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easily, the other with difficulty? And that the one, on the basis of a brief study, would be
apt to discover a lot about what he’d learned, while the other, even when he’s gotten a lot
of study and practice, couldn’t even hang on to what he’d learned? And for the one, the
aptitudes of his body would adequately serve the purposes of his thinking, while for the
other it would be the opposite? Are there any other things than these by which you
marked off the one naturally suited for each thing from the one who’s not?’ ”
“No one’s going to claim there’re any others,” he said.
“Then do you know of anything practiced by human beings in which the man’s
kind isn’t of a condition that surpasses the woman’s in all these respects? Or shall we
make a long story out of it, talking about the art of weaving, and tending to things that
are baked or boiled, the activities in which the female kind is held in high repute and for
which it’s most absurd of all for it to be outdone?”
“You’re telling the truth,” he said, “that the one kind is dominated by the other by
far in everything, as one might put it. But many women are certainly better than many
men at many things, though on the whole it’s the way you say.”
“Therefore, my friend, there isn’t any pursuit of the people who run a city that
belongs to a woman because she’s a woman or to a man because he’s a man, but the
kinds of natures are spread around among both kinds of animal alike, and by nature a
woman takes part in all pursuits and a man in them all, but in all of them a woman is
weaker than a man.”
cdeSteps in Cloth-Making.Black-figure
lekythos (oil jug) attributed to the
potter Amasis (sixth century B.C.).
The women on the left are hand
spinning thread; those in the center
are weaving wool. Given that Greek
women generally remained at home
fulfilling such domestic occupations,
Plato’s suggestions in the Republic
were quite revolutionary. Though he
claims that in all pursuits “a woman
is weaker than a man,” Plato’s
character, Socrates, concludes,
“... there isn’t any pursuit of the
people who run a city that belongs to
a woman because she’s a woman or
to a man because he’s a man, but the
kinds of natures are spread around
among both... .” (Image copyright
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image source: Art Resource, NY)©