Some thoughts on Plutarch’s biography of Romulus:
The legendary founder of Rome did so by raping and marrying the Sabine women, whose tribe later joined the Roman tribe. The story goes that the Sabine men were about to fight the Romans for the injustice done when the one woman came out and said, (I’m paraphrasing) “It’s bad enough Romulus and his men did what they did. Don’t you (the Sabines) now kill our husbands.”
This brings back memories of Shechem raping Dinah. If you look at the way the Romulus rape story is described, it was almost par for the course that the kidnapping and rape of a woman should naturally lead to two tribes forming a single large tribe. It must have been quite the shock for Shechem and his clansmen to discover that they had done something most vile and despicable. Tribal merger by rape or consent were clearly the thing to do in Parshas Vayishlach (Israel-Shechem fell through. But the Edom-Seir merger went through.) We see some clear signs that the Torah’s concept of sexual morality was not high on the Greco-Roman list of priorities. e.g. Kidnap/rape by Romulus, male lovers and open adultery in Lycurgus’ and Numa’s times.
Posted by Yehupitz at June 23, 2005 08:54 PM | TrackBack