On the other
hand, suppose a man should take a woman of gentle
birth into his house in due form for the procreation of
children, and then should neither lay a finger on the
ripe and beautiful maiden himself nor suffer anyone
else to look at her, but should lock her up and keep
her a maid, childless and sterile, asserting, however,
that he loved her and making it plain that he did so by
his colour and wasted flesh and sunken eyes. Would
not such a man appear to be out of his mind when,
although he ought to have children and get some
good of his marriage, he lets so fair and lovely a girl
fade by keeping her all her life as if she were vowed
to Demeter? That is the sort of thing I myself am
angry about; for some of them kick me about
shamefully and tear my flesh and pour me out like
water, while others keep me in shackles like a runaway slave with a brand on his forehead.