Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/119

 CHAP. .III. AUTHOEITY IN THE FAMILY. 113 placed in the tomb, slio Avill not receive a special wor- ship. In death, as in life, she counts only as a part of her husband. Greek law, Roman law, and Hindu law, all derived from this old religion, agree in considering the wife as always a minor. She could never have a hearth of her own; she was never the chief of a worship. At Rome she received the title of mater familias ; but she lost this if her husband died.' Never having a sacred fire which belonged to her, she had nothing of what gave authority in the house. She never commanded ; she was never even free, or mistress of herself. She was always near the hearth of another, repeating the prayer of another; for all the acts of religious life she needed a superior, and for all the acts of civil life a guardian. The Laws of Menu say, "Woman, during her in- fancy, depends upon her father ; during her youth, upon her husband ; when her husband is dead, upon her sons ; if she has no son, on the nearest relative of her hus- band ; for a woman ought never to govern herself according to her own will."* The Greek laws and those of Rome are to the same effect. As a girl, she is under her father's control ; if lier father dies, she is governed by her brothers ; married, she is under the guardianship of her husband ; if the husband dies, she does not return to her own family, for she has re- nounced that forever by the sacred marriage ; ^ the widow remains subject to the guardianship of her hus- band's agnates — that is to say, of her own sons, if she ' Festus, V. Mater familicB. ^ She returned only in case of divorce. Demosthenes, »ii Eubulid., 41. 8
 * Laws of Manu, V. 147, 148