THE problem of womanhood has found different expressions in different ages. In prehistoric times all great questions were answered mythologically. Cosmogeny and anthropogeny, including gynecogeny, were expressed in stories of gods, while in later periods the same facts remained and found different solutions in religious dogmas and still later in scientific investigations. The same subjects […]
POLYTHEISM is not a stable religion. It changes with the growth of civilization, and we do not know a time in which it was not constantly in a state of transition. The myths which connect Aphrodite in one place with Adonis, in others with Mars, Hephæstos, Anchises and other gods or mortals, were originally several […]
To all lovers of carrots we would re- commend this fair complex, and blue ey’d nymph; she is now steering into the nineteenth year, and has very little of the vulgarity too often found in the sister- hood, but would be rather silent than speak nonsense: the mere sensualist will not find her quite to […]
It is remarkable, that her lovers are most commonly of a diminutive size. The vanity of surmounting such a fine tall woman, is, doubtless, an incentive to many, to so unmatch themselves, that they are content to be like a sweet-bread on a breast of veal. Yet, notwithstand- ing her size, we hear her low […]
The temple of Aphrodite-Astarte stood outside the gates of the town, in an immense park, full of flowers and shade. The Nile water, conveyed by seven aqueducts, induced an extraordinary verdure all the year round. The gardens were more than a valley, more than a country; they were a complete world enclosed by bounds of […]
In Greece, the courtezans were in some measure connected with the religion of the country. The Goddess of Beauty had her altars; and she was supposed to protect prostitution, which was to her a species of worship. The people invoked Venus in times of danger; and, after a battle, they thought they had done honor […]
What enchantment and softness, what roguish charm play about her none too small mouth! Her skin is so infinitely delicate, that the blue veins show through everywhere; even through the muslin covering her arms and bosom. How abundant her red hair-it is red, not blonde or golden-yellow—how diabolically and yet tenderly it plays around her […]
A woman’s dress— She is there—Venus—but without furs—No, this time it is merely the widow—and yet—Venus-oh, what a woman! As she stands there in her light white morning gown, looking at me, her slight figure seems full of poetry and grace. She is neither large, nor small; her head is alluring, piquant—in the sense of […]
It was this flexibility of mind, this active intelligence tempered with sensibility and the native instinct of pleasing, that distinguished the French women who have left such enduring traces upon their time. “It is not sufficient to be wise, it is necessary also to please,” said the witty and penetrating Ninon, who thus very aptly […]
“But the Almighty Lord hath struck him, and hath delivered him into the hands of a woman.” (Venus in Furs—The Vulgate, Judith, xvi. 7)
