Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Seven Against Thebes

"May I never share my home with the female race, neither in bad times nor good. When things go well for a woman, her boldness is unbearable, but when she is frightened, she is an even greater evil for her home and fellow citizens. Don't you see that your cries and panic have rattled the citizens into dispirited cowardice? Your behavior has greatly assisted the cause of our enemies outside, while we inside are being destroyed by our own people. This is the sort of trouble you will have if you dwell with women.
Now then, if anyone fails to obey my authority (whether man or woman or something in between), a sentence of death will be decreed for him, and by no means whatsoever will he escape destruction by stoning at the peoples' hands.
It is for the man to take care of business outside the house, let no woman meddle in those matters. Let them stay home and do no harm!" Eteocles in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes Tragedoi
verses 188ff. (play circa 473 B.C)

The action described in the play took place in the Archaic Age of Greece, prior to 1200 B.C.; approximately a generation before the Trojan War described in Homer's Iliad.
http://www.sikyon.com/Thebes/history_eg.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Against_Thebes


Meleager, hero of the Caledoneyan Boar hunt held a position contrary to that of Eteocles' misogyny. Fate was not kind to him however as he was done in by his own mother as a result of his defense of the mighty huntress, Atalanta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meleager

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