Sons are the anchors of a mother’s life.

The line expresses an ancient Greek, patriarchal assumption that a woman’s security and stability—social, economic, and emotional—are guaranteed chiefly through her male children. Calling sons “anchors” suggests they hold a mother’s life steady against misfortune: they can defend her interests, maintain the household, and preserve family standing. Read more broadly, it also captures a universal maternal experience of finding steadiness and purpose in one’s children, though the gendered emphasis reflects the inheritance and citizenship structures of classical Athens rather than a neutral statement about parenthood.