University of Reading in England Edits Classic Greek Poem, Removing Reference to Domestic Violence
“If we applied this same kind of censorship to the news we would end up with a most limited and ignorant view of the world”
The school did this even though no one complained. Is this what studying the classics is going to become like?
The College Fix reports:
To avoid offending students, UK university edits classic Greek poem, removing mention of domestic violence
England recently cut several lines referring to domestic violence from a classic Greek poem to avoid offending students.
The 2,000-year-old poem, Types of Women, by Semonides of Amorgos, is taught to first-year classics students at the school and makes reference to silencing women through violence.
Documents obtained by The UK Daily Mail include a statement by school administrators:
“The portion of the poem now omitted involved a brief reference to domestic violence,” read the statement. “That portion has subsequently been removed because, while the text as a whole is vitriolic, that part seemed unnecessarily unpleasant and (potentially) triggering.”
According to the school, no student had complained about the poem.
“This is beyond naive,” Jeremy Black, emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter, told the Daily Mail. “It is positively ridiculous and has no place in academia.”
“If we applied this same kind of censorship to the news we would end up with a most limited and ignorant view of the world,” said Black.
The poem declares God made ten different types of women:
“One type is from a pig—a hairy sow
whose house is like a rolling heap of filth;
and she herself, unbathed, in unwashed clothes,
reposes on the shit-pile, growing fat.”Conversely:
“Another type the gods made from a fox:
pure evil, and aware of everything.
This woman misses nothing: good or bad,
she notices, considers, and declares
that good is bad and bad is good. Her mood
changes from one moment to the next.”Semonides suggests it is impossible to silence some types of women, even with physical violence:
“One type is from a dog—a no-good bitch,
a mother through and through; she wants to hear
everything, know everything, go everywhere,
and stick her nose in everything, and bark
whether she sees anyone or not.A man can’t stop her barking; not with threats,
not (when he’s had enough) by knocking out
her teeth with a stone, and not with sweet talk either;
even among guests, she’ll sit and yap;
the onslaught of her voice cannot be stopped.”
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Comments
If I recall, that poem was better in the original Klingon.
I had a classical education.
Latin was a required course in high school, I read Caesars’ commentaries in the original Latin and I studied Greek myths and history.
Even after medical school I’ve had a lifelong interest in Greek history and mythology
I never heard of this poem.
The thing about Greek mythology is how anti-woman it all is.
Apollo is an absolute horror to women,
He’s even worse to his male lovers as they all die.
In Ovids Heroides, he writes imaginary letters from the women in the myths to the heroes who wronged them.
That is what these students should be reading.
Not that stupid poem they are censoring
Theseus is a total bastard!
I’m frankly amazed that they are teaching any part of this poem at all in a woke college, given that it seems overwhelmingly “patriarchal” (not to mention cisgender, which is always worth throwing in). In other words, violence seems to be only one of the attributes to which the SJWs would immediately object — and not even the first one.
To my knowledge the oldest feminist text in the world came from ancient Greece. Plato’s Republic called for women in the military, which must have sounded as crazy then as normal now.
When I.taught American Literature, I always taught the contemporary history and culture.
A constant theme until the early 29th century is God (His will, creation, mercy, judgement, etc).
A student accused me of teaching religion. I replied, “I am not telling you what to believe. I am teaching you what the authors and their society believed. I will not teach ignorance.”
How can anyone profess to be a classics scholar without studying complete texts?if a student is “offended, he or she needs to switch majors. Disciplines do not cater to the whims of their disciples.