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.
Sukasaptati, written in Sanskrit no later than 12th century, provides tales of paternity deception within a framework that illustrates guile for men. … Read the post Sukasaptati: Indian parrot instructs men in guile
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
Interactive medieval “we are seven” prints seem to be a parody of the seven sages of ancient Greece and Rome. Wisdom wasn’t beyond laughter. … Read the post seven sages in interactive medieval parody
Husbands must be careful not to criticize or disparage women, only bad women. Referring to women with insufficient specificity gets husbands punished. … Read the post husbands: disparage only bad women, or be shackled
In the ancient Book of Sindibad, a king nearly kills his son in response to a false accusation of rape. Who is to blame? Sages’ reasons versus a fable. … Read the post father almost kills son: who is to blame?