Tacita Muta y el silencio femenino como arma del patriarcado romano

Abstract

Tacita Muta was a naiad punished by Jupiter who ripped her tongue out for talking excessively. She became a divinity that symbolized the prerogative of the feminine silence. The aim of the present article is to illustrate how the roman patriarchy imposed the duty of silence on women, taking the myth of Tacita as the starting point. We present several examples of deities, mythological characters and real women who also exemplified this female duty, along with others that transgressed the norm. All of this with the aim of getting deeper on gender relations in Roman times.