Lastheneia from Mantineia

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Lastheneia of Mantineia ( Greek  Λασθένεια Lasthéneia ) was an ancient Greek philosopher. She lived in the 4th century BC. And took classes in the Platonic Academy in Athens , the school of philosophy founded by Plato .

Life

Lastheneia came from the city of Mantineia in Arcadia . Nothing is known about her family and youth. She is one of the two women who, according to a communication from the doxographer Diogenes Laertios, were students of Plato. The other is Axiothea of ​​Phleius . Diogenes refers to Dikaiarchus , a student of Aristotle , but who probably only mentioned Axiothea. In addition, Diogenes reports a tradition according to which Lastheneia and Axiothea were also pupils of Plato's nephew Speusippus . As the successor to his deceased uncle, Speusippos took over the post of Scholarchen (head of the school) of the Academy, which he held from 348/347 until his death (339/338). Furthermore, it emerges from information provided by Diogenes Laertios and Athenaios that Lastheneia was mentioned in a fictitious letter allegedly addressed to Speusippus by the tyrant Dionysius II of Syracuse . The unknown author of the letter accused Speusippus, who was a political opponent of the tyrant, of a love of pleasure and assumed that he had an erotic relationship with Lastheneia. It is not known whether the allegation has a historical core.

A philosophical activity by women was unusual at the time and was therefore noted in the sources as a special feature. But Plato was convinced that there were no specifically female or specifically male tasks in the state and that both sexes should therefore receive the same training. Consequently, he admitted women to philosophical lessons in his school.

The late antique Neo-Platonist Iamblichus of Chalkis heads a woman named Lastheneia from Arcadia in his list of the most important Pythagorean women. This has led to the assumption in research that the historical figures Lastheneia and Axiothea were Pythagoreans and only a later tradition made them Platonics. The opposite hypothesis is that they were pupils of Plato and only later were mistakenly regarded as Pythagoreans. It is also possible that the Pythagorean Lastheneia and the Platonist of the same name are two different people, or that Lastheneia was a Pythagorean who attended classes in the Platonic Academy.

A papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchos speaks of an unnamed philosopher who, after Plato's death, was a pupil of Speusippus and Menedemus of Eretria . The author of the fragmentary text refers to the history of philosophy Hippobotos and adds that the woman was also mentioned by the Peripatetic Hieronymos of Rhodes and Aristophanes. "Aristophanes" is otherwise unknown, perhaps the name was accidentally misrepresented by the writer of the papyrus. The philosopher is likely to be either Axiothea or Lastheneia.

According to an ancient tradition, Axiothea wore men's clothes. According to the Academica ( Academicorum index ) of Philodemos , which have only survived in fragments, Lastheneia did so too. Philodemus probably took this message from a now-lost work by the history of philosophy Diocles of Magnesia .

Source collection

  • Konrad Gaiser (Ed.): Philodems Academica . Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1988, ISBN 3-7728-0971-5 , pp. 358–359, 362–364, 449–452 (compilation of the source texts)

literature

  • Tiziano Dorandi : Assiotea e Lastia. Due donne all'Academia . In: Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria 54, 1989, pp. 51–66 (pp. 61–66 compilation of the source texts with Italian translation)
  • Richard Goulet, Tiziano Dorandi: Lasthéneia de Mantinée . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , pp. 82-83

Remarks

  1. Diogenes Laertios 3.46. See Konrad Gaiser (Ed.): Philodems Academica , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1988, p. 363.
  2. Diogenes Laertios 4.2.
  3. Diogenes Laertios 4.2; Athenaios 7,279e and 12,546d.
  4. ^ Iamblichos, De vita Pythagorica 267.
  5. This opinion is Fritz Wehrli : Die Schule des Aristoteles , volume 1: Dikaiarchos , 2nd edition, Basel 1967, p. 55.
  6. Alice Swift Riginos: Platonica. The Anecdotes concerning the Life and Writings of Plato , Leiden 1976, p. 184, note 13.
  7. ^ Wilhelm Capelle : Lastheneia 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft (RE), Volume 12/1, Stuttgart 1924, Col. 889.
  8. POxy 3656 (2nd / 3rd century), edited by Helen M. Cockle: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri , Vol. 3, London 1984, pp. 47-50 (with commentary). See Marcello Gigante : Accessione ippobotea . In: La Parola del Passato 40, 1985, p. 69; Marcello Gigante: Biografia e dossografia in Diogene Laerzio . In: Elenchos 7, 1986, pp. 7-102, here: 59-63; Tiziano Dorandi: Assiotea e Lastia. Due donne all'Academia . In: Atti e Memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria 54, 1989, pp. 51-66, here: 57f .; Franco Montanari : Aristophanes Peripateticus (Byzantius?) . In: Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini (CPF) , Part 1, Vol. 1 *, Firenze 1989, pp. 248-250.
  9. Konrad Gaiser (Ed.): Philodems Academica , Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1988, pp. 186, 443, 449-452.