Book 6
46
And that it was a custom for the officers called gynæconomiWe know little more of the gynæconomi, or γυναικόκοσμοι as they were also called, than what is derived from this passage. It appears probable that they existed from the time of Solon; though the duties here attributed to them may not have formed a part of their original business. Vide Smith, Diet. Ant. in voc. to superintend the banquets, and to examine into the number of those who had been invited, and see whether it was in accordance with the law, we may learn from Timocles in his Litigious Man, where he says— Open the doors at once, that we may be More in the light against the gynæconomus Shall enter and begin to count the guests, As he is bound to do by this new law, A marvellous statute. It were better far That he should ask who are without a dinner. And Menander says in his Cecryphalus— Knowing that by some new law lately passed, The cooks who minister at marriage feasts Have given in their names and are enroll'd In the books of the gynæconomi, So that they may the number learn of those Who are invited, lest a man should feast More than the legal number. And Philochorus, in the seventh book of his history of the Affairs of Attica, says—The gynæconomi used, in conjunction with the judges of the Areopagus, to examine the parties in private houses, and at marriage feasts, and at all other festivals and sacrifices.
