Ath. I should wish to say, Cleinias, as I said before, that if thepossibility of these things were not sufficiently proven in fact, thenthere might be an objection to the argument, but the fact being as Ihave said, he who rejects the law must find some other ground ofobjection; and, failing this, our exhortation will still hold good,nor will any one deny that women ought to share as far as possiblein education and in other ways with men. For consider;-if women do notshare in their whole life with men, then they must have some otherorder of life.
Cle. Certainly.
Ath. And what arrangement of life to be found anywhere is preferableto this community which we are now assigning to them? Shall weprefer that which is adopted by the Thracians and many other races whouse their women to till the ground and to be shepherds of theirherds and flocks, and to minister to them like slaves?-Or shall wedo as we and people in our part of the world do-getting together, asthe phrase is, all our goods and chattels into one dwelling, weentrust them to our women, who are the stewards of them, and whoalso preside over the shuttles and the whole art of spinning? Or shallwe take a middle course, in Lacedaemon, Megillus-letting the girlsshare in gymnastic and music, while the grown-up women, no longeremployed in spinning wool, are hard at work weaving the web of life,which will be no cheap or mean employment, and in the duty ofserving and taking care of the household and bringing up children,in which they will observe a sort of mean, not participating in thetoils of war; and if there were any necessity that they should fightfor their city and families, unlike the Amazons, they would beunable to take part in archery or any other skilled use of missiles,nor could they, after the example of the Goddess, carry shield orspear, or stand up nobly for their country when it was beingdestroyed, and strike terror into their enemies, if only becausethey were seen in regular order? Living as they do, they would neverdare at all to imitate the Sauromatides, who, when compared withordinary women, would appear to be like men. Let him who will,praise your legislators, but I must say what I think. The legislatorought to be whole and perfect, and not half a man only; he ought notto let the female sex live softly and waste money and have no order oflife, while he takes the utmost care of the male sex, and leaveshalf of life only blest with happiness, when he might have made thewhole state happy.
Meg. What shall we do, Cleinias? Shall we allow a stranger to rundown Sparta in this fashion?
Cle. Yes; for as we have given him liberty of speech we must let himgo on until we have perfected the work of legislation.
Meg. Very true.
Ath. Then now I may proceed?
Cle. By all means.
Ath. What will be the manner of life among men who may be supposedto have their food and clothing provided for them in moderation, andwho have entrusted the practice of the arts to others, and whosehusbandry, committed to slaves paying a part of the produce, bringsthem a return sufficient for men living temperately; who, moreover,have common tables in which the men are placed apart, and near themare the common tables of their families, of their daughters andmothers, which day by day, the officers, male and female, are toinspect-they shall see to the behaviour of the company, and so dismissthem; after which the presiding magistrate and his attendants shallhonour with libations those Gods to whom that day and night arededicated, and then go home? To men whose lives are thus ordered, isthere no work remaining to be done which is necessary and fitting, butshall each one of them live fattening like a beast? Such a life isneither just nor honourable, nor can he who lives it fail of meetinghis due; and the due reward of the idle fatted beast is that he shouldbe torn in pieces by some other valiant beast whose fatness is worndown by brave deeds and toil. These regulations, if we duly considerthem, will never be exactly carried into execution under presentcircumstances, nor as long as women and children and houses and allother things are the private property of individuals; but if we canattain the second-best form of polity, we shall be very well off.
