Extract

Preface by Curatrix

This manuscript has been drawn together in the lead-up to Livia’s party. Women from many times and places were invited; some, like Diana and Agnese, arrived early and so, in good feminist spirit, I enlisted the assistance of my intern, Sulpicia, to help them find their way around Rome and nearby parts. As with all travel there were interruptions, missed buses, eye-opening places to see and histories to hear.

They visited the Musæum Matricum where I have gathered a series of lost texts from many periods. Some are recently found texts which have been published in obscure journals; others have never before been made public or have only been read by a few visitors to the Musæum Matricum.

The women visited Sardinia with its paleolithic, megalithic and Bronze Age treasures – of the last the most spectacular being the nuraghe, stone towers built without mortar – and on Sardinia they also found those marvellous baetyls, small breasted stones. Indeed, a number of their travels involved breasted beings: birds, wolves, lions and more.

But then it was time to return to Rome and follow the stories of Lupa. These are retellings, some far more original than the ones we usually hear. Sulpicia became quite excited about the prospect of performing in a play and then reading aloud her own poems, which I have translated. And Psappha, too, joined us at the party to read her long forgotten poem.

Agnese said, it’s all very well about these wolves and plays and poems, what about the lamb story? The lambs, it turns out, had a tough time of it, especially those who decided to take on the new faith, this ‘Christianity’. They say it was quite different back then; women spoke sacred words, carried certain powers, especially the virgins. The stories are found in many languages, but we all have our mother tongue and we are more than capable of listening and learning. In this manuscript I have translated as much as is possible. And there is always the Internet!

Before the party there was time to convene witnesses from a number of places: some long past; some contemporary. These re-memberings were important ways of bringing together new arrivals to the party. Some had travelled from the other side of the world and from the other side of time. Many had never before met.

And so we gathered, talked, shared stories, admired one another’s hats, celebrated with food, drink, music and dance, argument and laughter and – as so often happens when feminists gather – a declaration was written up. This declaration represents our hope for the future.

Main Characters

LUPA

descent

canis

throw me to the wolves

invitation

turning point

hop-on hop-off bus

tour of the lost texts

Lost text: Ooss: dog three bones has

what Lupa says

Diana laughs

nuraghe

story stones

ancient nerves

Ilia’s dream

Lupa’s story

Sabine women

crimes of men

diary of a vestal virgin

drama queens

Lost text: Śaurasenī and Mahārāṣṭṛi Prakrits: Sahī: a drama

salon

Sulpicia i-vi

Suplicia’s lost poem

Lost text: Latin: Sulpicia vii

Pompeii

Sulpicia’s grammar lesson

xyz says Diana

Lost text: Aeolic Lesbian: Psappha in slippers

Diana shears Livia’s flock

Agnese spins Livia’s clip

LAMB

Curatrix to Agnese

Lost text: Vedic: edī and avidugdha

Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

the world according to Santa Barbara

come to kill us

black sheep

Lost text: Kartvelian: Medea's lambs

Santa Angela di Merici on the precative

Joan and the Johns

the calculus of umbrals

Lost text: Etruscan: ativu and antinacva

Angelic: ancestors of Curatrix

Domatilla and Priscilla

for Santa Cecilia

crimes of women

Sicilia: Santa Felice

Carthage, Tunisia: Santa Perpetua

Lost text: Akkadian: if I were booty

Australia and Italy: lupa girls

Palermo, Sicilia: inquisition

Tuscany: Il giardino dei tarocchi

Australia: sheep town

Lesbos: aidos

Etruria: cavalupo

Lost text: Linear A: twenty-seven wethers

Delos: homeless Latona

Australia: memory’s labyrinth

Malta: hypogeum

Ġgantija, Malta: archaeology

Malta: Curatrix

LAMBDA

six thousand years

Lost text: PIE: sheep and the women

they came in ships

iynx

craft

they call women monsters

minder of the lost texts: Angelic: Curatrix

Livia’s connections

Musæum Matricum

hats

tarantella

you can teach an old god new tricks

many breasted

underground

Hotel Silvia

performance poem by Curatrix: slut but but

Hildegard

wolf pack

Lost text: Lupine: La Donna Lupa Paleolitica

friendship among women

tomb of the forgotten women

Demeter and Santa Dimitra

future unbuilt

Eleonora d’Arborea

panthea

manitari

Baubo

seized

sibyls

the calculus of lambda (λ)

A note on dates

Background notes by Curatrix

Bibliography

Acknowledgements