Sindibad / Seven Sages is a framed corpus of stories of men’s sexed protest. In the frame tale, a king threatens to execute his son when the queen falsely accuses this prince of sexual assault. A wise man or seven sages defend the prince when he is silenced. Justice ultimate prevails when the queen’s false accusation is clearly refuted. The Sindibad / Seven Sages corpus originated in Sanskrit in India more than 2000 years ago. By about 800 years ago, it had diffused into Persian, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and European vernaculars. The corpus goes by various names: Book of Sindibad / Sindbad, Sendebar, The Fables of Syntipas, the Book of the Philosopher Syntipas, Dolopathos, History of the Seven Wise Masters {Historia Septem Sapientium}, Compendium of Seven Sages {Recueil des Sept Sages}, and the Romance of the Seven Sages of Rome {Roman des sept sages de Rome}. Uniting this corpus is the important theme of men’s vulnerability to women’s false accusations of sexual offenses.
Revising Leo of the eastern Seven Sages corpus, Matthew of Vendôme’s Latin comedy Milo promotes respect and poetic gender-justice for low-status men. … Read the post Matthew of Vendôme’s Milo: poetic justice for low-status men
Within the extensive intertexuality and dialog of Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, the Latin comedy Lidia provides the implicit voice for its marriage encomium. … Read the post marriage encomium in dialog with Lidia in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale
Within circumstances of betrayal in domestic human relations, medieval Latin literature figured a dog as man’s best friend. … Read the post dog is man’s best friend in medieval Latin literature
In an ancient tavern in Ostia Antica, wall paintings depict seven sages and twenty ordinary men seated at a public latrine. They speak of shitting. … Read the post seven sages at Ostia offer wisdom in shitting
Recastings of the weeping-dog tale across western Eurasia for more than a millennium indicate popular belief in men’s foolishness and women’s guile. … Read the post weeping-dog tale from ancient India traverses western Eurasia