Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.Cronau, Rudolf
History
Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.
Cronau, Rudolf
Women -- History
Reviewing the countless contributions women have made to literature is a
task that can be mastered only by devoting to this subject several
ponderous volumes. Whether such an attempt has even been made we are
unable to say. But the theme is so attractive that I hope that some
competent woman author may be inspired to undertake this task. What more
beautiful mission could she have than to study and analyze all the
scattered evidences of brilliant intellect, rich in imagination, deep
emotion, power of expression, soaring enthusiasm, scintillating wit, and
profound sorrow, to be found in many of the books written by women since
the days of =Sappho= and =Erinna=.
Only fragments remain of the beautiful odes, hymns and love-songs
produced by the poetesses of the classic past. But that they inspired
all Hellas and Rome we know from the testimony of the foremost authors
and critics of their time. When Meleager of Gadara, the famous sophist
and poet, selected the choicest poems of his predecessors and wove them
into that delicious “Garland,” to be hung outside the gate of the
Gardens of the Hesperides, he did not forget Sappho, because “though her
flowers were few, they were all roses.” And a critic, writing five
hundred years after Erinna’s death, speaks of still hearing her
swan-note clear above the jangling chatter of the jays, and of still
thinking those three hundred hexameter verses sung by this girl of
nineteen in “The Distaff” as lovely as the loveliest of Homer. There is
also a report, that =Corinna=, a native of Tanagra, in Bœotia, won five
times in poetical contests the prize in competition with Pindar, the
greatest lyric poet of Greece.
With greater kindness fate treated the works of =Alphaizuli=, a Moorish
poetess, who lived in Seville during the 8th Century A. D. Of her, who
was called “the Arabian Sappho,” two volumes of excellent verses are
preserved in the library of the Escurial. Likewise =Labana= and =Leela=,
two Moorish poetesses, were famous throughout beautiful Andalusia during
the 10th and the 13th Century. Of =Valada=, the daughter of the Moorish
King Almostakeph, of Corduba, her contemporaries report that she several
times contended with scholars noted for their eloquence and knowledge,
and quite often bore away the palm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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