La vergogna delle donne. Dissonanze e consonanze femminili in Aristotele

The issue at stake is that of an “education for women” and its (implicit or explicit) premises on the nature and character of women in Greek classical antiquity. Two authors are compared: Aristotle, whose “education of/and through shame” (Pol.I, VII; Eth. Nic. I, II) reveals an idea of women as bouleutikon akyron (a soul who chooses and acts without control); Xenophon, that in the Oeconomicus gives an example of how a young lady can reach a level of intelligence and rational action comparable to a masculine one, but inside the oikos. The suggestion is that we can find an alternative model of feminine education and action only outside the social limits, in the world “apart” of barbarian tragic heroines or Pythagorean femmes savants.