Pantagathus Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 For all of you who enjoy when I post interesting tidbits from ancient, anthropological geographies I have decided that every once & a while I will post a singular one in a thread for discussion. I've settled on Romana Humanitas for Strabo & Pliny and Herodotus will go in the Peregrini. So without further ado, here is one of my favorites: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docoflove1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 No man is permitted to land on the island; and when the women desire to have intercourse with the other sex, they cross the sea, and afterwards return again. Now what fun is that...honestly! These women were clearly not Italian lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Now what fun is that...honestly! These women were clearly not Italian lol For the life of me I can't understand why there would be Samnite women on an Atlantic Island near the mouth of the Loire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docoflove1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 For the life of me I can't understand why there would be Samnite women on an Atlantic Island near the mouth of the Loire I guess this is the Roman version of the Amazon women? Who knows...either way, it's funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Is it not perhaps a strange conglomeration of some sort of Atlantean, Amazonian and Islands of the Blest/Elsyian field lore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I guess this is the Roman version of the Amazon women? Who knows...either way, it's funny. I claim intellectual property rights on a black comedy set on the island! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I guess this is the Roman version of the Amazon women? Who knows...either way, it's funny. I claim intellectual property rights on a black comedy set on the island! would this by any chance involve a handsome shipwrecked sailor looking for a lost work of geography? Inadvertently finding a surprising number of virgins brewing beer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skarr Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 Interesting snippet, Pertinax. I do remember reading some similar legend but attributed to a different source, not Strabo. This is very interesting indeed and as someone pointed out, bears some resemblance to the myths around the Amazons, who lived apart from any men and fought like warriors as a separate unit. Of course, the quintessential love story concerning the Amazons for me is the great love that Achilles is supposed to have borne the Queen of the Amazons, whom he killed - Penthilesia. It is said that Achilles was struck by the beauty of the woman when she lay lifeless on the ground, after he had stabbed her through with his spear. Of course, there are other stories concerning this "love", if you can call it so (if you ask me, it sounds more like temporary infatuation or even insanity, if one were to believe the rumors spread by the scurrilous Thersites, the bane of the Greek camp). In a different context, I remember reading about some other island but in the Americas (off the coast of Peru?) where a colony of women lived, with the men going to work in the mainland. However, this may have been more out of economic circumstance and certainly not so brutal as the cult that probably developed in the island that Strabo is talking about. One thing to remember though is that Strabo probably never visited the island and probably got this information from a tertiary source himself and the story itself is probably more hearsay than anything else, with a kernel of truth that we may never know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 Not to be a party pooper, but I think the only real similarity between these Gallic Bacchants and the Amazons is the fact that they are women who live apart from men Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 (edited) minor aside:Am I wrong in suggesting that it was as he slew Penthilesia , looking into her eyes (as he struck her ) he realised to his dismay that she was his amor propre? I cant claim to know this by translation so can the liunguists clarify this small point? Pictii women would perhaps have more "licence" in their behaviour, certainly we know Brigantian women moved very "freely" at a certain level of society. Edited March 8, 2006 by Pertinax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 (edited) minor aside:Am I wrong in suggesting that it was as he slew Penthilesia , looking into her eyes (as he struck her ) he realised to his dismay that she was his amor propre? That's the way it's been relayed to me. & Pertinax, as you may have guessed, the reason I threw in that tenuous, possible connection to the Picts had more to do with their legendary Bacchic behavior than specific indications sexual promiscuity. Edited March 9, 2006 by Pantagathus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 (edited) I followed your line of thought as the "orgy" is indeed dance above all , rather than drink or sexual licence, though these two may be implicated indirectly as "sacred" activities. ..and as discussed elsewhere we know the role of the feminine principle in fermentation and the exclusivity of that activity ( gender wise) but why not by physical separation also. Edited March 8, 2006 by Pertinax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 Skarr, I agree that the Penthisilea addition to the epics surrounding the Trojan War is quite provocative. I still have yet to read Quintus Smyrnaeus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted March 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 Quintus Smyrnaeus is really good, but I know of no readable translation. The old Loeb edition, by A. S. Way, is in highly archaic 'English' verse; the prose version by F. M. Combellack redefines the meaning of 'prosaic'. Seems there is a new translation! Posthomerica - Alan James (Johns Hopkins New Translations from Antiquity) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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