Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 2 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
_Solution._ Is the reason because fathers ought to be honored by
their sons as Gods, but be lamented by their daughters as dead, and
so the law hath distributed to both their proper part? Or is it that
what is not the fashion is fit for mourning? For it is more customary
for women to appear publicly with covered heads, and for men with
uncovered. Yea, among the Greeks, when any sad calamity befalls them,
the women are polled close but the men wear their hair long, because
the usual fashion for men is to be polled and for women to wear their
hair long. Or was it enacted that sons should be covered, for the
reason we have above mentioned (for verily, saith Varro, they surround
their fathers’ sepulchres at funerals, reverencing them as the temples
of the Gods; and having burnt their parents, when they first meet with
a bone, they say the deceased person is deified), but for women was it
not lawful to cover their heads at funerals? History now tells us that
the first that put away his wife was Spurius Carbilius, by reason of
barrenness; the second was Sulpicius Gallus, seeing her pluck up her
garments to cover her head; the third was Publius Sempronius, because
she looked upon the funeral games.
_Question 15._ What is the reason that, esteeming Terminus a
God (to whom they offer their Terminalia), they sacrifice no living
creature to him?
_Solution._ Was it that Romulus set no bounds to the country,
that it might be lawful for a man to make excursions, to rob, and to
reckon every part of the country his own (as the Spartan said) wherever
he should pitch his spear; but Numa Pompilius, being a just man and a
good commonwealthsman and a philosopher, set the boundaries towards the
neighboring countries, and dedicated those boundaries to Terminus as
the bishop and protector both of friendship and of peace, and it was
his opinion that it ought to be preserved pure and undefiled from blood
and slaughter?
_Question 16._ Why is it that the temple of Matuta is not to be
gone into by maid-servants; but the ladies bring in one only, and her
they box and cuff?
_Solution._ If to baste this maid be a sign that they ought not
to enter, then they prohibit others according to the fable. For Ino,
being jealous of her husband’s loving the servant-maid, is reported to
have fell outrageously upon her son. The Grecians say the maid was of
an Aetolian family, and was called Antiphera. Therefore with us also in
Chaeronea the sexton, standing before the temple of Leucothea (Matuta)
holding a wand in his hand, makes proclamation that no man-servant nor
maid-servant, neither man nor woman Aetolian, should enter in.
_Question 17._ Why do they not supplicate this Goddess for good
things for their own children, but for their brethren’s and sisters’
children?
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