"Take to thy house a woman for thy bride When in the ripeness of thy manhood's pride; Thrice ten thy sum of years, the nuptial prime; Nor fall far short nor far exceed the time. Four years the ripening virgin shall consume, And wed the fifth of her expanding bloom. A virgin choose: and mould her manners chaste; Chief be some neighboring maid by thee embraced; Look circumspect and long; lest thou be found The merry mock of all the dwellers round. No better lot has Providence assigned Than a fair woman with a virtuous mind; Nor can a worse befall than when thy fate Allots a worthless, feast-contriving mate. She with no torch of mere material flame Shall burn to tinder thy care-wasted frame; Shall send a fire thy vigorous bones within And age unripe in bloom of years begin." The vein of contempt for woman which runs through the verses of Hesiod finds many echoes in later writers, which indicates that in this transition period, especially in Ionian Greece, evil influences were at work, causing men to rebel against the shackles of wedded life and to fail to realize the happiness they desired in the home and in the family. It seems strange that Hesiod, in describing farm duties, should not tell us more of the important function of the housewife. Yet in one passage he merely emphasizes the importance of starting with "a house, a wife, and an ox to plow," and in other passages speaks disparagingly of woman and her work. So that even in lines where he might well have commended her virtues the words of praise are left unsaid. The two centuries of Greek history following Hesiod are chiefly known to us through the lyric poets, as epic poetry declined and the writing of history had not yet begun. Lyric poetry is an index to the hearts of the people: for in lyric poetry are expressed the thoughts and feelings of reflective man. Woman is the great mainspring of existence; she it is who is the general cause of man's thoughts, emotions, passions, joys, and sorrows. Hence, as lyric poetry is the poetry of the heart, we find recorded in the verses of Grecian lyrists man's attitude toward woman in this period of "storm and stress" in the development of Greek nationality.