A hybrid public meeting on “Ancient Greek women philosophers” organised by the NIA’s Visiting Professor Michiel Leezenberg (University of Amsterdam).
Abstract
In surveys of ancient philosophy, one hardly comes across women. This exclusion of women philosophers, though, is in fact a recent development: for a long time, a number of female ancient Greek thinkers were known, and were accepted as part of the philosophical canon; but from around 1800 on, they are no longer discussed.
In 2024, Mieke de Vos and Michiel Leezenberg published a Dutch translation of all remaining fragments of these ancient Greek female philosophers, which also contains miniature portraits of the women thinkers whose work has been lost. Here, we find, among others, letters from Pythagoras’s wife Theano, with advice on raising children and dealing with unfaithful husbands; a fragment from Aesara about the cosmos and human nature; and a short biography of Hypatia, who was torn to pieces in the streets of Alexandria by a mob of Christians.
In this meeting, we return to the female Greek philosophers of antiquity and what remains of their work. We will also be discussing their fame in antiquity, their remarkable afterlife, and their eventual removal from the canon.
Presentations:
Michiel Leezenberg – Introduction
Mieke de Vos – on Theano (online)
Marije Martijn – on Hypatia (online)
For physical attendance please register at: [email protected].
For online attendance you may register here