Traces of mother-right traditions in Greek literature and history--The women of the Homeric period--Dangers arising from the patriarchal subjection of women--Illustrations and various reflections--Historic Greece--The social organisation of Sparta--Their marriage system--The laws of Lycurgus--The freedom of the Spartan girls--The wise care for the health of the race--Plato's criticism of the Spartan system--He accuses the women of ruling their husbands--The Athenian women--Their subjection under the strict patriarchal rule--The insistence on chastity--Reasons for this--The degraded position of the wife--The _hetairae_--They the only educated women in Athens--Aspasia--She leads the movement to raise the position of the Athenian women--Plato's estimate of women--Remarks on the sexual penalties for women that are always found under a strict patriarchal regime--The ideal relationship between the wife and the husband--Euripides voices the sorrows of women--He foreshadows their coming triumph. IV.--_In Rome_ Little known of the position of women in Rome in prehistoric times--Indications of an early period of mother-rule--The patriarchal system formerly established when Roman history opens--The Roman marriage law--The woman regarded as the property first of her father and afterwards of her husband--The patrician marriage of _confarreatio_--The form known as _coemptio_--Marriage by _usus_--The inequality of divorce--The subjection of the woman--The terrible right of the husband's _manus_--The way of escape--The development of the early marriage by _usus_--The new free marriage by consent--Free divorce--A revolution in the position of women--The patriarchal rule of women dwindled to a mere thread--They gained increasingly greater liberty until at last they gained complete freedom--The public entry of women into the affairs of State--Illustrations to show the fine use made by the Roman matrons of their freedom--An examination into the supposed licentiousness of Roman women--This opinion cannot be accepted--The effect of Christianity--The view of Sir Henry Maine--Some concluding remarks on the position of women in the four great civilisations examined in this chapter. CHAPTER VII WOMAN'S POSITION IN THE GREAT CIVILISATIONS OF ANTIQUITY I.--_In Egypt_