Here is, then, in a few words, a faithful account of the origin and progrefs of the laws of Greece. But it must be observed, that in the detail we are going to enter upon, I fhall follow the order of the matters, rather than ftria chronology, which would too much interrupt the feries and connection of objects; yet I fhall make mention of no laws whose establishment does not relate to the ages we are now examining. The ftate of barbarifm into which Greece was plunged before the arrival of the different colonies which came from Egypt and Phoenicia to fettle there, permitted the inhabitants to live in great liberty in their commerce with women. The engagements and bonds of conjugal union were totally unknown to them. Cecrops was the first who drew them from this diforder; he convinced them that marriage was the foundation and fupport of fociety. He established the union of one with one. From this prince the Greeks fubjected themfelves inviolably to that law. They even conceived fo high an idea of the conjugal union, that there paffed above two centuries, before the widows durft marry again: a proof that they looked upon these fecond marriages to be contrary to good morals, is, that hiftory has tranfmitted the name of her who first entered on a fecond marriage. It was Gorgophona, daughter of Perfeus and Andromeda, who gave the example. This princefs having firft efpoufed Pericres, King of the Meffenians, and having furvived that prince, the married again to Qebalus, King of Sparta . Oebalus reigned about 1348 years before Chrift. They fix the epocha of Cecrops 1582 years before it. Thus, for the pace of 234 years, the Greek history does not furnish one example of a widow who was remarried; and, till Gorgophona, it was a custom which they looked upon as inviolable, that every woman who loft her hufband thould pass the reft of her days in widowhood. e Book 1. article 1. e Pauf. 1. 2. c 21. d Pauf. 1. 2. c. 21. In all appearance, the example of Gorgophona was not long of being followed: yet it appears, that, in the heroic times, the widows who remarried, offended against decency. This is what one may fairly conclude, from the different words which Homer puts into the mouth of Penelope. The difcourfe which Ulyffes had with that princefs, the moment of his departure for Troy, is ftill more pofitive; he fays to her, "That he does not know whe"ther he fhould efcape from the dangers of that war; "and, if he should perish there, the fhould chufe, as "husband, the prince who appeared most worthy of her." It is true, Virgil makes Dido fpeak quite another language. There is a perpetual combat in the heart of that unfortunate Queen, between the liking she has taken for Æneas, and the remorse of entering on a fecond marriage. She represents this action, as an offence againft her honours. But Virgil would not have made Dido fpeak thus, but in compliance with the manner of thinking of the Romans, with whom second marriages, though permitted, were dishonourable . Hefiad gives us reafon to think, that anciently it was the custom in Greece, not to marry the young men till they were thirty, and the girls till they were fifteen. Prefages determined the moment in which the marriage ought to be folemnized. To this they paid great attention. There is great reafon to believe, that in the ear. lieft times, they determined nothing relating to the degrees of confanguinity; except the union of fathers and Val. Max. 1. 2. c. 1. n. 3.; Martial. l. 6, epig. 7.; Quintil. declam- 3c6. p.627. i Opera & dies, v: 696, &c. On this cuftom is founded the calculation by which Herodotus, imitated in this by the greatest part of the ancient chronologers, eftimates the generations at thirty-three years, and reckons an hundred years for three generations. 1 2. n. 142. Hefiod loco. cit. v. 851. mothers mothers with their children, all other alliances feem to have been permitted 1. Children could not contract any alliance without the confent of their fathers, who had a right to determine about their fettlement. They brought them up to have a great respect for those who had given them birth. It is even one of the most ancient ftatutes of Greece. In the laws attributed to Triptolemus, we find one which exprefsly orders to honour parents". At this time, a great number of children is looked upon as a burthen; but, in the first ages of Greece, it was an honour and an advantage to be the father of a numerous family. The Greeks greatly esteemed fruitfulness. Plutarch obferves, that Pelops was the most powerful and most confiderable of all the kings his cotemporaries, not only by his riches, but yet more by the number of children he was the father of. The ancient poets greatly extolled the happiness of Priam, for being the father of fifty children. We fee in fcripture, David glories for having had many children r. It was likewife a very great reproach for a woman to be barren 1. The Chinete are of the fame opinion. They look upon barrennefs with fo much horror, that married people had rather have committed the greatest crimes, than die without children. The leaving no pofterity, is ranked among the greatest of evils'. The Greeks thought the fame. They looked upon a man who died without children, to have had the worst lot in the world. Phoenix, in the Iliad, wanting to fhew with what an excefs of paffion his father was tranfported against him; "He invoked," fays he, "the terrible furies, conjuring "them, that I might never have to fit upon my knee, "a fon from my own body." It was to remedy, in some measure, the misfortune of not having children, that Feithius antiq. Hom. 1. 2. c. 13. p. 216. " Porphyrius de abstin 1. 4. p. 431. P1 Chron. c. 28. v. 5. m Ibid. p. 219. 220. • In Thef, p. 2. A. 1 Gen. c. 3. v. 23.; I Sam.c. 1. v. 5.; Luke c. 1. V. 25. Martini, hift. de la Chine, L, 6. p. 21.; Lettr. edif. t. 5, P. 56. the the Greeks contrived adoption, a custom that was very" ancient. Paufanias tells us, that Athamas, king of Orchomene, feeing himself without male iffue, adopted his grandnephews. Diodorus fupplies us with another example of the same antiquity": and Plutarch fays, that Caftor and Pollux, having made themselves mafters of Athens, demanded to be initiated into the great myfteries; but they were not admitted, till they were adopted by Aphidnes, as Hercules had been by Pylius . It is probable, that the Greeks took this cuftom from the Egyptians, among whom we see it was established in the most remote times. The girls who died without being married, were thought very unhappy. Herodotus gives us a very striking proof of this way of thinking in the adventure of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos. Polycrates, feduced by the promises of Orates, governor of Sardis, was going to meet that viceroy: his daughter, who prefaged nothing but miffortunes from the journey, ufed all her efforts to diffuade him from it. Seeing that he would go, in fpite of all her remonftrances, the plainly told him, that nothing but miffortunes would happen to him. Polycrates, angry at her speech, and willing to fhew his retentment, threatened not to marry her for a long time, if he returned safe and found from the journey. But this menace was not fufficient to filence her zeal. She wished its accomplishment; liking better, fays Herodotus, to be without a husband, than to be deprived of her father. We see, likewise, in Sophocles, Electra bewailing bitterly her not being married -. I have remarked in the first part of this work, that originally whoever addreiled a woman for marriage in fome In Electra, v. 166. 167. Tradition fays, that this princess was never married, and that made them give her the name of Electra. Ælian. var. hift. 1. 4. c. 26. Pauf. 1. 2. c. 16. and Hygin. fab. 122. nevertheless fay, that Oreftes had married that princefs to Pylades; and, according to the teftimony of Hellanicus, he had two children by him. But this opinion does not appear to have been much followed by the ancients. fenfe fenfe bought her, either by fervices he did to the father of her he would marry, or by presents which he made to herfelf. This cuftom was alfo obferved in Greece in the most remote times. He who wanted a wife, was obliged to make prefents of two forts; one to the father, to engage him to give his daughter; and the other, to the perfon whom he demanded in marriage. In the Iliad, Agamemnon fays to Achilles, that he will give him one of his daughters, without requiring of that přince the leaft prefent. Paufanias alfo gives us a proof of this ancient ufage: Danaus, fays this author, not finding any body to marry his daughters, on account of the horrible crime they had committed, caufed it to be published that he would not demand any prefents of thofe who would marry them. At this day it is a cuftom among the Greeks, that whoever will marry, buys his wife by the prefents he is obliged to make to the parents of her he marries f. Yet we fee that anciently the presents the husband made, whether to the father-in-law, or to the perfon he was to marry, did not excufe the father from giving to his daughter a certain portion, and this properly made the dower of the brides. And when a widow chofe to marry again, the cuftom was, that he could not dispose of her dower that fhe had on her first marriage, nor carry it to her fecond husband. All her poffeffions from that moment devolved to the children of her first marriage. Her father was obliged to give her a new dower: But if it happened that a fon was fo unnatural as to turn out his mother from his father's houfe, he was obliged to give her all that fhe had brought i As to the form in which they made thefe contracts of marriage, I have before obferved, that at the time when wri ting was not known, they did all in the prefence of wit Book I. Arift. polit. 1. 2. c. 8. p. 327. B. 1 a L. 9. v. 146. Homer does not speak of the prefent made to the bride; but only of that to be made to the father. The prefents made to the bride were called va. See Meziriac. in Ovid. ep. t. 2. p. 317. f e L. 3. c. 12. Voyage de la Boulaye, le Gouz. p. 411.. 8 Iliad. 1. 9. v. 147. 148. The dower which the father gave to his daughter was called μείλια. Ibid. Odyff. 1. 2. v. 53. 1 Ibid. v. 132. 133, neffes |