Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

436 DOS. DOS.
DORMITO'RIA. [DoMus.] females. The regulations of Solon were, accordDORODO'KIAS GRAPHE (wcepoaocias ing to Plutarch, somewhat similar in respect of,ypaop1). [DECASMUS.] dower to the old regulations at Sparta: for the
DORON (8&pos), a palm or hand-breadth. Athenian legislator, as he tells us, did not allow a
[PEs.] woman, unless she were an lErbcXlqpos, to have
DORON GRAPHE (pcopwv ypacp). [DE- any cEpy4/ or dower, except a few clothes and
CAsMUs.] articles of household furniture. It is plain, howDOROXE'NIAS GRAPHE (awpo~Evias ever, that such an interference with private rights
ypa41). [XENIAS GRAPHE.] could not be permanent; and, accordingly, we find
DO'RPIA (Udpmrsa). [APATURIA.] that in after times the dowers of women formed,
DORPON (lp7erov). [COENA, p. 303, b.] according to the account in Blckh (Pad. Ecoz. of
DORU (&lpv). [[HASTrA.] Athelns, p. 514, 2nd ed.), a considerable part of
DORY'PHORI (bop')4dpol). [MERCENARII.] the moveable property of the state: "even with
DOS (7rpo'l~, dep,'vi), dowry. 1. GREEK. Eu- poor people they varied in amount from ten to a
ripides (Med. 236) makes Medeia complain that, hundred and twenty minae. The daughter of
independent of other misfortunes to which women Hipponicus'received ten talents at her marriage,
were subject, they were obliged to buy their hus- and ten others were promised her." This, howbands by great sums of money (Xpn/1dvswJV 57rep- ever, was a very large portion, for Demosthenes
XpA7). On this the Scholiast remarks, that the (c. Steph. p. 1112. 19, and p. 1124. 2) informs us
poet wrote as if Medeia had been his contem- that even five talents was more than was usually
porary, and not a character of the heroic ages, in given; and Lucian (Dial. l'eret. 7. p. 298, ed.
which it was customary for the husband to pur- Reitz) also speaks of the same sum as a large
chase his wife from her relations, by gifts called dowry. The daughters of Aristeides received from;ema or e8a'va. The same practice prevailed in the state, as a portion, only thirty minae each.
the East during the patriarchal ages (Ge:nes. xxxiv. (Plut. Arist. 27; Aesch. c. Ctes. p. 90.) We may
2), and Tacitus (Germ. c. 18) says of the ancient observe too, that one of the chief distinctions beGermans, " Dotemn non uxor marito, sed uxori tween a wife and a irahalcA1, consisted in the
maritus offert." The custom of the heroic times former having a portion, whereas the latter had
is illustrated by many passages in Homer. Thus not; hence, persons who married wives without
we read of the &7repeLota, and lwvpIa Eo`va, or many portions appear to have given theen or their guar.
gifts by which wives were purchased. (II. xvi. dianes an ouoXoyia 7rpotfKo" (Isaeus, De Py/r.
178, 190.) In another place (I1. xi. 243) we are Hered. p. 41), or acknowledgment in writinig by
told of a hundred oxen, and a thousand sheep and which the receipt of a portion was admitted.
goats, having been given by a Thracian hero to [CONCUBINA.] Moreover, poor heiresses (T&'y
his maternal grandfather, whose daughter he was e7rhcA7pw, ioat ns ta KbY. EoT TEOVXY) were either
about to marry. Moreover, the poetical epithet, married or portioned by their next of kin [Ana(.Peo'lfoat (Heyne, ad MI. xviii. 593), applied cHON], according to a law which fixed the
to females, is supposed to have had its origin in amount of portion to be given at five minae by a
the presents of this sort, which wwere made to a Pentacosiomedimnues, three by a Horseman, and
woman's relatives on her marriage. These nuptial one and a half by a Zeugites. (Dem. c. Macar.
gifts, however, or equivalents for tihem were re- p. 1068.) In illustration of this law, and the
turned to the husband in the.event of the commis- amount of portion, the reader is referred to
sion of adultery by the wife, and perhaps in other Terence, who says (Plaorsm. ii. 1 75),
cases. (Od. viii. 318.),
We must not infer from the above facts that it Lex est ut orbae, qui sint genere proximi
was not usual in those times for relations to give
a portion with a woman when she ma'ried. On and again (ii. 2. 62),
the contrary, mention is made (je. ix. 147) of
the cotra ory marriage gifts mwich en give 1 ith of Itidem ut cognata si sit, id quod lex jubet,
their daughters (Er'VcmKav), and we are told by Dotem dare, abduce hbnc: minas quinque accipe."
Aeschines (Iespl rlapatpEo. 33), of one of the sons It remains to state some of the conditions and
of Theseus having received a territory near Am-~ obligations attached to the receipt of a portion, or
phipolis as a pepyv or dower with his wife. More- 7rpo'S, in the time of the Athenian orators. The
over, both Andromache and Penelope are spoken most important of these was the obligation under
of as AoXoL w7roX6i6wpoi (LI. vi. 394, Od. xxiv. which the husband lay to give a security for it,
294), or wives who brought to their husbands either by way of settlement on the wife, or as a
many gifts, which probably would have been re- provision for repayment in case circumstances
turned to their relations, in case of a capricious slould arise to require it. With regard to this,
dismissal. (Od. ii. 132.) we are told that whenever relatives or guardianls
The Doric term for a portion was 8cwr,7n, and gave a woman a portion on her marriage, they
Mi!ler (Dore. iii. 10) observes, that we know for took from the husband, by way of security, somecertainty that daughters in Sparta had originally thing equivalent to it, as a house or piece of land.
no dower, but were married with a gift of clothes!The person who gave this equivalent (rb a7roonly; afterwards they were at least provided with?Ti/.La) was said &arotlpiav: the person who remoney, and other personal property (Plllt. Lys. ceived it aroTrilasOacu. (Harpocrat. s. v.;Dem.
30): but in the time of Aristotle (Polit. ii. 6. c. Onet. p. 866.) The word &7rOT5'i/ea is also used
~ 10), so great were the dowers given (&& rb generally for a security. (Pollux, viii. 142.) The
7rpotcas &idva e peycdas), and so large the number necessity for this security will appear from the
of 7ri'cKApoi, or female representatives of families fact that the portion was not considered the pro(o1o0), that nearly two fifths of the whole terri- perty of the husband himself, but rather of his
tory of Sparta had come into the possession of wife and children. Thus, if a husband died, and