Ctésias et les femmes

In his "History of the Orient", Ctésias, the historian from Cnidus, assigns some leading roles to women. His treatment of them ranges from the half legendary descriptions of the Assyrian queens, notably Semiramis, to the more realistic portrayal of the mothers and wives of Persian kings, such as Parysatis and Stateira ; given Ctesias' tendence to stray from historical facts and to reinvent people and events to suit his own specific purposes, it is of some interest to examine the roles he assigns to women in his great "tableau" of the Orient and to determine whith what intention he characterizes them as he does. Beyond the obvious roles he makes women play in the various romantic episodes in his works, we can discern an attempt on his part to use his portrayal of women as a means to sent out a note of warning to the Greeks of his time. He wishes to communicate the point that the Greeks and the Persians have very different conceptions of women and their roles in society, and that it is in the interest of the Greeks not to allow women to intrude upon the domains of power and decision as they have done in Persia. In many ways strange and foreign, Persian culture remains in close contact with the Griids and as such it offers a cultural model which ought not be emulated by the Greeks

Art · Greeks · Linguistics · Literature · Persian · Physics · Power (physics · Romance · Ancient Near East History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy