Theano to Eurydike and Nikostrate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61378/enun.v8i2.183Keywords:
Theano, Pythagoreanism, Women Philosophers, Pseudepigrapha, Ancient EpistlesAbstract
This article translates and analyzes two letters classified as Pythagorean pseudepigrapha, attributed to Theano and addressed to Eurydike and Nikostrate, which have as subject the adultery of the addressee's husband. I claim that the first is a brief motivational note in a situation of suicide risk and that the second is a proleptic speech which, combining censure and admonition, spells out some of the premises in the first letter. The documents demonstrate Theano's authority figure as a woman philosopher in antiquity, whose ideas consist of asserting female agency for virtue, understood as the individual’s contribution to the development of a harmonious environment. I conclude that her arguments must fit the situation of the interlocutor and that they aim at a redefinition of the institution of marriage.
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