Protecting food and grain stores was a vital element of survival in ancient times, so while ancient Egyptians were busy breeding domesticated cats to keep mice and rats at bay, the ancient Greeks primarily used ferrets, a domesticated variant of the Mustela genus.  These ferrets were popularly employed as household pets in Ancient Greece as they were incredibly effective vermin hunters, able to crawl inside the tightest nooks and crannies.

While this may seem like weasel wording, (seeming specific while intentionally vague) I will be using the word weasel to cover the entire genus of the Mustela mammals. This includes polecats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, martens, and minks. There are two reasons for this; firstly, while many English translations of these stories use the word weasel specifically, it contextually applies to the domesticated ferret which predominantly came from polecats. Secondly, Latin versions use the broader term Mustela in their translations, and as the late 4^th Century writer Servius the Grammarianclaimed, the etymology of Mustela meant “mouse spear”. For these reasons, it is the function of the genus that is important rather than quibbling over taxonomic differences between similar creatures.

In ancient Greece the weasel functioned as a household helper and this placed them within the domesticated feminine world, especially given that protecting kitchen stores from rats and mice was their primary use. However, ferrets never managed to reach the same level of tameness as many of the other creatures that humans domesticated, and they were eventually replaced by cats which could perform the same function and were significantly less mischievous and easier to train. As any ferret owner will probably attest, these creatures have retained an element of wildness, and their preference for slinking around dark crevices and enthusiasm for bloodthirsty killing helped garner their symbolic reputation as wily and deceitful creatures.

Aesop’s fable, “Aphrodite and the Weasel” supports these symbolic ideas as it deals with a deceptive female who fails to become completely domesticated:

A weasel once fell in love with a handsome young man and the blessed goddess Aphrodite, the mother of desire, allowed the weasel to change her shape, so that she appeared to be a beautiful woman whom any man would be glad to take as his wife. As soon as the young man laid eyes on her, he also fell in love and wanted to marry her. While the wedding feast was in progress, a mouse ran by. The bride leaped up from her richly decorated couch and began to run after the mouse, thus bringing an end to the wedding. After having played his little joke, Eros took his leave: Nature had proved stronger than Love.

Aesop, Fables, Trans Laura Gibbs.

The consensus towards the moral meaning of this fable is that nature is inherent and cannot be changed. However, it is worth noting that the context of this fable is specific to women and relates to their ability to be domesticated as marriage material. It also brings to mind another text, William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, where a young woman is likened to a small mammal and is systematically physically and mentally tormented by the protagonist until she becomes suitably tamed for marriage.

The connection between marriage and the domestication of the weasel becomes even more apparent when we consider that the modern Greek word for weasel also means “little bride” and contextualize it against some of the associated folklore. An idiom collected in a compendium of proverbs by Zenobius states: “the wedding dress does not fit the weasel”, again suggesting that some women do not have the nature for marriage, or domestication. There are also connotations implied within that relate to the negative symbolism of the weasel as deceptive and untrustworthy, and by extension for men to be mindful of deceitful women when choosing their brides. Some Greek folkloric traditions even suggest that brides should leave out offerings for weasels prior to her marriage or run the risk of the jealous creatures tearing her wedding dress to shreds.

Another Greco-Roman myth where the weasel made an appearance was during the birth of Hercules. In the version told by Ovid in Metamorphoses, Hercules mother Alcmena’s pregnancy was the result of yet another fidelity transgression by Jove/Zeus, and Alcmena had caught the vengeful wrath of Jove’s wife, Juno/Hera. As she laboured to give birth to Hercules she called out to the goddess of childbirth, Lucina, for assistance. Lucina was on Team Juno though and sat outside Alcmena’s chamber with her arms and legs crossed, preventing the child from being born.

Galanthis, one of Alcmena’s servants, noticed the goddesses’ posture and murmuring spells and figured out what was preventing Hercules birth. She devised a plan, and went up to Lucina and proclaimed the birth had taken place. Surprised by this announcement, Lucina jumped up, and in doing so uncrossed her arms and legs, allowing Hercules birth to finally take place. Galanthis laughed at the goddess for falling for her simple ploy and paid the price for her hubris. In anger, Lucina changed the servant girl into a weasel:

They say Galanthis laughed at the duped goddess. As she laughed, the heaven-born one, in her anger, caught her by the hair, and dragged her down, and as she tried to lift her body from the ground, she arched her over, and changed her arms into forelegs. Her old energy remained, and the hair on her back did not lose her hair’s previous colour: but her former shape was changed to that of a weasel. And because her lying mouth helped in childbirth, she gives birth through her mouth, and frequents my house, as before.

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Trans A.S. Kline

The tale of Hercules birth explains why weasels became a household pet but also associated them with childbirth. This story places Galanthis in an interesting dichotomy, on one hand, she was the reason why Hercules was born, but on the other, she defied the actual goddess of childbirth. This contrast of beliefs may explain why weasels seem to symbolize both fertility and infertility, especially in folk magic practice.

Weasels were thought to have powerful magical abilities, and were associated with Hecate, the goddess of magic and witchcraft. Antoninus Liberalis’ version of Metamorphoses recounts that after Galanthis’ transformation Hecate took pity upon her, appointing Galanthis as her own sacred servant and explaining why the weasel was one of Hecate’s familiars. The naturalist Aelian also associates the weasel with Hecate, recounting how she transformed a sorcerer into a weasel in a fit of rage:

I have heard that the land-Marten was once a human being. It has also reached my hearing that ‘Marten’ was its name then; that it was a dealer in spells and a sorcerer; that it was extremely, incontinent, and that it was afflicted with abnormal sexual desires. Nor has it escaped my notice that the anger of the goddess Hecate transformed it into this evil creature.  

Aelian, Characteristics of Animals, Trans A.F. Scholfield

As symbols of powerful magic, weasel parts were also often incorporated into folk-magic cures and charms, especially those that dealt with female reproduction.

While it may seem like the story of Galanthis, weasel brides and folk-magic have little in common, there is a common thread woven through: deception by women. The weasel bride deceived her husband to be by transforming into a beautiful woman, Galanthis deceived the Goddess of childbirth by uttering lies, and women who practiced magic dealt in incantations and spells and were often seen as dangerous and deceptive.

In Isis and Osiris, Plutarch tells us that: “There are still many people who believe and declare that the weasel conceives through its ear and brings forth its young by way of the mouth, and that this is a parallel of the generation of speech.”. This quote isn’t referring to just any type of speech though, it is specifically relating to the words of ‘weaselly women’. These stories warn against the wiles of women, especially outspoken women whose words are entrenched in deception, deviousness and enchantment.

Insidiously, these notions are the ones contained in patriarchal stories which try to instil unjust hierarchies into our society, dividing the sexes by creating a distrust of all women. These stories add to the oppression of women by devaluing those that will not be housebroken and tamed to serve their masters. When we consider the plight of the weasel, it was still held in contempt regardless of whether it was wild and free or a domesticated ferret, kitchen bound and tamed.

Despite their household usefulness, domesticated ferrets were still viewed with a degree of distain, and they were eventually discarded and forgotten once the more controllable and submissive option of cats came along. Perhaps the real lesson here for women should be one of independence, after all our chances of thriving in the world are infinitely better as a wild weasel than a domesticated and dependant ferret.