Work
Language of data  |   French   ·  English

Warrior women in Ibn Rushd’s Commentary on Plato’s Republic

Author

Date of creation
  • 2022   Gregorian
      
Preferred title

Warrior women in Ibn Rushd’s Commentary on Plato’s Republic   English  

Work type Single work
Work manifested Article
Work genre Textual work
Audience

Adult, serious

Summary

In his commentary on Plato’s Republic, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) discusses the case for female guardians. Besides following Socrates’s argument for female warriors, which cites the efficiency of female guard dogs, Ibn Rushd introduces an additional argument: that the female capacity for warfare is evident from the inhabitants of certain regions. Unfortunately, the precise formulation of the regions or groups he intends to mention is obscure in the existing manuscripts. Rosenthal translates “the inhabitants of deserts and frontier villages”, Lerner’s translation says “the inhabitants of deserts and the City of Women”. This article aims to analyse these and other translations of this enigmatic passage, which has not yet been the subject of study. Concerning the second region mentioned, it seems that Ibn Rushd could be indicating Northern Spain, but he might also have been alluding to the legendary places at the coldest margins of the then-known world.

Diamond   W 259229

Created at 24-01-2023 by Dalal Adib (IDEO)

Updated at 24-01-2023 by Dalal Adib (IDEO)


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