Woman in Myths (8): A Virtuous Woman... Who Can Find Her?

A virtuous woman—who can find her?!

And it was natural for Solomon to ask this—he who never understood the secret of woman, though he understood the secrets of the jinn and the birds. Do you not see that had he understood the secret of woman, he would not have had a thousand among wives, concubines, and slave girls? A virtuous woman—who can find her?... As though he had forgotten the Shulamite, for whom he composed his "Song of Songs," and her devotion and her love had slipped from his mind, so that he failed to perceive that she was "virtuous."

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Solomon failed to discover the virtuous woman; but the Greeks found her, and dwelt at length in praise of her qualities, and told of her in their legends.

They found her in Alcestis: her husband Admetus falls ill, and the gods declare that he will surely die unless some human being offers himself in his stead. The prince's followers and his servants refuse to sacrifice themselves for his sake; his soldiers decline to undertake the task; his parents draw back upon their heels; then Alcestis comes forward. Her husband opposes this sacrifice, but the gods reject his opposition, send the woman to death, and restore the man safe and sound.

They found her in Marpessa: a woman with whose love Phoebus—god of poetry and music, of the sun, of heroism and of mighty beauty—is smitten; he pursues her from place to place, begging her favor and seeking a smile from her lips; she denies him both, for she loves a mortal, Idas. This one flees with her to a far-off place, and Phoebus overtakes her; Zeus intervenes and calls for a verbal duel, in the course of which each of the two lovers pleads his case before the beloved. The lord of poetry and eloquence makes his speech, then the lowly mortal speaks—and behold, Marpessa prefers love to divinity; so Phoebus returns to his heaven, and Idas enjoys a heaven higher and sweeter.

They found her in Thisbe: she loves Pyramus, a youth of station, and they agree to meet in secret in the wilderness. She arrives before him; a lioness meets her, and she flees from it, leaving her kerchief behind; the lioness paws it and stains it with blood. Pyramus comes upon the bloodied kerchief and kills himself, believing his beloved has perished for the sake of his love. She returns a little later, and when she finds him in that state she draws his sword and slays herself, falling upon his body; the blood of the two mingles, and from it springs a crimson flower.

They found her in the goddess Ceres: her daughter is carried off, and she leaves no spot upon the earth unvisited, searching in it for her, mourning and wailing; even Hell she visits, suffering horrors on her way to it, until she finds her daughter.

They found her in Penelope: she waits for her husband Ulysses twenty years—ten he spent fighting and ten traveling—and never betrays him for a single day; she sacrifices all her suitors among the princes and the knights, and does everything to keep herself for the hour of his return—and in this she succeeds.

They found her in Iphigenia: with all gentleness and forbearance she offers herself a sacrifice to the gods, that they may make the winds bear up the fleet of the Greeks across the sea to Troy.

They found her... and did they not find her in Aphrodite, goddess of beauty—and virtue and beauty are twins?! The Greeks found the virtuous woman; but they found her in the midst of a throng of women—of women; they found her one among a thousand!