May
25
/ 2018
In discussions about gender in the ancient world, women seldom seemed to be portrayed in a good light. In Ancient Greece, women were described as dogs, demons and degenerates. Semonides of Amorgos (circa 7th century BC), a popular poet in his time, suggested that one way to deal with one’s wife was to silence her by knocking her teeth out with a stone. His descriptions of women were equally despicable as he classified them as being made from, among others, a pig: “a hairy sow whose house is like a rolling heap of filth”, a fox: “pure evil and aware of everything”, and a dog: “she wants to hear everything, know everything, go everywhere and stick her nose in everything
