Note on Text and Translations

Part III features the Greek texts and English translations of two treatises and nine letters attributed to Pythagorean women. Fragment I of Perictione’s On Woman’s Harmony presents a theory of harmony and gives specific instructions on how a woman may achieve it. Phintys’ On Woman’s Self-Restraint engages with the question of whether virtues are gender-specific and, indirectly, whether women should practice philosophy. Two fictitious Doric letters feature practical advice for a virtuous woman. In To Cleareta, Melissa teaches that a wife’s duty is to accommodate her husband’s wishes and refrain from excessive adornment. In To Phyllis, Myia offers instructions on how to hire a wet-nurse who will be able to bring up a healthy infant. Three fictitious letters of advice by Theano argue that women must show exemplary self-restraint. To Euboule chastens a mother for indulging her children; To Nicostrate advises a wife to tolerate her husband’s philandering; To Callisto instructs her addressee how to treat slave-women. Four playful late antique notes ventriloquizing Theano, To Rhodope, To Eucleides, To Timonides, and To Eurydice, engage with the earlier letters; as does Theano to Eurydice, composed by the historian Theophylact Simocatta.