The Praise of Women is an anonymous folk poem from the late 15th century, likely of Cretan origin, composed in rhymed eight-syllable iambic or trochaic verses. It was first printed in 1905.

The poem has anti-feminist and satirical/moralistic, sometimes even crude, content and comments on the novel cultural data of its time regarding the social status of women. It presents the moral flaws and inappropriate behaviors of maidens, married women, and widows, defining what is appropriate and inappropriate, acceptable and forbidden.

Although it follows a common rhetorical theme of Christian and medieval Greek literature, that of 'praise' (or 'eulogy'), and primarily, 'censure' of women, with a distant genealogy in ancient Greek and biblical literature, it engages mainly with the medieval and Renaissance literature of the West, quite familiar to the Venetian-occupied Crete of its time.

The edition by the associate professor of Modern Greek Philology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Sotiria Stavrakopoulou, is accompanied by a Postscript, which anthologizes similar thematic works from ancient and modern Greek literature.

'The Praise of Women' is the fifth book in the series by the Institute of Modern Greek Studies 'Earlier Texts of Modern Greek Literature.' The purpose of the series is to introduce and familiarize the educated but non-specialized public with literary texts from older periods of modern Greek literature through practical, user-friendly, and scientifically reliable editions, which free the reader from the need to seek additional aids for understanding the works (dictionaries, encyclopedias, specialized bibliographies, etc.).

A precursor to the series was the volume 'From the Late Middle Ages to the 18th Century. Introduction to Earlier Texts of Modern Greek Literature,' by G. Kehagioglou. The following volumes have already been released in the series: 'The Badly Married or Rhyme for the Old Man and the Girl' (ed. A. van Gemert, in collaboration with I. Beijerman), 'The Cadi and the Bandit' (ed. C. Luciani), 'Ptoholion' (ed. G. Kehagioglou), and 'Recalling Constantinople' (ed. Emm. Kriaras, postscript by G. Kehagioglou).

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]