On Famous Women

...the cultivated fields respond with wrath. Immediately, a scarcity of provisions enters, and fasts harsher than those of ancient times arise. A savage hunger, never known in the forests, stalks through the huts original: "gorgusciolos"; likely referring to the small, cramped dwellings of the poor. of the impoverished, and not without frequent danger to the wealthy themselves. From this comes a foul and wild emaciation, a deathly paleness, and a weakness that moves with a staggering gait; thus, multiple causes of disease and premature death arise. Having looked upon these things along with many others, I hardly know what to say—except that I know first of all that those ancient times, though they were rough and rustic, are to be preferred to these iron ages of ours and all others.

About Minerva.

Minerva, who is also called Pallas, was a virgin of such conspicuous brilliance that foolish men thought she did not have a mortal origin. Some say she was first seen and recognized on earth at Lake Tritonis, not far from the Lesser Syrtis A gulf on the northern coast of Africa, near modern-day Tunisia., during the time of King Ogyges. And because over the course of time they saw her doing many things never seen before, it was believed—not only among the unrefined Africans but even among the Greeks, who then surpassed all others in wisdom—that she was born from the head of Jove Jupiter/Zeus without a mother and had fallen from heaven. More faith was given to this ridiculous error the more hidden her true origin was. They wished her, before all others, to have flourished in perpetual virginity; and so that this might be believed with even fuller faith, they fashioned a story that Vulcan, the god of fire, struggled with her for a long time in a fever of carnal lust but was overcome. Moreover, they maintain that before her, the art of wool-working lanificium: the entire process of cleaning, carding, spinning, and weaving wool was entirely unknown to everyone.

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farmer...

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public...

hatred...

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For once she had shown in what order wool, cleansed of its impurities and softened by iron teeth A reference to the process of "carding" wool to align the fibers., should be placed upon the distaff distaff: a tool used in spinning to hold the unspun fibers and finally drawn out into thread by the fingers, she then devised the craft of weaving. She taught them how the threads should be intertwined with one another, joined by the strike of the comb, and pressed firm into a fabric by the heel. In praise of this craftsmanship, that famous contest between her and Arachne of Colophon In mythology, Arachne was a talented weaver who challenged Minerva and was eventually transformed into a spider. is recounted. Furthermore, she discovered the use of oil, which was previously unheard of by mortals, and taught them to grind the berry-bearing fruits Olives in a mill and extract their essence.

Because this seemed to bring so much utility, victory was attributed to her over Neptune in the naming of Athens According to myth, Minerva won the patronage of the city by gifting the olive tree, while Neptune offered a salt spring or a horse.. They also wish it to be her work that she was the first to invent the four-horse chariot quadriga: a chariot drawn by four horses abreast, often used in racing and triumphs and to turn iron into weapons. She taught men to cover the body with armor, to arrange the battle line of combatants, and all the laws by which one goes into battle. They say, moreover, that she discovered numbers and arranged them into the order which we use to this day. Furthermore, from the bone of some...