27
Those who offer sacrifice to Hera, the Protectress of Wedlock, Cf. O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschicte, p. 1134; also Plutarch, Frag. 2 of De Daedalis Plataeensibus (in Bernardakis’s edition, vol. vii. p. 44). do not consecrate the bitter gall with the other parts of the offering, but remove it and cast it beside the altar—an intimation on the part of him who established this custom that bitterness and anger ought never to find a place in married life. For the acerbity of the mistress, like that of wine, ought to be salutary and pleasant, not bitter like that of aloes, nor suggestive of a dose of medicine.
28
Plato The same advice in Moralia 769 D, in Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. ii. (p. 407 A), and a slightly different inference in Moralia, 753 C. advised Xenocrates, who was somewhat churlish in character but otherwise a good and honourable man, to sacrifice to the Graces. It is my opinion that the virtuous woman has especial need of graces in her relations with her husband, in order that, as Metrodorus Cf.Moralia, 753 C. used to put it, she may live pleasantly with him and not be cross all the time because she is virtuous. The thrifty woman must not neglect cleanliness, nor the loving wife cheerfulness; for asperity makes a wife’s correct behaviour disagreeable, just as untidiness has a similar effect upon plain living.
