In his dialogues, Plato mentions an enigmatic figure who stands out both for her wisdom and her gender: a woman named Diotima of Mantinea. She was a priestess who instructed none other than Socrates in the philosophy of love, but did she really exist, or was she a literary device used by Plato to convey […]
Philosophy
Posted inAncient Greece
Bias of Priene, the most prominent of the Seven Sages, recommended loving friends as if they were enemies and freed women from slavery
In the 6th century BC, at the peak of the Greek Archaic period, Priene was a small Ionian city overlooking the Aegean Sea. Located on the coast of Caria in Anatolia, north of Miletus, Priene was not known for its military power or its conquests, but for being the home of one of the Seven […]
Posted inMiddle Ages, Science
Robert Grosseteste, the English Bishop and Philosopher Who Conceived a Precursor to the Big Bang Theory in the Middle Ages
Legend has it, as recounted by the English Benedictine monk Matthew of Paris, that the energetic Pope Innocent IV died of a heart attack triggered by the terrifying nocturnal vision of a ghost. It was the spirit of Robert Grosseteste, a British Franciscan who had died a year earlier, serving as Bishop of Lincoln, whose […]
Posted inAncient Greece
The Strange Story of Sosipatra, the Greek Philosopher to Whom Mysterious Beings Granted the Power of Divination
Eunapius of Sardis, a Greek historian and rhetorician who lived between the 4th and 5th centuries AD, wrote a Life of the Sophists, in which he recounted the biographies of twenty-three philosophers of his time. This work remains the only surviving source on Neoplatonism from that period. One of the figures associated with this movement […]
Posted inAncient Rome
Stoic Opposition: The Philosophers Who Defied Roman Emperors
Opposing an established government is part of the political game, and democratic systems consider it normal. However, where power is absolute, things become much more difficult, and the problem is that, throughout history, this has been the general trend. That is why it is surprising to discover that in a regime as autocratic as the […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Damo, the Philosopher Daughter of Pythagoras, to Whom He Entrusted All His Writings and Who Never Wanted to Sell Them, Preferring Poverty Over Gold
According to tradition, Damo was born in Croton, a prosperous city of Magna Graecia, around the year 535 BCE. She was the daughter of the renowned philosopher Pythagoras, founder of an influential philosophical and religious sect, and Theano (according to some sources, daughter of the famous athlete Milo of Croton), who was also a prominent […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Aristoxenus of Tarentum, the philosopher who authored the oldest known treatise on music, and healed by playing the flute
What was music like in antiquity? Today, we will explore the story of the man who is our primary source of knowledge about the music of Classical-Hellenistic Greece. He was a Peripatetic philosopher, a student of Aristotle, who was displeased when Aristotle chose someone else as his successor to lead the school. He healed by […]
Posted inAge of Exploration
“The Book of Five Rings”, Written by the Ronin Miyamoto Musashi in the 17th Century and whose Philosophy the Japanese Apply to their Work
The speed and consistency with which Japan recovered politically and materially after its defeat in World War II, overcoming the enormous destruction from aerial bombings, two atomic bombs, and a severe demographic drain, is often a source of amazement. Part of this effort was due to the aid received and the cultural influence exerted by […]
Posted inAncient Greece
Onesicritus, the historian whom Alexander the Great sent to learn the secrets of the yogis
Astypalaia is a small island in the Greek Dodecanese, possibly a colony of Megara, where around 360 B.C. Onesicritus, a historian and cynic philosopher who followed Diogenes of Sinope ( the one who lived like a beggar in a jar), was born. In 334 BC, when he was 26 years old, he crossed the Hellespont […]
Posted inAncient Greece
How Aristotle’s personal library arrived in Rome, almost 300 years after his death
Throughout history, books have been a highly prized commodity. Their trade goes back many centuries to the invention of materials such as papyrus and parchment, and the creation of libraries by accumulating and copying books gave rise to collections as famous as that of Alexandria. Unfortunately, many libraries were lost due to various circumstances. Others […]
