26
The Sicilian despot Dionysius according to Plutarch, Moralia, 190 E, 229 A, and Life of Lysander, chap. ii. (p. 439 D). The same story is told of Archidamus in Moralia, 218 E. sent clothing and jewellery of the costly kind to the daughters of Lysander; but Lysander would not accept them, saying, These adornments will disgrace my daughters far more than they will adorn them. But Sophocles,From an unknown play; cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 310, Sophocles, No. 762. before Lysander, had said this: Adornment! No, you wretch! Naught that adorns ’Twould seem to be—your crazy mind’s desire. For, as Crates used to say, adornment is that which adorns, and that adorns or decorates a woman which makes her more decorous. It is not gold or precious stones or scarlet that makes her such, but whatever invests her with that something which betokens dignity, good behaviour, and modesty.
27
Those who offer sacrifice to Hera, the Protectress of Wedlock, Cf. O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschicte, p. 1134; also Plutarch, Frag. 2 of De Daedalis Plataeensibus (in Bernardakis’s edition, vol. vii. p. 44). do not consecrate the bitter gall with the other parts of the offering, but remove it and cast it beside the altar—an intimation on the part of him who established this custom that bitterness and anger ought never to find a place in married life. For the acerbity of the mistress, like that of wine, ought to be salutary and pleasant, not bitter like that of aloes, nor suggestive of a dose of medicine.
