women in ancient history and philosophy
WOMEN IN ANCIENT HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
For your information; please check below to see what will be discussed
First section: why are women not mentioned in any ancient sources? Why the sudden need in the 21st century to know who they are and what they stood for?
Second section: women's role in the ancient world (Egypt, Greece and Rome); what were they actually doing, thinking and feeling? Why was this?
Third section: ancient women's works of significance
Fourth section: Contact information and references
Section 1: women, interrupted
We all know about the famous philosophers Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and all the way up to john hick. However, if you were asked to name the female equivalent to Descartes, who would you say? I'm assuming you would not have an answer otherwise this project will be very much a waste of my time; have you ever wondered why that is? I mean, women are mentioned consistently throughout the ancient world in things such as Ovid's poem about how to pick up a girl (that's a whole other talking point) so why can't we name any other ancient women who are on the same level of recognition as figures like Aquinas? I'm aware many questions have been asked without any answers provided so let's travel back in time together and see if there is a logical and acceptable explanation as to why this may be (spoiler: there is not).
To begin with, not all cultures held a suppressive blanket over women in order to stifle them; for example, China in around twelve B.C. actually raised numerous strong female political and military leaders but i want to discuss specifically why there are no famous women historians and philosophers so let us start with ancient rome. There were women philosophers in ancient Rome but they are largely unknown due to the societal restraints at the time which essentially allowed women to be seen and not heard. Furthermore, the reasons for these restraints lie in the fundamental lack of education for women which was basic, if it all given, therefore preventing them from studying the very prevalent at the time subject of philosophy. This then leads into the idea of a patriarchal society where women were expected to be under the authority of men constantly; removing womens ideas of life from public consumption and replacing them with the many tasks which come with being a permanent stay at home wife. Now this is not a baseless claim; in fact, it was not seen as a claim at all during this period, this was just the way things were. Moreover, this can be clearly evidenced in the works of the famous roman orator during the late republic, marcus tullius cicero. In a 56 BC trial in which a woman named clodia stood as a witness against the defendee of cicero; he took the opportunity to discredit her testimony by stating that she was a disgrace to how roman women should behave in public and suffocated her voice by giving her grave scorn for daring to speak out as a woman; saying she should check herself first. In addition, this reinforces the idea that women should not express their own views and opinions during the ancient world because they would be going against the societal norms of men handling the intellectual and, pretty much everything else, side of things whilst they remained silently loyal homebodies.
Reasons why women were excluded in ancient times have been covered and now I want to evaluate the question of why the lives and views of ancient women have become so popular in the past 100 years. Natalie haynes, who specialises in ancient literature as well as being an author, told the BBC in 2020 that ancient history has always been told through the eyes of a man, by a man and for a man; but with the issues that were around in the ancient world still being evermore prevalent today, she thought it necessary to retell the stories but from the perspective of women because "they can bring us a new understanding of what brutality and war does to people". By going back and evaluating the lives and philosophies of ancient women we can, in a sense, feel more connected to and inspired by the strength and voice these women had that is still readable today; as if nothing has really changed (that is up to you to decide).
Section 2: what's my line again?
In the first section, I mentioned that women did not have the right nor the time to go and be educated on things like politics and philosophy because they were too busy keeping up the family home. In this section, I will go further in depth as to what exactly the role of women was in different cultures and how this links to the main idea surrounding the lack of women in ancient rome.
In ancient Greece, the role of women was very simple and clear; stay home and look after the kids. Women were not allowed to participate in public events or politics and they could not own nor inherit a property of their own. On the other hand, women never spoke out against this injustice (wait here for around 2000 years and something might snap) because they were made to feel important in religion due to playing significant roles in religious festivals and the divinity of all things feminine being a key pinnacle of the largest religion before the rise of catholicism. In contrast, women in sparta were trained in athletics and able to inherit property, leading to the egregious assumption that they could have possibly being allowed to write their own thoughts in their own books.
Ancient rome held a similar caliber of legal rights and practices for women as ancient greece however there are a few noticeable differences. Although women were still not allowed to hold political office or vote, social class played a larger role in deciding how much power people should have rather than factors such as gender. This can be evidenced in the fact that upper class women, known as patricians, were encouraged to be involved in both social and cultural events; this is a significant point in understanding the role of ancient women in philosophy because some patrician ranking women became involved in poetry and art as well as being educated in literature which supports my fundamental idea that there were ancient women philosophers, you just need to know where to look (preferably beyond surface level cicero quotes would be nice). Cicero himself, even though he became known for being hyperbolic which unintentionally led to the firming of women's expectations on how they are to act in public, positively cited an praised female philosophers of the time in his works.
Section 3: Can you hear me now?
In this section, I will be highlighting three ancient women philosophers and their works and views as well as the relevance of them in today's society. The first and arguably most famous - or infamous - female philosopher of ancient times is Aspasia who was active in ancient Greece around 400 BC; She became the mistress of Pericles who was the leader of Athens at the start of the Peloponnesian war but I want to focus on her significance to philosophy. Socrates himself claims that aspasia was his teacher and even credits her for his persuasive speech writing. Aspasia is a very significant woman in philosophy because she was featured as a character in several famous philosophical dialogues such as Plato's menexenus.
The second of our ancient female philosophers was the priestess of Delphi, Clea, who was most active around 100 AD. Clea is one of the most esteemed female philosophers of the ancient world because she was part of the political-religious system at the time in which political leaders would go to religious practitioners at the time and ask for divine advice about political matters. However, the reason she was solidified in history as a powerhouse of ancient female philosophy was due to her conversations with Plutarch, the most famous intellectual of his time, about death, virtue and religion which inspired his own work.
Finally, my inspiration for this article is saved for last, Thecla has been speculated not to exist even though her legend inspired many women to pursue a life of philosophy. Thecla was the most active around the 1st century AD and as she was about to settle for a life of staying at home and making an advantageous marriage, she hears a divine calling from paul and survives being thrown into a carnivorous arena before settling down as a teacher in her own right. Thecla was so significant to the ancient philosophical world when 250 years later, methodius of olympus wrote a dialogue of philosophical dialogue between women where Thecla was the star participant inspired by her religious and philosophical mission.
Lastly, i want to thank you whoever you are for taking the time to read this if you have and i am always open to constructive criticism and comments.
References
https://greekreporter.com/2023/08/13/ancient-greek-female-philosophers/
https://issuu.com/nlcs1850/docs/vesta_edition_1_-_jun_2023/s/27495396#:~:text=Unlike%20modern%2Dday%20society%2C%20women,in%20public%20events%20and%20politics.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0424.12794