In the
Homeric poems woman occupies a position, not only important, but
even comparable in many respects to that held by her in modern
life. She is not secluded from sight and kept in the background, as
in later Hellenic society; on the contrary, she mixes freely with
the other sex in private and in public, and is uniformly depicted
as exercising a very strong, and generally beneficent, influence.
The very names of Andromache, Penelope, Nausicaa, stand as types
of all that is purest and sweetest in womanhood. The fact that a
wife is purchased by bride-gifts does not militate against the
respect in which she is held or the regard which is paid to her
rights. The contrast between this state of affairs and that prevailing
in later Greek society is sufficiently marked to render comment
unnecessary.
But perhaps the most striking feature of the setting of the Homeric
story is the type of material civilization which is described in
the poems. We are confronted with a society not by any means in a
primitive stage of development, but, on the contrary, far advanced
in the arts of peace, and capable of the highest achievements in
art and architecture. Some of the proofs of its advancement may
be briefly noticed. Into the vexed question of the Homeric palace,
its form, and the conditions of life thereby indicated, there is
no need to enter; for about the point which chiefly concerns our
immediate purpose there is no question at all.
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