The Emasculating Distaff
The theme of the distaff as an instrument of female domination over males goes back to patriarchal Greece, in the myth of Heracles tamed by queen Omphale, who dresses him in women's clothing and makes him spin. He holds a distaff in his upper hand.
The myth was revived in Renaissance Europe, when Lucas Cranach was one of several artists to depict Hercules being dressed in the medieval wimple and set to spinning.
A similar theme has Thracian women attacking Orpheus with distaffs, and here we begin to see the distaff as a female weapon, often a magical one.
This medieval European interpretation injects distaffs into an ancient story
in order to emphasize the theme of witchcraft.
An English miniature shows a woman beating an abject man with her distaff.
Israhel van Meckenem made several etchings depicting mean women beating men with the distaff. Below, she is forcing him to wind yarn, a female task regarded as beneath men, and at the same time is pulling on a pair of breeches. Men's pants symbolize male privilege and authority, here being taken over a by a woman. This was a common theme in art from this period (the late 1400s) forward.
Another etching by van Meckenem (below) is titled Das Böse Weib ("the bad woman"). He shows her beating a man with her distaff, and depicts her as a witch whose helping spirit is a female dragon. This was a common theme in German and French woodcuts during the witch-hunting Terror.
Another scene of a woman beating a man with her distaff.
The idea of the distaff as a weapon was elaborated in numerous medieval miniatures showing women jousting with them in tournaments.
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