Citation

Woody T. Res. Q. Am. Assoc. Health Phys. Educ. 1939; 10(2): 57-71.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1939, American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation)

DOI

10.1080/10671188.1939.10625752

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

History holds a mirror up to life. Therein are reflected the varying patterns and tendencies of human existence in times past. But past and present constitute a continuum, in which the various phases of the lifecycle succeed each other, and a whole repeats the whole, Besame, or nearly so, as Thucydides declared. With respect to the woman question, Greek society ran through a wide range of experience: we can see her in rather primitive feudal society, bought and sold, or given away like so much property; on the plane of greater equality, but not too high, in the limited communism of Sparta; in sheltered, almost Oriental seclusion in the best families from age-old subjugation, though that day was soon overcast and not till later ages more its promises in some degree redeemed. Either yet, fulfillment is not complete in the most advanced sectors; and in others retrogression has set in. Tool world divided between protagonists of women's equality and those who would rehabilitate her in her one time exclusive sphere, a re-examination of the panorama of Greek development is of interest.