Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 87

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[87] Why do they part the hair of brides with the point of a spear?¹

Does this symbolize the marriage of the first Roman wives² by violence with attendant war, or do the wives thus learn, now that they are mated to brave and warlike men, to welcome an unaffected, unfeminine, and simple mode of beautification? Even as Lycurgus,³ by giving orders to make the doors and roofs of houses with the saw and the axe only, and to use absolutely no other tool, banished all over-refinement and extravagance.

Or does this procedure hint at the manner of their separation, that with steel alone can their marriage be dissolved?

Or is it that most of the marriage customs were connected with Juno?⁴ Now the spear is commonly held to be sacred to Juno, and most of her statues represent her leaning on a spear, and the goddess herself is surnamed Quirite; for the men of old used to call the spear curis; wherefore they further relate that Enyalius is called Quirinus by the Romans.⁵

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

The Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 87 focus

[87] διὰ τί τῶν γαμουμένων αἰχμῇ δορατίου τὴν κόμην διακρίνουσιν;

ἆρα σύμβολόν ἐστι τοῦτο τοῦ βίᾳ καὶ μετὰ 285c πολέμου γαμηθῆναι τὰς πρώτας, ἢ μανθάνουσιν ἀνδράσι, συνοικοῦσαι μαχίμοις καὶ πολεμικοῖς ἄθρυπτον καὶ ἄθηλυν καὶ ἀφελῆ προσίεσθαι καλλωπισμόν; ὥσπερ ὁ Λυκοῦργος ἀπὸ πρίονος καὶ πελέκεως κελεύσας τὰ θυρώματα ταῖς οἰκίαις ποιεῖν καὶ τὰς ὀροφάς, ἄλλῳ δὲ μὴ χρῆσθαι τὸ παράπαν ἐργαλείῳ, πᾶσαν ἐξέβαλε περιεργίαν καὶ πολυτέλειαν.

ἢ τὴν διάστασιν αἰνίττεται τὸ γιγνόμενον, ὡς μόνῳ σιδήρῳ τοῦ γάμου διακριθησομένου;

ἢ τὰ μὲν πλεῖστα τῶν γαμικῶν εἰς τὴν Ἥραν ἀνῆπτο ¹; Ἥρας δʼ ἱερὸν τὸ δόρυ νενόμισται, καὶ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων αὐτῆς δόρατι στηρίζεται τὰ πλεῖστα καὶ Κυρῖτις ἡ θεὸς ἐπωνόμασται, τὸ γὰρ 285d δόρυ κύριν ² ἐκάλουν οἱ παλαιοί· διὸ καί φασι Κυρῖνον ὀνομασθῆναι τὸν Ἐνυάλιον.

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 87 focus

[87] διὰ τί τῶν γαμουμένων αἰχμῇ δορατίου τὴν κόμην διακρίνουσιν; ἆρα σύμβολόν ἐστι τοῦτο τοῦ βίᾳ καὶ μετὰ πολέμου γαμηθῆναι τὰς πρώτας, 285c ἢ μανθάνουσιν ἀνδράσι συνοικοῦσαι, μαχίμοις καὶ 15 πολεμικοῖς ἄθρυπτον καὶ ἄθηλυν καὶ ἀφελῆ προσίεσθαι καλλωπισμόν; ὥσπερ ὁ Λυκοῦργος ἀπὸ πρίονος καὶ πελέκεως κελεύσας τὰ θυρώματα ταῖς οἰκίαις ποιεῖν καὶ τὰς ὀροφάς, ἄλλῳ δὲ μὴ χρῆσθαι τὸ παράπαν ἐργαλείῳ, πᾶσαν ἐξέβαλε περιεργίαν καὶ 20 πολυτέλειαν. ἢ τὴν διάστασιν αἰνίττεται τὸ γιγνόμενον, ὡς μόνῳ σιδήρῳ τοῦ γάμου διακριθησομένου; ἢ τὰ μὲν πλεῖστα τῶν γαμικῶν εἰς τὴν Ἥραν ἀνῆπτο; Ἥρας δʼ ἱερὸν τὸ δόρυ νενόμισται, καὶ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων αὐτῆς δόρατι στηρίζεται τὰ πλεῖστα καὶ 25 Κυρῖτις ἡ θεὸς ἐπωνόμασται, τὸ γὰρ δόρυ κύριν ¹ 285d ἐκάλουν οἱ παλαιοί· διὸ καί φασι Κυρῖνον ² ὀνομασθῆναι τὸν Ἐνυάλιον.

Translations (1)

Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 87 focus

[87]

Question 87.

Why do they part the hair of women when they are married with the point of a spear?

Solution. What if it be a significant ceremony, showing that they took their first wives in marriage by force of arms and war? Or is it that they may instruct them that they are to dwell with husbands that are soldiers and warriors, and that they should put on such ornamental attire as is not luxurious or lascivious, but plain? So Lycurgus commanded that all the gates and tops of houses should be built with saw and hatchet, and no other sort of workmen’s instrument should be used about them; yea, he rejected all gayety and superfluity. Or doth this action parabolically intimate divorce, as that marriage can be dissolved only by the sword? Or is it that most of these nuptial ceremonies relate to Juno? For a spear is decreed sacred to Juno, and most of her statues are supported by a spear, and she is surnamed Quiritis, and a spear of old was called quiris, wherefore they surname Mars Quirinus?

Notes on the current edition

The Roman Questions

1. Cf. Life of Romulus, chap. xv. (26 e).

2. The Sabine women.

3. Cf. Moralia, 189 e, 227 c, 997 c; and the Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiii. (47 c); Cf. also Comment. on Hesiod, 42 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 72).

4. See Roscher, Lexikon der gr.und.röm. Mythologie, ii. coll. 588-592.

5. Cf. Life of Romulus, chap. xxix. (36 b); Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, ii. 48; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 475 ff.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 87

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Question 87.

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers