21.
They keep just as late hours, and drink just as much liquor; they challenge men in wrestling and carousing; they are no less given to vomiting from distended stomachs and to thus discharging all their wine again; nor are they behind the men in gnawing ice, as a relief to their fevered digestions.
And they even match the men in their passions, although they were created to feel love passively (may the gods and goddesses confound them!).
They devise the most impossible varieties of unchastity, and in the company of men they play the part of men.
What wonder, then, that we can trip up the statement of the greatest and most skilled physician, when so many women are gouty and bald!
Because of their vices, women have ceased to deserve the privileges of their sex; they have put off their womanly nature and are therefore condemned to suffer the diseases of men.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the usefulness of basic principles
Location: Chapter 95, Section 21
Content:
21.
They keep just as late hours, and drink just as much liquor; they challenge men in wrestling and carousing; they are no less given to vomiting from distended stomachs and to thus discharging all their wine again; nor are they behind the men in gnawing ice, as a relief to their fevered digestions.
And they even match the men in their passions, although they were created to feel love passively (may the gods and goddesses confound them!).
They devise the most impossible varieties of unchastity, and in the company of men they play the part of men.
What wonder, then, that we can trip up the statement of the greatest and most skilled physician, when so many women are gouty and bald!
Because of their vices, women have ceased to deserve the privileges of their sex; they have put off their womanly nature and are therefore condemned to suffer the diseases of men.