Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
16.
_What is the reason that it is not lawfull for any maid servants to enter into the temple of the goddesse_ [137]Leucothea? _and the Dames of_ Rome, _bringing in thither one alone and no more with them, fall to cuffing and boxing her about the eares and cheeks_. AS for the wench that is thus buffeted, it is a sufficient signe and argument, that such as she, are not permitted to come thither: now for all others they keepe them out in regard of a certaine poeticall fable reported in this wise: that ladie _Ino_ being in times past jealous of her husband, and suspecting him with a maid servant of hers, fell mad, and was enraged against her owne sonne: this servant the Greeks say, was an Aetolian borne, and had to name Antiphera: and therefore it is that heere among us in the citie of _Chæronea_, before the temple or chappell of _Matuta_, the sexton taking a whip in his hand crieth with a loud voice: No man servant or maid servant be so hardie as to come in heere; no Aetolian hee or shee presume to enter into this place. _What is the cause that to this goddesse, folke pray not for any blessings to their owne children, but for their nephews onely, to wit, their brothers or sisters children?_ MAY it not be that _Ino_ being a ladie that loved her sister wonderous well, in so much as she suckled at her owne breast a sonne of hers: but was infortunate in her owne children? Or rather, because the said custome is otherwise very good and civill, inducing and moving folks hearts to carie love and affection to their kinreds.
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