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purple motes

Artifacts to help you imagine more.

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Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

Abu Nuwas

Abu Nuwas, who lived from about 756 to 814 within the Abbasid Caliphate, is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical Arabic poets. He had keen appreciation for wine and men’s sexuality. His bold, vigorous, imaginative Arabic poetry should not be repressed in the less liberal and less intellectually sophisticated circumstances of today.

resurrection: overcoming the poetic problem with penises & erections

Despite metaphorical figuring of the penis as a weapon of violence, men’s erections should invoke hope for resurrection as in Abu Nuwas’s Arabic poetry. … Read the post resurrection: overcoming the poetic problem with penises & erections

fear of pregnancy in the classical Arabic poetry of Abu Nuwas

Comparing beardless youth to women as sexual partners, the classical Arabic poet Abu Nuwas saw the risk of pregnancy as a disadvantage of women for men. … Read the post fear of pregnancy in the classical Arabic poetry of Abu Nuwas

Calabre of Paris, woman physician of the 14th century, helped men

Medieval physicians such as the famous woman physician Calabre of Paris helped women to be more pleasing to men. … Read the post Calabre of Paris, woman physician of the 14th century, helped men