Today’s quote (“Or else, as some maintain, they exposed the males, destroying the life of the ill-fated child with a hate like that of a stepmother”) drew my attention because it shows that the ancients (or near ancients – Jordanes, the author, lived in the 6th century) were well aware of certain aspects of human nature. Cinderella, of course, is another, more recent example of awareness of the phenomenon Jordanes refers to. In order to believe that obvious human traits don’t exist, one must, somehow, be able to overlook what Jordanes and so many others have considered self-evident. The trick is to blind ones self ideologically, in the fashion of Ashley Montagu and Richard Lewontin.
