Pythagorean Women

Examines the first case of female engagement with Greek philosophy and analyses the first texts ascribed to women philosophers.

Caterina Pellò (Author)

9781009011815, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 July 2022

75 pages
23 x 15.2 x 0.4 cm, 0.12 kg

The Pythagorean women are a group of female philosophers who were followers of Pythagoras and are credited with authoring a series of letters and treatises. In both stages of the history of Pythagoreanism – namely, the fifth-century Pythagorean societies and the Hellenistic Pythagorean writings – the Pythagorean woman is viewed as an intellectual, a thinker, a teacher, and a philosopher. The purpose of this Element is to answer the question: what kind of philosopher is the Pythagorean woman? The traditional picture of the Pythagorean female sage is that of an expert of the household. The author argues that the available evidence is more complex and conveys the idea of the Pythagorean woman as both an expert on the female sphere and a well-rounded thinker philosophising about the principles of the cosmos, human society, the immortality of the soul, numbers, and harmonics.

1. Introduction: The Pythagorean Female Sage
2. Early Pythagoreanism: Not Only for Men, But Also for Women
3. Late Pythagoreanism: Writers, Pseudepigraphers, and Philosophers
4. Final Remarks: Gendered Knowledge and Genderless Wisdom.

Subject Areas: Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP]