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CHAPTER IV
PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN
The influence of women in antiquity varied extremely
according to circumstances of time and place. During
the mythical age they are celebrated as the heroines of many
a legend; and in the epics of Homer the free woman seems
to live on terms of equality with her male relations.[1] Down
to the historical period the same consideration was continued
to them at Sparta, where the mental and physical integrity
of the females was cultivated as essential to the designed
superiority of the race;[2] but among the Athenians we find
- ↑ The characters of Helen, Andromache, and Penelope, as they appear in the Iliad and Odyssey, have taken a place permanently in modern literature.
- ↑ See Plutarch's account of the legislation of Lycurgus. A king of Sparta was fined by the Ephors for marrying a wife of poor physique for money, instead of choosing a strapping young lady with a view to having a vigorous family; ibid., Agesilaus; Athenaeus, xiii, 20. The Spartans applauded the adulterous union of Acrotatus and Chelidonis, because they seemed to be physically well matched for the production of offspring; Plutarch, Pyrrhus. In fact Lycurgus thought that wives might properly be lent to suitable mates for breeding purposes. As an example of noble character in the female, the conduct of Chelonis is recorded: also the resolution and bravery of the female relatives of Cleomenes when they all met their death at Alexandria; ibid., Agis; Cleomenes.