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
_Question 105._ For what cause was it, that on high holidays it
was not a custom for virgins to marry, but widows did marry then?
_Solution._ Is the reason, as Varro saith, that virgins, forsooth,
are married weeping, but women with joyful glee, and people are to
do nothing of a holiday with a heavy heart nor by compulsion? Or
rather is it because it is decent for virgins to marry with more than
a few present, but for widows to marry with a great many present is
indecent? For the first marriage is zealously affected, the second to
be deprecated; yea, they are ashamed to marry a second husband while
their first husband lives, and they grieve at doing so even when he is
dead. Hence they are pleased more with silence than with tumults and
pompous doings; and the feasts do attract the generality of people to
them, so that they cannot be at leisure on holidays for such wedding
solemnities. Or was it that they that robbed the Sabines of their
daughters that were virgins on the feast-day raised thereby a war, and
looked therefore upon it as unlucky to marry virgins on holidays?
_Question 106._ Why do the Romans worship Fortuna Primigenia?
_Solution._ Was it because Servius, being by Fortune born of
a servant-maid, came to rule king in Rome with great splendor? And
this is the supposition of most Romans. Or rather is it that Fortune
hath bestowed on Rome itself its very original and birth? Or may not
this matter require a more natural and philosophical reason, even
that Fortune is the original of all things and that Nature itself is
produced out of things that come by Fortune, when events that come by
chance fall into an order among themselves?
_Question 107._ Why do the Romans call the artists who appear in
the worship of Bacchus _histriones_?
_Solution._ Is it for the reason which C. Rufus tells us? For he
says, that in ancient time, C. Sulpicius and Licinius Stolo, being
consuls, a pestilence raging in Rome, all the actors upon the stage
were cut off; wherefore, upon the request of the Romans, many and good
artists came from Etruria, among whom he that excelled in fame and had
been longest experienced on the public stages was called Histrus, and
from him they named all the stage-players.
_Question 108._ Why do not men marry women that are near akin?
_Solution._ Is this the reason, that they design by marriage to
augment their family concerns and to procure many relations, by giving
wives to strangers and marrying wives out of other families? Or do
they suspect that the contentions that would happen among relations
upon marriage would destroy even natural rights? Or is it that,
considering that wives by reason of weakness stand in need of many
helpers, they would not have near akin marry together, that their own
kindred might stand by them when their husbands wrong them?
_Question 109._ Why is it not lawful for the high priest of
Jupiter, which they call Flamen Dialis, to touch meal or leaven?
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