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Question 29. Why do they not permit the new married
[p. 221]
woman herself to step over the threshold of the house,
but the bridemen lift her over?
Solution. What if the reason be that they, taking their
first wives by force, brought them thus into their houses,
when they went not in of their own accord? Or is it that
they will have them seem to enter into that place as by
force, not willingly, where they are about to lose their
virginity? Or is it a significant ceremony to show that
she is not to go out or leave her dwelling-place till she is
forced, even as she goes in by force? For with us also in
Boeotia they burn the axletree of a cart before the doors,
intimating that the spouse is bound to remain there, the
instrument of carriage being destroyed.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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