29
The woman who is afraid to laugh and jest a bit with her husband, lest possibly she appear bold and wanton, is no different from one who will not use oil on her head lest she be thought to use perfume, or from one who will not even wash her face lest she be thought to use rouge. But we observe both poets and public speakers, such as try to avoid vulgarity, narrowness, and affectation in their diction, employing all artistry to move and stir the hearer by means of their subject matter, their handling of it, and their portrayal of characters. So too the mistress of the household, just because she avoids and deprecates everything extravagant, meretricious, and ostentatious (and she does well to do so), ought all the more, in the graces of her character and daily life, to employ all artistry upon her husband, habituating him to what is honourable and at the same time pleasant. However, if a woman is naturally uncompromising, arbitrary, and unpleasant, the husband must be considerate, and do as Phocion did when Antipater prescribed for him a dishonourable and unbecoming course of action. Phocion said, You cannot use me as a friend and flatterer both, Cf.Moralia, 64 C, 188 F, 533 D; Plutarch’s Life of Phocion, chap. xxx. (p. 755 B); Life of Agis, chap. ii. (p. 795 E). and so the husband must reason about his virtuous and uncompromising wife, I cannot have the society of the same woman both as wife and as paramour.
30
The women of Egypt, by inherited custom, were not allowed to wear shoes,This is quite contrary to the classical Greek tradition (Herodotus, ii. 35; Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 339), which errs just as badly in the other direction. so that they should stay at home all day; and most women, if you take from them gold-embroidered shoes, bracelets, anklets, purple, and pearls, stay indoors.
