Literature and Performing Arts
Stephen Vincent Benét wrote a short story called "The Sobbin' Women" that parodied the legend. Later adapted into the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, it tells the story of seven gauche but sincere backwoodsmen, one of whom gets married, encouraging the others to seek partners. After a social where they meet girls they are attracted to, they are denied the chance to pursue their courtship by the latter's menfolk. Following the Roman example, they abduct the girls. As in the original tale, the women are at first indignant but are eventually won over.
The story was parodied by Lady Carlotta, the mischief-making character in Saki's short story The Schartz-Metterklume Method.
The midrash Sefer haYashar (first attested AD 1624) portrays the story as part of a war between the Sabines, descended from Tubal, and the Roman Kittim (Jasher 17:1-15). A more detailed version of this narrative is found in the earlier mediaeval rabbinic work Yosippon.
In 1962, a Spanish "sword and sandal" film based on the story was made, directed by Alberto Gout. Titled El Rapto de las Sabinas, the film was released in the USA under the titles The Rape of the Sabine Women and The Shame of the Sabine Women.
The latest adaptation is a video film, The Rape of the Sabine Women without dialogue, which was produced in 2005 by Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation.
Read more about this topic: The Rape Of The Sabine Women
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