Chapter XXXIII.—Vindication of Christian Women. Therefore I have been desirous to prove from the things which are esteemed honourable among you, that our institutions are marked by sober-mindedness, but that yours are in close affinity with madness.85 You who say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among maidens and old women, and scoff at us for not being with you, hear what silliness prevails among the Greeks. For their works of art are devoted to worthless objects, while they are held in higher estimation by you than even your gods; and you behave yourselves unbecomingly in what relates to woman. For Lysippus cast a statue of Praxilla, whose poems contain nothing useful, and Menestratus one of Learchis, and Selanion one of Sappho the courtezan, and Naucydes one of Erinna the Lesbian, and Boiscus one of Myrtis, and Cephisodotus one of Myro of Byzantium, and Gomphus one of Praxigoris, and Amphistratus one of Clito. And what shall I say about Anyta, Telesilla, and Mystis? Of the first Euthycrates and Cephisodotus made a statue, and of the second Niceratus, and of the third Aristodotus; Euthycrates made one of Mnesiarchis the Ephesian, Selanion one of Corinna, and Euthycrates one of Thalarchis the Argive. My object in referring to these women is, that you may not 79 regard as something strange what you find among us, and that, comparing the statues which are before your eyes, you may not treat the women with scorn who among us pursue philosophy. This Sappho is a lewd, love-sick female, and sings her own wantonness;86 but all our women are chaste, and the maidens at their distaffs sing of divine things87 more nobly than that damsel of yours. Wherefore be ashamed, you who are professed disciples of women yet scoff at those of the sex who hold our doctrine, as well as at the solemn assem- blies they frequent.88 What a noble infant did Glaucippé present to you, who brought forth 85 [See note 2, next page.] 86 [St. Chrysostom speaks of the heathen as ὁι ταῖς σατανικαῖς ῷδαῖς κατασηπόμενοι. In Psalmum, cxvii. tom. v. p. 533. Ed. Migne.] 87 [Such as the Magnificat of the Virgin, the Twenty-third Psalm, or the Christian Hymn for Eventide, which they learned in the Christian schools (cap. xxxii. p. 78). Cold is the heart of any mother’s son that does not warm over such a chapter as this on the enfranchisement of womanhood by Christ. Observe our author’s scorn for the heathen “affinity with unreason” (this chapter, supra), and then enjoy this glimpse of the contrast afforded by the Gospel in its influence upon women. Intensely should we delight in the pictures of early Christian society, of which the Fathers give us these suggestive outlines. Rejecting the profane and wanton songs they heard around them,— “Satanic minstrelsies,” as St. Chryosostom names them,—they beguiled their toils and soothed their sorrows with “Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” As St. Jerome relates, “You could not go into the field, but you might hear the ploughman’s hallelujahs, the mower’s hymns, and the vine-dresser’s chant of the Psalms of David.” See Cave’s Primitive Christianity, p. 132.] 88 [Such as the Magnificat of the Virgin, the Twenty-third Psalm, or the Christian Hymn for Eventide, which they learned in the Christian schools (cap. xxxii. p. 78). Cold is the heart of any mother’s son that does not warm over such a chapter as this on the enfranchisement of womanhood by Christ. Observe our author’s scorn for Chapter XXXIII. Vindication of Christian Women. 157 Chapter XXXIII. Vindication of Christian Women.