of that
series of remarkable women, noted for their power, their beauty, or
their crimes, who from this time on fill the annals of Macedonian
history.
In her barbarous instincts, Eurydice gives evidence of the non-Hellenic
blood in her veins. Her career in crime was such as to place her among
the Messalinas and Lucrezia Borgias of history. To begin with, she was
implicated in a conspiracy with a paramour, Ptolemaeus of Alorus, against
her husband's life; but when the plot was detected, she was, out of
regard for their three sons, mercifully spared by her husband.
Alexander, the eldest, succeeded his father, but, after reigning two
years, was assassinated by Ptolemaeus, with his own mother as an
accomplice of the murderer. When Perdiccas grew to manhood, he avenged
his brother's death and his mother's disgrace by slaying Ptolemaeus; but
he himself, a few years later, fell in battle against the Illyrians, or,
as was asserted, at the hand of an assassin hired by his mother
Eurydice. Philip, the next in succession, then ascended the throne, and
succeeded in securing himself against the attempts of his mother and in
conciliating all factions. Eurydice then disappears from the scene, and
the manner of her death is unknown. Heredity, without doubt, had much to
do with the cruelty in Philip's nature, and in spite of her crimes he
seems to have had much respect for his sanguinary mother, for he placed
a figure of her among the gold-and-ivory statues embellishing the
monument he erected to commemorate his victory over the Athenians and
Thebans at Chaeronea.
We are not concerned here with the rise of Philip's power over Hellas,
nor with the history of his son Alexander and the empire he established,
except in so far as the spread of Hellenism and the union of the world
under one dominion brought about changes in social conditions which
affected the status of woman. We shall, for the present, confine our
attention to the consideration of those women, chiefly royal princesses,
whose names group themselves about the careers of Philip and Alexander
and their immediate successors, and who by their strong personalities
greatly influenced the course of events.
A few general reflections will prepare us for the sombre history which
we are about to read. The Macedonian kings were, as a rule, not content
with one wife; they either kept concubines, or married a second wife, as
did Philip and Alexander, while the first was living.
This practice led
to jealousy, envy, and hatred, and the attendant ills of constant and
bloody tragedies in the royal families. We find henceforth a
combination of Greek manners and Macedonian nature. In the life of the
courts, women as well as men, in spite of their Greek culture, show the
Thracian traits of passion and cruelty. Owing to the intense respect in
which women were held, the royal princesses occupied an exalted station
and hence found willing instruments for the carrying-out of their cruel
practices. Every king was either murdered or conspired against by his
family. Women entered into matrimonial alliances with a view to
increasing their power and extending their influence.
Hence, the women
who played so prominent a part in the great struggles that attended
Philip's extension of his power over all Hellas, Alexander's conquest of
the world, and the founding of independent dynasties by the Diadochi and
their descendants, were not women who attained the Thucydidean ideal of
excellence; namely, that those are the best women who are never
mentioned among men for good or for evil. They were, on the contrary,
powerful and haughty princesses, who possessed royal rights and
privileges, who had resources of their own in money and soldiery, who
could address their troops with fiery speeches and go forth to battle at
the head of their armies, who made offers of marriage to men, and who
finally got rid of their rivals with sinister coolness and cruelty.
Philip the Great followed the Oriental fashion of marrying many wives;
according to Athenaeus, he was continually marrying new wives in war
times, and seven more or less regular marriages are attributed to him.
Of his numerous wives or mistresses, the strong-minded Olympias was the
chief; and, as she survived both her husband Philip and her son
Alexander, she played a dominant part in Macedonian history and was the
most prominent woman of those stormy times. Olympias was the daughter
of Neoptolemus, King of Epirus, who traced his lineage back to
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. Philip is said to have fallen in love with
Olympias while both were being initiated into some religious mysteries
in Samothrace, at a time when he was still a stripling and she an
orphan. He was ardent in his suit, and, gaining the consent of her
brother Arymbas, he shortly after married her. We know nothing of the
first few years of their married life, but the union seems never to have
been a happy one. Both were of too decided individuality to blend well
together. Says President Wheeler: "Both were preeminently ambitious,
energetic, and aggressive; but while Philip's ambition was guided by a
cool, crafty sagacity, that of his queen manifested itself in impetuous
outbreaks of almost barbaric emotion. In her, joined a marvellous
compound of the mother, the queen, the shrew, and the witch. Th