We discover again this iniquitous spirit in regard to the respective situations of the man and the woman in marriage in the Greco-Roman world, but it becomes moderated as ancient civilisation progresses. In primitive Greece the right of repudiation is left to the man, and he uses it whenever he thinks he has legitimate motives for doing so.[792] This right continued in more civilised Greece, but it was gradually restricted. Nevertheless, it was always a great dishonour for a woman to be repudiated. Euripides makes Medea say, “Divorce is always shameful for a woman.” In _Andromachus_, Menelaus, speaking of his daughter Hermione, said: “I will not that my daughter should be driven from the nuptial bed; save that, all that a woman can suffer is relatively without importance; but for her to lose her husband is to lose her life.” At Athens repudiations were frequent, and they would have been more so if considerations of interest had not often hindered the good pleasure of the master. He was obliged, in fact, by the conditions of the law, in repudiating his wife, to restore her dowry, or pay interest at the rate of nine oboles.[793] Moreover, the relatives who were guardians of the woman could claim by law a pension for her maintenance.[794] A personage of Euripides cries mournfully: “The riches that a wife brings only serve to make her divorce more difficult.”[795] However, the right of divorce was recognised for women, but custom held the laws in check by rendering it difficult for wives to perform any public action, and by imposing on them the confinement of the gyneceum.[796]