It’s shocking the stories about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment, abuse and rape.
Sadly, it’s not unprecedented in history.
Even Wikipedia has a page called “List of Rape Victims from Ancient History and Mythology.” Zeus, the king of the Ancient Greek gods, makes the list 3 times. He was the Harvey Weinstein of Ancient Greece.
One that particularly burns me up is the rape of Lucretia, an ancient Roman woman. There’s lots of variations to the story, but in a nutshell, she was a wife of an official and she was raped by the son of a king. After she told her story, she stabbed herself.
The Romans went on to overthrow the king and the start of the Roman Republican was born.
Yay, I guess. But what about Lucretia?
No one is concerned about how mortified and ashamed she must have been.
The Rape is represented by many artists, including Rembrandt and Rubin. All male, I’m afraid. Lots of the artist like to show Lucretia’s bare breasts before she stabbed herself.
After all, they seem to say, she was already “defiled.”
Even a museum video about a statue about Lucretia talks of her “noble resignation to death.” The thinking sounds like since she was raped, she must die. She gets the blame.
Sounds a lot like rape in modern times.