But you might say, "This person treated me well for so long. Didn't he love me?" How do you know, fool, that he didn't regard you the same way he regards the sponge he uses to clean his shoes? Or the way he takes care of his livestock? How do you know that once you stop being useful to him, he won't toss you aside like a broken dish? "But this woman is my wife, and we've lived together so long." So what? Eriphyle lived with Amphiaraus for a long time too. She was the mother of his children — many of them. But a necklace came between them. And what is a necklace? It's just an opinion about material things. That was the animal instinct in her. That's what destroyed the friendship between husband and wife. That's what stopped the woman from being a true wife and the mother from being a true mother.
But you may say, Such a one treated me with regard so long; and did he not love me? How do you know, slave, if he did not regard you in the same way as he wipes his shoes with a sponge, or as he takes care of his beast? How do you know, when you have ceased to be useful as a vessel, he will not throw you away like a broken platter? But this woman is my wife, and we have lived together so long. And how long did Eriphyle live with Amphiaraus, and was the mother of children and of many? But a necklace came between them: and what is a necklace? It is the opinion about such things. That was the bestial principle, that was the thing which broke asunder the friendship between husband and wife, that which did not allow the woman to be a wife nor the mother to be a mother.