Miscellanies 4.8.62
Summary: Women of some nations fight and labor like men, and even female dogs work as males do; so women must philosophize like men, though men hold the first place.
Greek text · Stählin 2:276–277
ἀκούω δʼ ἔγωγε καὶ Σαυρομάτιδας γυναῖκας πολέμῳ χρωμένας ἀνδρῶν οὐκ ἔλαττον, καὶ Σακίδας ἄλλας, αἳ τοξεύουσιν εἰς τοὐπίσω φεύγειν προσποιούμεναι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐπʼ ἴσης. οἶδα καὶ τὰς πλησίον τῆς Ἰβηρίας γυναῖκας ἔργῳ καὶ πόνῳ χρωμένας ἀνδρικῷ, κἂν πρὸς τὸ ἀποκυεῖν γένωνται οὐδὲν ἀνιείσας τῶν πρακτέων, ἀλλʼ ἐν αὐτῇ πολλάκις τῇ ἁμίλλῃ τῶν πόνων ἡ γυνὴ ἀποκυήσασα τὸ βρέφος ἀνελομένη οἴκαδε φέρει. ἤδη γοῦν αἱ κύνες οὐδὲν ἔλαττον τῶν ἀρρένων καὶ οἰκουροῦσι καὶ θηρεύουσι καὶ τὰς ποίμνας φυλάττουσι. Κρῆσσα κύων ἐλάφοιο κατʼ ἴχνιον ἔδραμε Γοργώ. φιλοσοφητέον οὖν καὶ ταῖς γυναιξὶν ἐμφερῶς τοῖς ἀνδράσι, κἂν βελτίους οἱ ἄρρενες τά τε πρῶτα ἐν πᾶσι φερόμενοι τυγχάνωσιν, ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ καταμαλακισθεῖεν.
English · Claude translation
I hear that the Sarmatian women too make war no less than men, and the Sacian women too, who shoot backward while pretending to flee, equally with the men. I know too that the women near Iberia do men's work and labor, and even when they are about to give birth they neglect nothing of what must be done; often, in the very contest of labor, the woman gives birth, takes up the baby, and carries it home. Indeed female dogs, no less than male, guard the house, hunt, and watch the flocks: “Gorgo, the Cretan hound, ran on the track of the deer.” Women, then, must philosophize like men, even if men are better and hold the first place in all things, unless they have become effeminate.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotation is from an unknown epigram. The reports about Sarmatian and Iberian women are in Herodotus 4.116 and Strabo 3.4.17.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.62 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/62/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.8.62 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/8/62/).
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