48
It is said that no woman ever produced a child without the co-operation of a man, yet there are misshapen, fleshlike, uterine growths originating in some infection, which develop of themselves and acquire firmness and solidity, and are commonly called moles. Cf. Aristotle, De generatione animalium, iv. 7. Great care must be taken that this sort of thing does not take place in women’s minds. For if they do not receive the seed of good doctrines and share with their husbands in intellectual advance ment, they, left to themselves, conceive many untoward ideas and low designs and emotions.
48
And as for you, Eurydice, I beg that you will try to be conversant with the sayings of the wise and good, and always have at your tongue’s end those sentiments which you used to cull in your girlhood’s days when you were with us, so that you may give joy to your husband, and may be admired by other women, adorned, as you will be, without price, with rare and precious jewels. For you cannot acquire and put upon you this rich woman’s pearls or that foreign woman’s silks without buying them at a high price, but the ornaments of Theano,Wife of Pythagoras, Cf. 142 C, supra. Cleobulina,Also called Eumetis, daughter of Cleobulus; Cf. 148 C-E, 150 E, and 154 A-C, infra. Gorgo,Daughter of Cleomenes, king of Sparta; Cf. Herodotus, vii. 239. the wife of Leonidas, Timocleia, Plutarch tells of Timocleia’s intrepid behaviour after the battle of Chaeroneia in Moralia , 259 C, and Life of Alexander, chap. xii. (p. 671 A). the sister of Theagenes, Claudia Claudia vindicated her virtue when the goddess Cybele was brought to Rome; Livy xxix. 14. of old, Cornelia, Better known as the mother of the Gracchi, who said of her sons, These aremy jewels. daughter of Scipio, and of all other women who have been admired and renowned, you may wear about you without price, and, adorning yourself with these, you may live a life of distinction and happiness.
