Pythagorean Women: Their History and Writings

4. Introduction to the Prose Writings of Neopythagorean Women

C h a p t e r f o u r Introduction to the Prose Writings of Neopythagorean Women The Neopythagorean letters and treatises discussed in this book are the ­ earliest extant examples of literary Greek prose by women. Some poetry by women, including Sappho, is earlier. Poetry precedes prose among male writers as well. In the corpus of Greek literature, women’s voices are extremely rare. The Neopythagoreans are among the first women in the Greek world to write letters that were circulated and published, but they are not the only ones who wrote letters. For example, in the second half of the fourth century BC, Olympias wrote to Alexander warning him of a plot against him (Diod. Sic.17.32.1). Some of the Neopythagorean authors are thought to have lived in Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period (see chap. 3). Therefore it seems particularly relevant to look at the nonliterary letters of women in Egypt during the same time pe­ riod. These letters, written on papyrus, have been translated and published in Roger S. Bagnall and Raffaella Cribiore, Women’s Letters from Ancient Egypt, 300 BC–AD 800.1 Some of the Ptolemaic letters are petitions and requests addressed to government officials and estate managers, while others are private letters from women to members of their family and include discussions of birth, death, religion , household management, and legal matters. The letters in the latter category are well written, employing complex sentence structure and displaying an understanding of the epistolary medium and good knowledge of the Greek language.2 Yet the women who sent them did not live in the sophisticated cosmopolis of Alexandria; rather, the writers were women who lived in smaller cities and Greek settlements in Egypt. Thus, like the Neopythagorean women, the writers of the personal letters on papyrus were sufficiently educated and wealthy enough to indulge their wish to communicate in writing with others. The letters by other women on papyrus serve as additional evidence that women were indeed the authors of the Neopythagorean texts attributed to them. The fulsome greetings and endings of many of the papyrus letters indicate that the women had plenty of Introduction to the Prose Writings of Neopythagorean Women   55 time to write them and did not need to stint on the use of papyri. Several sheets of papyrus could be glued together for longer letters. The lengthy literary letters of the Neopythagorean women would have been written on papyrus rolls comprising numerous sheets glued together. Thus it has been postulated that the papyrus containing a koine paraphrase of Melissa’s letter to Clearete and the opening of Theano II’s letter to Euboule was originally part of a papyrus roll containing additional Neopythagorean letters.3 The majority of the Neopythagorean texts are letters; a few are treatises. The texts are didactic. The treatises expound philosophical ideas, and many of the letters offer words of advice from women to women; the only exception is a letter to a male physician. The recipients of the letters generally face domestic problems, ranging from coping with unfaithful husbands to the rearing of children and the treatment of slaves. That advice is offered implies that the recipients had not been managing their lives successfully. The texts also treat the perennial ­ subject of women’s virtues, especially sophrosyne (chastity, self-control, moderation). Sometimes the letters seem personal, though they are nevertheless prescriptive, literary letters and lack the effusive greetings and closings of the nonphilosophical letters collected by Bagnall and Cribiore. Often the Neopythagorean letters resemble treatises. Because the problems and topics they discuss were common, the Neopythagorean letters can be understood as addressed to a specific reader while offering advice general enough to be read by any woman in need of it. (A parallel would be Plutarch’s Letter of Consolation to His Wife, which contains intimate details about her breastfeeding history but nevertheless were read by readers in addition to the letter’s addressee.) For this reason, as we have mentioned, some letters of Melissa and Theano II circulated between the Neopythagorean communities in the east and west.4 We note that Thesleff assigned Melissa to the west, and both letter writers named Theano to the east (see chap. 3). This circulation of texts is further evidence that although some Neopythagoreans lived in the east and some in the west, their views on perennial social and personal problems were similar, and the letters constitute a consistent corpus. We need not picture the authors of...