Women as the Root of Evil in Ancient WesternCivilization
Women and their place in Ancient Times The civilizations of the Ancients were not always friendly to the woman or to her reputation. But before we condemn the Ancients as uncivilized, I hope to be able to explain in this paper what the culture and society of the time was like for women and I hope to do this from the information left to us by the philosophers and scholars of the time, to understand why women were often looked upon with scorn and disdain, and viewed as an inferior counterpart to the man. I believe that after a view of what the culture of the time was like, the reader may be able to more fully understand how women were perceived, why the perception was commonly held, and perhaps help to understand how certain views of women from that time prevail even today, nearly 2000 Years later. ... The Greek poets were fond of compare woman with evil. ... Among the Romans, we find Tacitus picturing women as controlling and cruel. He quotes Severus Caecina as saying during a debate: “With good reason," he said, "had it been formerly decided that women were not to be taken among our allies or into foreign countries. A train of women involves delays through luxury in peace and through panic in war, and converts a Roman army on the march into the likeness of a barbarian progress. ... ” The ancient males were convinced that woman was to blame for introducing evil into man’s world. To Greek men, Pandora was believed was the first woman to be both beautiful and evil, a myth that was used to explain evil in human beings. But where does this perception of evil in women come from? ... Culture most surely played a part in why women were put in the place of evil. ... A strongly male-dominated culture consigns women to a position of crucial restraint beyond the attachment of their children and households. Greek women were, lawfully and symbolically, considered as children all their lives. ... Women and their children lived in separate quarters in their fathers’ or husband’s house.