Feminism in Greek Literature from Homer to Aristotle

by F. A. Wright

‘Shall we, then, appropriate all virtues to men and none to women?’

‘How can we?’

‘On the contrary, we shall hold, I imagine, that one woman may have talents for medicine, and another be without them; and that one may be musical and another unmusical?’

‘Undoubtedly.’

‘And shall we not also say, that one woman may have qualifications for gymnastic exercises and for war, and another be unwarlike and without a taste for gymnastics?’

‘I think we shall.’

‘Again, may there not be a love of knowledge in one, and a distaste for it in another? And may not one be spirited, and another spiritless?’

‘True again.’

‘If that be so, there are some women who are fit, and others who are unfit, for the office of guardians. For were not those the qualities we selected, in the case of men, as marking their fitness for that office?’