Theano | |
|---|---|
Θεανώ | |
| Born | c. 6th century BC |
| Spouse | Pythagoras orBrontinus |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Ancient Greek philosophy |
| School | Pythagoreanism |
Theano (/θiˈænoʊ/;Greek:Θεανώ) was a 6th-century BCPythagorean philosopher. She has been called the wife or student ofPythagoras, although others see her as the wife ofBrontinus. 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.
Little is known about the life of Theano, and the few details on her life from ancient testimony are contradictory.[1] According toPorphyry, she came fromCrete and was the daughter ofPythonax.[2][3] In the catalog ofAristoxenus of Tarentum quoted byIamblichus, she is the wife ofBrontinus, and fromMetapontum inMagna Graecia, whileDiogenes Laertius reports a tradition fromHermesianax where she came fromCrotone, was the daughter ofBrontinus, married Pythagoras,[4][5][3] and while some claim that after Pythagoras' passing, she took over his school,[6] the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that was not the case.[7]
Many writings were attributed to Theano in antiquity[8] - TheSuda[3] attributes to her works with the titlesPythagorean Apophthegms,Advice to Women,On Pythagoras,On Virtue andPhilosophical Commentaries, which have not survived. In addition, a short fragment attributed to her from a work titledOn Piety is preserved in theAnthologium of Stobaeus, and severalepistles have survived through medieval manuscript traditions that are attributed to her.[9]
These writings are all widely considered by modern scholarship to bepseudepigrapha,[1][10] works that were written long after Theano's death by later Pythagoreans, which attempt to correct doctrinal disputes with later philosophers[11] or apply Pythagorean philosophy to a woman's life.[1] Some sources claim that Theano wrote about either the doctrine of thegolden mean in philosophy, or thegolden ratio in mathematics, but there is no evidence from the time to justify this claim.[7]
The surviving fragment ofOn Piety preserved inStobaeus concerns a Pythagorean analogy between numbers and objects;
I have learned that many of the Greeks suppose Pythagoras said that everything came to be from number. This statement, however, poses a difficulty—how something that does not even exist is thought to beget things. But he did not say that things came to be from number, but according to number. For in number is the primary ordering, by virtue of whose presence, in the realm of things that can be counted, too, something takes its place as first, something as second, and the rest follow in order.[11]
Walter Burkert notes that this statement, that "number does not even exist" contradicts thePlatonic idealism of theNeopythagoreans andNeoplatonists, and attributes it to theHellenistic period, before the advent ofNeopythagoreanism in the early Roman period.[11]
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.[1]
The preserved letters are as follows:[8]
There are also references to a letter addressedTo Timareta, which is referenced byJulius Pollux in hisOnomasticon for its use of the wordοἰκοδεσπότης.[8]
Laërtius, Diogenes."Pythagoreans: Pythagoras" .Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:8. Translated byHicks, Robert Drew (Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
