Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T23:34:39.331Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Women Philosophers in the Ancient Greek World: Donning the Mantle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Kathleen Wider
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that there were women involved with philosophy on a fairly constant basis throughout Greek antiquity. It does so by tracing the lives and where extant the writings of these women. However, since the sources, both ancient and modern, from which we derive our knowledge about these women are so sexist and easily distort our view of these women and their accomplishments, the paper also discusses the manner in which their histories come down to us as well as the histories themselves. It discusses in detail the following women: the Pythagorean women philosophers of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., Aspasia and Diotima of the 5th century B.C., Arete, Hipparchia, Pamphile and the women Epicureans—all from the 4th century B.C. the five logician daughters of a famous Stoic philosopher of the 3rd century B.C., and finally Hypatia who lived in the 4th century A.D.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , Spring 1986 , pp. 21 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbot, Willis J. 1913. Notable women in history. Philadelphia: John C. Winston.Google Scholar
Beard, Mary R. 1947. Women as force in history. New York: MacmillanGoogle Scholar
Bentley, Richard. 1874. Dissertations upon the epistles of phalaris. ed. Wagner, Wilhelm. Berlin: S. Calvary & Co.Google Scholar
Bowra, C. M. 1971. Periclean Athens. New York: Dial Press.Google Scholar
Burns, A. R. 1962. Pericles and Athens. New York: Collier Books.Google Scholar
Bury, R. G. 1932. The “Symposium” of Plato. 2nd ed. Cambridge, England: W. Heffer and sons.Google Scholar
Cicero, . 1933. De Natura Deorum. In Rackam, Harris, trans., “De Natura Deorum” and “Academica.” Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Coolidge, Julian L. 1951. Six female mathematicians. Scripta Mathematica 17 (1 & 2): 20–31.Google Scholar
Cornford, F. M. 1967. The doctrine of eros in Plato's Symposium. In Guthrie, W. K. C ed., The unwritten philosophy and other essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Courtney, W. L. 1918. Old saws and modern instances. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Damascius, . 1911. Das leben des philosophen Isidoros von Damaskios aus Damaskos. Trans, into German by Rudolf Asmus Liepzig: Felix Meiner.Google Scholar
DeWitt, Norman Wentworth. 1954. Epicurus and his philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
DeVogel, C. J. 1966. Pythagoras and early pythagoreanism. The Netherlands: Royal Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
Diogenes Laertius. 1853. The lives and opinions of eminent philosophers. Trans. Yonge, C. D. London: Henry G. Bohn.Google Scholar
DeVogel, C. J. 1925. The lives of eminent philosophers. Trans. Hicks, R. D., Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Augustine. trans, 1926. The letters of Synesius of Cyrene. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
French, Alfred trans, and commentator, 1971. The Athenian half‐century: 478–431 B.C. Sidney, Australia: Sidney University Press.Google Scholar
Friedlander, Paul. 1964. Plato. Trans. Meyerhoff, Hans. 2 vols. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Gibbon, Edward. 1940. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. 6 vols. New York: A. L. Burt Co.Google Scholar
Gomperz, Theodor. 1905. Greek thinkers: A history of ancient philosophy. Trans. Berry, G. G. 4 vols. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Goodwater, Leanna. 1975. Women in antiquity: An annotated bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Edith and Cairns, Huntington eds., 1961. The collected dialogues of Plato. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Jane. 1961. Prolegomena to the study of Greek religion. London: Merlin Press.Google Scholar
Heninger, S. K. Jr. 1974. Touchers of sweet harmony: Pythagorean cosmology and Renaissance poetics. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library.Google Scholar
Iocobacci, Rora F. 1970. Women of mathematics. Arithemetic Teacher 17 (April): 316–24.Google Scholar
Iamblichus, . 1818. Life of Pythagoras. Trans. Taylor, Thomas. London: A. J. Valpy.Google Scholar
Jowett, Benjamin, trans. 1953. The Dialogues of Plato. 4th ed. rev. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Marrou, Henry Irénée. 1963. Synesius of Cyrene and Alexandrian Neoplatonism. In Momigliano, Arnaldo, ed., The conflict between paganism and Christianity in the fourth century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mates, Benson. 1953. Stoic logic. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California.Google Scholar
Menage, Gilles. 1984. A history of women philosophers. 1765. Trans. Zedler, Beatrice H. New York: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Meunier, Mario. 1932. Femmess pythagoriciennes: Fragments et lettres de Theáno, Périctioné, Phyntys, Melissa, et Myia. Paris: L'Artisan Du Livre.Google Scholar
Neumann, Harry. 1965. Diotima's concept of love. American J. of Philology 86 (January): 33–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha. 1979. The speech of Alcibiades: A reading of Plato's Symposium. Philosophy and Literatures 3 (2): 131–72.Google Scholar
Pierce, Christine. 1975. Equality: Rebublic V. Monist 57 (1): 1–11.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1971. Menexenus. In Jowett, Benjamin, trans, and Hamilton, Edith and Cairns, Huntington eds., The collected dialogues of Plato. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1961. Symposium. In Joyce, Michael, trans, and Hamilton, Edith and Cairns, Huntington eds., The collected dialogues of Plato. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pliny, . 1938. Natural history. Trans. Rackham, Harris. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Plutarch, . 1915. Pericles. In Perrin, Bernadotte, trans. Plutarch's lives. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Plutarch, . 1928. Coniugalia praecepta. In Babbitt, Frank Cole, trans., Moralia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Plutarch, . 1928. Non posse suaviter vivi secundum epicurum. In Babbitt, Frank Cole, trans., Moralia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pomeroy, Sarah B. 1975. Goddesses, whores, wives and slaves: Women in classical antiquity. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Richeson, A. W. 1940. Hypatia of Alexandria. National Mathematics Magazine 15 (November): 74–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rist, J. M. 1965. Hypatia. Phoenix: The J. of the Classical Assn. of Canada 19 (3): 214–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robin, Leon. 1928. Greek thought and the origins of the scientific spirit. Trans. Dobie, M. R. New York: Russell and Russell.Google Scholar
Rosen, Stanley. 1968. Plato's “Symposium”. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand. 1945. A history of western philosophy. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Sedley, David. 1977. Diodorus Cronus and Hellenistic philosophy. Proc. of the Cambridge Philological Soc. 203: 74–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shorey, Paul. 1933. What Plato said. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Socrates Scholasticus. 1953. Ecclesiastica historia. Excerpted in Fremantle, Ann, ed., A treasury of early Christianity. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Swidler, Leonard. 1976. Women in Judaism: The status of women in formative Judaism. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Synesius, . 1926. The letters of Synesius of Cyrene. Trans. Fitzgerald, Augustine. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. E. 1960. Plato: The man and his work. 7th ed. London: Methuen and Co.Google Scholar
Taylor, Thomas, trans. 1818. Iamblichus’“Life of Pythagoras” and a collection of pythagoric sentences. London: A. J. Valpy.Google Scholar
Taylor, Thomas, trans trans. 1822. Political fragments of Archytas, Charondas Zaleucus, and other ancient pythagoreans and ethical fragments of Hierocles. England: C. Whittingham, Chiswick.Google Scholar
Thesleff, Holger. 1961. An introduction to pythagorean writings of the Hellenistic period. Finland: Abo Akademi, Abo.Google Scholar
Thesleff, Holger ed. 1965. The Pythagorean texts of the Hellenistic period. Finland: Abo Akademi, Abo.Google Scholar
Toland, John. 1726. A collection of several pieces. 2 vols. London: J. Peele.Google Scholar
Trevor, Meriol. 1962. Newman: Light in winter. London: Macmillan & Co.Google Scholar
Wallace, William. 1880. Epicureanism. New York: Pott, Young, & Co.Google Scholar
Watson, J.S., trans. 1857. Minor works. By Xenophon London: Henry G. Bohn.Google Scholar
Wiegall, Arthur. 1932. Personalities from antiquity. New York: H. W. Wilson.Google Scholar
Xenophon, . 1857. Oeconomicus. Minor works. Trans. Watson, J. S. London: Henry G. Bohn.Google Scholar
Xenophon, . 1889. “The Anabasis” and the “Memorabilia of Socrates.” Trans. Watson, J. S. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
Zeller, Edward. 1980. Outlines of the history of Greek philosophy. 13 ed. rev. 1931. Trans. Palmer, L. R. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar