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Lastheneia (or Lasthenia) of
Mantinea Mantineia (also Mantinea ; el, Μαντίνεια; also Koine Greek ''Antigoneia'') was a city in ancient Arcadia, Greece, which was the site of two significant battles in Classical Greek history. In modern times it is a former municipality in ...
( el, Λασθένεια Μαντινική) was one of
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, wikt:Πλάτων, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greeks, Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thou ...
's female students. She was born in
Mantinea Mantineia (also Mantinea ; el, Μαντίνεια; also Koine Greek ''Antigoneia'') was a city in ancient Arcadia, Greece, which was the site of two significant battles in Classical Greek history. In modern times it is a former municipality in ...
, an ancient city in Arcadia, in the
Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge whi ...
. She studied in the
Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
of Plato dressed as a man. After the death of Plato she continued her studies with
Speusippus Speusippus (; grc-gre, Σπεύσιππος; c. 408 – 339/8 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. Speusippus was Plato's nephew by his sister Potone. After Plato's death, c. 348 BC, Speusippus inherited the Academy, near age 60, and remained ...
, Plato's nephew. She is also said to have had a relationship with Speusippus. A
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
fragment from
Oxyrhynchus Oxyrhynchus (; grc-gre, Ὀξύρρυγχος, Oxýrrhynchos, sharp-nosed; ancient Egyptian ''Pr-Medjed''; cop, or , ''Pemdje''; ar, البهنسا, ''Al-Bahnasa'') is a city in Middle Egypt located about 160 km south-southwest of Cai ...
mentions an unidentified woman who studied under Plato, Speusippus, and then Menedemus of Eretria.
POxy The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...
3656
The fragment goes on to explain that "in her teens she was lovely and full of unstudied grace." This woman is probably Lastheneia or
Axiothea of Phlius Axiothea of Phlius ( el, Ἀξιοθέα Φλειασία ) was a female student of Plato and Speusippus. She was born in Phlius, an ancient city in the Peloponnese which was under Spartan rule when Plato founded his Academy. Axiothea is said by ...
.


References

4th-century BC Greek people 4th-century BC philosophers Ancient Athenian women Ancient Greek women philosophers Academic philosophers Ancient Mantineans Female-to-male cross-dressers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 4th-century BC Greek women {{greece-philosopher-stub