Greek Women Part 17

For she was but a girl of nineteen years:-- Yet stronger far than what most men can write: Had death delayed, what fame had equalled hers?"

The names of the next two of the Terrestrial Nine are closely a.s.sociated with that of Pindar of Thebes,--Myrtis and Corinna, the one the instructor, the other the rival, of the great composer. Myrtis was the eldest of the three, and probably gave instruction to her younger contemporaries. She later entered the lists in a poetic contest with Pindar, and for this she was censured by Corinna. The younger woman, who defeated Pindar five times in poetic contests, gave her rival some good advice, by which he profited in his later productions. She reproached him for devoting too much attention to the form and neglecting the soul of the poem. When, following her counsel, Pindar brought to her a poem abounding in mythological allusions, Corinna smiled, and remarked to him that in future he should "sow by the handful, not with the whole sack."

Pausanias saw the tomb of Corinna in a conspicuous part of her native town of Tanagra; and also a picture of her in the gymnasium, representing her binding a fillet about her head in honor of the victory she had gained over Pindar at Thebes. But he ungallantly ascribes her victory partly to her dialect--for she composed not in Doric, like Pindar, but in a dialect which aeolians would understand--and partly to her beauty; for, judging from her portrait, she was the fairest woman of her time.

Telesilla of Argos was not only a poet, but an antique Joan of Arc as well. Being of feeble const.i.tution, she was told by the oracle to devote herself to the service of the Muses, and in this salutary mental exercise she found health and preeminence among her fellows. Famous hymns to Apollo and to Artemis were composed by her. Her love of beauty also inspired her with n.o.ble ideals of patriotism and self-sacrifice, and in the crisis of the war between her native town and Sparta she armed her countrywomen and led them forth to victory against the enemy.

As a memorial of this n.o.ble action, her statue was erected in the temple of Aphrodite at Argos.

Praxilla of Sicyon was placed by ancient critics by the side of Anacreon for the softness and delicacy of her verses, and she was honored in her native city with a statue from the hand of Lysippus. She sang beautiful songs of Aphrodite and retold in pa.s.sionate verse the legend of Adonis.

The next name on this immortal list takes us to Locris, in Italy, and down to the fourth century before Christ. Like Sappho, Nossis "of womanly accents" is a love poetess, and twelve epigrams attributed to her are found in the Anthology. Her poetry was symbolized by the _fleur-de-lis_ with its penetrating perfume. In praising the portrait of her child she sees the reflection of her own beauty, and in the epitaph which she composed for her tomb she declares herself equal to Sappho; hence humility cannot be cla.s.sed among the many virtues which caused her to be adored by her contemporaries.

The little poems of Anyte of Tegea and Moero of Byzantium, the last two of the Terrestrial Nine, are often symbolized by the lilies for their purity and delicacy. These poets flourished in the third century of our era. Antipater surnames Anyte "a feminine Homer"; rather should she be called "a feminine Simonides," though even this is too high praise. Her soul was simple and pure, and her sweet sentiments are reflected in a style as limpid as a running stream. Charm and freshness characterize her invitation to some pa.s.ser-by to repose under the trees and taste of the cool water; deep and melancholy emotions pervade the poem in which she bewails the death of a young maiden; and a masculine philosophy of life is manifest in the epitaph of a slave whom death has made equal with the Great King. Moero's range was not so great, nor her touch so delicate. A heroic poem, _Mnemosyne_, was the most ambitious of her works; she also composed elegies and epigrams, and two of the latter have been preserved to us, revealing a soul sensitive to natural beauty.

Here and there, other names and occasional verses of Greek poetesses are found--Cleobuline of Rhodes, Megalostrata and c.l.i.tagora, of Sparta, and others; but they did not attain the fame of the Terrestrial Muses.

As the verses of the Greek women were to be sung to the accompaniment of the lyre, the daughters of the Muses were as celebrated in music as they were in poetry. Nor were the maidens of Greece without distinction in other arts. It is in part to a Corinthian maiden that legend ascribes the invention of modelling in clay. Cora, daughter of Butades, is about to say farewell--perhaps forever--to her lover, who is going on a long journey. The light of a lamp throws his shadow on the wall, and, to preserve at least this image of him, she deftly sketches the outline of the shadow. Her father, with the instinct of an artist, observes the outline and fills it in with potter's clay, and then bakes the model which he has obtained. There are no names recorded of Greek women who were sculptors, but doubtless in the studio of many an artist a daughter delighted in a.s.sisting him at his work.

Many Greek women distinguished themselves in painting. Timarete, the daughter of Micon, produced an image of Artemis, which was long to be seen at Ephesus; it was one of the most ancient monuments of this art, and the G.o.ddess was probably represented under a strange and symbolic form, such as she had in her sanctuary in Ephesus. Eleusis possessed a painting made by Irene, daughter of Cratinus, representing the figure of a young girl, perhaps a priestess initiated into the mysteries of the great G.o.ddesses. Calypso, Alcisthene, Aristarete, and Olympias are the names of other female painters, whose memories at least have been preserved.

The most celebrated of all, however, was Lalla, a native of the city of Cyzicus, to which Apollo had accorded the gift of arts. Though she worked with extreme rapidity, this did not detract from the merits of her work, and she was considered the first painter of her time. Painting with pencil and on ivory were equally familiar to her. The portraits which she painted were princ.i.p.ally of persons of her own s.e.x. Pliny mentions a portrait, which was at Naples during his life, in which Lalla had represented an old woman. He adds that she had reproduced in this her own picture reflected in a mirror. There has been found at Pompeii a painting of an artist which is believed to be a portrait of Lalla, probably painted by herself. It represents a young woman seated on a stool on a little porch, with her eyes fixed on a statue of Bacchus, which she is reproducing on a tablet held by a child. In her right hand is a pencil, which she plunges into a small box evidently containing her colors; in her left hand she holds a palette. Her garments are elegantly draped around her; a band encircles her waving hair, which falls over her neck and shoulders, A deep, intellectual look illuminates her delicate features. If this be really a picture of Lalla, she was wonderfully beautiful.

Not only in poetry and the fine arts, but also in philosophy and intellectual pursuits did the Greek woman show herself capable of great achievements. In the schools of Pythagoras, established at Croton in Magna Graecia, women were freely admitted and took a prominent part in the exercises, together with their husbands and brothers.

There is a tradition that the ascendency of Pythagoras at Croton was so great that the ladies of the city brought their rich apparel, their jewels, necklaces and bracelets, to the temple of Hera, and dedicated them as an offering to domestic virtue, vowing that henceforth prudence and modesty, not luxurious apparel, were to be the true ornaments of their s.e.x. Whether this story be true or not, there is no doubt that Pythagoras had a large number of women among his disciples, and that the "Pythagorean Women" attained throughout the Greek world a great and enviable reputation. Pythagoras's friendly att.i.tude toward the s.e.x was probably in part the result of his cordial relations with the Delphian priestess Aristoclea, renowned for her amiability and her wisdom, with whom he carried on a learned correspondence. The general results of his teachings upon woman were a high ideal of feminine morality, careful attention to household duties, and the elevation of the conception of motherhood, especially in the careful rearing of children.

Existing fragments of the works of "Pythagorean Women" indicate their lofty views of moral perfection and harmony, and their practical judgment in everyday affairs. _Sophrosyne_ is constantly commended as the chief feminine virtue, a term connoting moderation, self-containedness, modesty, and wifely fidelity--in a word, all that is essentially womanly.

The Neo-pythagorean philosopher, Iamblichus, in his biography of Pythagoras mentions fifteen celebrated women of the School. Other writers name other female adepts in Pythagorean philosophy, who lived during and after the time of Pythagoras. The number was so large that the comic poets Alexis and Cratinus the Younger, who, like most Athenians, had a genuine contempt for blue-stockings, made them the object of much drollery and ridicule.

Of all the Pythagorean Women, none attained such exalted rank as Pythagoras's wife, the high-minded Theano. She combined virtue and wisdom in such perfect harmony that she was regarded in antiquity not only as the foremost representative of feminine scholars.h.i.+p, but also as the brilliant prototype of true womanhood. Of the life of Theano we know only a few characteristic incidents, and these give insight into her character mainly by relating "sayings" uttered by her on certain occasions. She was once asked for what she wished to be distinguished.

She replied by quoting a verse of Homer (II. 1:31): "Minding the spindle and tending my marriage bed." Another time, she was asked what most became a wife; she answered: "to live entirely for her husband."--Again, she was asked what was love; "the sickness of a longing soul," was her answer. Once, while she was throwing off her mantle, it happened that her arm was exposed. A gentleman, struck by its beauty and shapeliness, exclaimed: "What a beautiful arm!" "But not for the public gaze,"

replied the wise Theano, while she hastily adjusted her robes. This remark has been quoted by Plutarch, by two Church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria and Theodoret, and by the Byzantine auth.o.r.ess Anna Comnena, as a noteworthy apothegm, tending to promote womanly modesty and reserve.

Theano was both prose writer and poetess. Of a long epic poem written by her in hexameters we have not even a fragment; of her philosophical works, there are still extant three letters of great charm and a fragment of a philosophic and didactic work _On Piety_. This fragment is too short for us to distinguish in it anything more than the highly developed reasoning power of the author; in her letters, however, discussing the rearing of children, the treatment of servants, and the suppression of jealousy, the sentiments are forceful, and the style has a familiar grace and tenderness. The relics that we have abound in axiomatic expressions, emphasizing womanly virtues and manifesting the lofty morality and high culture of the writer.

After the death of Pythagoras, Theano, in conjunction with her two sons, Telauges and Mnesarchus, kept up the secret order; and Theano, as teacher and as writer, promulgated her husband's doctrines. The time and circ.u.mstances of her death are unknown.

Theano's three daughters followed in their mothers footsteps. Myia, the most distinguished, had been so carefully reared and was of such preeminent virtue that she was chosen as a virgin to lead the chorus of maidens, and as a wife the chorus of matrons, at all the sacred festivals of Croton, and she knelt at the head of her companions before the altars of the G.o.ds. She was the wife of Malon, the celebrated athlete, also of the Pythagorean order; their union was in all respects a happy one. Myia was also a writer, but we have only one letter attributed to her. Her work in the spirit of her father was so brilliant that she spread the fame of his teachings throughout all h.e.l.lenic lands.

There was probably an extensive literature about her in antiquity, for Lucian, several centuries later, says he had much to tell of her, but that her history was already generally known.

Not without distinction were also Myia's sisters, of whom Arignote attained a great reputation as a philosopher and writer of epigrams, while Damo distinguished herself by her fidelity to her father's dying request. The story goes that he consigned to her his most precious treasure,--his memoirs,--with the injunction that she should keep them secret from all who were not of the family. Though offered large sums for them, she never yielded, preferring poverty to disobedience. At her death she turned the works over to her daughter Bistalia, with the same mandate her father had given herself. The granddaughter remained equally faithful, and these invaluable works perished with the family. Some ancient writers mention as another daughter of Pythagoras, Theano the Younger, of Thurii, but, according to Suidas, she was a daughter of Lycophron. She was a clever philosopher and a prolific auth.o.r.ess.

Other Pythagorean Women of whom we know more than the mere name are Phintys, Perictyone, Melissa, Ptolemais, and Timycha. Phintys wrote a book _On Womanly Virtue_; Perictyone--often erroneously identified with the mother of Plato--composed a work _On Wisdom_, much prized by Aristotle, and another _Concerning the Harmony of Women_,--that is, concerning the accord of life and thought, of feelings and actions, the right relations between body and spirit. Fragments of these works show the Pythagorean idea concerning the mission of woman. They connect the duties of woman with the propensities and faculties peculiarly her own.

To the men, they leave the defence of the country and the administration of public affairs; to the women, they a.s.sign the government of the home, the guardians.h.i.+p of the family hearth, and the education of children. Personality is regarded as the dominating virtue of man--chast.i.ty, of woman.

Melissa is known only by a short fragment on feminine love of adornment; and Ptolemais was a specialist in music and an authority on the Pythagorean theory of music in its relation to life. Of Timycha we have a characteristic story. She lived in the time of Dionysius of Syracuse.

A party of Pythagorean pilgrims, while on their way to Metapontum to celebrate certain rites, were attacked by a band of Syracusans. They at first fled; but when they saw they must pa.s.s through a field of beans, they suddenly stopped and fought till the last one was killed. The Syracusans shortly after came upon Mylias of Croton and his wife, Timycha, who, on account of her delicate condition, had been left behind by the rest of their party. They were arrested and brought before the tyrant. Dionysius promised them liberty and an escort to their destination if they would tell him why the deceased Pythagoreans refused to tread on the beans. But they refused to tell. Dionysius's curiosity was all the more excited, and he had the husband taken aside, that he might question the wife alone, feeling convinced that he could compel her to answer his question. Threatened with the torture, and fearing lest in her weakness she might be overcome, Timycha bit out her tongue rather than reveal the secrets of her order.

In these Pythagorean Women, we observe the perfect blending of intellectual beauty with moral elevation. Perhaps no later age has presented a higher ideal of feminine perfection. Their system of culture taught them how to pursue at the same time the most abstruse philosophical speculations and the most insignificant duties of practical life, and the higher learning in their hands never led to a sacrifice of true womanliness.

Pa.s.sing from Croton to Athens, Socrates, the father of the various philosophical schools, had no female disciples, so far as we are informed; but he is credited with saying that he learned the ait of love from the priestess Diotima, and that of eloquence from Aspasia. Xenophon also recounts a lengthy conversation of Socrates with the hetsera Theodota concerning the art of winning men. His most eminent disciple, Plato, had numerous pupils of the gentler s.e.x. Plato possessed in large measure the _ewig weibliche_, which Goethe deems an essential element in all great men. As a young man he was given to composing love poems, but the names of his youthful sweethearts are not known. His visits to Southern Italy made him sympathetic with woman's literary aspirations; and when he opened the door of the Academy to them, women flocked to his lecture room from various cities of h.e.l.las. It was the first known instance in Athens of women engaging in philosophy.

The female members of the Academy did not attain to such distinction as did the Pythagorean Women. The latter were of Dorian blood, and lived, according to the rules of their order, in the greatest simplicity and industry; the former were chiefly of Ionian stock and were more inclined to lives of ease and luxury. Consequently, they did not cultivate those domestic virtues which made the Pythagorean Women so superior. Athens was not the place for feminine ambition to receive proper recognition, and the honorable maids and matrons could not, if they wished, pursue the study of philosophy in a.s.sociation with the male s.e.x; hence the feminine element of the Academy was composed of strangers, who were attracted to Athens by the fame of the philosopher.

Of Plato's immediate family, only his sister Potone, the mother of his pupil and successor Speusippus, appears to have engaged in philosophical studies. Of the strangers a.s.sociated with the Academy, under Plato and later under Speusippus, two gained especial distinction--Axiothea and Lasthenia.

Axiothea, who was also called Phlisia, was a native of Phlius, a small Peloponnesian town in the district of Sicyon, whence came the poetess Praxilla. The story goes that some works of Plato fell into the maiden's hands, and she read them with great zeal and industry. His _Republic_ finally aroused her enthusiasm to such a pitch that her desire for personal instruction from the philosopher could no longer be resisted.

So she a.s.sumed masculine attire, made the journey alone to Athens, and was received into the Academy. She continued the use of men's clothing, and for a long time concealed her s.e.x, becoming one of the most prominent and zealous members of the school. Plato was so impressed with her ability that, as tradition says, he would postpone his lectures if Axiothea chanced to be absent. When he was asked the reason for such an interruption, he replied: "The intellect sufficient to grasp the subject is not yet present"--meaning Axiothea. She frequented the Academy also under Speusippus, and became herself a teacher of philosophy. Nothing but What is commendable is known of her, but her reputation has suffered from the a.s.sociation of her name with that of Lasthenia. The latter came from Arcadia to Athens to hear Plato, attracted, as was her fellow student, by the fame of the philosopher. The prevailing life of the stranger-women in Athens, however, undermined her moral principles, and she played in the Academy a similar role to that played by Leontium later among the Epicureans. Speusippus himself was her lover. Though better known for her adventures as a hetaera, she also possessed some reputation as a philosopher. Dionysius once wrote to Speusippus: "One can also learn philosophy from your Arcadian pupil."

The Cyrenaic School, founded by Aristippus, the forerunner of the Epicurean in its doctrine of pleasure, naturally attracted women, especially courtesans, into its members.h.i.+p. The celebrated Lais the Elder was numbered among the Cyrenaics; but there were also high-minded women among its disciples.

Arete, daughter of Aristippus, continued the latter's teachings after his death. Her father had given her a most thorough education, and himself instructed her in philosophy. She was taught to despise riches and luxury and to observe moderation in all things. Aristippus once said: "The greatest thing which my daughter Arete has to thank me for is that I have taught her to set a value on nothing she can do without."

Arete was also learned in natural history and in other branches of science. She pa.s.sed her time partly in Athens, partly in Cyrene and other Greek cities; and wherever she went she aroused great interest by the charm of her beauty and amiability. There is no reproach whatever upon her good name: she appears to have been an ingenuous, highly endowed woman, devoted to science and philosophy. As head of the Cyrenaic School after her father's death, she had many distinguished pupils, among them Theodorus and Aristippus the Younger. She was a prolific writer; forty works are attributed to her, on philosophy, on agriculture, on the wars of the Athenians, on the life of Socrates, and various other subjects, showing the wide range of her interests. She died at Cyrene, in the seventy-seventh year of her age; and in the inscription over her grave she was styled a "light of h.e.l.las."

The coa.r.s.e doctrines of the Cynic school, founded by Antisthenes, were not attractive to women, yet the school had one female representative who has become famous and has been in recent years the subject of a racy romantic poem. This Cynic was Hipparchia.

The ugly and ill-shapen Crates of Thebes was one of the successors of Antisthenes. A beautiful and popular maiden, Hipparchia, with her brother Metrocles, heard the lectures of Crates, and she was so captivated by his teachings and his manner of life that she became not only his most zealous disciple, but fell violently in love with her teacher. She scorned all her younger, richer, more handsome suitors, and declared that she would have only Crates. She threatened to kill herself if her parents did not secure Crates for her husband. They tried to dissuade her; even Crates, at the request of her parents, sought to make her abandon her purpose. Yet every effort was fruitless. Finally Crates, throwing off his clothing, appeared before her and said: "Such is the shape of your bridegroom: this is all he possesses. Take careful counsel with yourself, for you cannot become my wife unless you accept my whole manner of life. Ponder it well, that you may later have no pretext for ill feeling." "Already a long time," answered the maiden, "have I antic.i.p.ated this and thought over it; I can nowhere on earth find a richer or handsomer husband than you. Take me, then, with you, wherever you may go." Seeing that her mind was made up, the parents finally gave their consent to the marriage of their daughter with the philosopher.

Crates, as a true Cynic, straightway led his wife into one of the colonnades, and publicly celebrated his nuptials. Hipparchia entered fully into the manner of life of her husband. She clad herself in coa.r.s.e garments like his, accompanied him everywhere, and bore many privations.

Many cynical sophisms and apothegms are attributed to Hipparchia, who became one of the most prominent members of the school. We know but little of her later life, beyond the fact that she was the mother of one son, Pasicles, and of several daughters.

The Megarian school of philosophy, founded by Euclides of Megara, a pupil of Socrates, practised dialectic, and was called the Eristic, or disputatious, sect. The art of disputation appealed to the female s.e.x, and a number of women allied themselves with this school. The first female Dialecticians were the five daughters of Diodorus, an eminent disciple of Euclides, and they conferred much honor on the school. Argia was the most celebrated of the sisters for her mental endowments and dialectic skill, but unfortunately there are but scant records of the philosophical activity of Argia and her four sisters, Artemisia, Menexena, Theognis, and Pantaclea. Hieronymus commends the five for their modesty as well as for their intellectual attainments, and they must have aroused general enthusiasm, as Philo, a disciple of their father, wrote a book about them. Euclides was succeeded by Stilpo as head of the school, and among his hearers was Nicarete of Megara, the daughter of prominent parents, who became renowned for her cleverness and profound learning. She adopted the hetaera life, and was the "companion" of Stilpo himself. The relation was tender and enduring, but she did not restrict herself to one lover. Her favors, however, were not to be won, as usual, by the payment of gold, but through the invention or solution of a difficult sophism.

The philosophy of Epicurus was a comfortable and pleasing doctrine for people of light morals, and in consequence we meet with the names of a large number of young and beautiful hetaerae who infested the Gardens of Epicurus, among whom were a Boidion, Hedia, Nicidion, Erotion, Marmarion, and the celebrated Leontium. Their presence gave the enemies of the Epicurean sect justification for characterizing their philosophy as a system of immorality; and the strict moralist and academician Plutarch violently censured the Epicureans "who lived with the hetaera Hedeia or Leontium, spat in the face of virtue, and found the _summum bonum_ in the flesh and in sensuality." While nothing but the names of the other Epicurean hetaeras have survived, Leontium, by her varied accomplishments, has won an abiding prominence in the intellectual world.

Leontium, "the little lioness," is indisputably the most remarkable and attractive personality in the philosophical demi-monde of Ancient Greece. Of her home and her family, history is silent; but she was the product of a hetaera seminary which imparted to its pupils a thorough intellectual discipline in addition to the secrets of "gallantry" and the knowledge of cosmetic arts. When she became a favorite of Epicurus and began to study philosophy, she continued the practice of hetairism, which occasioned great vexation to the master, not because he deplored her light morals, but because he was himself pa.s.sionately enamored of the highly gifted maiden. The aged and broken Epicurus could not attach to himself alone the high-spirited creature, who preferred the beautiful and wealthy Timarchus. One of her early lovers was the poet Hermesianax of Colophon, to whom she owed her literary training. He dedicated to her three books of elegies, ent.i.tled _Leontium_, fragments of which are extant. Leontium's fame is due most of all to her activity as an auth.o.r.ess. Theophrastus the Peripatetic published a work _On Marriage_ in which he severely handled the female s.e.x. Leontium wrote a reply in which she displayed so much subtlety, learning, and argumentative power that Theophrastus was thoroughly routed. This work caused general admiration, Cicero commends it, and Pliny pays a tribute to its excellence. Unfortunately for our study of the social status of Greek women, the work is lost. Leontium had a daughter, Danae by name, who was also a hetaera and a consistent Epicurean. She became the favorite of Sophron, Prefect of Ephesus.

Though the Epicurean hetaerae have brought reproach upon the sect, yet there were honorable women of irreproachable reputation who became members of the school. The chief of these was Themista, wife of Leontius of Lampsacus, styled by Strabo "the most excellent man of the city."

Epicurus became acquainted with the couple during his four years'

sojourn in Lampsacus and was much influenced by their learning and culture. He won them to his system of philosophy, and he ever afterward carried on a most industrious correspondence with them, and especially with Themista. Her name became widely known both within and without Epicurean circles. The Church Father Lactantius regarded her as a model of feminine culture and as the only true philosopher among the heathen Greeks. Themista was very active as an author, and there was in antiquity an extensive Themista literature, which has entirely disappeared.

As the various schools of philosophy thus far mentioned began to lose their hold upon mankind, there were two tendencies manifest among thoughtful people: the first, to doubt whether it was possible to ascertain truth,--the spirit of scepticism; the second, to combine from earlier systems whatever seemed most worthy of credence,--the spirit of eclecticism.

The two systems which appealed most to enlightened pagans during the earlier Christian centuries were those of Pythagoras and Plato, which offered many points of likeness. By the union of these with certain Hebraic or Oriental elements, there arose the philosophical amalgam known as Neo-platonism. Plotinus is regarded as the founder of this system in the third century of our era. Through his attractive personality and the timeliness of his teachings, Plotinus rapidly gained a great following among the learned, especially philosophers, statesmen, physicians, and ladies of high social station. He pa.s.sed many years in Rome, where a large number of n.o.ble ladies, including the Empress Salomina, were among his hearers. From Rome, Neo-platonism spread over the Empire; and in the beginning of the fourth century, we find the theosophist Iamblichus, who united the Neo-platonic philosophy with thaumaturgy, attracting to himself large numbers of highly cultured men and women, who still clung to paganism. Syria was the centre of this movement, which reached across Asia Minor and became popular even in Athens and Alexandria. Among the followers of Iamblichus in Asia was an excellent and learned woman, who became celebrated by her intense devotion to this philosophy. Sosipatra was the beautiful and n.o.ble-hearted wife of Eustathius, Prefect of Cappadocia. After the death of Eustathius, she became the wife of a kinsman, by name Philometor, and dedicated the rest of her life to the promotion of science and philosophy and to the education of her children, whom she herself instructed and of whom she made ardent and intelligent disciples of Neo-platonism. At Athens, where philosophical studies had for a long period declined, Platonism was revived by the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who appointed Plutarchus the first head of the New Academy.

Plutarchus had a daughter, Asclepigenia by name, who had been initiated into all the mysteries of Neo-platonism and thaumaturgy, and who played a prominent role in the new school. It is related of her that after the death of her father she kept alive the knowledge of the great orgies and all the secret lore of thaumaturgy. In a.s.sociation with her brother Hierius, she became the head of the New Academy, and through her personality and her lectures she exercised a great influence over the philosophic youth of the day. Her daughter, Asclepigenia the Younger, was likewise a devoted Neo-platonist, and continued the traditions of the school. But the appearance of the two Asclepigenias in the history of philosophy cannot be regarded as of much importance, as the system of thaumaturgy which they advocated was scientifically worthless.

About the same time, however, there lived in Alexandria a beautiful and learned pagan, who ranks as the last brilliant star in the philosophical firmament before the twilight of the G.o.ds. Charles Kingsley's historical romance, _Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face_, has depicted in an impressive manner the womanly graces, the learning, the elevating influence, and the tragic fate, of the last of the Greek women, and has made the name of Hypatia a household word. His vivid portrayal of social life in Alexandria at the dawn of the fifth century brings out most strongly the phases of the closing conflict between paganism and Christianity, and invests with an atmosphere of aerial clearness and radiance the heroine, who almost singly and alone fights the battle for the old G.o.ds.

About the year 370, to Theon, a noted astronomer and mathematician of Alexandria, a daughter was born, to whom he gave the name Hypatia. The child very early exhibited extraordinary intellectual endowments, and Theon himself took charge of her education. She rapidly mastered his own favorite subjects of mathematics and astronomy, and the most celebrated teachers of the day were called in to give her instruction in the various branches of rhetoric and philosophy. All the ancient philosophical systems were pursued by the devoted and zealous maiden, and the prevailing system of the time, that of Neo-platonism, appealed especially to her spirit.

As she attained to womanhood, Hypatia united with the charm of extraordinary beauty all the rarest traits of spirit and character. She became the object of flattering regard on the part of the cultured; the common people reverenced her as a superior being, and even the Christians respected her learning and her demeanor. Hypatia was worthy of all the admiration that she excited. Amid the widespread corruption of the age, she lived as spotless as a vestal. The philosophy she professed preserved her from pollution and inspired her with the love of beauty, truth, and goodness.

With her intense devotion to the G.o.ds of her fathers, with her extraordinary endowments and wide learning, with her preeminent virtues and the charm of her whole personality, this celebrated maiden appeared to the pagan world as a higher being sent by the G.o.ds to defend the ancient faith against the subverting teachings of the Christians,--a herald, who with the weapons of exalted wisdom and moral sublimity should win the victory and restore the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds to its former splendor. This was also the ambition of the virgin philosopher.

Hypatia's early womanhood was pa.s.sed in the period when hostility to paganism reached its height. She was barely twenty-one when Theodosius I. issued an edict commanding the destruction of heathen temples and images at Alexandria, and from this time the patriarchs of the city endeavored to exercise both spiritual and temporal authority and to root out every vestige of paganism.

Against such an opposition Hypatia sought to contend. Her weapons were not carnal, but intellectual. By a spread of the knowledge of Greek philosophy and literature, she sought to quicken the sensibilities of the people and to reawaken a reverence for the Greek G.o.ds. It seemed at first as if her efforts would be crowned with success. Her lecture hall was crowded with the clever and intellectual men of the day, and many came from distant parts, attracted by the reputation of her beauty and learning. Hypatia soon surpa.s.sed all her contemporaries in wisdom and influence, and rapidly became the soul of the rather numerous pagan community at Alexandria. This remarkable maiden was honored with a devotion which almost bordered on idolatry. Orestes, the prefect of the city, though professedly a Christian, often came to her for counsel. The learned and eloquent Synesius of Cyrene, afterward a Church Father, was one of her devoted followers, and even after his conversion to Christianity maintained a correspondence with her and showed in manifold ways his regard for his former teacher. Numerous panegyrics and epigrams were composed, lauding her in most exalted terms.