Sing, goddess

August 19, 2024 7:39 PM

“I set out to read 26 traditional epics about woman heroes, and so far I have found 32.”
posted by clew (4 comments total)

menin aeide, thea

(I liked The Pelenopiad. Though I also liked Baricco's An Iliad, which is also Officially Incorrect.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:56 PM on August 19

epic
posted by HearHere at 2:10 AM on August 20 [1 favorite]

So I was going to replace “virumque” in the first line of the Aeneid with a word for woman instead. The first line starts “arma virumque cano”— “I sing of arms and the man”

So the first words I thought of for “woman” didn’t scan right (feminamque had too many syllables, etc). And looking up “woman” in general instead served as a reminder of how much Latin literature uses anything that could mean “woman” as some form of insult. (English does this too, especially with regard to sexuality and the selling of it).

I also note that the list of epics in the post doesn’t include anything in Latin. It’s instead got a much more worldwide base, looking at epics all over the world. So maybe the complaint about “there aren’t good stories about women” is both sexism and racism/westernism.
posted by nat at 11:42 AM on August 20 [2 favorites]

This is great, thank you!
posted by lysimache at 2:00 PM on August 20