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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

Auctores octo

In Europe from the beginning of the 14th century through the mid-16th century, the Auctores octo morales (Eight moral authors) were central to the Latin educational curriculum. The Auctores octo consisted of (1) Disticha Catonis (Cato) – a 4th-century collection of maxims attributed to Cato the Elder; (2) Ecloga Theoduli (Theodulus) – a 9th-century eclogue that subtly critiqued gynocentrism; (3) Facetus – a 12th-century book of manners; (4) Chartula contemptus mundi – a 12th-century poem emphasizing that worldly joys and honors quickly perish; (5) Tobias – Matthew of Vendome’s epyllion based on the biblical book of Tobit; (6) Alani Parabolae – Alan of Lille’s book of proverbs; (7) Aesopi Fabellae – 60 Aesopic fables written in verse by Gualterus Anglicus (Walter the Englishman); and (8) Floretus – a 12th-century poetic manual of Christian doctrine. In the 13th century, at the core of the curriculum were Sex Auctores (also called Liber Catonianus): Cato and Theodulus, along with Avianus (Aesopic fables), Maximianus (elegies), Claudian’s Abduction of Proserpina, and Statius’s Achilleid. The Auctores octo gradually replaced the Sex auctores in medieval schools.

Maximianus’s Greek girl mourned men’s complacent impotence

A. M. Juster’s wonderful new translation of Maximianus’s elegies is a fine poetic resource for pondering aging in men, men’s impotence & a Greek girl hero. … Read the post Maximianus’s Greek girl mourned men’s complacent impotence

in celibate Hell, resentful Dis threatens civil war & abducts girl

With greatly increasing sexual inequality, Dis in celibate Hell points to a grim future of civil war or other violence in Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae. … Read the post in celibate Hell, resentful Dis threatens civil war & abducts girl

Alan of Lille, Chaucer & Shakespeare knew all that glistens isn’t gold

As the eminent medieval thinker Alan of Lille expressed in Liber parabolarum, trust isn’t inherent in woman. All that glitters isn’t gold. Men, beware. … Read the post Alan of Lille, Chaucer & Shakespeare knew all that glistens isn’t gold

what foster-father Chiron failed to teach his son Achilles

Chiron was a good foster-father to Achilles until his mother Thetis took him, but failed to saved him from the Trojan War. Fathers can learn to do better. … Read the post what foster-father Chiron failed to teach his son Achilles

Matthew of Vendôme’s Tobias shows medieval ideal of marriage

In Tobias, his 12th-century expansion of the Book of Tobit, Matthew of Vendôme clarified how Tobias differed from Sarah’s previous husbands. … Read the post Matthew of Vendôme’s Tobias shows medieval ideal of marriage

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