“Exemplary Gallic Wives in the Erotikos and Mulierum Virtutes of Plutarch: Stereotypes and Comparisons”
Résumé
The Plutarchean treatise Mulierum Virtutes can be defined as a consolatory text, an encomium and a catalogue of exempla. It elaborates on an assumption, introduced with particular vigour in the first lines of the text: there is only one kind of honorable conduct, and it can be found in married women as well as in men. Plutarch also develops this particular topic in his Erotikos, a text that has many links with the Mulierum Virtutes and even shares with it one example, that of Camma the Galatian. Both texts rely on a similar composition technique: they develop a comparison (sunkrisis) which differentiates, associates, and parallels Greek and foreign peoples, and also measures men against women. Gender identity and ethnicity are combined in Plutarch’s reflection, but the outcome needs to be precisely assessed, as there is no question of universalism or gender equality in the discussion.