Plutarch · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
Argileonis, the mother of Brasidas, when her son had died and some of the Amphipolitans came to Sparta and visited her, asked whether her son had died nobly and in a manner worthy of Sparta. When they extolled him and said he was the best of all the Lacedaemonians in such deeds, she said, "Strangers, my son was indeed fine and good, but Sparta has many men better than he."
Gorgo, daughter of King Cleomenes, when Aristagoras of Miletus was urging her father to make war against the Great King on behalf of the Ionians, and promising a great quantity of money and adding still more each time Cleomenes objected, said, "Father, this little stranger will ruin you, unless you throw him out of the house quickly." And when her father once ordered her to give a man grain in payment for a service,
and the man added, "for he taught me to make good wine," she said, "Well then, father, the more wine there is, the more will be drunk, and the drinkers will become softer and worse." And seeing Aristagoras being fitted with sandals by one of his servants, she said, "Father, the stranger has no hands." And when another stranger approached her softly and at leisure, she pushed him away and said,
"Won't you get away from here, since you can't even do a woman's work?" When asked by an Athenian woman, "Why is it that you Spartan women alone rule your men?" she replied, "Because we alone give birth to men." And when she was urging her husband Leonidas, as he set out for Thermopylae, to show himself worthy of Sparta, she asked what she should do; he replied, "Marry a good man and bear good children." Once when Gyrtias's grandson Acrotatus
had received many blows in a fight among the boys and was carried home for dead, and her household and acquaintances were weeping, she said, "Won't you be quiet? For he has shown what blood he is of." And she said that brave men ought not to cry out but to be healed. When a messenger came from Crete announcing the death of Acrotatus, she said, "Was he not bound, on going against the enemy,
either to be killed by them himself or to kill them? I hear more gladly that he died in a manner worthy of himself, of the city, and of his ancestors, than if he had lived for all time being a coward." Damatria, on hearing that her son was a coward and unworthy of her, killed him when he arrived; and this is the epitaph on her: "Damatrius, who transgressed the laws, his Lacedaemonian mother slew, she a Lacedaemonian."
Another Spartan woman killed her son for deserting his post, as unworthy of his country, saying, "He is no offspring of mine." On her is this epitaph: "Begone, evil offspring, into darkness, where through hatred the Eurotas may not flow even for cowardly deer. Worthless whelp, wretched portion, go to Hades, go: I did not bear a thing unworthy of Sparta." Another woman, hearing that her son had fallen in battle, said,
"Let cowards be wept for; but you, my child, I bury without tears, you who are both mine and Lacedaemon's." A woman who heard that her son had been saved and had fled from the enemy wrote to him, "An evil report of you has spread abroad: either wipe it out now, or cease to be." Another woman, when her sons fled from battle and came to her, said, "Where have you come running to, deserting like this, wretched slaves? Or is it here that you mean
to crawl back into where you came from?" and she pulled up her garment and showed herself to them. Seeing her son approaching, another woman asked, "How does our country fare?" And when he said, "All are dead," she snatched up a roof tile and hurled it at him and killed him, saying, "So they sent you to bring us the bad news?" When someone was telling a mother about her brother's noble death, she said, "Is it not shameful, then, to have missed sharing in such a fellowship?" A woman who had sent out her five sons
to war stood in the outskirts of the city waiting to learn what would come of the battle. When someone arrived and, in answer to her question, reported that all her sons had died, she said, "That is not what I asked, you wretched slave, but how our country fares." And when he said that it was victorious, she said, "Then gladly do I accept even the death of my sons."
A woman burying her son, when a poor old woman came up to her and said, "O woman, what a misfortune," replied, "No, by the two gods, rather what good fortune; for this is what happened to me — that I bore him for the very purpose that he should die for Sparta." When an Ionian woman was priding herself on one of her own weavings, being a costly one, a Spartan woman, pointing to her four sons, who were most well-behaved, said, "Such ought to be the works
of a good and noble woman, and it is in these that she should take pride and boast greatly." Another woman, on hearing about her son that he was behaving badly abroad, wrote, "An evil report of you has spread abroad: put it away from you, or cease to be." In the same way, when Chian exiles came to Sparta and made many accusations against Paedaretus, his mother Teleutia sent for them, and having heard their charges, since it seemed to her that
her son was in the wrong, she wrote, "The mother to Paedaretus: either do better, or stay where you are, having given up hope of return to Sparta." Another woman, when her son was on trial for wrongdoing, said, "Child, free yourself either from the charge or from life." Another woman, sending off her lame son to battle, said, "Child, remember your valor at every step." Another woman, when her son came to her from battle wounded in the
foot and in great pain, said, "If you remember your valor, child, you will feel no pain and will be brave." A Spartan man, wounded in war and unable to walk, made his way on all fours. Ashamed at being a figure of ridicule, he was told by his mother, "How much better, child, to rejoice in your courage than to be ashamed at foolish laughter?" Another woman, handing her son his shield
and exhorting him, said, "Child, either with this or on this." Another woman, as her son was setting out for war, handed him his shield and said, "This your father always kept safe; you too, then, either keep it safe, or cease to be." To another woman's son, who complained that his sword was short, she said, "Add a step to it." Another woman, hearing that her son had died in battle
having played the brave man, said, "For he was mine." But on learning of the other son, that he had turned coward and was safe, she said, "For he was not mine." Another woman, hearing that her son had died in battle at the post assigned to him, said, "Lay him down, and let his brother fill his place." Another woman, celebrating a public festival, heard that her son was winning in the contest, but was dying of the many wounds he had received.
She did not take off her garland, but with dignity said to the women near her, "How much finer, my friends, is it to die victorious in battle than to live on having won at the Olympic games." When someone was telling a woman's sister about the noble death of her son, the sister said, "As much as I rejoice for him, so much do I grieve for you, left behind from so virtuous a company." Someone sent word to a Spartan woman asking whether she would consent
to being seduced. She replied, "As a girl I learned to obey my father, and this I did; as a wife, my husband. If then he urges what is right, let him first make this clear to my husband." A poor girl, asked what dowry she would give to her bridegroom, said, "My ancestral chastity." A Spartan woman, asked whether she had come to her husband, said, "No, but he to me." A certain woman who had been
secretly deflowered and had destroyed the infant endured it so steadfastly, uttering not a single sound, that even her father and others nearby were unaware that she had given birth; for the greatness of her pain was overcome by her sense of propriety in the face of disgrace. A Spartan woman being sold, when asked what she knew, said, "To be trustworthy." Another woman, taken captive and asked the same thing, said, "To manage a household well." A woman, asked by someone whether she would be
good, if he bought her, said, "Yes, even if you don't buy me." Another woman being sold, when the herald asked what she knew, said, "To be free." And when her purchaser ordered her to do something not fitting for a free woman, she said, "You will regret grudging yourself the use of such a possession," and put herself to death.