Sir R. Steele and Monsieur Baron have brought both Glycera and Philumena on the stage; but, in the Latin drama, the principal female characters (if they appear at all) are generally mutes. It is a circumstance worthy of our attention, that (except in one instance) Terence never brings on the stage any female character of rank and consideration: the women who take a part in the dialogue are generally either attendants, or professional people, as nurses, midwives, _&c._ But this exclusion, (though our author has been compelled to sacrifice to it all those embellishments which the portraiture of the Athenian ladies must have added to his scenes,) is in strict conformity with the manners of the Greeks. Grecian women of rank seldom appeared in company, and closely confined themselves within doors, occupying the most remote parts of the house. Unmarried women were scarcely allowed to quit the rooms they inhabited, without giving previous notice to their protectors. Terence was instructed clearly in this point, by his great original _Menander_; who expressly says, that the door of the αὐλὴ, or hall, was a place where even a married woman ought never to be seen. Women, among the Greeks, seldom inhabited the same apartment with the men: their rooms were always kept as retired as possible, usually in the loftiest part of the house. _Vide_ Hom. Il., γʹ v. 423; their apartments were called Gynæceum, (γυναικεῖον). _Vide_ Terence’s Phormio, Act 5. S. 6, where he says, “Ubi in _Gynæceum_ ire occipio, puer ad me accurrit Mida.” These rooms were sometimes called ὦα, which signifies also _eggs_; it is supposed that the fable of Castor, Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra, being hatched from eggs, took its rise from the double signification of the word ὦα. NOTE 166. _Pam.――The oracles of Apollo are not more true: I wish that, if possible, my father may not think that I throw any impediments in the way of the marriage: if not, I will do what will be easily done, tell him frankly that I cannot marry Chremes’ daughter._