Member-only story
Musonius Rufus — Lectures XIII and XIV: On marriage
Groucho Marx famously said that “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?” Those who wish to procreate and raise virtuous children, responds the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus in his thirteenth lecture.
We have already seen in this series that Musonius had a tendency that by today standards we would call conservative in his thinking about sex. It is, therefore, not surprising to find a consistent attitude toward marriage.
According to Musonius, people should marry with the primary goal of having children, but he is careful to add that that’s not enough:
“The birth of a human being which results from such a union is, to be sure, something marvelous, but it is not yet enough for the relation of husband and wife, inasmuch as quite apart from marriage it could result from any other sexual union, just as in the case of animals.”
What else, then, is needed? A virtuous union between husband and wife (or, we would say today more broadly, between loving partners). The members of the couple need to really care for each other in health and sickness and under all other conditions. If either only looks for his or her own interest and neglects the other then that household is not a good place to bring children into the world. For the Stoics the family is…
