The Judgment of Paris | Sexual Fables

Sexual Fables

This article accompanies the fable
The Judgment of Paris

The Salons

For over a hundred years the arts and culture in France were controlled by aristocratic women and intellectual life was dominated by the salons. That is a tribute to women’s intellect, for it was always the rival of the men’s. Initially the leading salon of the era was the Marquise de Rambouillet’s, from 1620 till 1645, but it became pretentious, as they all do eventually, even Ninon’s. Molière (below) satirized the salons in Les Précieuses ridicules (1659).

Moliere

Voltaire was saying much the same thing in Candide (1759) a century later: "The supper was like most Parisian suppers, first of all silence followed by an indistinguishable noise of words, then some witticisms, most of which were insipid, some scandal, some false reasoning, a little politics and a good deal of slander. Some new books happened to be mentioned."

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