History is how we have learnt to think about ourselves. It's not as though the Greeks and Romans are static entities out there to be discovered and translated. We make them speak, we talk to them, and they inform what we say.
Mary BeardRead
Greek myths, early Roman history, is configured around violence against women. And I think we need to get in there, get our hands dirty, face it, and see why and how it was.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the historical prevalence of violence against women in ancient myths and encourages a deeper examination of this phenomenon.
Mary Beard's quote emphasizes the need to confront and analyze the violent representations of women in Greek myths and early Roman history. She advocates for a proactive approach to uncover the underlying reasons and societal structures that perpetuated such violence, suggesting that understanding this past is crucial for addressing it in contemporary discussions about gender and violence.
Themes
ViolenceWomenMythsHistoryGenderSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on gender studies, to illustrate the persistence of gendered violence throughout history.
More from Mary Beard
All quotes βI don't think that we are completely dominated by what we have inherited from the past, but it is the case that as far back as you can go - just to Homer, but also to the literature of Rome, the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - what you will find is that women's voices are not taken seriously.
Mary BeardRead
What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don't speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don't get the rhetoric right. I think that's a fair trade-off.
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I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe.
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Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn't particularly matter what they look like.
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There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us.
Mary BeardRead
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