(s.d.) Queda de Aristóteles, Tapeçaria, Augustiner Museum - Freiburg im Breisgau, Alemanha.A história que segue foi inventada provavelmente no século XIII no ambiente monástico para falar do poder feminino de sedução e da acochambrada que os homens dão na hora de inventar uma desculpa para os efeitos que esse poder tem sobre eles. Assim, no final, tudo acaba bem e a razão é mais uma vez salva depois de ter sucumbido ao poder do desejo. Posto o que parece ser o original em latim da história, cujo autor é, claramente, um anônimo, por causa das consequências a que seria submetido tendo declarado tais de pensamentos.
Latin:
ARISTOTLES, cum doceret Alexandrum ut se contineret ab accessu frequenti uxoris suae, quae erat pulcra valde, ne animum suum a communi providentia impediret, et Alexander ei acquiesceret, hoc advertens regina et dolens, coepit Aristotelem trahere ad amorem suum, quia multociens sola transibat cum pedibus nudis et dissoluto crine, ut eum alliceret.
Tandem allectus coepit eam sollicitare carnaliter, quae ait,
"Hoc omnino non faciam, nisi videro signa amoris, ne me tentes: ergo veni ad meam cameram, reptando manibus et pedibus, sicut equus me portando, tunc scio quod non illudes mihi."
Cui conditioni cum consensisset, illa intimavit hoc Alexandro; qui expectans apprehendit eum reginam portantem. Quem cum vellet occidere, ait Aristotles sic se excusando,
"Si sic accidit seni sapientissimo, ut a muliere deciperar, potes videre quod bene docueram te, quid accidere potest tibi juveni."
Quod audiens rex, ei perpercit, et in doctrina eius profecit.
English Traslation:
ONCE upon a time, Aristotle taught Alexander that he should restrain himself from frequently approaching his wife, who was very beautiful, lest he should impede his spirit from seeking the general good. Alexander acquiesed to him. The queen, when she perceived this and was upset, began to draw Aristotle to love her. Many times she crossed paths with him alone, with bare feet and disheveled hair, so that she might entice him.
At last, being enticed, he began to solicit her carnally. She says,
"This I will certainly not do, unless I see a sign of love, lest you be testing me. Therefore, come to my chamber crawling on hand and foot, in order to carry me like a horse. Then I'll know that you aren't deluding me."
When he had consented to that condition, she secretly told the matter to Alexander, who lying in wait apprehended him carrying the queen. When Alexander wished to kill Aristotle, in order to excuse himself, Aristotle says,
"If thus it happened to me, an old man most wise, that I was deceived by a woman, you can see that I taught you well, that it could happen to you, a young man."
Hearing that, the king spared him, and made progress in Aristotle's teachings.
AND they lived happily ever after.
