Theano (philosopher)
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Theano (; el, Θεανώ) was a 6th-century BC
Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...
philosopher. She has been called the wife or student of
Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymou ...
, although others see her as the wife of
Brontinus Brontinus of Metapontum ( el, Βροντῖνος, also Brotinus, ; fl. 6th century BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher and a friend and disciple of Pythagoras. Alcmaeon dedicated his works to Brontinus as well as to Leon and Bathyllus. Accounts v ...
. Her place of birth and the identity of her father is uncertain as well. Many Pythagorean writings were attributed to her in antiquity, including some letters and a few fragments from philosophical treatises, although these are all regarded as spurious by modern scholars.


Life

Little is known about the life of Theano, and the few details on her life from ancient testimony are contradictory. From the current historical evidence, it is not currently possible to conclude whether or not she even existed, or was the invention of the later Pythagoreans who attached her name to their writings. According to Porphyry, she came from
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
and was the daughter of Pythonax.Porphyry, ''Life of Pythagoras'', 4 In the catalog of Aristoxenus of Tarentum quoted by
Iamblichus Iamblichus (; grc-gre, Ἰάμβλιχος ; Aramaic: 𐡉𐡌𐡋𐡊𐡅 ''Yamlīḵū''; ) was a Syrian neoplatonic philosopher of Arabic origin. He determined a direction later taken by neoplatonism. Iamblichus was also the biographer of ...
, she is the wife of
Brontinus Brontinus of Metapontum ( el, Βροντῖνος, also Brotinus, ; fl. 6th century BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher and a friend and disciple of Pythagoras. Alcmaeon dedicated his works to Brontinus as well as to Leon and Bathyllus. Accounts v ...
, and from
Metapontum Metapontum or Metapontium ( grc, Μεταπόντιον, Metapontion) was an important city of Magna Graecia, situated on the gulf of Tarentum, between the river Bradanus and the Casuentus (modern Basento). It was distant about 20 km from ...
in
Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...
, while
Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...
reports a tradition from Hermesianax where she came from
Crotone Crotone (, ; nap, label= Crotonese, Cutrone or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( grc, Κρότων or ; la, Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until ...
, married Pythagoras, and was the daughter of
Brontinus Brontinus of Metapontum ( el, Βροντῖνος, also Brotinus, ; fl. 6th century BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher and a friend and disciple of Pythagoras. Alcmaeon dedicated his works to Brontinus as well as to Leon and Bathyllus. Accounts v ...
.


Writings

Many writings were attributed to Theano in antiquity - The
Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
attributes to her works with the titles ''Pythagorean Apophthegms'', ''Advice to Women'', ''On Pythagoras'', ''On Virtue'' and ''Philosophical Commentaries'', which have not survived. In addition, a short fragment attributed to her from a work titled ''On Piety'' is preserved in the ''Anthologium'' of Stobaeus, and several
epistles An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part ...
have survived through medieval manuscript traditions that are attributed to her. These writings are all widely considered by modern scholarship to be
pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
,Voula Lambropoulou, ''Some Pythagorean female virtues'', in Richard Hawley, Barbara Levick, (1995), ''Women in antiquity: new assessments'', page 133. Routledge works that were written long after Theano's death by later Pythagoreans, which attempt to correct doctrinal disputes with later philosophers or apply Pythagorean philosophy to a woman's life. Some sources claim that Theano wrote about either the doctrine of the golden mean in philosophy, or the
golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...
in mathematics, but there is no evidence from the time to justify this claim.


''On Piety''

The surviving fragment of ''On Piety'' preserved in
Stobaeus Joannes Stobaeus (; grc-gre, Ἰωάννης ὁ Στοβαῖος; fl. 5th-century AD), from Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. The work was originally divided into two volumes containin ...
concerns a Pythagorean analogy between numbers and objects;
Walter Burkert Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of studen ...
notes that this statement, that "number does not even exist" contradicts the
Platonic idealism Platonic realism is the philosophical position that universals or abstract objects exist objectively and outside of human minds. It is named after the Greek philosopher Plato who applied realism to such universals, which he considered ideal for ...
of the Neopythagoreans and
Neoplatonists Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...
, and attributes it to the
Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
, before the advent of
Neopythagoreanism Neopythagoreanism (or neo-Pythagoreanism) was a school of Hellenistic philosophy which revived Pythagorean doctrines. Neopythagoreanism was influenced by middle Platonism and in turn influenced Neoplatonism. It originated in the 1st century BC ...
in the early roman period.


Letters

The various surviving letters deal with domestic concerns: how a woman should bring up children, how she should treat servants, and how she should behave virtuously towards her husband. The preserved letters are as follows: *''To Eubule'': On caring for infants. *''To Euclides'': A short letter to a physician who is ill. *''To Eurydice'': On behavior when a husband is unfaithful. *''To Callisto'': On etiquette towards maids. *''To Nicostrate'': On behavior when a husband is unfaithful. *''To Rhodope'': On a philosopher named Cleon. *''To Timonides'': Addressed to an unfaithful lover There are also references to a letter addressed ''To Timareta'', which is referenced by
Julius Pollux Julius Pollux ( el, Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucratis, Ancient Egypt.Andrew Dalby, ''Food in the Ancient World: From A to Z'', p.265, Routledge, 2003 E ...
in his ''Onomasticon'' for its use of the word :wikt:οἰκοδεσπότης.


Notes


References


Ancient testimony

* * * * *


Modern scholarship

* * * * * *


Further reading

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Theano 6th-century BC Greek women 6th-century BC Greek philosophers Ancient Greek women philosophers Ancient Crotonians Pythagoreans of Magna Graecia Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown