we may take the orders given by Euryclea for their morning's work as an example:* "Come, sweep the house, and sprinkle the floors; lay coverlets on the seats; sponge the tables; clean the plate and goblets. Some of you go to the spring for water, and bring it quickly:" Other offices of female servants have been mentioned already.

When Ulysses was going to embark, Arete, the wife of Alcinous, ordered her maids to attend him; one, to carry his cloak; another, his coat; a third his trunk; and a fourth, his sea-store. Faithful slaves often rose to consequence, especially nurses, like Euryclea, and had the management of the house. Many of them were employed in elegant works of weaving and embroidery for their mistresses; and these were favourite occupations of the ladies themselves. They were generally captives, and treated kindly; as appears by their lamentation for the dead, though under this pretence they sometimes mourned their own hard fate.+ Beside these, there was a superior order, who were employed about the persons of their mistresses. One servant acted as housekeeper,§ and had the care of the provisions. Laertes' housekeeper was a Sicilian. The cooks were always There were also different classes of men servants, both in country and in town. A common

men.

* Od. xx. 150. + Il. xix. 302. † Αμφίπολοι. § Ταμιη. || Od. xxiv. 210.

house servant cleft dry wood, and heaped it on the fire; cut the carcases into joints, roasted them, and served wine. But some were fashionable and insolent; young men, elegantly dressed; with sleek heads, and beautiful faces; living at tables well supplied with bread and flesh meat, and abundance of wine.*

Women of superior rank appear to me to have enjoyed a better situation, than could be expected in a state of society so rude in many other respects; to have conducted themselves with delicacy and dignity, and to have been amiable, industrious, and accomplished. In the Iliad, Hecuba, Andromache, Theano, and even Helen, considering the guilty and unfortunate step she had taken, appear to great advantage. In the Odyssey, we have Penelope a pattern of prudence and chastity, and Arete with her daughter Nausicaa. Of Arete, in particular, we have a high character from the mouth of Minerva :-"No woman was ever more honoured by a husband, or her children, or the people in general, who looked up to her as a divinity, and paid her homage, as she passed through the city. She had an excellent understanding, and she employed it in preserving harmony among the men."+ This is the same, whom we have seen spinning with her maidens at day-break; ordering the affairs of her house, and receiving Ulysses

* Od. xv. 321-331. † Od. viii. 66.

Bl

with so much good sense and humanity:* yet she was the queen of the most magnificent prince of that age. Nestor's queen also made his bed;† and the concubinest of the suitors brought the meat to table.§

Hesiod is of a censorious, discontented temper, and speaks of women with little respect or tenderness ;|| but Homer assigns them a character, which he could never have painted so beautifully, without models to copy after. Beside his episodes, and more important incidents, he takes occasion to adorn his most ferocious combats with pictures of female constancy and affection; as when he represents Ægiale alarmed for the safety of her absent lord, starting from her sleep, and shrieking aloud, from apprehension for his safety: at others, he introduces them discharging the difficult duty of affectionate step-mothers to the illegitimate children of their husbands. It is also an amiable feature in the characters of the men, that they were so sensible of their merits, and compassionate to their failings and misfortunes, particularly Priam and Hector, who exhibit such tender. ness for Helen, the cause of all their calamities. The interview between Hector and Andromache is too well known to require particular notice; but we should not omit the admiration of Helen, expressed by the aged princes sitting on the tower; followed

* Compare Prov. xxxi. 13—15—19-27, 28. † Od. iii. 403. Aλoxo. § Od. iv. 623. || Theog. 590. ¶ Il. v. 70.

by the affectionate salute of Priam, and his apology for her conduct.*

The respect, in which the opinion of the ladies was held by princes and heroes, appears by its influence on Hector. When his wife endeavoured to prevail on him to remain in the city; and when he deliberated with himself, whether he should decline the hopeless combat with Achilles, in both instances he was influenced by the same reflection: "I respect, and dread the censure and contempt of the Trojan dames, with sweeping trains."+

We can hardly pass on from this part of our subject, without some notice of female dress. Though not so extravagant as that of the Jewish ladies, it was not destitute of ornament and elegance.

In every condition and stage of society, women have been particularly attentive to dressing their hair, or adorning their heads. The Grecian and Trojan ladies wore veils§ when they went abroad. They seem to have confined their hair in a net,|| and kept the whole in order with bands and fillets, ¶ hanging down over the person. Their hair seems also to have been curled,* and interspersed with golden ornaments. In their ears, which were pierced, they

* II. iii. 156. † Il. vi. 42: xxii. 105. 5 Καλυπίραι. || Αμπυξ, κεκρυφαλον. * 11. xiv. 170. † Πορπαι, καλυκες.

Isaiah iii. 18.

Η Κρήδεμνα.

wore ear-rings* with three drops.+ They also wore neck-laces, sometimes of amber set in gold. From two expressions § it is supposed, that they used paint,|| or some other material to add to their attractions, as odoriferous oil.¶ They seem to have worn neither rings nor gloves. The person was covered by a long robe, with a girdle, sometimes fringed;* Antinous presented Penelope with one of various colours, fastened by twelve fibulæ or broaches at the breast, with hooks or hinges. Their feet were protected by sandals or slippers.+ The same word is applied to the shoes of men and women.‡

The dress of the men was extremely simple, consisting of a tunic and slippers. The tunic was next the skin, sometimes as fine or soft as the skin of a dried onion. They seem to have slept quite naked. Over the tunic they drew on a warmer covering,|| when necessary.¶ It was thicker and longer than the tunic, double, or lined, and covered with nap, and sometimes fastened by a fibula,* with two pipes; and embroidered in the front. Instead of this they wore for dress and dignity a robe.+ The women had a gar

Ερμαία, ψέλλια. + Τριγληνα. * Ελεκτροισιν εερμενον. § Od. xviii. 171-176–191. || A201pn. ¶ 11. xiv. 171. • Θυσανοις. + Πεδιλα, σανδαλα. † Π. xiv. 178186. Od. xviii. 291-300.-Hymn to Mercury, 79-83. § Od. xix. 233. Xλaiva. ¶ Il. xvi. 224.—Od. xiv. 529. * II. x. 133. —Od. xix. 225. † Pagos.