Assault on a Woman

Working as a Probation Officer for Alcohol Offenders (1966-76), I found one of the most common offenses to be A.O.W. Why do they do it?

In The Four Zoas Urizen and Ahania may be considered the first couple. Devoted to Playboy and such literature in his spare time, U saw A as a plaything; but she refused to be only that; she remonstrated at his macho excesses.

So he beat her and threw her out of his cave.

An unhappy man he was thereafter:

"Then thunders rolld around & lightnings darted to & fro
His visage changd to darkness & his strong right hand came forth
To cast Ahania to the Earth he siezd her by the hair
And threw her from the steps of ice that froze around his throne
Saying Art thou also become like Vala. Thus I cast thee out
Shall the feminine indolent bliss, the indulgent self of weariness,
the passive idle sleep the enormous night & darkness of Death;
Set herself up to give her laws to the active masculine virtue?
Thou little diminutive portion that darst be a counterpart
Thy passivity thy laws of obedience & insincerity
Are my abhorrence. Wherefore hast thou taken that fair form
A sluggish current of dim waters. On whose verdant margin
A cavern shaggd with horrid shades. Dark cool & deadly. Where
I laid my head in the hot noon after the broken clods
Had wearied me. There I laid my plow & there my horses fed
And thou hast risen with thy moist locks into a watry image
Reflecting all my indolence my weakness & my death
To weigh me down beneath the grave into non Entity. . .
So loud in thunders spoke the King folded in dark despair
And threw Ahania from his bosom obdurate. She fell like lightning."

(This found in UGA English Dept.